Subjects about which I’ve been historically clueless and need to beef up my knowledge:
- Theology of sabbath
- Exploring what love looked like in scripture
- Forgiveness of debt
- Restitution
- Gratitude
- Food politics
- Economics
- Environmental policy
- How my lifestyle affects the world
- Poverty
- World history
- America’s positions on various conflicts
Authors and Books I’m Planning to Explore:
- What Every American Needs to Know about the Middle East
- Shane Claiborne
- St. John Chrysostom
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy and More
- Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
- Lisa Sharon Harper
- Greg Hamilton
- Richard Rohr
- Dan Allender
- Jim Wallis
- Dallas Willard
- Becky Garrison
- N. T. Wright
What do YOU recommend for me to help me grow into an awareness of debts I owe as a rich Christian as well as other sources for some of the questions I’m asking?
Jubilee Year 
Your blog has me wanting to re-read Richard Foster’s “Freedom of Simplicity.” He takes the holistic approach to considering simplicity that you seem to be dabbling in this year. It’s a great read.
Anything by Wendell Berry. I found your blog looking for reaction and comment on George Will’s op-ed “Prudes at Dinner, Gluttons in Bed.” I think Wendell Berry takes a much more “sacramental” approach to the same issues. I found the Will/Eberstat approach far too simplistic. Berry “gets” it! Norman Wirzba, a “Berry scholar” has also written a wonderful book called “Living the Sabbath.”
What a great list! I would add Ched Myers who is a NT Theologian and has coined the term, “Sabbath Economics”- Two small but powerful booklets, “The Biblical Vision of Sabbath Economics” and the companion piece, “Sabbath Economics: Household Practices.” You can order them from the Potters House bookstore, DC.
Cary, great list. May I add other people and a church to follow: Jim and Carol Cymbala and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir? What they have done since 1971 since the couple took over the Church is simply remarkable–as my wife and I found when I visited the church in NYC.
Best.
Tom
Really getting into Richard Stearns’ new book, “The Hole in Our Gospel.” If you like Sider, you’ll like this…
Love your blog.
I heard him speak last year and it really resonated. Thanks for stopping by. Do you have a blog?
The more I read of your writing, the more I feel like I found a person of like heart and interest to myself!
Well, I hadn’t read all your list when I responded to this post…I found names on your list I am very familiar with and some I have never heard of. I just finished a M.A. in Counseling Psychology at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, founded by Dan Allender. He has been one of my heroes since 1990 and I’m so glad I got to study under him. In fact, I am currently taking another class with him. N.T. Wright and Wendell Berry are also favorites of mine.
Yea, I felt that way reading yours!
Cary: Way after the fact here, but a great and gentle book on the theme is “Wounded by Love” by Elder Porphyrious. On the other hand, Wendell Berry… a bit of a screamer in his non-fiction.
Thanks! And tell me what you mean by “screamer” for Berry.