What Books are on Your Christmas Lists?

What books are on your Christmas lists,  not only your own wish list, but also ones you desire to give to others and/or suggest for a book discussion in the coming year?  I am very interested in learning what Emerging Scholars desire to read, review, discuss, gift, possibly even teach (e.g., campus ministry, local congregation, even classroom). Please share . . . Note:  No need for the book(s) to be “Christian”.

But yes, if you are looking for a suggestion (or two, three, four . . .), the Emerging Scholars Network does have a lot to offer . . .

• InterVarsity Press Resource Page. Note: Don’t miss the  InterVarsity Press (IVP) discount  for Emerging Scholars 🙂
• Serving Christ as a Professor: Suggested Readings from Urbana 12.
• ESN Blog book reviews, including my series on  Christian Devotional Classics.  Note:  If you are interested in contributing reviews of “must reads”, please  contact me. For example, last week we posted our second review of Mark Noll’s    Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind  (Eerdmans, 2011).
• Best Christian Book of All Time Tournament 😉

The “stocking stuffer question” was inspired by

• the posting of the St. Nicholas Center  on Keeping Advent 2013.
• my younger girls asking, “Who is St. Nicholas?” after coming home with some school crafts on December 6. What an opportunity for a lesson in Church History!
• returning to the topic year after year in a variety of contexts — campus, family, our local congregation, social settings, etc.

After visiting the St. Nicholas Center, I did a quick on-line search for additional resources and came across The Saint Who Would be Santa Claus.  If you have read the 2012 Baylor U. Press book by Adam C. English (Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Campbell University in North Carolina), please share with me a short “off-the-cuff” review. If you have not explored the topic, you will appreciate the teaser offered by Elissa Cooper’s interview of Adam C. English:  Was the Real St. Nick Better than Santa Claus? Author Adam C. English says St. Nicholas was social activist, businessman, lawyer—and man of God  (Christianity Today. 12/7/2012)   and the  publication website. Yes, I will be adding this title to  my Christmas wish list not only to read in preparation for next year, but also as a conversation starter on Christmas morning 2013. . . .

Along similar lines I carried The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us About Loving God and Learning from History by  (Robert Tracy McKenzie.  IVP Academic, 2013) with me all day on Thanksgiving. I had a fun time not only sharing some of the material I was learning, but even reading selections to an interested family member. I am continuing to read this book not only in preparation for Thanksgiving 2014, but also for more general conversations regarding  loving God and learning from history — for my recent post on  The First Thanksgiving, click here — don’t miss the excellent animated short 🙂 To God be the glory!

Tom Grosh IV

Tom enjoys daily conversations regarding living out the Biblical Story with his wife Theresa and their four girls, around the block, at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (where he teaches adult electives and co-leads a small group), among healthcare professionals as the Northeast Regional Director for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and in higher ed as a volunteer with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). For a number of years, the Christian Medical Society / CMDA at Penn State College of Medicine was the hub of his ministry with CMDA. Note: Tom served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA for 20+ years, including 6+ years as the Associate Director of ESN. He has written for the ESN blog from its launch in August 2008. He has studied Biology (B.S.), Higher Education (M.A.), Spiritual Direction (Certificate), Spiritual Formation (M.A.R.), Ministry to Emerging Generations (D.Min.). To God be the glory!