Five Books I Appreciated in 2022

Here are five books I read & appreciated in 2022. Not ranked in any particular order:

Book #5, Church for Every Context by Michael Moynagh

If you’re familiar with any of my recent blog posts about my sabbatical partly spent in the UK, then this book by Mike Moynagh explains a big piece of my research before our trip. I also got to visit with the author this summer in Oxford. Mike is incredibly pragmatic, knowledgeable and humble.

This is one of the best books on “doing church” I’ve ever read. Actually, I can’t think of a better one. I honestly don’t understand why this book isn’t being universally used in seminaries to train pastors and church leaders. It’s that good. Why so overlooked? Well, it’s got the weight of a doorstop. And it doesn’t seem as widely available in the US as it is in the UK. So perhaps those are obstacles.

But why is this book so important, in my opinion? First, it’s written through the lens of mission. Mike grew up in East Africa, the son of missionaries. Like Lesslie Newbigin and many other Christian English writers before him, his whole frame of reference is to help the established Western church rediscover mission in their communities and backyards. Second, Mike integrates cutting-edge thinking in business leadership & church leadership. I’ve never seen a book that sifts so widely and integrates so well.

Simply put, this is an amazing manual for leading existing and new churches to embrace new ways of doing church that will better engage our contexts. READ THIS BOOK!

Book #4, Requiem in La Rossa by Tom Benjamin

Finally, fiction! This is actually the third in a series of 4 (so far) detective books. The setting is Bologna, Italy. The main protagonist is an English private detective named Daniel Leicester who lives in Bologna and works for his Italian father-in-law. We were in Bologna this summer and ended up in a bookstore (shocker!) that had a nice section of English-language books about Bologna & the surrounding region (Emilia-Romagna).

This book grabbed me, and I enjoyed it. I’ve since read the previous two in the series and have the 4th in my to-be-read pile. I don’t know a ton about Bologna, but this book draws me into life in this ancient university town. It’s a fun read, if you can find a copy.

Book #3, Embracing Hopelessness by Miguel De La Torre

I started this book a couple times before finally committing to it. De La Torre’s primary goal is to lay bare the false and empty messages of cheap hope peddled by many Western Christians and churches. He deconstructs the Hegelian & Moltmannian version of hope built on the enlightenment idea of progress.

Much like in Terry Eagleton’s “Hope without Optimism,” De La Torre is not happy with the extreme ideas that either “we are powerless” or that “everything will work out if we just trust.” Humans have agency, he argues, but the most important battles we face are often unwinnable. So he argues for a kind of plucky determination (he uses more colorful language) that labors on anyway. It’s what the dissidents in Czechoslovakia did under Communism—find subversive ways to resist despite the totalitarian reach of the prevailing powers. We like to think that these stories have happy endings and we carefully cherry-pick the moments when good/truth has prevailed against the intractable forces of greed/inertia, but happy endings are in fact few and far between. I think this book contains a message that preachers and Christian leaders need to absorb and communicate somehow. Very rich stuff here!

Book #2, SPQR by Mary Beard

This is an incredible look at the rise of the Roman Empire. My son put me on to this. It’s written by famed British historian Mary Beard. I do enjoy history and am fascinated by Roman & Byzantine history. So it was right up my alley. This book is so well researched and written. Unlike a lot of boring history books that don’t connect dots or tell specific stories, this one really kept my interest.

I learned so much about the origins of the Roman Empire and how Roman society worked. There’s a lot to see here! It’s a thick book, and I read it slowly. But I highly recommend this for any history lovers.

Book #1, Ghettoside by Jill Leovy

I learned a lot from this 2015 book. It’s written by a well-respected Los Angeles journalist who cut her teeth on covering crime. A friend recommended this. I started in on her coffee-stained copy before quickly realizing this is a high-quality expose and that I wanted my own copy. Leovy goes deep into homicide-heavy neighborhoods of LA and comes out with some suggestions that will please some and surprise others.

Far from a “defund-the-police” book, Leovy digs into gut-wrenching stories and eye-opening statistics that reveal how much help & resources police and locals needs to break the ongoing patterns of violence. It filled me with hope in the good people who keep trying to make a difference … and despair at how little help those people get from the folks in power. It’s a compelling read and written in excellent narrative prose.