Over the next 12 days I am going to share my 13 favorite books of 2012. The list is not based on the ‘Best books’ but rather the books that stayed with me, that I kept thinking about and that I have frequently recommended to others.
My only requirement is that I read them first in 2012; only three of them were originally published in 2012. One of my goals this year was to read more fiction. And I did, I read significantly more fiction this year than in the last couple of years. So instead of putting together a non-fiction and a fiction books of the year, I am going to alternate between fiction and non-fiction every other day.
Today I am going to start with two honorable mention books. When I started marking books I wanted to think about, these both were on the list, but I had too many books. So they are not getting full treatment.
Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s Everything
Humility is an under-appreciated virtue in a world of social media and self promotion. So an author that took humility seriously enough to write a book anonymously is worth taking seriously all by itself.
The idea of the Joseph principle was enough to justify the whole book in my mind. And the kindle version is still available for $2.99 (I think for the rest of the month.) Read the review.
The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Early Church by Franz Dünzl is a book that I wish was cheaper so I could more highly recommend it. The paperback is still nearly $25 and if a friend had not loaned me a copy I would not have read it.
But if you find a copy somewhere I highly recommend reading it. I have not been happy with the books I have been reading on my personal Trinity reading project. For the most part I think they seem to miss the point of discussing the teaching the trinity. But this book’s point is history, not theology. And it does a very good job showing how the early history of the doctrine of the Trinity is as much about the capacity for humans to comprehend the trinity as it is working out how to describe the trinity.
It is clear that the language changed over time because philosophy changed, so as there were new philosophical concept, there were new ways to describe what the Trinity is (and thereby describe who God is.) It is a very helpful book considering it is so small. The full review.