With less than 100 pages to go in Devil in the White City (cue 'Hallelujah Chorus'), it's time to look toward my next venture...
~Who Killed Jesus? by John Dominic Crossan. Bought for $2.00 at a Christian bookstore that was never going to sell it.
~1984 by George Orwell. Not because I want to look for parallels to modern times but because I liked Animal Farm.
~The Color Purple by Alice Walker. One of my seminary buddies makes it a point to read this every year. He says he learns something new every time. That was enough of a plug for me.
~Faces of Poverty by Jill Duerr Berrick. I saw this in a college bookstore while my wife was shopping for her textbooks. Why not? It explores the history of the welfare program while attaching names and faces to some of its beneficiaries.
~'Tis by Frank McCourt. He wrote Angela's Ashes. This is his memoir. I've had a thing for memoir lately.
~Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels. Proposes that there was a conspiracy involving the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Thomas, and canonization.
~Francis of Assisi by Adrian House. A retired pastor was cleaning out his library and I came away with this. I dig Francis. He was an earthy dude.
~Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski. A guy decides to live as a homeless man for five months because 'he needed to know if his faith in God was real--if he could actually be the Christian he said he was apart from the comforts he'd always known.' I smell a sabbatical idea...
So that's the list. I'm leaning toward another non-theological work (in the strict sense...all of these touch on theological themes whether intentional or not) after I cheated and read McLaren along with Devil in the White City. I'm leaning toward one of the novels, because I need more novels in my life.
I originally thought about offering a poll...'Let the massive audience of Philosophy Over Coffee choose the next book!' But then, what if I didn't like the majority's choice? I don't have a Supreme Court to fall back on (ba-dum bum). Stop glaring at the screen like that.
