Methodism
Christianity and Religion
History, Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, Human Rights
Classics and Literature
Science, Medicine, Environment
- Campbell, Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials, rev. ed.
- Chilcote, Recapturing the Wesleys’ Vision: An Introduction to the Faith of John and Charles Wesley (nonfiction, history, theology)
- Collins, The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace
- Heidinger and Abraham, The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism
- Hempton, Methodism: Empire of the Spirit
- McGever, Born Again: The Evangelical Theology of Conversion in John Wesley and George Whitfield
- Spurgeon, The Two Wesleys
- Vickers, ed., The Cambridge Companion to American Methodism (Cambridge Companions to Religion). (“ . . . introduction to various forms of American Methodism, including the African-American, German Evangelical Pietist, holiness, and Methodist Episcopal traditions. Includes history, literature, theology, religious studies, explores beliefs and practices of American Methodist churches)
- Wesley, Charles Wesley: A Reader (nonfiction)
- Wesley, The Complete Sermons
- Yrigoyan, Belief Matters: United Methodism’s Doctrinal Standards—explains doctrinal standards of UMC, describes four official Doctrinal Standards of the UMC, including sermons, articles of religion, confession of fait
Christianity and Religion
- Ehrman, Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife
- Ehrman, Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of the Savior
- Ehrman, How Jesus Became God
- Ehrman, The Triumph of Christianity
- Funk et al. Five Gospels (theology)
- Gladwell, Blink
- Greer, Hilber, and Walton, Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Cultural, Social, and Historical Contexts
- Hollander, Dominion
- Keck et al., Isaiah: The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary
- Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy (nonfiction, history, anthropology, theology)
- Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity
- Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
- Plato, The Republic
- Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You
- Wilson, The Book of the People
- Wouk, This Is My God (Judaism)
History, Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, Human Rights
- Breidenbach, The Cambridge Companion to the First Amendment and Religious Liberty
- Carlisle, Soren Kierkegaard: The Philosopher of the Heart
- Carter, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid (history, world affairs)
- Carter, Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis (separation of church and state)
- Coogan, The Famine Plot (history of Irish famine)
- Donnelly, The Great Irish Potato Famine (history)
- Laderman, Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America
- Wright, Separation of Church and State
Classics and Literature
- Aeschylus, The Oresteia--Three Plays: Agamemnon, Choephoroi, Eumenides
- Beowulf (trans. Heaney)
- Dante, Inferno (trans. Sayers)
- Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (short novel, masterpiece of American literature)
- Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea (classic story of human struggle against the forces of nature)
- Homer, The Odyssey
- Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (prize-winning short stories; America and India)
- Lahiri, The Lowland (National Book Award finalist; prose fiction; India)
- Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Booker finalist; prose fiction)
- Milton, Paradise Regained (short epic, only four books, about Christ’s temptation in wilderness)
- Milton, Samson Agonistes (choric drama about Samson and Delilah; late work written by blind Milton about blind Samson—and their failed hopes)
- Moore, Lamb (brilliant, sympathetic, hilarious novel about Jesus and his close friends Mary and Biff, told from Biff’s point of view—great read which expands our understanding of Jesus, Jews, Hindus, others)
- Munro, Dear Life (Nobel-prize winner’s short fiction; Canadian)
- O’Casey, Three Plays: Juno and the Paycock, Shadow of a Gunman, The Plough and the Stars (urban plays about Ireland around WWI and concerning troubles with England; O’Casey regarded as one of Ireland’s great playwrights—with Yeats, Synge, Shaw, Wilde)
- Robinson, Home and Lila (excellent novels continuing the Ames-Boughton story in Gilead, Iowa, with Robinson’s Calvinism always significant)
- Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (a dark comedy about justice, right values)
- Sir Gawain and the Greene Knight, trans. Maria Boroff (journey and trial of simultaneously prideful and fearful Sir Gawain against the beheaded Green Knight who challenges Arthur’s court; another great, great read)
- Sophocles, Three Plays: Oedipus Tyrannos, Oedipus at Colonos, Antigone (you probably know the plots already, but may not know the essentials; classics everyone should know); I would add Trachinian Women and Philoketes (these plays would lead to discussions about conflicts between man’s law and god’s law, problems with knowing, ironies of free will)
- Synge, Complete Plays: Riders to the Sea, In the Shadow of the Glen, The Well of the Saints, The Tinker’s Wedding, Deirdre of the Sorrows, Playboy of the Western World (plays about rural Ireland, her legends, religion, myths; some of the most beautiful, lyrical language ever written by Ireland’s most lyrical dramatist)
- Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
Science, Medicine, Environment
- Barry, The Great Influenza (non-fiction study of medical education as developed in U. S. and of influenza epidemic during First World War)
- Fortey, Earth: An Intimate History
- Fortey, Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The Story of Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind
- Harris, Grave Matters: A Journey through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial
- Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air
- Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story
- Tyson, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
- Tyson, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry