Book Reports

Bishop Johnson’s Recommended Reading

Reading Levels:

Light

Medium

Heavy

Scholarly

Book: Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers
Author: Michael J. Gorman
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Subject: The book presents the essential elements of sound exegetical method. It is designed for students, teachers, pastors, and others who wish to think and write about the Bible carefully. The task is broken down into seven distinct elements. Practical hints and suggested exercises show the reader how to develop proficiency in each of these elements. Resources are supplied for those who want to pursue further study in each element and appendices supply two sample papers and practical guidelines for writing a research exegesis paper.
Level: Scholarly

Book: Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings
Author: Selected with an Introduction by John Dear
Publisher: Orbis Books
Subject: Mohandas Gandhi, known as “the great soul,” i.e. Mahatma, is acknowledged as one of the great souls of the twentieth century and a leader of the Indian independence movement. He defined the modern practice of nonviolence. For Gandhi the struggle for peace and social justice was ultimately related to the search for God.
Level: Heavy

Book: Leading Change
Author: John P. Kotter
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Subject: This book provides valuable insights that will benefit any organization contemplating or undertaking major changes to position itself to compete successfully in the global marketplace today. This is a guide for implementing a strategy of change.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules
Author: Carolyn Curtis James
Publisher: Zondervan
Subject: This book reveals the good news of how God can resurrect and transform each woman’s life and then use her in the building of His Kingdom. The author uses ancient cultural insights to look at this book from a woman’s perspective.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The Book of Ruth: The New International Commentary on the Old Testament
Author: Robert L. Hubbard, Jr.
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Subject: A commentary of the Book of Ruth
Level: Scholarly

Book: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
Author: Richard Bauckham
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Subject: This book argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus. It challenges the prevailing assumptions that the accounts of Jesus circulated as ‘anonymous community traditions,’ asserting instead that they were transmitted in the names of the original eyewitnesses.
Level: Scholarly

Book: What Are They Saying About Fundamentalisms
Author: Peter A Huff
Publisher: Paulist Press
Subject: This book offers a critical and empathetic survey of the world’s major fundamentalist movements and the innovative scholars who study them. The author covers the full range of the cross-cultural fundamentalist phenomenon—from the American Protestant prototype to the “muscular” protest movements transfiguring every religion around the globe.
Level: Scholarly

Book: The Creative Encounter
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: Friends United Press
Subject: A statement from the book captures the heart and intent of the book. “Religious experience in its profoundest dimension is the finding of man by God and the finding of God by man. This is the inner witness. The moral quality is mandatory because the individual must be genuine in his preparation,…motivation,…and response. His faith must be active and dynamic.”
Level: Heavy

Book: Disciplines of the Spirit
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: Friends United Press
Subject: Thurman explores five major dimensions of the spiritual life: commitment, growing in wisdom and stature, suffering, prayer, and reconciliation.
Level: Heavy

Book: Howard Thurman: Essential Writings
Author: Selected with an Introduction by Luther E. Smith, Jr.
Publisher: Orbis Books
Subject: A carefully chose and annotated selection of Thurman’s classic works.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Jesus and the Disinherited
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: Beacon Press
Subject: Thurman suggests a reading of the Gospel that recovers a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. The message of this book helped to shape the civil rights movement and changed our nation’s history forever.
Level: Heavy

Book: The Mood of Christmas and other Celebrations
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: Friends United Press
Subject: The book is an anthology of writings and poetry on Christmas and other celebrations. The heart of the book is captured in his statement “there must always be remaining in every one’s life some place for the singing of angels…where the common place is shot through with new glory.”
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: With Head and Heart
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: A Harvest Book Harcourt Brace & Company
Subject: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman. Howard Thurman was “an influential American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, poet, prophet, mystic, and civil rights leader. In 1944, he helped found the first racially integrated, multicultural church in the United States” (Wikipedia).
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Natural Church Development (Revised and Updated 2006 Edition)

Author: Christian A. Schwarz
Publisher: ChurchSmart Resources
Subject: A guide to eight essential qualities of healthy churches
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: What Are We Hoping For? New Testament Images
Author: Daniel J. Harrington
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Subject: The author explores 15 images of hope in each of the following: Matthew’s Gospel, Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the Book of the Revelation. In Matthew’s Gospel we have the hope of the newborn Jesus. In Paul’s letter to the Romans we have the hope of right relationship with God. In the Book of the Revelation we have the hope of the coming Kingdom.
Level: Medium

Book: Why Do We Hope? Images in the Psalms
Author: Daniel J. Harrington
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Subject: By taking striking images of the psalms—the mountain, the sun, refuge, the kingdom, sheltering wings—the author leads us into the discovery that hope is a predominant image of the book of Psalms.
Level: Medium

Book: A Biblical Guide to Counseling the Sexual Addict
Author: Steve Gallagher
Publisher: Pure Life Ministries
Subject: A biblical guide to counseling the sexual addict.
Level: Medium

Book: Create In Me A Pure Heart
Author: Steve & Kathy Gallagher
Publisher: Pure Life Ministries
Subject: Answers for women struggling with sexual addiction.
Level: Medium

Book: At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry
Author: Steve Gallagher
Publisher: Pure Life Ministries
Subject: How a person who is worshipping at the altar of sexual idolatry can dethrone the idol of Human sexuality and replace that idol with the true and living God.
Level: Medium

Book: Managing Emotions: Golf’s Next Frontier
Author: Quantum Intech, Inc.
Publisher: Quantum Intech, Inc.
Subject: Techniques for high performance, which are based on research by Doc Childre and the Institute of HeartMath.
Level: Medium

Book: Who Switched Off My Brain? controlling toxic thoughts and emotions
Author: Caroline Leaf
Publisher: Switch On Your Brain
Subject: How we can control toxic thoughts and emotions through techniques designed to control our thoughts.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The Redneck Manifesto
Author: Jim Goad
Publisher: Simon Schuster Paperbacks
Subject: An angry, vulgar, but poignant perspective of classism that points out how the people group called Rednecks, White trash, Crackers, etc., experienced much that is not commonly reported and how these titles are just as prejudiced and racist as nigger or any other racial epithet.
Level: Medium to Heavy (Because of vocabulary)

Book: Color Your World with Natural Church Development
Author: Christian A. Schwarz
Publisher: ChurchSmart Resources
Subject: Church Health
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The Hymns of Luke’s Infancy Narratives: Their Origin, Meaning and Significance
Author: Stephen Farris
Publisher: JOST Press (1985)
Subject: The origin, meaning, and significance of the three Hymns in Luke 1-2, which are referred to as The Magnificat, The Benedictus, the Nunc Dimittis.
Level: Scholarly

Book: Bridges out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities
Author: Ruby K. Payne, Philip E. DeVol, Terie Dreussi Smith
Publisher: aha! Process Inc.
Subject: Strategies for professionals and communities who are working to give those in poverty tools, if they wish to rise out of poverty.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Paul, In Other Words
Author: Jerome H. Neyrey
Publisher: Westminster/John Knox Press
Subject: A cultural reading of the letters of Paul.
Level: Heavy

Book: Can I Call You Soldier?
Author: Harold D. Davis
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Subject: A call to African-American men to enlist as soldiers and become an army whose mission is to save it’s young men from destruction.
Level: Medium

Book: Color Your World with Natural Church Development
Author: Christian A. Schwarz
Publisher: ChurchSmart Resources
Subject: Church Health
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: From Chaos To Coherence
Author: Doc Childre & Bruce Cryer
Publisher: Planetary; A Division of HeartMath LLC
Subject: The power to change performance when operating through heart coherence, i.e. using the HeartMath truth and tools.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Why Do We Suffer?
Author: Daniel Harrington
Publisher: Sheed &Ward
Subject: A biblical survey of what the Bible has to say about suffering and thoughts on how these insights can be related to our current situations.
Level: Heavy

Book: Holy Spirit: Make Your Home In Me
Author: George T. Montague
Publisher: The Word Among Us Press
Subject: Biblical meditations on receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. Although written from the Roman Catholic perspective, this book contains wonderful insight about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and tongues.
Level: Medium

Book: Transforming Depression
Author: Doc Childre &Deborah Rozman
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Subject: The HeartMath Solution to feeling overwhelmed, sad, and stressed.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Transforming Stress
Author: Doc Childre & Deborah Rozman
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Subject: The HeartMath Solution for Relieving Worry, Fatigue, and Tension
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Transforming Anger
Author: Doc Childre & Deborah Rozman
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Subject: The HeartMath Solution for letting go of rage, frustration, and Irritation
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The HeartMath Solution
Author: Doc Childre and Howard Martin with Donna Beech
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Subject: This a medical, psychological, social science, and practical book on how to access the power of your heart’s intelligence to improve focus and creativity, elevate your emotional clarity, lower your stress and anxiety levels, strengthen your immune system, promote your body’s optimal performance, and slow the aging process.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Transforming Anxiety
Author: Doc Childre & Deborah Rozman, Ph. D.
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Subject: The HeartMath solution for overcoming fear and worry and creating serenity.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The HeartMath Approach to Managing Hypertension
Author: Bruce C. Wilson, MD & Doc Childre
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Subject: The proven, natural way to lower your blood pressure by using tools that have been developed by The Institute of HeartMath that engage the heart.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Planning Your Succession: Preparing for Your Future

Author: Samuel R. Chand and Dale C. Bronner
Publisher: Mall Publishing Company 2008
Subject: These authors review succession models and give practical Godly advice to leaders on planning the succession of a President, CEO, pastor, etc. and for those who succeed the leader. This is a much needed entry into a field that is seldom written about.
Level: Medium

Book: Play the Ball Where the Monkey Drops It
Author: Gregory Knox Jones
Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco/HarperCollins Publishers 2001
Subject: The author deals with why we suffer and how we can hope. He does this by looking at the character of God and grief. The first part of the book is a non-technical discussion of the theological doctrine of the openness of God or a relational perspective of God, as opposed to a traditional view of God.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Anonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours
Author: Alicia Britt Chole
Publisher: Thomas Nelson 2001
Subject: The explores how character was developed in the first 30 years of Jesus’ life that were manifest in the last 3 years of His life. She uses the metaphor and lessons of the iceberg to discuss how the hidden life contributes to the life that is seen.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible
Author: Adam Nicolson
Publisher: Harper Perrennial
Subject: The context, culture, and creation of the King James Version of the Bible.
Level: Heavy to Scholarly

Book: Moving On: Dump Your Relationship Baggage and Make Room for the Love of Your Life
Author: Russell Friedman & John James
Publisher: M. Evans 2006
Subject: The application of Grief Recovery to romantic breakups and emotional baggage that keeps many people from being fully present for a new relationship.
Level: Medium

Book: The Shack
Author: William P. Young
Publisher: Windblown Media 2007
Subject: This novel is one of the most powerful books that I have read. It is the story of how God transforms the tragedy of a nominal Saint into a redeeming experience. The plot is exhilarating and brilliant.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Introducing Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Recovering Christian Practice
Author: Daniel J. Treier
Publisher: Baker Academic
Subject: The author attempts to provide a map for the scholars who are working at the intersection of Scripture, hermeneutics, and theology.
Level: Scholarly

Book: The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully
Author: Joan Chittister
Publisher: BlueBridge
Subject: A series of meditations on growing older gracefully and the meaning of life. This book is full of wonderful wisdom.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels
Author: Kenneth E. Bailey
Publisher: IVP Academic
Subject: The New Testament teachings of Jesus through the eyes of Middle Eastern Culture
Level: Heavy to Scholarly

Book: ‘Till Death Do We S.H.O.P.
Author: Carlton T. Brown
Publisher: Welstar Publications, Inc.
Subject: A ministry approach that has been effective in an historic church in Harlem, New York.
Level: Medium

Book: Lydia: Paul’s Cosmopolitan Hostess
Author: Richard S. Ascough
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Subject: Women played a prominent role in the development of the early Jesus communities and formed an essential part of Paul’s social network. Lydia was one such woman. Beyond the scant references to her in the text, we know little about her. The author constructs an image of Lydia based on what is known about the political, commercial, social, and religious norms of the first-century world.
Level: Scholarly

Book: Epaphras: Paul’s Educator at Colossae
Author: Michael Trainor
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Subject: Epaphras belonged to Paul’s network of friends. Even though he is only mentioned three times in the letters to Philemon and Colossians, the author shows him to be an authentic interpreter of Paul and an important teacher. Trainor uses cultural anthropology and archaeological discoveries concerning the site of ancient Colossae in southern Turkey.
Level: Scholarly

Book: How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less
Author: Milo O. Frank
Publisher: Pocket Books
Subject: Milo Frank, America’s foremost business communications consultant (1986), show you how to: focus your objectives, utilize the “hook” technique, use the secrets of TV and advertising writers, tell terrific anecdotes that make your point, shine in meetings and question-and-answer sessions.
Level: Medium

Book: Customer Satisfaction is Worthless—Customer Loyalty is Priceless
Author: Jeffrey Gitomer
Publisher: Bard Press
Subject: Customer satisfaction is the lowest level of customer service. Customer loyalty is what we should be after. Customer loyalty involves giving them a WOW experience. This book is about how to make customers love you, keep coming back and tell everyone they know about you.
Level: Medium

Book: God’s Word in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship
Author: Kenton L. Sparks
Publisher: Baker Academic
Subject: Sparks champions “practical realism” as a scholarly and spiritual middle ground between traditional views on the Bible and critical scholarship.
Level: Scholarly

Book: Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Green Book of Getting Your Way: How to Speak, Write, Present, Persuade, Influence, and Sell Your Point of View To Others
Author: Jeffrey Gitomer
Publisher: FT Press
Subject: How to Speak, Write, Present, Persuade, Influence, and Sell Your Point of View To Others
Level: Medium

Book: What Are We Hoping For? New Testament Images
Author: Daniel J. Harrington
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Subject: The author explores 15 images of hope in each of the following: Matthew’s Gospel, Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the Book of the Revelation. In Matthew’s Gospel we have the hope of the newborn Jesus. In Paul’s letter to the Romans we have the hope of right relationship with God. In the Book of the Revelation we have the hope of the coming Kingdom.
Level: Medium

Book: Why Do We Hope? Images in the Psalms
Author: Daniel J. Harrington
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Subject By taking striking images of the psalms—the mountain, the sun, refuge, the kingdom, sheltering wings—the author leads us into the discovery that hope is a predominant image of the book of Psalms.
Level Medium

Book: The Creative Encounter
Author :Howard Thurman
Publisher: Friends United Press
Subject: A statement from the book captures the heart and intent of the book. “Religious experience in its profoundest dimension is the finding of man by God and the finding of God by man. This is the inner witness. The moral quality is mandatory because the individual must be genuine in his preparation,…motivation,…and response. His faith must be active and dynamic.”
Level :Heavy

Book:Disciplines of the Spirit
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: Friends United Press
Subject: Thurman explores five major dimensions of the spiritual life: commitment, growing in wisdom and stature, suffering, prayer, and reconciliation.
Level: Heavy

Book: Howard Thurman: Essential Writings
Author: Selected with an Introduction by Luther E. Smith, Jr.
Publisher: Orbis Books
Subject: A carefully chose and annotated selection of Thurman’s classic works.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Jesus and the Disinherited
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: Beacon Press
Subject: Thurman suggests a reading of the Gospel that recovers a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. The message of this book helped to shape the civil rights movement and changed our nation’s history forever.
Level: Heavy

Book: The Mood of Christmas and other Celebrations
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: Friends United Press
Subject: The book is an anthology of writings and poetry on Christmas and other celebrations. The heart of the book is captured in his statement “there must always be remaining in every one’s life some place for the singing of angels…where the common place is shot through with new glory.”
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: With Head and Heart
Author: Howard Thurman
Publisher: A Harvest Book Harcourt Brace & Company
Subject: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman. Howard Thurman was “an influential American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, poet, prophet, mystic, and civil rights leader. In 1944, he helped found the first racially integrated, multicultural church in the United States” (Wikipedia).
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: Mohandas Gandhi: Essential Writings
Author: Selected with an Introduction by John Dear
Publisher: Orbis Books
Subject: Mohandas Gandhi, known as “the great soul,” i.e. Mahatma, is acknowledged as one of the great souls of the twentieth century and a leader of the Indian independence movement. He defined the modern practice of nonviolence. For Gandhi the struggle for peace and social justice was ultimately related to the search for God.
Level: Heavy

Book: Leading Change
Author: John P. Kotter
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Subject: This book provides valuable insights that will benefit any organization contemplating or undertaking major changes to position itself to compete successfully in the global marketplace today. This is a guide for implementing a strategy of change.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules
Author: Carolyn Curtis James
Publisher Zondervan
Subject: This book reveals the good news of how God can resurrect and transform each woman’s life and then use her in the building of His Kingdom. The author uses ancient cultural insights to look at this book from a woman’s perspective.
Level: Medium to Heavy

Book: The Book of Ruth: The New International Commentary on the Old Testament
Author: Robert L. Hubbard, Jr.
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing: Company
Subject: A commentary of the Book of Ruth
Level Scholarly

Book: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
Author: Richard Bauckham
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Subject :This book argues that the four Gospels are closely based on the eyewitness testimony of those who personally knew Jesus. It challenges the prevailing assumptions that the accounts of Jesus circulated as ‘anonymous community traditions,’ asserting instead that they were transmitted in the names of the original eyewitnesses.
Level Scholarly

Book: What Are They Saying About Fundamentalisms
Author: Peter A Huff
Publisher: Paulist Press
Subject: This book offers a critical and empathetic survey of the world’s major fundamentalist movements and the innovative scholars who study them. The author covers the full range of the cross-cultural fundamentalist phenomenon—from the American Protestant prototype to the “muscular” protest movements transfiguring every religion around the globe.
Level: Scholarly

Book: Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers
Author: Michael J. Gorman
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Subject: The book presents the essential elements of sound exegetical method. It is designed for students, teachers, pastors, and others who wish to think and write about the Bible carefully. The task is broken down into seven distinct elements. Practical hints and suggested exercises show the reader how to develop proficiency in each of these elements. Resources are supplied for those who want to pursue further study in each element and appendices supply two sample papers and practical guidelines for writing a research exegesis paper.
Level: Scholarly

Book: The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction
Author: Norman K. Gottwald
Publisher: Fortress Press
Subject: A monumental work that combines the very latest approaches to the Old Testament, i.e. the usual literary and theological perspectives, plus the social-historical approach.
Level: Scholar