So I'm in a bit of flux right now regarding a good book or two for the month. I've been tempted to dive into N.T. (Tom) Wright's Bible commentaries, starting with Luke for Everyone. But as tempting as that is, there's also a side of me that seems to think this wouldn't really be much in the way of "new" reading material. Not that I'm anywhere near a fraction of Wright's scholarly self, but I make it a habit of reading Luke all the way through at least once a year, as well as Brennan Manning's "Ragamuffin Gospel", which adds a great deal of texture to any appreciation of Luke. And on top of that, I regularly listen to Greg Boyd's sermons ... where they're going through the book of Luke verse by verse. So my fear is that picking up Wright's commentary would be like trying to fast-forward that.

So why not pick up the Prison Letters version, which Rob Bell recommends as he goes through Philippians verse-by-verse? Again, I hate to feel like I'm taking a short-cut. It seems like it might deflate some of that enthusiasm I get on Tuesday for the possibility that Bell's sermon will be posted online.

It might help if I found a copy of some of the commentaries at a good ol' fashioned brick & mortar bookstore. But no luck as of yet. I've tried reading through the above books online to the extent that's possible. But nothing conclusive that's just sending me scurrying to Amazon, looking to give them more of my money. So the first week of a perfectly good month is up, I'm just about to finish a political bio tonight and have yet to focus on what's next. For you normals out there, this is sorta like a deep sea diver being underwater and realizing his oxygen might run out before he has time to get to the surface. I know ... I should probably seek help. Later. Maybe.

For now, here's a handful of possibilities that I'm just sorta thinking out loud (or via blog, as it were).

» Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity (Charles Marsh)
Kudos to New Republic writer Damon Linker for turning me onto this one. I've probably skimmed past this a few times already, but Linker adds some great context that piques my interest. Even better, he notes a few imperfections of the book in his opinion - and they're ones that would likely bother me while reading, too. But the author, Marsh, seems to begin with the type of background that I'm inclined to appreciate as he restates a rather classic case of separation of church and state. Marsh is an evangelical with all the street cred any evangelical could hope for. He seems to go through enough history on the topic (Reinhold Niebuhr and Deitrich Bonhoffer are always classic examples), but it does seem as if Marsh risks making too much of a parallel to the church in Nazi Germany to the American church of today. Then again, depending on your point of view, that might be splitting hairs.

» Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor (Robert Lupton)
Selling point #1 comes from Shane Claiborne's endorsement of the book. But it's also a topic that I've not found many good choices on. It's not at all uncommon to think of missions as something to do overseas or miles away ... but it looks like Lupton might have captured some good ideas for dealing with the mission field in our own backyards.

» Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (G. K. Beale, D. A. Carson)
At 1239 pages, this would seem to cover my fix for some commentary more than adequately. The downside? ... I doubt I'd make it through this in a month.

» Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate (Jerry Bridges)
Short, brief, and to the point ... I think the author deserves a lot of credit for broaching a topic that doesn't seem to get covered a lot.

Just some possibilities. Eventually, I'll have to break down and pick something up.