Books for the Bible

A while ago I was asked what books influenced the way I read the bible. I had thought this would be an easy question to answer, just a quick glance of the book shelf. But it wasn't quite that simple. I suspect a lot of the impact various books had really depended upon where I was in my journey. None the less I had a scan of the book shelf and these books stood out.

• Mark Strom: Days are Coming. This is a book I haven't read for a long time. In a fairly succinct manner it goes through different biblical themes showing how they link up in diff parts of Bible.
• Manuscript Discovery: This is a way of reading the bible that really really helped me to read the biblical text afresh. It really needs to be experienced rather than just reading how to do it and is best done as a group rather than solo.
• Dave Andrews - Christianarchy: This book really helped challenge and then solidify how I view people who live outside or Xn orthodoxy.
• Shane Claiborne - The Irresistible Revolution, Not revolutionary when I read it but would have been if I read it 10 years ago.
• An awareness of glasses: One thing that's good to be aware of is that all of us have cultural glasses that affect the way we read the bible. So I like to challenge my glasses by reading authors who I know I've been brought up to have different points of view to. Two of my favourites have been John Spong's Jesus for the Non Religious and John Carroll's The Existential Jesus.
• Currently I’m part way through Tom Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God which I’m really enjoying and perhaps a good refuge if you find your faith being battered by unorthodox thought
• Finally, podcasts have been a great way to hear new ideas. some of my favourite podcasts include the now defunct? Emergent Village, The Nick and Josh Podcast, Doug Paggit and Radio National Religion podcasts.