2006 Review of Religious Literature

Editor’s Note: Becky Garrison serves as senior contributing editor for The Wittenburg Door, the country’s oldest, largest, and pretty much only religious satire magazine. She is the author of “Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church,” published by Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Sons in 2006. Here’s Becky……………………

I confess, 2006 was a way too kewl year for me. For starters, I was psyched to see my first book (Blue God, Black and Blue Church) displayed prominently at the Wiley booth during both Book Expo 2006 and the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature (AAR/SBL). But as I walked through the exhibition halls of the Washington Convention Center, I got drenched by this massive tidal wave of Christian books. My search for any spiritual gems amidst the mounds of faithfless flotsam became akin to a Monty Pythonesque search for the Holy Grail.

Top Ten Books Released in 2006 That Gave Me Hope

1. The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
2. How (Not) To Speak of God by Pete Rollins
3. Evil and the Justice of God by N.T. Wright
4. Christianity for the Rest of Us by Diana Butler Bass
5. Reluctant Prophets and Clueless Disciples by Robert Darden
6. The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan
7. Beatitude: Relearning Jesus Through Truth, Contradiction, and a Folded Dollar by Matthew Paul Turner
8. The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
9. Welcome to JesusLand! (Formerly the United States of America): Shocking Tales of Depravity, Sex, and Sin Uncovered by God's Favorite Church, Landover Baptist by Chris Harper, Andrew Bradley, and Erik Walker
10. Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Striped of Grace by Miroslav Volf

Top Ten Books Released in 2006 That Made Me Sick (Spiritually Speaking)

1. Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter
2. Culture Warrior by Bill O’Reilly
3. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
4. Letters to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
5. Rediscovering God in America by Newt Gingrich
6. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett
7. Soulless: Ann Coulter and the Right-Wing Church of Hate by Susan Estrich
8. Your Best Life Now 2007 Daily Calendar: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential (Calendar) by Livingstone Corporation and Joel Osteen
9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Mass Market Paperback)
10. Reolve 2007: The Complete New Testament (Biblezines)

Looking ahead to 2007, I predict I’ll be wading through an ever increasing mound of New Atheism related rants. (Dawkins, Dennett and Harris proved that atheist extremists can be just nasty as their Religious Right counterparts. Lovely.)

On a more positive note, I’ve already put in requests with Baker Books for advance copies of An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, a collection of essays edited by Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt and Kester’s Brewin’s Signs of Emergence. Here’s hoping more kewl spiritual stuff from the UK will wash up on our shores. Also, I’ve been hearing about some other intriguing tittles coming from folks in the Emergent Village scene. In addition, I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out of Zondervan’s recent purchase of Youth Specialties. Along those lines, I am taking Inspired by...The Bible Experience: New Testament (Audio CDs) along with me on a trip to Israel in January. From what little I sampled on the promo DVD, I’m in for a real sensory treat listening to African-American actors like Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett go biblical.

Now if only Bill Watterston be forced out of retirement, so I can get my weekly dose of Calvin & Hobbes, I’ll be in literary heaven.

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