As a Senior Contributor to the Stream, I’ve been asked to share some gleanings from my summer reading. In keeping with my lifestyle and habits, I read many books at the same time. Some I read cover to cover; others (the majority) I use selectively, as needed and desired. So, here’s a sampling of what I’m now reading and what I’ve recently read.

The World of Rabbis and Jewish-Christian Studies

For many years, I’ve studied the lives of major Jewish leaders, especially traditional rabbis who founded movements or established schools that have endured through the generations. One of the greatest of these rabbis in the 20th century was Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the 7th Lubavitcher Rebbe, known simply as the Rebbe.

Rabbi Chaim Miller has written the most comprehensive biography of Rabbi Schneerson, called Turning Judaism Outwards. It’s 600 pages long and came out in 2014, but I decided to go through it in recent weeks. The powerful portrait it produces is enhanced by the depth of details Miller provides.

Also in the world of Jewish studies is the 500 page work of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, The Talmud: A Reference Guide. (For the record, Steinsaltz himself is one of the most influential Jewish leaders of this generation.) This is something I use to refresh my knowledge as well as to fill in gaps in my learning. Steinsaltz is a lucid teacher.

Turning now to Jewish-Christian studies, I realized recently that I never finished reading the important volume edited by Prof. Gerald R. McDermott, The New Christian Zionism: Fresh Perspectives on Israel and the Land. McDermott assembled a terrific team of scholars. Together, they destroy many of the wrong foundations of replacement theology. (This refers to the idea that the Church has displaced Israel in God’s plan of salvation.) The authors make a great case for Christian Zionism based on the New Testament texts.

Speaking of Zionism, I also read Prof. Efraim Karsh’s detailed (but succinct) summary, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948. (Karsh is a top Middle Eastern historian.)

I’ve also been dabbling in Prof. Richard Hays’s collected study, Sacred Tradition in the New Testament: Tracing Old Testament Themes in the Gospels and Epistles. Hays does a masterful job of elucidating the Old Testament sources of many New Testament passages.

Culture, Classics and Biblical Scholarship

Switching over to cultural issues, I want to finish two important books on the transgender controversy. They are Ryan Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement and The New Normal: The Transgender Agenda, produced by a team of doctors, biblical scholars, theologians, and others who themselves came out of sexual brokenness. (The book was originally published in England.) These important books have relatively little overlap between them, so they make for great reading side-by-side.

Back in the world of biblical scholarship, as I finish the final editing of my Job commentary (due out late in 2019) and add some additional essays and reflections, I’m looking at a book by a French author named Philippe Nemo titled Job and the Excess of Evil. It’s more philosophical than most of what I read. But it offers some unique insights. The genius of the book of Job elicits all kinds of fascinating responses. Truly, there is no book on earth like Job.

In the field of classics, I’m revisiting a 1995 book edited by Mary R. Lefkowitz and Guy MacLean Rogers, titled Black Athena Revisited. It refutes the claims of Martin Bernal that Greek civilization is indebted to Egypt, and so goes back to Africa. Interestingly, I’m looking at this again because of the virulent claims of the Black Hebrew Israelite cult. Some of them listen to my radio broadcast regularly and many of have bombarded my YouTube page. (See here for the most recent example.)

On the popular, spiritually-edifying level, I’m reading Kris Vallotton’s book Poverty, Riches and Wealth: Moving from a Life of Lack into True Kingdom Abundance. But don’t be deceived by the title. It’s not a book about financial prosperity as much as a book about true wealth (which may or may not include earthly finances). As believers, we are truly wealthy and thereby enabled to bless a needy world.

I also downloaded Andrew Murray’s classic With Christ in the School of Prayer. Whatever I can do to help spur and deepen my prayer life is worthwhile. There are few more inspirational books on prayer and spiritual life than those of Murray.

Other Books I’m Reading

Finally, because I’m constantly asked to write endorsements or forewords for books by friends or colleagues or others, I end up reading lots of other books totally unrelated to my current studies of points of focus. Among these are:

• Julie Wilkerson-Klose, Giving Hope An Address: The Teen Challenge Legacy Story (A really enjoyable read that tells the amazing story of the ministry of David and Don Wilkerson)
• Jeremiah Johnson, Cleansing and Igniting the Prophetic: An Urgent Wake-Up Call (A powerful call from a young, sober prophetic voice)
• Christopher Yuan, Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story (This reframes the debate about LGBT issues based on Scripture)
• Brock David Hollett, Debunking Preterism: How Over-Realized Eschatology Misses the Not Yet of Bible Prophecy (A solid study that refutes some erroneous and even dangerous theology)
• Ariel Blumenthal, One New Man: Good News for Israel and the Nations—Together! (Ariel is a Messianic Jewish leader now based in Jerusalem, fluent in Hebrew, but who has also lived in Asia and speaks fluent Japanese and Chinese. He focuses on questions regarding Jewish and Gentile believers and their relationship to the Torah)
• Tom Anglin, Refocus, Rekindle, Rejoice (Tom is a pastor whose life has been marked by God’s supernatural hand).

Of course, I’m always studying the Scriptures. And every week before my Jewish Outreach broadcast, “The Real Messiah,” I analyze the weekly Torah portion. I look for Messianic insights and review the relevant traditional Jewish interpretations.

And then, of course, as a cultural commentator and daily talk radio host, I’m always scouring the latest news online. Never a dull moment!

How about you? What’s on your list?