{"id":3997,"date":"2023-01-25T20:27:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T20:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/?p=3997"},"modified":"2023-12-29T16:27:30","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T16:27:30","slug":"3997-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/3997-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Twenty Books of 2022 (and a Top Ten)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If (and I don’t know why you would) you’ve read through my long list of everything I read in 2022<\/a>, or even if you haven’t, here’s my Top Twenty, and the Top Ten. Firstly, in image form, the Top Twenty, then a textual breakdown, and then an image of the Top Ten.<\/p>\n

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My book of the year, in terms of its physical production, breadth of engagement, utility for my day-to-day work\/ministry (and other people\u2019s!) is \u2018The Pharisees\u2019, edited by. \u00a0 <\/span>And published by Eerdmans. This is a serious book – you can read my review here<\/a>. On a related note, though it was less readable, I appreciated (in terms of understanding more!) the big historical picture of Christian anti-semitism in James Carroll’s ‘Constantine’s Sword’ is a sobering but important book.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best chapter in a book that I read this year was about depression in John Swinton\u2019s \u2018Finding Jesus in the Storm<\/a>\u2019, published by SCM Press. This is a beautifully written book that I hope will be widely read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best commentary I read this year was Marianne Meye Thompson\u2019s THNTC on Colossians and Philemon. It\u2019s a brilliant commentary, but it also does some excellent theology. Coming in close behind it was Linda Belleville\u2019s NCCS volume on Philippians – which said more in less pages than nearly every commentary on any biblical book that I\u2019ve read.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The book I\u2019ve recommended most to other people is a tie between two. One, for Christians in particular, is \u2018This Beautiful Truth<\/a>\u2019 by Sarah Clarkson. You can read my review here. The other one is Jeffrey Boakye\u2019s \u2018Black, Listed\u2019 – a genuinely brilliant bit of writing that took me out of my comfort zone and into other cultures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best book on the Psalms I read in 2022 – apart from one that I edited which comes out in 2023 – was W. David O. Taylor\u2019s \u2018Open and unafraid\u2019. It\u2019s stunning, perhaps especially in hardback, and if commend it to you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best book of or based on sermons I read in 2022 was John Webster\u2019s \u2018Confronted by Grace\u2019 – this is a marvellous book that showcases Webster\u2019s theological depth and doxological wisdom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two Old Testament commentaries stirred my heart this year – among a number of commentaries I read this year. Elaine M. Phillips Obadiah, Jonah and Micah in the AOTC is a genuinely prophetic book. Gordon J. Wenham\u2019s NICOT on Leviticus remains a classic of the genre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I enjoyed a number of books looking at what it means to be human, from different angles. A particular highlight was Lucy Peppiatt’s\u00a0Imago Dei<\/em> – a Cascade Companion<\/a> that is an excellent overview. More pastorally, or devotionally, Alan Noble’s ‘You Are Not Your Own’ is an excellent unpacking of that complex truth.<\/p>\n

Working for a Christian publisher there are lots of things I could but won’t say about books – particularly Christian books. But one highlight was a book edited by a colleague and profoundly unpacking the book of James – David Gibson’s ‘Radically Whole’. From another publisher, and a book I wish we’d published (not that we had the opportunity, but I loved it) is Joy Clarkson’s ‘Aggressively Happy’, a quirky, beautifully written book that I’ve revisited already.<\/p>\n

Three of my Top Twenty books were published by our American cousins, IVP USA – in addition to the Noble title above, I really appreciated Tish Harrison Warren’s ‘Prayer in the Night’ (not least as when struck down by Migraines or wallowing in depression, prayer is all I can manage), and the now more than a decade old ‘The Next Evangelicalism’ by Soong-Chan Rah. This is a profound bit of writing that has ‘come true’ in some ways – and not in others.<\/p>\n

Finally, three books that I hope and think will shape my reading, editing and writing going forward – in different ways. Tim Chester’s ‘John Stott on the Christian Life’ is a good introduction to Stott’s way of being and doing, and a challenge to learn from a wise departed brother. Mburu’s ‘African Hermeneutics’ was the best of a bunch of strong books I read from Langham Publishing this year – Mburu offers both a good book on hermeneutics, and a good insight into African Christianities, as well as some provocative and generative theological writing. Finally, a Tolkien book – ‘Tree and Leaf’ – which I thoroughly enjoyed and will revisit regularly. I need to reread more Tolkien in 2023.<\/p>\n

So that’s my Top Twenty books of 2022 – in the image below you’ll see my Top Ten.<\/p>\n

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If (and I don’t know why you would) you’ve read through my long list of everything I read in 2022, or even if you haven’t, here’s my Top Twenty, and the Top Ten. Firstly, in image form, the Top Twenty, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[87,26,406,1049,114,88,44,73,779,125,465,606,453],"tags":[1194,649,808,29,797,1139,1034,1193,1170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3997"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4423,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997\/revisions\/4423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}