How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee

by Bart D. Ehrman    (Get the Book)
Ehrman, who has written prolifically about early Christianity, here takes up one of religious history’s most profound questions: How did a messianic Jewish preacher become identified as God? This is a particularly astonishing phenomenon when one considers how fast it happened and how different the idea of Jesus as God was from Jesus’ actual message. Ehrman writes very personally, especially in the beginning, and this approach draws the reader into a subject that is littered with curves and contradictions. Eventually, all writers who tackle this topic must answer the fundamental question: Did Jesus’ followers actually see a resurrected Christ? Ehrman sets up his answer well, first considering the various interpretations of divine humanity in ancient times. When it comes to the resurrection, he explains that whether the apostles actually saw Jesus or saw a vision makes no difference. Their belief in a risen Jesus is what shifted and shaped Christianity. A discussion of later Christologies and heresies becomes complicated, but this fascinating discussion will engage—and provoke—a wide audience. --Booklist

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

by Rachel Held Evans     (Get the Book)
Evans (A Year of Biblical Womanhood) uses the lens of her own journey as an evangelical Christian to explore what is happening in church circles today and, more broadly, what it means to be part of a church community. Evans humorously describes her gradual evolution from a teenager with a "crusader complex" to an adult who became increasingly uncomfortable with her church's conservative theology: "The trouble started when I began to suspect God was less concerned with saving people from hell than I was." Dividing the book into sections named after sacraments, Evans begins by contemplating, in lyrical prose, the theological significance of each sacrament's key ingredient (water, bread, ash, etc.). A powerful storyteller, Evans captures transformative moments, such as leaving a church full "of kind, generous people"; investing wholeheartedly in a new church that "collapsed slowly, one week at a time"; and witnessing healing at the Gay Christian Network's conference, feeling "simultaneously furious at Christianity's enormous capacity to wound and awed by its miraculous capacity to heal." Honest and moving, this memoir is both theologically astute and beautifully written. --Publisher's Weekly

Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen     (Get the Book)
A guide to taking the bad feedback with the good and learning from what we're told. As Harvard Law School lecturers Stone and Heen (co-authors: Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, 1999) note early on, there have been countless books on the management side of the feedback equation: how to be a good boss and effective leader, delivering feedback to employees that hits every nail on the head. While it's often a shell game to drive employees to be better while also not burning them out, surprisingly little attention has been focused on being an effective recipient of feedback. Enter Stone and Heen with a well-rounded consideration of "the science and art of receiving feedback well." As they write, both of those disciplines are required to receive feedback in productive ways—not only in the workplace, but in personal life as well. The authors examine therapy and neurology as two of the avenues through which we can locate and address the blocks to feedback; thoughts can cause emotions, emotions can cause thoughts, and feedback from someone in a position of authority can trigger the fight-or-flight response.  --Kirkus

Beyond Championships: A Playbook for Winning at Life

by Dru Joyce II      (Get the Book)

A few years after getting married and starting a career in sales, Joyce began coaching basketball part-time. Despite having played very little organized basketball and having no coaching experience, Joyce felt he was called to help young people. In 2002, he became the head boys' basketball coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, OH, where he has coached three state championship teams, won the National Coach of the Year award, and taught one of the greatest basketball players of all time—LeBron James, who wrote the foreword. This book contains the principles by which Coach Dru lives his life and instills in his players for success both on-and-off court. Each chapter centers on one principle, which is given a catchy phrase ("Decisions Create Environment") and contains real-life examples from Joyce's life as a husband and father, his years coaching, and his Christian faith. He preaches discipline, taking responsibility for your choices, and following your dreams. While these tenets are not unique, the book's style makes it palatable for a teenage, mostly male audience, especially given its connection to basketball and James. VERDICT Recommended for preteens, teenagers, and anyone who works with and mentors students of that age. --Library Journal

Galileo's middle finger : heretics, activists, and the search for justice in science

by Alice Domurat Dreger     (Get the Book)
Raised by conservative Catholic parents, Dreger (One of Us, 2004) rejects the church that persecuted Galileo both as champion of evidence-based science and as forerunner of rights-endowing democracy. But in two decades as a bioethicist committed to progressive causes, she has encountered unexpected conflict between the political and scientific branches of Galileo’s legacy. The author indeed takes readers into the dangerous no-man’s land separating warriors for political enlightenment from tough-minded researchers reporting unwelcome empirical findings about human identity, especially sexually identity. Seasoned by her own combat on behalf of intersex individuals, Dreger understands that those attacking women and sexual minorities have often (mis)used science. But she fears the consequences when political crusaders—including her allies—­reject empirical science and slander those who do it. In a disarmingly candid narrative, she chronicles her political-scientific struggles dealing with passion-laden issues such as transgender rights, rape, child sexual abuse, and prenatal fetal experimentation. Readers see repeatedly the high costs when Galileo’s scientific epigones clash with his political heirs. A sobering report from a hotly contested cultural battlefield. --Booklist