I have now been tagged by David with the ‘recommended reading’ meme.  Thus, here are a few of the books that I find myself often recommending to people.  Many of them are also some of my favorite books (as would be expected), but all of them are ones that I find myself recommending often.

• Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society.  This is one of my basic “if you want to know what Christianity is really all about” books.  You won’t find a better book on the nature of Christianity, the church, and mission.
• Hans Urs von Balthasar, Love Alone is Credible.  This is what people should read instead of anything falling under the rubric of “apologetics”.  There are few other writings more concise which so deeply explore the nature of God and Christian faith.
• Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom.  There’s no better place to start exploring the relationship between the kingdom of God, the church, and social ethics. 
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship.  An unparalleled treatment of what it means to follow Jesus and to understand the church as his body. 
• Alan Lewis, Between Cross and Resurrection.  If you want to know what God is really like and what it means to understand Christ as the revelation of God, then this is the book for you.  Beautifully written and theologically profound.
• Lee Camp, Mere Discipleship.  This is a super-readable book that lays out what “radical discipleship” really is.  It has wonderfully concise, yet informative and accurate discussions of the kingdom of God, the gospel, Christendom, baptism, the Lord’s Supper and the other essential practices of discipleship.
• Robert Jenson, Systematic Theology, Volumes 1 & 2.  This is the best systematic theology of our time, in my opinion.  Jenson’s theology is radical, lively, provocative, erudite, and endlessly profound.