Now that my daughter has finished school, I’m hoping to carve out a little more time to read during the summer break. I’m staying up a little later and reading since I don’t have to get up quite as early to get her to school. So, here’s a list of what’s currently on my summer schedule.

First, the books I’m currently reading and hope to finish soon:

• Letters From A Skeptic : A Son Wrestles with His Father’s Questions about Christianity - Gregory Boyd
  I read Boyd’s The Myth Of A Christian Nation last year and really enjoyed it. This book is a collection of his correspondence with his father a number of years ago. His father was not a Christian and couldn’t fathom why anyone would buy into such nonsense. Over time, he asked a lot of questions, often pointed, and Boyd attempted to answer them for him. I’m maybe halfway through it right now, but it’s been very useful thus far.
• Hidden In Plain Sight : The Secret Of More - Mark Buchanan
  I’m just beginning this newest book by Mark Buchanan. The book is centered on the passage of II Peter 1:1–9. I’ve liked some of Buchanan’s earlier work - primarily his first book, Your God Is Too Safe. I have hope that this one will be good as well.

• Bald As I Wanna Be - Tony Kornheiser
  A little light reading - the second of three collections of Tony Kornheiser’s style columns in the Washington Post, this one published in 1997. I’ve read the other two books of his, both of which were hilarious, and this one is as well. I’ve been a Kornheiser fan for years, be it on his own radio show or PTI or wherever he appears, and these books are a lot of fun.

So, if I can get around to finishing those, I’ll be looking at these next.

• The Evangelical Universalist - “Gregory MacDonald”
  This book written under a pseudonym, and I believe I read that it was by someone who would be well-known in evangelical circles (but I may be mistaken about that.) Nevertheless, the author seemed to want to avoid trouble by not using his/her real name (perhaps to save a job.) The author answers “yes” to the question “can an evangelical be a universalist?” and this book is his/her attempt to support that answer biblically. I’m looking forward to reading it.

• A New Kind Of Christian : A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey - Brian McLaren
  I’ve wanted to read McLaren’s trilogy that begins with this book for a few years now, but have yet to get to it. I “mooched” all three books last week and should be receiving them this week. I look forward to this journey as well.

• The Powers That Be : A Theology For A New Millennium - Walter Wink
  I’ve read a number of quotes from Wink in the recent past, and often they were from this book. I just received it yesterday and haven’t really even looked at it yet, but it’s focus on the issue of nonviolence is what interests me.

• Simply Christian : Why Christianity Makes Sense - N. T. Wright
  I’ve yet to read an N. T. Wright book, but I’ve read and heard so many positive things about this book. I started it a few months ago, but didn’t get far. I plan to start again this summer. I’ve heard it described as a Mere Christianity for our time.

• The Fire That Consumes : A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment - Edward Fudge
  Like the MacDonald book above, this book challenges a view I’ve always been taught: the view of an eternal, never-ending punishment of the wicked. I first read about the annihilationist view via Fudge’s “GracEmail” that I used to receive a number of years ago, and am anxious to read his case for annihilation in more detail.

• Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger : Moving from Affluence to Generosity - Ronald Sider
  Sider looks at poverty and hunger in the world, the causes behind them, and biblical steps we can take to impact the world for the better.

That’s it. That’s the list. I hope to finish these and more, and I suspect there’s also a fair chance I’ll not even finish all of these, but we’ll see. Any other suggestions?