On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers.
I asked Chad Bird—writer, speaker, and author of Your God Is Too Glorious: Finding God in the Most Unexpected Places, Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul, and more—about what’s on his nightstand, his favorite fiction, the book he wishes every pastor would read, and more.
What books are on your nightstand?
What I like most about parties is there’s usually several tables laden with varieties of food to graze on. So it is with my book-reading. I don’t do a sit-down book-meal but graze from table to table, volume to volume. I’m a couple of chapters into A. J. Swoboda’s latest book, Subversive Sabbath. His poetic prose will leave readers hungry for more. I’m a chapter or two away from finishing my latest Tim Keller book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, which (like all of Keller’s other work) somehow manages to be both pastoral and scholarly.
Not far from me, at all times, is Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World, which is the one Orthodox book all Protestants should (re-re-)read. And I just turned the last page in a must-read, must-ponder volume by Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel, The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It. It’s a long title and a deep subject that ought to leave us all in sackcloth and ashes by the end, praying for a new heart and a humble spirit.
What are your favorite fiction books?
For the last 15 years or so, fiction has entered my mind and heart via the ear, not the eye. I rarely read fiction; I listen to it when I’m driving my truck. The marriage between audio books and fiction just makes sense—stories are written to be heard.
The gold medal of fiction goes to Victor Hugo for Les Miserables, which, despite its length, I’ve listened to multiple times.
Closely tying for second and third are Cormac McCarthy for Blood Meridian and Fyodor Dostoevsky for Crime and Punishment (or is it Brothers Karamazov? I can’t decide). Any book by either of these authors is worthy of a standing ovation.
I’m also a big fan of George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy, with Tess of the d’Urbervilles rising to the top in that list.
And I can’t fail to mention Flannery O’Connor, whose fiction packs more theological punch than most dogmatic treatises. If you’ve never read her short story “Revelation,” stop whatever you’re doing and read it now.
Which books have profoundly shaped the way you lead and serve others for the sake of the gospel?
Early in my theological training, a professor recommended I read Against Heresies by Irenaeus of Lyons. That second-century author profoundly shaped my view of the creation-rooted, incarnation-saturated nature of the gospel.
I was a latecomer to Brennan Manning, but when I finally read The Ragamuffin Gospel, I wept happy tears. Here was the voice crying in the wilderness of my grief and suffering. Manning—his vulnerability, Christ-centeredness, and rawness—has provided the blueprint for much of my own writing.
Speaking of my writing, most of it, in one way or another, is about the theology of the cross. I’m thankful for Gerhard Forde’s tremendous help in articulating cruciform theology. His 120-page book, On Being a Theologian of the Cross, is worth $120,000 in theological currency.
Last but not least, as I’ve careened through life, bouncing from vocation to vocation—student, pastor, Hebrew professor, truck driver, husband, father, and so on—I’ve come again and again to appreciate Luther on Vocation by Gustaf Wingren. Standing on the shoulders of the reformer, he demonstrates that whatever I’m doing, I’m the mask of God by which he serves his creation in love.
What’s the last great book you read?
Richard Selzer, Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery. This book should have won the Pulitzer Prize. Winged words. Profound insights. Unforgettable stories. I’ll be quoting from him for years.
What’s one book you wish every pastor read?
In The Hammer of God, Bo Giertz takes us on a journey into the lives and ministries of three fictional pastors, all of whom learn the hard way (don’t we all?) that they must decrease so Christ may increase, that grace is everything in the life of the church, and that a theology of “Jesus and” is a recipe for disaster. Every pastor should read it at least once every three or four years. [See Leland Ryken’s article, “The Best Christian Novel You’ve Never Heard Of.”]
What are you learning about life and following Jesus?
I’m learning that failures and wounds and scars have been the greatest blessings in my life, for through them Christ has made me weak that he might be strong, made me dead that he might be alive in me. Following Jesus means I must die. Only dead people are ready to begin discipleship. He’s daily Good-Fridaying me, my ambitions, my navel-gazing ways, that he might Easter me. It’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, laughs in me, loves in me, works in me.
Also in the On My Shelf series: Sam Chan • Matthew Lee Anderson • Melissa Kruger • Isaac Adams • Denny Burk • Vermon Pierre • Jake Meador • Russ Ramsey • Jason Allen • Jason Cook • Mack Stiles • Michael Kruger • Robert Smith • Tony Merida • Andy Crouch • Walter Strickland • Hannah Anderson • S. D. Smith • Curtis Woods • Mindy Belz • Steve Timmis • David Mathis • Michael Lindsay • Nathan Finn • Jennifer Marshall • Todd Billings • Greg Thornbury • Greg Forster • Jen Pollock Michel • Sam Storms • Barton Swaim • John Stonestreet • George Marsden • Andrew Wilson • Sally Lloyd-Jones • Darryl Williamson • D. A. Horton • Carl Ellis • Owen Strachan • Thomas Kidd • David Murray • Jarvis Williams • Gracy Olmstead • Matthew Hall • Drew Dyck • Louis Markos • Ray Ortlund • Brett McCracken • Mez McConnell • Erik Raymond • Sandra McCracken • Tim Challies • Sammy Rhodes • Karen Ellis • Alastair Roberts • Scott Sauls • Karen Swallow Prior • Jackie Hill Perry • Bruce Ashford • Jonathan Leeman • Megan Hill • Marvin Olasky • David Wells • John Frame • Rod Dreher • James K. A. Smith • Randy Alcorn • Tom Schreiner • Trillia Newbell • Jen Wilkin • Joe Carter • Timothy George • Tim Keller • Bryan Chapell • Lauren Chandler • Mike Cosper • Russell Moore • Jared Wilson • Kathy Keller • J. D. Greear • Kevin DeYoung • Kathleen Nielson • Thabiti Anyabwile • Elyse Fitzpatrick • Collin Hansen • Fred Sanders • Rosaria Butterfield • Nancy Guthrie • Matt Chandler
Browse dozens of book recommendations from The Gospel Coalition’s leaders and sign up your church at Hubworthy.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
