Tuesday, June 2, 2009

How Odd, Hubristic, or Uninterested in Books is Christianity in 2009?

Just in my mailbox this morning, Amazon's list of top Christian bestsellers (or, should that be "Christian" bestsellers?):

The Shack by William P. Young

The Love Dare by Stephen Kendrick

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose

The Evolution of God by Robert Wright

The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller

The Noticer: Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective by Andy Andrews

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them) by Bart D. Ehrman

The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World by Richard Stearns

It is difficult to know what to make of this list. Presumably some of these books are being bought by religiously minded people who are interested in Christianity being brought down (e.g. Ehrman's book), while some may be being bought by religiously inclined people on a journey towards faith (e.g. the wildly popular novel by Young. Will any of these books be read in 10 years time?

It is possible that few of these books are being bought by Christians at all: perhaps we are more interested in blogs than books these days?

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