stuff I wish I’d read earlier…

I constantly seem to have the experience of picking up a book and going ‘Whoa, I should have read that way back in x Year of College’. So these are books I wish I’d read earlier — not the ones I’ve actually read and found formative at each stage of my College career…

First Year

1. The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God, R. P. C. Hanson
2. Why Study the Past?, Rowan Williams
3. The Trinity and the Kingdom of God, Jurgen Moltmann / Holy Scripture, John Webster
4. Resurrection and Moral Order, Oliver O’Donovan
5. The New Testament and the People of God, N. T. Wright

Second Year

1. Iustia Dei, Alister McGrath
2. The Five Theological Orations, Gregory Nazianzen
3. Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, Richard Hays
4. The Art of Biblical Narrative, Robert Alter
5. Jesus and the Victory of God, N. T. Wright

Third Year

1. Church Dogmatics IV/1, Karl Barth
2. Holiness, John Webster
3. The Moral Vision of the New Testament, Richard Hays
4. The Resurrection of the Son of God, N. T. Wright
5. Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf

I readily admit that I tend to get excited by a bunch of these from the point of view I currently occupy, and thus ‘get’ them more now than I maybe ever would have back then. For example, I really appreciated reading Webster’s Holiness as a recap of 2nd and 3rd Year Doctrine.

But I make no apology for my bias towards Christian Doctrine and Church History. These are the things I’ve enjoyed most at College.