This year we received 327 nominated titles from 52 publishers. CT staff selected the top five books in each category, and then panels of judges (one panel for each category) determined the winners. In the end, we honor 23 titles that bring understanding to people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission. We also include our judges' comments on the winners.
The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others
Scot McKnight (Paraclete Press)
In clear, engaging prose, The Jesus Creed offers a broad range of materialfrom personal anecdote to Jewish prayersfor abundant reflection on Jesus and on practical ways for loving God and others.
BIBLICAL STUDIES
Africa and the Bible
Edwin M. Yamauchi (Baker Academic)
Fresh, deep research that challenges many of the excesses of Afrocentrism in U.S. and African biblical interpretation.
Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach
Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost, & John W. Morehead II, ed. (Kregel)
The book treats a breathtaking range of biblical, historical, methodological, and practical issues related to Christian witness to new religious movements.
Reviewing Leadership: A Christian Evaluation of Current Approaches
Robert Banks & Bernice M. Ledbetter (Baker Academic)
Focusing more on character and integrity than on methods and techniques, this book sifts through the enormous amount of literature on leadership to present essential theories and practices.
Gilead: A Novel
Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Like a wise elder whose front-porch musings keep you listening deep into the night, the narrative voice in this portrait of grace sparkles with insight, wonder, and both the frailty and indomitability of the human creature.
SPIRITUALITY
Invitation to Solitude and Silence: Experiencing God's Transforming Presence
Ruth Haley Barton (IVP)
Countering the hyperactive evangelical subculture, this book shows in practical ways how a deepened intimacy with God, found in silence and solitude, can influence our perceptions and choices in daily life.
THEOLOGY/ETHICS
Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition
Hans Boersma (Baker Academic)
One of those rare evangelical tomes that engages critically and creatively with a major doctrine under attackthe Atonement. Boersma has written a spirited defense of divine violence as a means toward an eschatological state of pure hospitality.
Of Fathers and Sons | The sometimes-fractured relationships between fathers and sons are the heart of this stellar second novel from Marilynne Robinson (first item, March 09, 2005)
Excerpt: Rest for the Mind | How can you still your racing thoughts in order to enjoy the presence of God? (from sister publication, Building Church Leaders)
Excerpt: Fundamentally Personal | At The Shawmut River Baptist Church, worship and preaching are saturated with the familiar, the "at-home." (Oct. 27, 2004)