George Hunsinger's runners-up

Suppose someone who hasn't
been keeping up with theology for the past 25 years now wants to read the most
important books written during that time. What five titles would you suggest?

We posed this question to
eight theologians and published their responses in our fall books issue. Of
course, it's hard to narrow a list down to just five titles—so a couple of them
passed along some additional choices as well. We'll post these runners-up here
on the blog.

First up is George
Hunsinger, who teaches at Princeton and wrote The Eucharist and Ecumenism. Here
are his top five picks:

Thomas F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith

Alexander Schmemann, The Eucharist

Sarah Coakley, Powers and Submissions

J. Kameron Carter, Race

Derek S. Jeffreys, Spirituality and the Ethics
of Torture

For his comments, see the magazine article. And
here are eight additional selections from Hunsinger, with brief comments:

Cornel
West, Race Matters. Our leading black
intellectual tackles some of our most intractable social problems.

Janet
Martin Soskice, The Kindness of God:
Metaphor, Gender, and Religious Language. Clear-sighted feminist
interventions on traditional theological questions.

Brian A.
Gerrish, Grace and Gratitude: The
Eucharistic Theology of John Calvin. A fresh look at Calvin that destroys
many stereotypes and displays the heart of his piety.

Stanley
Hauerwas, After Christendom? How the
Church is to Behave if Freedom, Justice, and a Christian Nation Are Bad Ideas.
A deliberately provocative plea for a countercultural church fundamentally
committed to peacemaking.  Don't
let the subtitle put you off.

Randall
C. Zachman, The Assurance Of Faith:
Conscience in The Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin. A powerful
discussion of Reformation theology through one of its central themes.

Keith L.
Johnson, Karl Barth and the Analogia
Entis. The best book on Barth in a long time.

Christopher
A. Beeley, Gregory of Nazianzus on the
Trinity and the Knowledge of God: In Your Light We Shall See Light. An
outstanding study of the premier Cappodocian theologian that explains his most
important contributions.

Eric
Gregory, Politics and the Order of Love:
An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship. A stunning account of
political liberalism thoroughly informed by Augustinian wisdom.

See more theologians' top
choices. What would be your picks?