Books I wish I could have read . . .

Evangelical publishers are starting to get into topics that crop up in The Fullness of Time. I only wish that I could have had time to learn from them before getting my own work into print. In just the past few months, I've seen a few interesting books popping up in two main categories:

Practical guides to more holistic living in a globalized world: For example, Tracy Bianchi is coming out with a book entitled Green Mama: The Guilt Free Guide to Helping You and Your Kids Save the Planet. In addition, Julie Clawson has just come out with Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices.

Evangelicals discovering the liturgical year: Joan Chittister is coming out with The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life. And InterVarsity has just published an interesting book by Bobby Gross: Living the Christian Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God.

I've just ordered a copy of Gross's book, and I look forward to working through it. The only comparable book that I've been able to find up to this point is Robert Webber's Ancient-Future Time. I'll try to find time to post some reflections on the Gross book here.

In the meantime, I am encouraged that so many others are responding to the paralysis that many of us feel about global capitalism being the only system that can organize our lives. Margaret Thatcher used to say that "there is no alternative," making what many have called the TINA argument.

But there are many alternatives, and the Christian year helps us to imagine them and start acting on them.