Shelf Life

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What books do you find yourself returning to? Here's what several writers and teachers had to say:

Telling the Truth, by Frederick Buechner, and Traveling Mercies, by Anne Lamott.

Though very different writers, both Buechner and Lamott understand the gospel--that we bring our sad, broken lives to Jesus, and that somehow, through the miracle of grace, he makes us whole.--Randall Balmer, Columbia University

The Word of God and the Word of Man, by Karl Barth, and The Prophets, by Abraham Heschel.

I reread Barth's book for the sake of the second essay, "The Strange New World Within the Bible." When one ponders the Bible constantly, it is tempting to imagine that by critical methods one may "understand and comprehend" it fully. Barth's essay is a starchy warning against any such deception. He enumerates the modes of deception that are available and …