Two books that are on my radar currently–aside from the novels I need to read–are In Praise of Doubt: How to Have Convictions Without Becoming a Fanatic by Peter Berger and Anton Zijderveld…and Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Want teasers?

Here’s the book description for In Praise of Doubt at the HarperCollins site:

“Modernity was supposed to usher in a rational secular world where religion was marginalized. Some even predicted it would disappear. But religion has not only survived—it is growing and thriving in the modern world. Defying predictions, we live today in a world of plurality where diverse groups live under conditions of civic peace and in social interaction. However, this arrangement is not without tensions. How do we handle moral issues, such as abortion or homosexuality, when different groups have strongly held but opposing viewpoints? And how does culture maintain its harmony when confronted with the challenge of an aggressive fundamentalism?

The answer, according to world-renowned sociologists Peter Berger and Anton Zijderveld, is doubt. Not the stupefying doubt of relativism where we become incapable of any decision because we are overwhelmed by options, but a virtuous use of doubt that allows us to move forward boldly with strong moral convictions without caving in to the fanatic’s temptation of seeing everyone who disagrees with you as the enemy. How we as individuals and as a society can find this ideal balance is the subject of this deceptively simple but revolutionary work.

In Praise of Doubt takes the reader on an exciting whirlwind tour of the history of modernity, religion, the rise of psychology, Marxism, and the intellectual challenge of relativism, the failure of totalitarianism, fundamentalism as a modern invention, and the startling conclusion explaining why truth, even religious truth, needs doubt to survive and thrive.”

And here’s the one for Pagan Christianity at Amazon.com:

“Have you ever wondered why we Christians do what we do for church every Sunday morning? Why do we ‘dress up’ for church? Why does the pastor preach a sermon each week? Why do we have pews, steeples, choirs, and seminaries? This volume reveals the startling truth: most of what Christians do in present-day churches is not rooted in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Coauthors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence in the first-ever book to document the full story of modern Christian church practices.”

To be fair, I think the second book has now been paired with its “sequel”–Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Church, which I’ll have to read as well.

Quite possibly, I’m tired of church.  Perhaps I need to be enlightened…or perhaps I’m looking in all the wrong places.

Perhaps.

[Post image: Partial cover of In Praise of Doubt by Peter Berger and Anton Zijderveld]