100 books like Re-Enchanting the Earth

This is a book that rocked me and a whole generation back in the 1960s and is now considered a classic in radical theology.

John Robinson was a radical Anglican bishop who managed to pack an explosive theological punch into a feisty and fairly short book, its brevity being one of its merits. He threw theism into doubt by drawing upon the revolutionary theologies of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (religionless Christianity), Rudolf Bultmann (demythologizing Christianity), and Paul Tillich (God is the ground of being, not the Supreme Being).

The book became a sensation, a best seller, and set the stage for a radical post-theistic theology today and helped shape my work.

Paul Tillich is my choice for the great theologian of the twentieth century (not Karl Barth, orthodoxy’s hero).

For Tillich, religion is not a matter of creeds but a matter of “ultimate concern,” of what is unconditionally important; “God” is not the Supreme Being, but the “ground of being;” religion is not particular cultural practice but the depth structure of the entire culture; dig deeply enough into art or science or anything, and you will hit theological ground.

His Dynamics of Faith and The Courage to Be are his “greatest hits,” but I love Theology of Culture because it lays all this out with such lucidity. Atheism about the Supreme Being is not the end of theology but the beginning of radical theology.

This book contains a magisterial rendering of the mystical poet Angelus Silesius’s verse, “The Rose Is Without Why” as part of a critical analysis of the emergence of the modern idea of “reason.”

This book has never left me since I first encountered it in my doctoral dissertation on Heidegger back in the 1960s. It landed like a bombshell on a young Catholic like me, opening a poetic and mystical sense of life free from the creeds and authoritarianism of religion as well as from the doctrinaire dismissiveness of Enlightenment rationalism.

Written at the end of his career, it encapsulates everything Heidegger was getting at. We must never forget the horrible stain of Heidegger’s National Socialism, which I have analyzed (Demythologizing Heidegger), but there is more to Heidegger than that, and you can find it here.

The evidence is staring us in the face that religion is shaming itself out of existence and God along with it.

Robin Meyers is one of those people who can save, if not religion, which may have done itself irreparable damage, but God and Jesus and faith. Meyers is a United Church of Christ pastor, a university professor, and a peace activist, so he brings a special combination of the pastor’s touch for telling stories to make a point and for changing lives and the professor’s depth of learning.

I could just as easily have recommended his companion book Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus but I chose this book because it is more recent. His question is, is religion even worth saving?

As a couple interested in the potential impacts of technology, we were immediately drawn to the question this book poses: "Will technology change what it means to be human?" In 2084, John Lennox addresses this question thoughtfully, offering a perspective grounded in both mathematics and philosophy while incorporating insights from his Christian worldview.

What we found truly compelling about this book was how Lennox draws parallels between the nature of humanity and the possibilities and limitations of AI. He delves into the Christian concept of the soul, our inherent moral sense, and our hopes for the future, effectively highlighting the distinction between machines and human beings.

Just when I thought the future was bright and sunny (in part due to Kurzweil), I learn from James Barrat that ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) might well mark the end of our species (and the start of an ever-expanding artificial replacement).

I was fascinated by the people Barrat introduces us to like an expert on the psychology of ASI, and his description of a perfect machine and its runaway implications. I realized this is modernity at its best and worst: we push forward to improve the world but are always at the risk of creating new, unseen problems.

The most troubling question of all (to my way of thinking) is that our idea of perfected humanity (both a modern and a pre-modern aim) ends in the vision of machines like Watson playing endless games of Jeopardy among themselves.

This book seems a bit strange at first, when the story begins with Moon-Watcher, the leader of a tribe of early ape-man, who struggles for survival during the brutal Pleistocene ice age. After an alien monolith appears, it seems to advance the way he thinks, leading him to develop crude weapons. When the same monolith is discovered in the future, we seem fated to find the answers behind the eerie structure. Skipping to a team of astronauts who travel aboard a ship to further investigate, things take an unexpected turn when the ship’s A.I. called HAL-9000, gets very confused about keeping secrets. Something about the way it remains so polite while it deceives the crew, is enough to give anyone a nightmare.

What sets this book apart for us is its focus on rethinking the very foundations of AI. The author, Russell, thoughtfully examines the concept of intelligence itself, comparing humans and machines and outlining the necessary milestones for reaching superhuman AI. 

He also doesn't shy away from the current dangers of AI misuse, providing some really great examples.

We found the book very hard to put down, and it raised so many ‘What if?” questions for us!

Part of what I love the most about The Lord of the Rings is the way that J.R.R. Tolkien made Middle Earth feel like it could be real. I have to remind myself it’s not history, but fiction. Reading Recorder gives me the same feeling. Sure, technically, it’s science fiction. It’s set in space. But there is a depth and honesty to the world that Cathy McCrumb has created that is rare and worth exploring. It is both a prescient warning about the future of humanity and a powerful story about found family and finding hope when up against impossible odds. Also, the romantic subplot of this book will absolutely shatter you.

The Outside is a gripping sci-fi novel with a queer autistic protagonist, written by an autistic author who perfectly conveys the flavor of autistic thinking. This one’s set far in the future, in a galaxy-spanning theocracy ruled by powerful artificial intelligences that have set themselves up as gods. Scientist Yasira Shien has developed a brilliant new energy drive. The problem? Turns out the drive taps into an extradimensional reality called the Outside, which, true to its name, exists outside ordinary spacetime—and which is capable of spilling over catastrophically into the material world. Highly original world-building blended with classic space opera. Compelling characters and a plot that had me hooked all the way. Oh, and it’s the first book in a trilogy!