Christianity Today

Our judging process began with 436 titles submitted by 67 publishers. CT editors selected finalists in each category, and then our panels of expert judges — one panel per category — sorted out the cream of the crop from 2008. Here are the 10 winners and 11 notables that best shed light on the people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission, with comments from our judges.

Fiction | Theology/Ethics | Spirituality | Missions/Global Affairs | The Church/Pastoral Leadership | History/Biography | Christian Living | Christianity & Culture | Apologetics/Evangelism | Biblical Studies

Fiction

Home: A Novel Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

Our judges said:

"This poignant follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead resonates with sensory description, stark, unsentimental reflection on a bygone era, and a storyline that invites contemplation of prejudice, pride, aging, the church, and the biblical narrative of the prodigal son. It's also a profound reflection on the question: What does it mean to 'come home'? Another masterpiece."

Review: No Sweet 'Home' | Robinson's new novel deals with the harder side of life in Gilead. (November 17, 2008)

Books & Culture: Marilynne Robinson at Large Again | A sequel—or a companion—to Gilead, a very different book and just as astonishing. (September 8, 2008)

The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher
Rob Stennett (Zondervan)

Review: Dostoyevsky, American Evangelical-Style | Rob Stennett's The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher doesn't need to ask, 'Could this happen?' (January 30, 2009)

Theology/Ethics

People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology Michael S. Horton (Westminster John Knox)

Our judges said:

"A first-rate work that engages recent world-class voices across the confessional spectrum. Horton offers acute interpretations of his dialogue partners and fashions his own well-argued theses into a constructive, orthodox, biblical, Reformed ecclesiology. This is the kind of scholarly quality that 'neo-evangelicals' were hoping for when Carl Henry and company articulated their vision."

By Michael S. Horton: How the Kingdom Comes | The church becomes countercultural by sinking its roots ever deeper into God's heavenly gifts.

About Michael S. Horton: Up & Comers, Part 1 | Fifty evangelical leaders 40 and under.

Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
N. T. Wright (HarperOne)

Book excerpt: Heaven Is Not Our Home | The bodily resurrection is the good news of the gospel—and thus our social and political mandate.

Commentary: How Public Is the Gospel? | N. T. Wright's latest book renews debate over evangelism and good works.

Spirituality

Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life Kathleen Norris (Penguin/Riverhead)

Our judges said:

"The fruit of years of careful deliberation, this book delicately blends memoirs of Norris's experience of acedia and her husband's struggle with mental illness, scholarly reflection on acedia in spiritual theology, and the social implications of her conclusions. If this classic were all she ever wrote, we would have been blessed more than we can reasonably expect or hope from a writer."

Review: Curing Lethargy … or Whatever | Putting to death the noonday demon. A review of Kathleen Norris's Acedia & Me. (August 21, 2008)

Interview: Kathleen Norris | The author of The Virgin of Bennington talks about being found by God in the midst of sex, drugs, and poetry. (July 16, 2002)

Books & Culture: It's Half-Past Twelve Somewhere | Kathleen Norris on a forgotten deadly sin.

Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers
Eugene H. Peterson (Eerdmans)

Review: Everyday Lord | Jesus' language shows the mundane is where faith is fleshed out.

Missions/Global Affairs

Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change Paul G. Hiebert (Baker Academic)

Our judges said:

"This is a penetrating and masterful study. Hiebert's in-depth and methodical evaluation of major Western and non-Western worldviews and their profound implications for the church and its mission is invaluable and timely. His pivotal argument that there is a biblical worldview to which each community of faith must conform will spark debate, but the material is deftly handled and leaves a rich deposit."

Review: Bookmarks | Short reviews of Saving Darwin, The Man Who Loved China, and Transforming Worldviews.

African Pentecostalism: An Introduction
Ogbu Kalu (Oxford)

The Church/Pastoral Leadership

Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck (Moody)

Our judges said:

"DeYoung and Kluck use Scripture carefully and even mix in some humor in this thoughtful critique. They also manage to express what is attractive about the emerging movement in a way an older generation can understand!"

Who Stole My Church?: What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century
Gordon MacDonald (Thomas Nelson)

Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God's Narrative
Robert E. Webber (Baker)

Interview: Together in the Jesus Story | Bob Webber's fingerprints are all over a new call to live the narrative that really matters.

By Robert E. Webber: Advent's Spiritual Pilgrimage | The birth of Christ is only the final stop when meditating this holiday season. An excerpt from Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year. (December 1, 2004)

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