Happy acquisitions from Christian Aid Book Sale 2006 - some modern classics

Peter L. Berger (1969) The Social Reality of Religion.. London: Faber and Faber.
[USA title: The Sacred Canopy]

• £1
  
• a classic that I have long heard of but never really read, a significant work in the sociological study of religion in the mid to late 20th century
  
• ' ... treats religion as a social product, as part of the world of meaning that every human society constructs in the course of history.' (from front flap)
  
• 'After discussing the paradoxical roots of secularization in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, it analyzes the contemporary secularization in its institutional aspects and in its character as a phenomenon of consciousness.' (from front flap)
  
• plus: for some of us who got into the gate of 'religion and society' through the Boston school, there is perhaps a special feeling toward this contemporary godfather of the field at Boston University.
  

H. Richard Niebuhr (1951) Christ and Culture. New York: Harper and Row.

• 50p
  
• I have now gone far far away from Neibuhr's static and universalistic notion of culture, yet beyond any argument this book is the most important work in the area that has come out over the last century. Its paradigm is still applied and used in many circumstances (including by myself just a few years ago), and supplemented or refuted by many (including myself of today).
  

Gerd Theissen (1986, ET 1987) The Shadow of the Galilean. London: SCM.

• £1.50.
  
• The story of Jesus told in a first person narrative form by a top notch biblical scholar - this in itself is already a tremendous selling point of the book.
  
• Years ago when I was still quite into New Testament study, I was fascinated by Theissen's works on the social scientific study of the NT. But actually they were tough reading and were beyond my capacity of full understanding.
  
• Then later when I learnt that brother Kun Chun was Theissen's student, WOW! was the only possible reaction in secret ... WOW!