Bibliography

My own articles may go off the deep end, but I have read a wide variety of legitimate material, Protestant and Catholic, apologetic and metaphorical, American and otherwise. Please suggest material you think I should consider.

Books:

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright ©1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. It is available online at bible.oremus.org. Up to 500 verses of the NRSV may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic or audio) without charge and without obtaining written permission provided that all of the following conditions are met: The total number of verses quoted is less than an entire book of the Bible, and less than 500 verses (total), and less than 50 percent of the total number of words in the work in which they are quoted. No changes are made to the text. All quotations must be accurate to the text, including all appropriate punctuation, capitalization, etc. unless specifically approved to the contrary prior to publication. The applicable notice of copyright must appear in an appropriate location in the publication in which they are quoted.
Armstrong, Karen - "A History of God" – 1993 – Gramercy Books. A scholarly, textbook approach to the way the three Abrahamic "God religions" (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have viewed God for 4000 years. Everything you think you know about God has been known before, and someone has probably been executed for it, and it will seem utterly foolish in the year 3000.
Asmus, Barry - "The Best is Yet to Come" - 2001 - AmeriPress - web site. This is a generally conservative look at American politics, economics and history, including a notable discussion about the American founding fathers' recognition of a higher power.
(Saint) Augustine of Hippo - "Sermon 242" – c. 400 CE - at CatholicBooksOnline - considered as a traditional and conservative perspective, about the resurrection of Jesus and the form of the resurrection body.
Borg, Marcus - "Evolution of the Word" – 2012 – Published by HarperOne. The books of the New Testament are provided in the order in which researchers believe they were written, along with analyses from Borg. Borg stresses throughout that the NT texts were written by specific people, for specific people, within specific cultural and historical contexts. Our attempts to interpret the stories today were never envisioned by the writers.
Borg, Marcus and Crossen, John Dominic (presenters) - "First Light: Jesus and the Kingdom of God" – 2009 – Produced by Living the Questions. A DVD series exploring a perspective on Christianity with an emphasis on historical context.
Gaventa, Beverly Roberts & Rigby, Cynthia L. (editors) - "Blessed One: Protestant Perspectives on Mary" - 2002 - Published by Westminster John Knox Press. A collection of eleven modern essays, nine of which were written by women. These essays primarily explore the development of a reformed (Protestant) view of Mary to stand alongside the Roman Catholic view.
Hanegraaff, Hank - "Resurrection: The Capstone In The Arch Of Christianity" - 2002 – Published by Thomas Nelson. An apologetic book that attempts to answer questions about the Resurrection. In my opinion, the questions are chosen and phrased from a literalist perspective, such as, "Will there be sex after the Resurrection?" It's not wrong to ask such a question, or to answer it, but it's a question that would be asked by a literalist.
Howard, Agnes - "With Child: Pregnancy and the Incarnation". An excerpt from a talk, "Annunciation," January, 2010.
Machen, J. Gresham - "The Virgin Birth of Christ" - 1930 - Published (reprinted) by Baker Book House. An apologetic attempt to prove the literal historicity of the virgin birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, primarily by attempting to debunk all known denials.
Spong, John Shelby - "The Easter Moment" – 1998 edition of a 1976 book – Published by Christianity for the Third Millennium. A metaphoricalist book that considers our "relationship" with resurrection. Spong does not deny that Jesus did not walk literally, physically and historically from the tomb, but Spong argues that the literalness of the event doesn't matter as much as the meaning behind the event. Spong argues that the apologetic approach of spending years of research to justify the historical facts hinders the discernment of a Christian's path.
Van de Weyer, Robert (compiler) - "The Harper Collins Book of Prayers" - 1997 – Published by Castle Books (by arrangement with HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.). A book of prayers, mostly but not all Christian.

Missional Texts:

Missionalism is the hot thing in Christianity these days. Define your God and salvation any way you like, but use your gifts to meet the needs you see in the world.

Keller, Tim - 2001 - The Missional Church – A three page introduction to the missional approach.
McNeal, Reggie - "Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church" - 2009 – Published by Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series. Checklists for evaluating a person's or parish's missional (kingdom centered) approach, as opposed to the typical American parish-centered approach with it high operational expenses.
Miles, Sara - "Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead" - 2010 – Published by Jossey-Bass. One person's missional approach.

Freedom / Oppression Texts:

Theological texts are biased according to the education and associations of the writers. Roman Catholic texts are, well, Roman Catholic, apologetic texts are apologetic, etc. It is important to recognize the advantages and disadvantages of such associations. Writers are constrained by their sponsors, followers are constrained by their leaders. There are many definitions for oppression.

Balasuriya, Tissa - "Jesus Christ and Human Liberation" – 1976 (reprint 1981) – from the author's web site. Balasuriya, a Roman Catholic priest, promotes liberation theology and promotes what he believes is an approach to Christianity that is closer to Jesus' first century approach than typical worship patterns since the Reformation.
Balasuriya, Tissa - "Mary and Human Liberation" – 1997 – Trinity Press International. Balasuriya, a Roman Catholic priest, promotes liberation theology and rips into the RC traditions or original sin and the many privileges of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Balasuriya was subsequently excommunicated.
Beyond Intractability 1, Beyond Intractability 2, Beyond Intractability 3, Beyond Intractability 4, Beyond Intractability 5, Beyond Intractability 6 - Definitions, and strategies for changing the balance of power: forming alliances, violence, non-violence, divide and conquer (and other methods of making the oppressor look bad or develop internal problems).
Boff, Leonardo and Clodovis - "Introducing Liberation Theology" – 1989 – Orbis Books. This book describes the academic and practical approaches to liberation theology, largely from a perspective friendly to the Roman Catholic church. Contrast this with the diatribes of Balasuriya that got him excommunicated.
Community Accountability within the People of Color Progressive Movements - This article focuses on accountability, as opposed to punishment, for oppression, abuse or violence. The article appears to have been developed by non-white women, and while non-white women may suffer more than other groups, I found this readable and enlightening as a white guy. The article promotes accountability with a goal for transformation, rather than punishment via the criminal justice system.
Lib Lit - This site features short fiction and poetry focusing on liberationist themes. Many of the the items are recent, along with excerpts from well known writers. This is not a high traffic site, but unique.
Thomas Paine - 1794-1796 - Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): the Age of Reason - Not specifically about freedom, as with Common Sense, but Paine fits in this category. These writings address Paine's frustration with the tension between typical Christian teachings and knowledge gained from scientific methods. Paine is not an atheist, but more of a deist like many of the founding fathers.

Religious and atheist web sites:

Most of the writers on these sites appear to be middle-aged or older white males. However, there are a smattering of female and/or younger writers who occasionally whine about being in such a minority.

apologetics.com - The beginning of the apologetic approach is that everyone else is damned to hell. They mean well, they really do, but you can't discuss collaborative eschatology with apologetics because they just don't get how God the Almighty Creator can collaborate with us mired-in-the-swamp-of-sin humans.
The Secular Web at infidels.org - Many free articles can be found here, and most seem researched and referenced and easy to read for those not well versed in philosophy. That's a somewhat negative statement. I think the writers want to be seen as scholarly academics, but most articles just aren't that good. For the purposes of comparisons with my theology, I focused on secular humanism, so see Humanist Manifesto I and Humanist Manifesto II.
Freethought Radio - this is a 24/7 internet audio stream that features many atheist topics, as well as environmental news and politics. Like atheism.org, much content is presented as scholarly but degrades into mockery of religion. It's not all bad and I haven't found anything else quite like it.
The Center for Progressive Christianity - The blogs at this web site provide insight into the individualistic nature of spirituality. It is ironic that after visiting this web site I feel hesitant to use the phrase "progressive Christianity", because that phrase suggests that at least two people agree with what it means. There is a general agreement on the need to focus on the kingdom of God, but beyond that, everyone is in a different, albeit Christ-centered, spiritual place.
The Lost Books of the Bible - Linking now to archive.org. Apparently, many of the texts reproduced here in English are of ancient origin. For example, find here The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary. I don't think that Matthew and Luke would agree that Mary's parents were informed of the birth of Jesus even before the birth of Mary, but it shows that the Marian legends began developing as early as the second century. I found a similar (active) site at sacred-texts.com
The Women Who Visited the Resurrection Tomb of Jesus - Helpful ideas and sciptural references on the women at the tomb and why they were there.

Personal Creeds on the Web:

To put a personal creed on the Internet exposes the author to the potentially harsh judgment of others. I don't agree with all the points in these creeds, but I respect the authors for their courage. It is appropriate to consider such credal statements to be evergreen.

aymon de albatrus - I use lower-case letters for the author's name because that's the way he shows it on his site, and it appears that it is not his actual name. He believes that Christian works, including Bibles, should not be constrained by copyrights. I disagree with this. If you don't have anything to say other than what I have already said, then let me say it and don't mess with what I say. The albatrus site presents a very fundamentalist perspective. This author attributes his creed to apologetic writer Matthew Slick, with whom I am not otherwise familiar.
Keith - Keith's creed is not unlike my own. Keith's blog presents the author's name as Gureru, so I won't expose his last name.
Gary Gocek - The personal creed of the author of this bibliography, in line with what is generally referred to as progressive Christianity.