What books does a university president read in his “spare” time? An avid reader, President Eaton’s choices are eclectic. Here are several recent selections, with his comments:

2007

Fouad Ajami, The Foreigner’s Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq

This incredible book gives us an up-close look at the tangled web of forces at work in Iraq, from the ancient battles between Shiites and Sunnis, to the nuances of struggle among Arab nations, to the inevitable conflict of intruding foreign force. A scholar of Middle East studies from Johns Hopkins University, Ajami offers here a detailed, historically rich, clear-eyed, contemporary look at this major conflict of our day. 

Saint Benedict, The Rule of Saint Benedict

This is the classic guide to authentic monastic life and thereby a rich resource for those desiring to live in community. Why do I turn to this beautiful book which was written around 530 A. D.? I find here extraordinary counsel on community formation, on centering community in worship and the study of the Scriptures, and as well a surprising amount of insight about leadership.

Ha Jin, Waiting

This is a touching, haunting novel by a Chinese exile who now teaches at Boston University. The book delicately probes the lives of two women and a man who are caught up in the tangled web of tradition and the ever-present, inexorable force of the government. We get here a glimpse of contemporary Chinese life that is full of tenderness, questioning, and yearning.

Jurgen Moltmann,Theology of Hope

What a powerful, wonderful book, sketching out with convincing clarity that the Christian story is anchored in promise. Our faith is “forward looking and forward moving, and therefore also revolutionizing and transforming the present.” We live in this hope, that God will set things right. Clearly, this is our call into action, as we seek, in the light of promise, to make the world a better place. All the while we live in “the glow that suffuses everything here in the dawn of an expected new day.”

2006

N.T. Wright, The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture In our particular moment in history, especially in North America and Europe, we are particularly prone to challenge and dismiss any kind of authority. How then do we think about the authority of the Scriptures for our lives, for the church, for the culture, and the world? This is the question that receives Bishop of Durham Tom Wright’s penetrating and thoughtful consideration. The book is for all Christians and churches and, yes, universities, seeking to embrace the Christian story and put the biblical text at the center of who we are.

Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future

This marvelous new book, by a young scholar and historian of Islam, brings fresh insight and understanding to the enormously complex conflicts that blaze across our newspapers daily. Mr. Nasr will be our Downtown Business Breakfast speaker this spring. He offers here perhaps a new angle into the encounter with Islam, and most importantly within Islam, clearly one of the defining issues of the 21st century.

Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

This is an outstanding history of that frightening and violent movement — its roots and causes and leaders — that exploded into our consciousness on September 11, 2001. In my ongoing quest to understand the conflicts of the Middle East, this book is very helpful.

Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture

I have just reread this extraordinary book, written in 1986, what might be considered dated by some. It is nothing of the sort. Lesslie Newbigin — philosopher, theologian, and missionary to India for most of his life — remains one of the most penetrating voices on what it means to engage the culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ. If I could require one book to introduce us all to the strategy and posture of cultural engagement, this would be it. What does it mean to live and think as vibrant Christians in our modern, postmodern, secular culture? This is a must-read for all of us who consider, as I do, this question as a driving task for Christians in the world today.

2005

David McCullough, 1776.
McCullough captures in amazingly fresh detail the great pivotal year of 1776, when the future of America, involved in a war of independence with Britain, hung in the balance. We get the war with all its bloody, messy chaos, and we get the hero, George Washington, with all his faults and indecision and, ultimately, his heroism. Somehow McCullough takes us right into the white-hot confusion of battle where things could have turned out very differently.

George Weigel, The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God.
This is a fabulous book reflecting on what is happening as Europe persists in cutting itself from its Christian roots, an all-out effort, as Weigel sees it, to secularize Western civilization. Weigel argues that the culture we enjoy today, with values like the rule of law, dignity of the individual, freedom of speech, and civility of discourse, all have Christian roots, and we cut our ties with those roots at our peril.

N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is.
Someone once said that N.T. Wright can write books faster than we can read them. But if I were to recommend something from the massive accumulation of his writing, I would start with this marvelous book. This book is really a kind of summary of his massive scholarly work on Jesus, and it has been truly pivotal to my understanding of Jesus and culture.

2004

M. Craig Barnes, Searching for Home, Spirituality for Restless Souls.
Pastor for many years at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., Craig Barnes has written a deeply thoughtful book on finding home. His thesis is that we are all nomads in a culture that keeps us restlessly searching. We need a home. We need a resting place. Tracing a journey through Dante’s Divine Comedy with skill and insight, Barnes takes us on a pilgrimage that ends at home with God.

Scott Bedbury, with Stephen Fenichell, A New Brand World.
One of the truly exciting books on branding by the guy who invented “Just Do It” for Nike and was on the ground floor in the creation of Starbucks’ distinctives. This is lively, thoughtful, insider stuff on how to create and communicate a distinctive identity and the positive things that happen for an organization when it achieves clarity of purpose, direction, and vision.

Jeremy Driscoll, “The Witness of Czeslaw Milosz,” First Things, November 2004.
Czeslaw Milosz has been called one of the greatest poets of our time. He died in 2004, and in this beautiful tribute, we discover again the sometimes troubled but rich and nuanced Christian faith of this great Polish-American poet. Having lived through the brutal assault of the Nazis on Poland and the iron-fisted and equally brutal domination of the Soviets, this wonderful poet nevertheless can say: “Gentle verses written in the midst of horror declare themselves for life.” This was a poet who looked into the face of suffering and yet declared himself for life. I have read Milosz for many years but find myself now on a new exploration of the riches of his work.

Leif Enger, Peace Like a River.
What a wonderful and surprising novel. This is the story of a single dad with three children who are swept up in a life of danger and tragedy and yet sustained along the way by glimpses of mystery and transcendent good.

David L. Kirp, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education.
This is one of the finest books of late on the landscape of higher education in America today. As the title suggests, Kirp explores, penetratingly I believe, the tension today in the academy between a deep, enduring commitment to the life of the mind on the one hand, and the pressures of the marketplace on the other. He has no easy answers but calls us all to live and work creatively within the tension. I like that challenge.

George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life.
A fine, new biography of a great American thinker, philosopher, theologian, and pastor, whose prophetic voice out of the 18th century lives on as a legacy of faithfulness and obedience.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet.
I was drawn to reread this great play, one of the most incredible pieces of literature in the English language. The language is as dazzling as ever. The plot is riveting, the reflection on human nature profound.

2003

John Andrisani, The Nicklaus Way

More detail than you ever wanted to know about the most famous golf swing in history. Did it help me? The jury is out.

Stephen L. Carter, Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy

From one of America’s prolific public intellectuals, a thorough, thoughtful reflection on the essential place of civility in a healthy democracy.

Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t.
This is an outstanding and very popular book on the practice of taking organizations toward greatness. Collins encourages all of us to have impatience with mediocrity.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, A Discussion of Christian Fellowship.
Bonhoeffer wrote this reflection as he felt the heat of Nazi oppression in Germany. He celebrates the great privilege of living in genuine Christian community and outlines the radical demands for healthy community.