The 2024 Church Blogmatics Gift List

Because, hey, I love picking out gifts

Fellow pilgrims,

I love buying presents. This list contains some practical and impractical ones. And a lot of books. And a few things that have made my life more pleasant or delightful lately. Peruse as you like. A variety of possible recipients are identified.

For a gift that gives to others, the Heifer International Gift Catalog lets you gift livestock to families in need. Can’t do a whole goat? Buy a share of a goat. You can also get a pair of alpacas or a flock of chicks. You can mail or print a card for the person your gifts honors.

For anyone craving a brand new novel: High Hawk, by one of my favorite writers, the inestimable Amy Frykholm.

For those of us who might perk up at the idea of an expensive, cooling eye balm, having never heard of one before but, a balm? for eyes? Like a balm in Gilead but for these tired eyes? Tula eye balm.

For someone craving the true spirit of Christmas: On the Incarnation by Saint Athanasius. I know an ancient author can be a hard sell, but every time I teach this book, students report loving it. If your dad is a fan of, say, N.T. Wright, or Max Lucado, or even John Piper, he’s gonna groove on Athanasius. It has an introduction by C.S. Lewis, and it’s all about Christmas.

For those who have yet to meet Gustavo Gutiérrez, on this, the year of his death: A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation 50th Anniversary Edition.

For the aspiring or conspiring writer: Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison. Software for that writer? I love Living Writer, similar to the big name writing software but SOOOOO much more intuitive.

For the tea drinker: a stocking stuffer for timing the steep on various cups: one, three, and five minutes. I love this thing.

For anyone who enjoys a well-imagined retelling of a classic novel (me!): Sarah May takes us to Vanity Fair in Becky: The juicy scandal-filled thriller inspired by 90s London. There’s a bit of tongue-in-cheek in that subtitle.

For a different kind of retelling, fairy-tale this time, Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel. This is a delicious, creeping, symbolic delight of book, about beauty and gender and race and motherhood. Boy finds herself forced into the role of wicked stepmother by powers and dominions. She’s a character I’ll never forget. There are also mirrors. And rats.

For people with hair that gets in their faces, the Teleties claw clip. Better than other claw clips because the teeth are flexible. I love a claw clip.

For praying through these ordinary, extraordinary days, Prayers for the Pilgrimage: A Book of Collects for All of Life by David O. Taylor, illustrated by Phaedra Taylor.

For someone for whom you want a meaningful gift. This necklace references the Japanese art of kintsugi,¹ in which broken things are mended with gold, emerging stronger and more beautiful.

For all of us, who need to feast on the weird beauty of the holy, Everything Could Be a Prayer: One Hundred Portraits of Saints and Mystics by Kreg Yingst. Full page, full color gorgeousness. Here’s an endorsement from Ruth Haley Barton:

I love everything about this book—the art, the guidance for practicing visio divina, the spiritual depth of the meditations, and the chosen subjects of those meditations. What a gift!

For your work from home back support/fidgeting needs, the Ready rocker. I’m a big fan. Using it right this instant.

For someone who will read an absolute miracle of a book full of heartbreak and love and ambiguity—also a book 90% of Christians are likely to find blasphemous but which is not blasphemous—Two-Step Devil by Jamie Quatro. I was stunned by this one. Stunned. (Jamie, if you’re reading, I’ll be your theological beta-reader anytime!) All the content notes apply.

For your smelly cat, a stainless steel litter box, which won’t absorb odors. This gift is approved by Dwight, my #theologycat.

For storytellers of all ages, How to Tell a Story. I don’t have this in hand yet, but it’s from the brilliant Daniel Nayeri, author of the brilliant Everything Sad Is Untrue: (a true story), which is one of the best books of all time, but I have pre-ordered it, and those orders will arrive for Christmas. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and here’s part of Nayeri’s description from his Instagram:

It’s a practical approach to writing for someone who thinks of imagination as a muscle, who prizes practice over talent, and who thinks of playfulness as a chief virtue of story.

For the devotional needs of those who don’t like devotional books, Means of Grace: A Year of Weekly Devotions by Fleming Rutledge.

For the theology nerd, products from my Redbubble store, including theology nerd ugly Christmas sweaters featuring biblical angels, fetuses, Mary stomping on Satan, and a little bit of ho-ho-homoousios. Also, products for women in ministry.

For the incense prone among us, one of the loveliest things I’ve ever smelled, Magnolia’s Linen candle. It smells like Jesus’s folded grave clothes. I swear.

For people who love a book in hand or a book on a shelf, this one can get spendy, but over at Juniper books, they have the most amazing shelf candy. Below, the covers for the Lord of the Rings. I have the Hedwig covers for the Harry Potter series, but I can’t help wanting the Hogwarts train ones too. Don’t worry, I won’t get them. For a few popular series, like HP and LOTR, you can buy just the jackets. The cookbooks also look yummy, and there’s a gorgeous Toni Morrison portrait set.

For someone who is ready to read a beautiful novel that sweeps us into the horrific depths of sorrow and pain, Human Acts by Han Kang, newly named Nobel prize winner in literature. Again, check content.

For the zookeepers and creation lovers, Katherine Rundell’s Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures. If you don’t know Rundell, she’s pretty groovy. She writes about dragons AND John Donne, which is just the kind of neat trick I aspire to pulling off.

For that one other person in the world who, like me, is obsessed with high-end French socks but is not going to spend 70$ on a pair, a knock off set. If you were thinking, I might get that for my sock loving friend, but only if one pair has bunnies; one pair has bunnies.

For someone (all of us?) who needs to slow it down, The Wander Society by Keri Smith, guerilla artist, anti-consumerist (ah, my fellow sock aficionados, we had it coming), and advocate of exploring and delighting in the world. Inside, you’ll find lists, diagrams, poems, assignments, and Whitman. I’m a Smith fan.

For those who might finally be ready to come back to exercise—as long as it involves a lot of stretching—classes at Club Pilates. Y’all, there’s a theological giggle here; the main apparatus is called “the Reformer,” and it loves you! The instructor says things like, “now, let your knees melt to one side of the Reformer…”

For people who know how amazing Northern Seminary is, or who might not know but want to find out, recent books from my colleagues.

• Nijay K. Gupta
  ’s Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church

• Ingrid Faro’s Demystifying Evil: A Biblical and Personal Exploration

• Matthew Bates’s Salvation by Allegiance Alone

• David Fitch
  ’s Reckoning with Power: Why the Church Fails When It's on the Wrong Side of Power

• For the believer in transformative theological education, gift scholarship funds and change the life of a Northern student. These people give me hope for the church (both the students and the scholarship donors).

Finally, for those who were ready to give up on the idea that there might be beautiful nativity scenes in this world that aren’t super cheesy (though these do cost a pretty penny). You can get a starter set and plan to add to it over the years. Below, the “fairy tale” set, but there are lots of beauties.

Grace & peace,

BFJ

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1. The link will take you to reflections from Makoto Fujimura on a theology of making, which does not ignore trauma when it comes to healing.