Christianity Today has posted their 2009 Book Awards. Two of my favorite books of the past year made it on the list- albeit in two different ways.

The first is the winner of the Christianity and Culture award: Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch. I really can’t say enough about this book.

The second didn’t win the award, but came in second place for Theology/Ethics: Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright. Again, I can’t say enough about this book either.

Both of these books have really transformed the way that I look at culture and the place of Christians within it. Crouch really changed my view of the purpose and reason for Christian interaction with culture, and Wright strengthened my convictions on the role of eschatology as the hope of Christians. The two are more tied together than we tend to think, as Paul ends his discussion on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 by saying, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”