The following are some books on my Amazon.com wishlist that have come out recently (in the past few years) that I’d love to get my hands on and be able to utilize. If the community would love to help me get a hold of any of these books, that would be greatly appreciated, and your name will be blessed to the seventh generation 
The Forge of Christendom
I first saw this book while leaving Barnes & Noble with my wife. The era from Charlemagne to the first crusade is gripping and a wealth of information to any history student (no matter what age). Many decisions were made during this time that greatly effected the direction church in the west would go. From Amazon.com,
If Y2K proved anticlimactic, the Y1K crisis—apocalyptic expectations surrounding the year 1000—had a lasting impact, argues this far-ranging, over-reaching history of medieval Europe. Holland (Persian Fire) surveys the two and a half centuries between the fragmenting of Charlemagne’s empire and the First Crusade, visiting milestones like the Norman conquest of England along with lesser invasions, raids, feudal vendettas, kidnappings and pope vs. antipope squabbles. He discerns movement amid the tumult and slaughter, as Catholic Europe went from anxious beleaguerment by the barbarians coming from every direction to confident expansionism. Holland’s thesis that it was the disappointment of millennial hopes that gave Christendom its new focus on worldly progress is weakly supported; he has a hard time showing that anyone besides churchmen thought about the approaching millennium. His greater theme is Catholicism’s civilizing mission: pagan foes are converted and co-opted, a new class of marauding knights is tamed by Church peace councils, and Pope Gregory VII’s defiance of Emperor Henry IV inaugurates church-state separation. Holland’s colorful, energetic narrative vividly captures the medieval mindset, while conveying the dynamism that underlay a seemingly static age.
German Peasants' War and Anabaptist Community of Goods
No introduction is necessary, really. While this book is a little outside the “published within the last few years” range (1994), this is nonetheless a book that will be very helpful to getting a better understanding of the development of certain Anabaptist practices/theology. From Amazon.com,
James Stayer argues that Anabaptist community of goods continued the popular radicalism of the early reformation and the peasants’ War of 1525. During the German reformation hundreds of thousands of commoners were mobilized by the hope that established clerical and aristocratic order could be replaced by justice and equity based on the divine law of the Bible. After the defeat of the commoners in the peasants’ war, some of the most ardent adherents of social and religious reform attempted to achieve these same aspirations by trying to implement the apostolic model of Acts 2 and 4 through the Anabaptists. Thus, as Stayer reveals, the peasants’ war was an essential formative experience for many of the original leaders of Anabaptism. In the late 1520s, persecution drove many Anabaptists to Moravia where, throughout the 16th century, they continued the commoners’ resistance to privilege in church and state. Stayer argues that in Munster, however, where there had been no peasants’ war and where urban notables were prominent in the Anabaptist leadership, Anabaptist communism was badly corrupted. The historical continuities which Stayer establishes between the peasants’ war and Anabaptism in Switzerland, south Germany, and Moravia can in part explain this contrast.
To Share in the Body
I’ve been waiting for a chance to read this one. Being a student of martyrdom, I think it’s very important to look at the theology of martyrdom today. From Amazon.com,
In modern-day America, it is hard for Christians to imagine ever dying for their faith. And yet in To Share in the Body, author Craig Hovey challenges Christians to view martyrdom not as relegated to the past or to remote parts of the world but rather as having profound implications for Christian witness today. By examining the Gospel of Mark’s recurring theme of martyrdom, Hovey argues that martyrdom is a critical aspect of the gospel and therefore crucial to how the church today remembers martyrs and understands Christian discipleship. Written by an up-and-coming theologian, To Share in the Body provides engaging theological reflection that will benefit not only scholars and students of theology but also anyone interested in understanding a biblical view of martyrdom. The book also includes a foreword by Samuel Wells.
The Later Reformation in England, 1547-1603
The English Reformation was the event that chiefly shaped English identity well into the 20th century. It made the English kingdom a self-consciously Protestant state dominating the British Isles, and boasting an established Church that eventually developed a peculiar religious agenda, Anglicanism. Although Henry VIII triggered a break with the Pope in his eccentric quest to rid himself of an inconveniently loyal wife, the Reformation soon slipped from his control, and in the reigns of his Tudor successors, it developed a momentum that made it one of the success stories of European Protestantism. In this book, MacCulloch discusses the developing Reformation in England through the later Tudor reigns: Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. He provides a narrative of events, then discusses the ideas that shaped the English Reformation, and surveys the ways in which the English reacted to it, how far and quickly they accepted It, and assesses those who remained dissenters. This new edition is fully updated to take account of new material in the field that has appeared in the last decade.
And a few of others: The Sources of Swiss Anabaptism: The Grebel Letters and Related Documents; or the dynamic trio from Ben Witherington III Making a Meal of It: Rethinking the Theology of the Lord’s Supper, Troubled Waters: Rethinking the Theology of Baptism, and The Living Word of God: Rethinking the Theology of the Bible.
