My favorite books on religion

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A friend asked me for a recommended reading list on religion. That's a daunting task, and I'm sure there are a lot of great books I've forgotten to include -- not to mention all the great ones I've never even read. Some of the religions are woefully underrepresented, too. However, of the books I've read on religious studies and theology, here are my favorites.

(Ones I don't have with me in Doha are grayed out. I also can't find Faith and Belief or Remedial Christianity -- did I lend them to one of you?)

General Religious Studies

• Religions of the World, by Lewis Hopfe
  Good basic textbook on the major world religions. It's what my parents used in their classes.
• The World's Religions, by Huston Smith
  An alternate basic primer on religion; a little less descriptive and textbook-y and more narrative/analytical.
• Anthology of World Scriptures, by Robert Van Voorst
  A good supplement to the above: excerpts of the actual scriptures of the major world religions, focusing on the core teachings, so you get a taste of different religions' holy writings without wading through all the Leviticuses of the world.
• The Stages of Faith, by James Fowler
  This is not foundational, just interesting. Fowler theorizes that people's faith develops over their lifetimes, as Piaget and Erikison said their psyches develop, and attempts to chart how faith tends to develop from a literalistic viewpoint to a more nuanced worldview over time -- usually involving at least one significant crisis of faith along the way.

Hinduism

• It's worth reading the Bhagavad Gita in its entirety (perhaps Gandhi's translation, as a reminder that its somewhat warlike content can be interpreted symbolically), and selections from the Upanishads.
• Encountering God, by Diana Eck
  Chronicles the author's journey from her Methodist childhood, through studying Hinduism in India, to embracing a pluralist view that allows her to simultaneously practice her own Christian faith and honor other world religions. This book isn't about Hinduism per se, but you learn a lot about it on the way.

Buddhism

• The Dhammapada. I like Thanissaro Bhikkhu's translation.
• The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation, by Weisman & Smith
  I love this book. It is simultaneously a very practical how-to guide to meditation, an American Buddhist-style self-help book, and an introduction to Buddhist history and philosophy. It really just has it all.
• The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, by Thich Nhat Hanh
  Thich Nhat Hanh presents the core teachings of Buddhism, but often with a twist. To be honest I don't remember a great deal about particular points he made, but I remember the book being very moving.

Judaism

• Who Wrote the Bible?, by Richard Friedman
  A thorough and very enjoyable (weirdly detective-story-like) explanation of the documentary hypothesis, and specifically the type of reasoning behind current beliefs about who the various authors of the Torah are.
• When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Harold Kushner
  A classic. A Conservative rabbi explains the failures in traditional explanations for the existence of evil, and presents the alternative view he embraced after facing the death of his child. This was the first book where I read about the omnipotent/omniscient/omnibenevolent problem, and also the first place I heard a religious leader suggesting that maybe omnipotence isn't all that.

Christianity (in order from mainstream to hippy)

• The Bible Makes Sense, by Walter Bruggemann
  A short and compelling book presenting an approach to understanding the themes of the Bible, by focusing on its "primal narratives" -- the oldest and most central stories of each testament -- and understanding other parts of the Bible as commentaries on those narratives.
• Faith and Belief, by Wilfred Cantwell Smith
  With breathtaking erudition and eloquence, Smith shows how the meaning of "faith" has changed (for the worse) since Biblical times, from expressing a relationship of trust with one's maker to representing an opinion one might or might not hold on the existence of a maker. This book rocked my world.
• The Meaning of Jesus, by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright
  Two prominent Jesus scholars -- one liberal, one traditional -- present a dialogue in alternating chapters about their divergent beliefs about who Jesus was, what the resurrection means, and so on.
• Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, by John Dominic Crossan
  Crossan, co-founder of the Jesus Seminar, reinterprets parts of Jesus' message based on a reconstruction of the historical and social context in which Jesus was situated. (I don't have this book in Doha, but I do have Excavating Jesus, which he cowrote with a Biblical archaeologist.)
• Honest to God, by John A.T. Robinson
  Forty-five years ago, an Anglican bishop wrote this controversial book suggesting that theism belongs to a pre-scientific age, and that we must form a belief in God that transcends mere supernaturalism in order for Christianity to survive.
• Why Christianity Must Change or Die, or really anything else by Bishop Spong
  Bishop Spong continues along the same lines today, and though his words are too strident for my liking, there's a lot of good stuff there for those reexamining what it means to be Christian in the modern age.
• Remedial Christianity, by Paul Alan Laughlin
  Frustrated that his college students thought they understood Christianity because of dim memories of superficial platitudes from Sunday school, Laughlin wrote this book as an introductory text on Christianity. As an added bonus, it features cartoons and is often downright hilarious. I adore this book. Guaranteed to offend all traditional and mainstream Christians.

Islam

• Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations, by Michael Sells
  The 114 oldest surahs of the Qur'an, side by side with commentary, to help non-Muslims understand the key messages. I wish I'd started with this instead of reading the entire Qur'an on my own with no guidance. Also comes with an awesome CD of various of the surahs being recited in different manners.
• The Heart of Islam, by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
  Nasr presents a very intimate and appealing vision of the meaning of Islam. It covers all the basics of the religion, but also gives fantastic insight into what one Muslim scholar finds most compelling in its message. Not at all preachy, though.
• No god but God, by Reza Aslan
  A very narrative approach to the history of Islam, but with an eye to helping the reader understand the state of the Muslim world today. Aslan believes that Islam is mid-reformation, and cannot be understood except through that lens.

Secularism

• The End of Faith, by Sam Harris
  Of the many pro-atheism books suddenly hitting the market, I think this one presents the most grounded, least vitriolic argument for why religion should be considered with more than a grain of skepticism.

So what about you guys -- if you had to recommend a handful of books on religion, what would you recommend?