Theology
Reformed Dogmatics Volume II: God and Creation, Herman Bavinck
What is there to say? Like Job after Yahweh speaks from the whirlwind, I closed the book after almost every reading speechless. What a God. What a God!
Spiritual Emotion: A Psychology of Christian Virtues, Robert C. Roberts
The Pleasures of God, John Piper
Divine Humility, Matthew A. Wilcoxen
Who is God?: Key Moments in Biblical Revelation, Richard Bauckham
Honorable Mention: Speaking the Christian Go: The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of Feminism, ed. Alvin F. Kimel Jr.
Biblical studies
Genesis Unbound: A Provocative New Look at the Creation Account, John Sailhamer
Brilliant, if correct, and I think he is. A nuanced view within the gap-theory camp. Connect this to a pre-human angelic-fall and you have pretty much my position.
Showing the Spirit, D.A. Carson
Come, Lord, Jesus, John Piper
Baptism in the Spirit A Reexamination of the New Testament Teaching on the Gift of the Spirit in Relation to Pentecostalism Today, James D.G. Dunn
Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh: New Clues for an Old Problem, Kenneth Berding
Honorable Mention: What About Tongue Speaking?, Anthony A. Hoekema
History
From Peoples into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe, John Connelly
Officially the longest book I’ve ever read. 800 pages of text. I went on a binge-read of Eastern Europe and particularly former Yugoslavia. This is the most comprehensive and immersive book I read. Connelly covers an incredible amount of ground and it is a tad overwhelming for a newcomer to the area, but you leave understanding better the region and it’s centuries-long struggle for nationhood that has its roots in peoples. I don’t believe he gives enough time to abject horror of living under Communist rule in the mid 20th century. I also think his condemnation of Serbia for their part of the break up of Yugoslavia was underwhelming and weak. But worthwhile nonetheless.
The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland
Mind Fixers: Psychiatry’s Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness, Anne Harrington
Honorable Mention: C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935-1947, Mark Noll (and contributors)
Ministry/Missions
Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, Thabiti Anyabwile
Really, really good. And I mean, REALLY. Great call on pastors to be raising up spiritual leaders as potential future deacons and elders. As someone who has just begun to strategize how to do so with some of my mature young adult guys, this was an incredibly affirming read. And as a pastor, it was an excellent reminder of the calling to which I’ve been called.
Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global, Andy Johnson
The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People, Francis Schaeffer
The Glory of Preaching: Participating in God’s Transformation of the World, Darell Johnson
Bully Pulpit: The Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church, Michael Kruger
Honorable Mention: Mack and Leeann’s Guide to Short-term Missions, Mack & Leeann Stiles
Christian Life
The Mystery of Providence, John Flavel
Biblical. Theological. Pastoral. Vintage Puritan writing.
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J.I. Packer
The Assurance of Faith, Louis Berkhof
Thoughts for Young Men, J.C. Ryle
The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to Christian Joy, Timothy Keller
Honorable Mention: On Revival, Jonathan Edwards
Fiction
The Samurai, Shusaku Endō
So alike and so different from Silence. Questions of faith and doubt and calling and suffering and conversion and divine absence in the face of it all still abound. I think I enjoyed the story of The Samurai more and I found the characters to be more compelling. But I have no way of deciding which is “better.” Silence disturbed and consoled me in a way no other novel has. Reading it was like something happening *to* me whereas The Samurai felt more like a journey of a band of misfits I was a member of. Both have their place and I’m indebted to Endō for both.
What’s for certain, this has a far more concrete ending of the and I’d say felt much more “evangelical.”The End of the Affair, Graham Greene
Stella Marris, Cormac McCarthy
For the Good of the Cause, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (reread)
The Pre-Persons, Philip K. Dick
Biography/Memoir
Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Charles Marsh
I have my qualms–Marsh’s progressive leanings seeping in at every opportunity, confounding editorial bag drops, and his apparent lack of conception of deep male friendships (iykyk) being a few of them. My last critique would be that the ending felt flat. Let me clear, the final chapter did not. It was morbidly exhilarating. But right at the end Marsh just had to get one final punch in to raise questions about Bonhoeffer and Bethge’s relationship based off what personal effects Bonhoeffer left to whom. And in doing so the final couple of paragraphs missed the tone of what had just come before. But should I have expected otherwise from the author of a memoir largely revolving around his own sexual confusion? So, I’ll take that one as my fault.
And yet, even with all that, this is an excellent biography. I mean, really excellent. From the level of detail, to the compelling nature of Marsh’s writing of those details, this is simply one of the better biographies I’ve ever read. It’s informative while keeping you on the edge of your seat as you speed toward the already known destination.
I’ve read Schlingensiepen and this pairs wonderfully with it. While the general scheme is the same, because it’s the same life, I didn’t feel like I was rereading things. Marsh includes much that I simply didn’t recall at all in Schlingensiepen.
Highly recommended, with a few minor caveats.Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century, George Packer
Wise Counsel: John Newton’s Letters to John Ryland Jr., John Newton
Honorable Mention: Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest, Crawford Gibbon
Miscellaneous
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman
My goodness. How was this written any time before 2023? Creepily prophetic and insightful. We’ve made technology into Deity and have been formed to its image. Lord, help us. Better, yes I know what I’m saying, BETTER than his Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Little Platoons: A Defense of Family in a Competitive Age, Matt Feeney
Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands, Bradford W. Wilcox
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