Personal Reflections: A Dozen Interesting Reads (Listens) in 2024

 

Personal Reflections: A Dozen or So Interesting Reads (Listens) in 2024

Though I prefer old-fashioned reading of a book to listening I did break down and subscribe to Audible last year and this helped me get back on track for meeting my annual reading goals. I’ve recorded something similar the last couple years (2021, 2022, 2023). Here is a dozen or so highlights from 2024 (in no particular order):

1.    Keith Underhill, Planted by the Providence of God (Broken Wharfe, 2023).

This is three books in one: A memoir of Underhill, a pioneer RB missionary in Kenya; a history of the RB movement in Kenya; and a manual on church planting. Underhill shares transparently and forthrightly about time of peace and conflict, highs and lows, over decades of cross-cultural ministry. I’ve written an extended review which I hope will be published in 2025.

2.    Ibrahim Ag Mohamed, God’s Love for Muslims: Communicating Bible Grace and New Life (Metropolitan Tabernacle, 2015, 2016).

This brief, clearly written booklet is the best and most accessible resource I have found on Christian understanding of and ministry to Muslims.

3.    Hercules Collins, An Orthodox Catechism: Being the Sum of Christian Religion Contained in the Law and Gospel (PBHB, 2020).

Collins was an English Particular Baptist Pastor who penned this Baptistic version of the Heidelberg Catechism in 1680. I used this beautiful hardback edition with KJV Proofs, along with the paperback edition published by RBAP in 2014, as a supplement as I preached through the Heidelberg Catechism at CRBC in 2024.

4.    P. Gardner-Smith, Saint John and the Synoptic Gospels (Cambridge, 1938).

Finally got to read this year this influential little book, which argues that the Fourth Gospel does not demonstrate any knowledge of or dependence upon the so-called Synoptic Gospels. I totally disagree with the thesis.

5.    Karen H. Jobes and Moisés Silva, Invitation to the Seputagint, Second Edition (Baker Academic, 2000, 2015).

I was greatly helped by reading this introduction to the status questionis in modern Septuagintal studies, in preparation for the 2024 Reformation Bible Society conference on “The Reformation Text and the Septuagint.” I was also helped by reading Edmund Gallagher’s Translation of the Seventy: History, Reception, and Contemporary Use of the Septuagint (Abilene Christian University Press, 2021).

6.    John T. McNeil, The Celtic Churches: A History, A.D. 200 to 1200 (University of Chicago Press, 1974).

I started reading this in preparation for a trip to Cornwall and a desire to understand better my own Celtic roots. Solid and intriguing history of Celtic Christianity from Brittany to Cornwall to Wales to Ireland and Scotland. This also sent me on a listening spree, including Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization (Anchor, 1996); Jim Webb, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (Crown, 2005); and J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy (Harper Collins, 2026), as well as reading Janet Backhouse, The Lindisfarne Gospel (The British Library, 2000).

7.    Pierre Viret, A Simple Exposition of the Christian Faith (Zurich Publications, 2013, 2017).

I appreciated this devotional instrument of discipleship, under the guise of a dialogue or conversation between two men, Matthew and Peter, originally written in French by Viret, the Reformer of Lausanne. I also enjoyed learning more about the author by reading Jean-Marc Berthoud, Pierre Viret: A Forgotten Giant of the Reformation (Zurich Publications, 2010).

8.    Nicholas P. Lunn, The Gospels Through Old Testament Eyes: Exploring Extended Allusions (Apollos/IVP Academic, 2023).

This book is a creative and fascinating study not of direct quotations or citations but allusions to OT passages and backgrounds in the canonical Gospels. It brought to light various connections I had not previously seen. I plan to write a review of this book, DV, in 2025.

9.    Richard J. Mouw, He Shines in All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace (Eermans, 2002); and David J. Engelsma, Common Grace Revisited: A Response to Richard J. Mouw’s He Shines in All That’s Fair (RFPA, 2003).

I picked up both these slim volumes for a song at the used section of the Baker bookstore while I was in Grand Rapids in November and got started reading them on the plane ride home. This is an old controversy among the Dutch Reformed that resulted in a cordial public debate between the two men, attended by thousands in Grand Rapids, in the early 2000s regarding “common grace.” Engelsma carries the day in this pamphlet war, IMHO.

10.                        Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death (Baker Academic, 2021).

There are not too many academic NT books available on Audible. I found this one to be a stimulating listen and now must get the book to read. Thiessen challenges conventional readings of “ritual purity” in contemporary NT scholarship. I did not always agree with him but especially want to chase down his sources suggesting that Biblical leprosy (lepra) is not the same as Hansen’s disease.

11.                       Nicholas Orme, The History of England’s Cathedrals (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2017).

I ordered this after my visit to Salisbury Cathedral in October. Not just a history of Cathedrals but really a history of Christianity in England. Of late I’ve also gotten interested in reading about Anglicanism. I’ve gotten a couple works underway but did finish last year Arthur Middleton, Reforming the Anglican Mind (Gracewing, 2008), as well as the somewhat related work, Brad Littlejohn and Chris Castaldo, Why Do Protestants Convert? (Davenant Press, 2023).

12.                       Stephen J. Nichols, R. C. Sproul: A Life (Crossway, 2021).

This was one of my beach reads on summer vacation last year. It was easy to read, full of anecdotes. Enjoyed especially the inside account of Sproul’s work in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. I had a harder time getting through Collin Hanson, Timothy Keller: His Spiritual Life and Intellectual Formation, 2023). At the start of the year, I finished Allen C. Guelzo, Robert E. Lee: A Life (Knopf, 2021) and had an animated discussion at a wedding reception with a friend who is also (like Guelzo) a Christian and a Lincoln scholar about the book’s presentation of Lee.

“when thou comest, bring with thee… the books” (2 Timothy 4:13).

JTR

Broken Wharfe Podcast Interview: Before the Foundation of the World

 

JTR

Book Note: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Raising Children God's Way

 

About this book:

The author is D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981). He was a Welshman, a physician by training who was called into the ministry as a young man in 1927. From 1938 to 1968 he served as pastor of Westminster Chapel in London where he had a very influential ministry and drew large crowds to hear his expositional preaching series. Many of those sermons were published in various series. The Banner of Truth publishing ministry also began with the church at that time.

One of Lloyd-Jones’ most memorable sermon series was an exposition of the book of Ephesians (now published in 8 volumes by Banner of Truth). This booklet is taken from five sermons in that series taken from Lloyd-Jones exposition of Paul’s “household code” instructions regarding the relationship between children and parents (Ephesians 6:1-4) (in volume 6 of the series).

After a brief publisher’s introduction, there are five short and highly readable chapters in the book, one from each sermon.

This format would easily lend itself to a five-part book study series.

The five chapters:

First: Submissive Children (3-20);

Second: Unbelieving Parents (21-34);

Third: Discipline and the Modern Mind (35-52);

Fourth: Balanced Discipline (53-68);

Fifth: Godly Upbringing (69-85).

This booklet is not a pragmatic approach to parenting. It is not “parenting in a box.” It is not filled with “five ways to teach potty-training,” or “three ways to make your kids eat healthy” kinds of advice. On the other hand, it does, especially in the last couple of chapters provide some very practical exhortations about parenting and, most importantly, it lays a Scriptural and doctrinal basis for Christian parenting.

If you work through the book, you might find the first three chapters a bit slow, but if you are patient, you will be especially rewarded in the last two chapters.

A description of each chapter and a bit more about the last two:

The first chapter (Submissive Children) focuses on Ephesians 6:1, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord.” It talks about the contemporary problems of disobedient children (Things haven’t changed that much since Lloyd-Jones wrote, and perhaps they’ve become even worse!). One of the key points is, “It is unnatural for children not to obey their parents” (11). He emphasizes that the child-parent relationship is to reflect the Christian’s relationship to God Himself (14).

The second chapter (Unbelieving Parents) addresses an interesting subject, namely, how are believing children to treat unbelieving parents. Lloyd-Jones writes, “The obedience required of the children must be yielded to every kind of parent” (22). In our study this chapter led to some good discussion among the adults, including some who came from non-Christian homes, as to what our duties are to our own parents.

The third chapter (Discipline and the Modern Mind), as the title indicates, addresses the discipline of children. Lloyd-Jones draws a contrast between a “Victorian” approach that sometimes lacked flexibility and charity and a “modern” approach which often tends toward an overly permissive attitude. He suggests the modern secular view fails, because it lacks a Christian understanding of atonement, redemption, and regeneration.

The fourth chapter (Balanced Discipline) follows up on the third chapter, based on Ephesians 6:4a, “fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.” It offers a series of seven practical (yet open) principles related to discipline:

First, “we are incapable of exercising true discipline unless we are able to exercise self-control” (56).

Second, in discipline a parent “must never be capricious” (57). We are not to be moody, unpredictable, changeable, and uncertain.

Third, “parents must never be unreasonable or unwilling to hear the child’s case” (58).

Fourth, “the parent must never be selfish” (59).

Sixth, “Discipline must never be too severe” (61).

Seventh, “We must never fail to recognize growth and development in the child” (62).

This chapter is a quote factory.

He summarizes his argument: “Discipline must always be exercised in love” (65).

“The child’s good is to be your controlling motive” (66).

“So you must look even at your own children primarily as souls, and not as you look at an animal that you happen to possess, or certain goods that you possess” (66).

“What if God dealt with us as we often do with our children!... There is nothing more amazing to me than the patience of God, and His longsuffering toward us” (67).

The fifth chapter (Godly Upbringing) focuses on Ephesians 6:4b: “but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Lloyd-Jones states, “When the child comes we must say to ourselves, we are the guardians and custodians of the soul” (70). Nurture refers to general care and admonition, especially, to our speech.

Four principles are presented:

First, nurture and admonition must be done in the home and by the parents. This duty cannot be handed over to the school. Some of the discussion here is directed to the “boarding school” system in the UK, but can be applied in any context. His main point is that the benefits of a good academic education should never outweigh the importance of parental spiritual nurture.

He even says, “We should be considering to what extent the system of boarding children away from home is responsible for the breakdown of morals in this country” (76). One wonders how this teaching was originally received. We might compare it today to a contemporary call for Christian families to leave public (government) schooling. He warns against the teaching of evolution and higher criticism of the Bible, adding, “The whole emphasis is anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-true Christianity, anti-miraculous, and anti-supernatural. Who is going to counter these trends?” (77).

Second, “Never be entirely negative and repressive” (79). Beware “a false Puritanism” (79).

Third, don’t make “little prigs and hypocrites” of your children (79).

Fourth, “we must never force a child to make a decision” (80).

More worthwhile quotes here:

“Christian parents must always remember that they are handling a life, a personality, a soul” (80).

“Do not bring pressure to bear on your children” (81).

“So our teaching must never be too direct, or too emotional” (81).

“Above all, there should be an atmosphere of love” (81).

Use “general conversation” in the home “conducted in Christian terms” (82).

The “Christian point of view must be brought into the whole of life” (82).

When questions are asked, parents “must not brush the child aside” (83).

“Then you can guide their reading” (84).

“What else? Be careful always, whenever you have a meal, to return thanks to God for it, and to ask his blessing upon it” (84).

“In other words to sum it all up: what we have to do is to make Christianity attractive…. We should create within them the desire to be like us” (84).

Conclusion:

So, in closing I commend this book to you for personal reading or for group study in your church. I think you will find it profitable whatever your station in life.

I think you will be blessed if you take up this book and read.

-JTR

Personal Reflections: A Dozen Interesting Reads in 2023

 

“…when thou comest, bring with thee… the books….” (2 Timothy 4:13). Both ministry and scholarship require constant reading. Here are a few notes on a dozen interesting books, of various stripes, read in 2023 (listed in no particular order). I posted similar articles on reading in 2021 and 2022.

One: Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, Expanded Edition (University of Chicago, 1948, 2013): 203 pp.

This is the best-known work of Weaver (1910-1963), the Southern philosopher, historian, and literary critic, with roots in Asheville, North Carolina, who taught at the University of Chicago. Weaver critiques the “hysterical optimism” of modern post-WW2 American society, including the “Great Stereopticon” and the “Spoiled-Child Psychology” of modern life.

Two: Eusebius Pamphilus, The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine (original 337; Aeterna Press, 1845, 2014): 243 pp.

The “father of church history” wrote this glowing account of the Roman Emperor who brought an end to the Diocletian persecution of Christianity and became a patron and protector of the fledgling Christian movement.

Three: Robert P. Ericksen, Theologians Under Hitler (Yale University Press, 1885, 1986): 245 pp.

This book offers a compelling survey and analysis of the life and writings of three German theologians whose reputations were tarnished by their association with National Socialism: Gerhard Kittel (editor of the famed multi-volume Bible dictionary); Paul Althaus; and Emmanuel Hirsch.

Four: Robert C. Gregg, Trans. and Introduction, Athanasius: The Life of Anthony and the Letter to Marcellinus (Paulist Press, 1980): 166 pp.

This book presents a translation of two works by Athanasius, the fierce defender of the Trinitarian orthodoxy. The work on Anthony offers a glimpse into the ascetic piety of the famed desert father and his influence on monasticism.

Five: B. H. Streeter, The Four Gospels: A Study of Origins (MacMillan, 1925): 622 pp.

This groundbreaking work by the English New Testament scholar Streeter famously expanded upon the “two source” hypothesis solution to the so-called Synoptic Problem by suggesting four sources (Mark, Q, M, and L). The “assured results” of source criticism have since (rightly) fallen on hard times, but this work still offers an interesting look into what was “cutting edge” scholarship in the early twentieth century. 2024 will mark the 100^th anniversary of this book.

Six: Francis Watson, The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus (Baker Academic, 2016): 207 pp.

Watson offers a “theological reading” of the four Gospels. Of special interest are his references to how the Eusebian canons represent an early effort to provide a harmonious understanding of the fourfold Gospel.

Seven: Geoffrey Thomas, In the Shadow of the Rock (Reformation Heritage Books, 2022): 325 pp.

I read this biography of the Welsh Calvinistic Baptist preacher anticipating his speaking at the 2023 Keach Conference. An interesting memoir of 50 years in pastoral ministry in one church, but also offering insight into Westminster Seminary (where Thomas studied) in its “glory days” and anecdotes on various key figures in evangelicalism, including D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Albert Martin, and others. I’ve written a review of the book that I hope will be published in 2024.

Eight: C. H. Spurgeon, Commentary on Matthew: The Gospel of the Kingdom (Banner of Truth, 1893, 2019): 442 pp.

I read this work, the only complete commentary on a NT book penned by Spurgeon, section by section as I preached expositionally through Matthew and finished it last year when I completed the sermon series. It offers a treasure trove of homiletical insights and pithy aphorisms for the preacher. Very useful for those preaching through the First Gospel.

Nine: Iain R. K. Paisley, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans: Prepared in a Prison Cell (Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, 1968): 191 pp.

I got this book after returning home from a trip this year to Northern Ireland and stopping by the Martyrs Memorial Presbyterian Church in Belfast where this controversial Ulster politician and Free Presbyterian minister served. It is a “prison epistle” written while the author was jailed for his political activity in 1966. Like Spurgeon’s Matthew commentary, loaded with quotable quotes. A book written by a gifted orator. For a list of quotes, see this blog article.

Ten: Alister E. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (Baker Academic, 1990, 1991, 1995): 332 pp.

I got this before going to the Calvin Congress in Grand Rapids and finished reading it shortly afterwards. Though I did not agree with every area of analysis, one of the best biographies of Calvin and overview of his writings I have read.

Eleven: John P. Thackway, Ed., Valiant for Truth: The Collected Writings of Bishop D. A. Thompson (Bible League Quarterly, 2020): 352 pp.

I worked my way slowly through this book last year. D. A. Thompson was a former bishop in the Free Church of England and editor of the Bible League Quarterly from 1961-1970. These are a collection of his devotional and scholarly articles from his days as BLQ editor. Thompson was a pious, erudite, winsome and capable defender of the “Reformation Text.” I’ve written a review of the book that I hope will be published in 2024.

Twelve: Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons (original 1862; Oxford World Classics, 2008): 296 pp.

I heard a mention of this book while listening to a podcast and was intrigued enough to give it a listen on LibriVox. Then I had to get a hard copy. It is a short, very readable novel. The central figure is Bazarov, a “nihilist” who comes home from university to challenge the views of his elders. It rejects the notion that overthrowing tradition is warranted in the name of “progress” and is especially poignant given what would happen in Russia just a few decades later.

JTR

Coming in 2024: New Edition of Gospel Church Government

Grace Publications Trust will be releasing  a new edition of my book Gospel Church Government in 2024 in the series "Grace Essentials." The first edition was published in 2012 but has been out of print for several years.

This book is a simplification and abridgement of John Owen's classic work on ecclesiology, titled The True Nature of a Gospel Church and Its Government found in Vol. 16 of his Collected Works.

Since it went out of print, I have occasionally heard from folk seeing to find it, so I am glad it will be available once again. 

JTR

McGrath on the Personality of Calvin

 

Note: This post is taken from my Twitter (X): @Riddle1689:

I've been reading through Alister E. McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (Baker, 1990).

Though McGrath is very much admiring of Calvin's achievement, this work is not hagiography. Here are some of his observations on Calvin's personality:

“… a curious silence resonates through history concerning the personality of Calvin” (14).

“Calvin…. appears to have been reticent to introduce any self-reference in his writings” (16).

“Nevertheless, it is probably fair to suggest that Calvin was not a particularly attractive person, lacking the wit, humour, and warmth which made Luther so entertaining at dinner parties. Calvin’s persona, as it emerges from his writings, is that of a somewhat cold and detached individual, increasingly inclined towards tetchiness and irritability as his health declined, and prone to launch into abusive personal attacks on those with whom he disagreed, rather than dealing primarily with their ideas” (17).

“…it is clear that he was an unhappy man, with whom it is difficult for the modern reader to feel any great bond of sympathy” (17).

“A timid and withdrawn character, he was nonetheless capable of a courage bordering on intransigence, a refusal to compromise, when he believed the will of God to be at stake” (18).

“Calvin was a remarkably private individual…” (18).

“…he emerges as something of a colourless figure, a man whose innermost thoughts, attitudes, and ambitions are largely denied to us” (19).

JTR

Quotes from Paisley's Exposition of Romans

 

This blog post is taken from a series that first appeared on my Twitter (X) account: @Riddle1689:

When I was in Belfast in June, we stopped by Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church (check the end of this post from some pictures) where the controversial founder of the Free Presbyterian Church and Ulster politician Iain R. K. Paisley served as pastor. Wanting to read some Paisly I ordered his Romans exposition, written during his three-month imprisonment in 1966. It was waiting when I got back from the Michigan trip. Less a commentary and more a collection of pithy and aphoristic thoughts from an orator.

I'll share a few quotes in this thread:

 

"It is good to be saved and to know it but it is best to be saved and show it" (16).

 

"Prayer is not the noisy sound Which clamorous lips repeat. Prayer is the silence of the soul Which clasps Jehovah's feet" (19).

 

"Only a spiritual church is an established church. A national name, human endowments and state recognition can establish a sect. Spiritual gifts alone establish a true church of Christ” (20).

 

"Gospel purposes and gospel preachers will always be resisted as long as the Devil is out of the lake of fire" (21).

 

"You could as soon stop the sun with a lollypop stick as stop the gospel preacher. No amount of opposition will stop him. He has a commission from heaven and must speak" (24).

 

"The works of the law form the very heart of man's religion.... Works! Works! You could as soon fly to heaven astride a straw as get there by your own good works" (44).

 

"Yet with the old Puritan we can say,

'God the Father thought it

God the Son bought it

God the Spirit wrought it

The Devil fought it

But, Glory to God, I got it'" (55).

 

"His life was in obedience to His life-giving. He was born in order to bleed. His obedience was in order to His offering" (59).

 

"It was Martin Luther the Reformer who said. 'There are but two men, Adam and Christ, and all other men hang at their girdles" (76).

 

"Birth is the family truth. We are born again and become members of His family. Baptism is the church truth. We are baptized and become members of His body" (90).

 

"God did not send the old man to hospital to be cured but to the Cross to be crucified" (94).

 

"Upon our body, our dying body, are the very marks of sin's dominion and here sin strives unceasingly for the mastery" (99).

 

"The desires of sin are not to be obeyed but rather resisted. They are not to be countenanced. By resisting we refuse to contemplate the sin to which we are tempted. Contemplation of sin leads to conception of sin and conception of sin to actual commission of sin" (99).

 

"Thomas Goodwin, the Puritan, said, that before entering the pulpit when his heart was not humble as it ought to be, he took a walk up and down his former sins. This always brought humiliation to his heart and stirred gratitude in his soul to God" (101).

 

"John Newton... once the slave driver and blasphemous seaman, had the text Deut. 15:15 printed in large capitals and hung over his study desk, 'And Thou Shalt Remember That Thou Wast a Bondsman in the Land of Egypt, And the Lord Thy God Redeemed Thee'" (101).

 

"The consummation of our degradation is freedom from righteousness. The consummation of our consecration is freedom from sin. What a contrast!" (106).

 

"Rather the law is the great X-ray revealing sin working death in me so that sin by the revelation of the law is seen to be exceedingly sinful" (114).

 

"Christ is not the great I was, Christ is the great I am" (120).

 

"The body of the believer at death is not buried but sown. It awaits the great harvest of the resurrection" (132).

 

On the Apostle Paul: "He dwarfs the modern preachers to pigmy size by his giant ministry" (142).

 

"Passionless preaching is the bane of both pulpit and pew. Without passion the preacher is only the vain sound of religious brass and the useless tinkling of ecclesiastical cymbals" (149).

 

"John Wesley's advice to the critic of the preacher was right: 'Pray that God will set your minister on fire and the people will come out to see him burn'" (149).

 

"Well might C. H. Spurgeon exclaim, 'If there's a fireman in the pulpit there'll be no snowmen in the pews!'" (150).

 

On the preacher's prayer life: "Before the preacher can talk to men about God, he must talk to God about men" (150).

 

"There is a great difference between a sent preacher and a called parson. Called parsons win silver, but sent preachers win souls" (157).

 

"Every believer is to be a nonconformist, a nonconformist to this present evil age" (168).

 

"How tragic when Christians ape the worldlings preferring the muck-rake to the golden crown" (168).

 

"We should always view our brethren in the love of Christ and measure our sacrifices for them by the yardstick of the Cross" (180).

 

JTR

Some pictures from Belfast:

Used Bookshop Discovery: Palestinian Syriac Texts from Palimpsest Fragments in the Taylor-Schechter Collection (1900)

Note: This post is taken from my twitter: @Riddle1689

Stopped at a used bookshop in Charlottesville on Saturday and ran across this volume titled Palestinian Syriac Texts from Palimpsest Fragments in the Taylor-Schechter Collection (1900) by the Victorian era Scottish twin "Sinai Sisters" Agnes Smith Lewis & Margaret Dunlop Gibson.

The volume includes Syriac fragments from various OT and NT books with Greek reconstructions. At the end it has 8 facsimili plates of the fragments (including one extended trifold).

You can find here an online edition of the work taken from a volume in the Princeton Theological Seminary Library.

I wonder how many original hard copies of this volume still exist. But one is in my library now. It cost me a whopping $12.

More images from the book:

WM 278: Broken Wharfe Interview

 

This interview was conducted with Darren Gilchrist and John-Mark Allmand-Smith, co-founders of the Broken Wharfe publishing ministry, on Friday, April 28, 2023 in Ramsbottom, England.

Find Broken Wharfe books here: https://brokenwharfe.com/

JTR

Jots & Tittles 19: Five Book Recommendations for Young Pastors

 

Had a phone conversation last week with a young man who has just accepted a pastoral call to serve in his first church. He asked if I could recommend a few practical books related to the pastoral ministry.

I’ve created this brief list to share with him. Many more might be added but here are five with a brief annotation that I have found helpful (listed In a-b-c order by author):

Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry with An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency (Banner of Truth, 1830, 2006).

Bridges (1794-1869) was an evangelical leader in the Church of England. This book shares valuable practical pastoral wisdom in everything from preaching sermons to pastoral work with various kinds of people. It is also filled with pithy aphoristic statements that will lodge in the mind. Example: “Believe—wait—work—are the watchwords of the Ministry” (179).

John Keith Davies, The Local Church: A Living Body (Evangelical Press, 2001).

Davies (d. 1991) served for over thirty-seven years as a Baptist pastor and church planter in Wales. This is technically a book on ecclesiology or even a practical manual on church order, but it also has much, necessarily, to say about the work of pastoral ministry. Davies extols especially the advantages of ministry within the small church. For my full review of this book, look here.

Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, Complete and Unabridged (Zondervan, 1954 reprint).

These lectures were delivered by Spurgeon (1834-1892), the “Prince of Preachers,” to the students at the Preachers’ College in London. Though the content is sometimes uneven, it includes classic essays addressing topics like dealing with personal discouragement and despondency (“The Minister’s Fainting Fits”) and dealing with both praise and criticism (“The Blind Eye and the Deaf Ear”).

William Still, Dying to Live (Christian Focus, 1991).

William Still (1911-1997 was the “bachelor minister” at the Gilcomston Church of Scotland in Aberdeen from 1945-1997. This autobiography addresses the lows (the week seven of his elders resigned and attendance plummeted) and highs (the joys of seeing fruit and spiritual growth driven through expository preaching, alongside work with students and children) of his unusually long and fruitful ministry in one congregation. Though I list only this work of autobiography (or biography) I commend this genre to aspiring pastors.

William Still, The Work of the Pastor (Christian Focus, 1984, 2001).

This book consists of five lectures presented by Still at an Intervarsity Christian Fellowship student conference in 1964. It is easy to digest and brimming with sagacious insights. Example: “We are so eager, we want a short training and a long ministry. Jesus has thirty years’ training and three years’ ministry” (143).

JTR

Personal Reflections: A Dozen or So Interesting Reads in 2022

 

I generally like to do some reflection at the end of one year and the beginning of another, including thinking about the reading I’ve done. I used to make it my goal to complete one book each week (so c. 52 books a year). The last few years have not allowed me as much time for sustained reading as I would like. I have the tendency to get started in a book and then leave it when another catches my eye. I’m also more prone to just read a chapter or two from a book that addresses a topic of interest or research. New books seem always to be piling up. I’ve kept a reading journal for many years. I also try to write book reviews (some of which I post to my blog, submit to journals for publication, or just keep for myself). I find that this discipline has helped me remember the contents of my reading better and the reviews/notes also serve as a resource for my preaching, teaching, and writing. Though I have a specific interest in text and translation of the Bible, I am overall a generalist (as most ministers are) and enjoy reading in various areas of theology and church history and in other genres too.

All that said, here are a Dozen or So Interesting Reads in 2022 (in no particular order). Here is a similar article I did last year on Ten Interesting Reads in 2021.

One: Matthew Barrett, Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit (Baker Books, 2021).

This was the Christianity Today book of the year in 2021. Though pitched at a popular level, it still required careful reading. It helped me think through the doctrine of the Trinity and to be more careful when speaking and writing about God.

Two: The Van Kleeck trilogy: Peter Van Kleeck, Jr. A Philosophical Grounding for a Standard Sacred Text: Leveraging Reformed Epistemology in the Quest for a Standard English Version of the Bible (2021); Peter Van Kleeck, Sr. An Exegetical Grounding for a Standard Sacred Text: Toward the Formulation of a Systematic Theology of Providential Preservation (2021); Peter Van Kleeck, Sr and Peter Van Kleeck, Jr., A Theological Grounding for a Standard Sacred Text: An Apologetic Bibliology in Favor of the Authorized Version (2022).

Though the Van Kleecks defend the traditional text (“Standard Sacred Text”) of the Bible from a perspective not exactly the same as my own, I found plenty that was helpful in their books on epistemology, preservation, and Bibliology.

Three: Arnold Dallimore, Spurgeon: A New Biography (Banner of Truth, 1985, 2009):

My family started reading this book aloud together after supper in the fall of 2021, before we made a trip to visit Metropolitan Tabernacle, and finished it up early in 2022. A lively survey of Spurgeon’s life, sometimes bordering on hagiography, that provoked lots of helpful family discussion on everything from historiography to smoking cigars.

Four: The Sentences of Sextus (Scholars Press, 1981).

This slim diglot (Greek and English) of 451 pithy maxims, opens a window into an early effort to blend Christianity with Stoicism, and still offers some sage counsel. A few examples:

Sentence 171b: When among believers listen rather than speak.

Sentence 262: If you want to live happily, do not do too many things; for if you do more than you should, you will do it poorly.

Five: Thomas Oden, A Change of Heart: A Personal and Theological Memoir (InterVarsity Press, 2014).

Oden spent the first half of his life as a modern theological liberal and the second half trying to retrieve the wisdom of the ancient church (including his magnum opus, editing the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series).

A few other memoirs I read last year: Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God: How to Give Love, Create Beauty, and Find Peace (Schaeffer, 2014); Luke Timothy Johnson, The Mind in Another Place: My Life as a Scholar (Eerdmans, 2022); Charles Marsh, Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir (HarperOne, 2022).

Six: John S. Barnes, Ed., A Stone, A Leaf, A Door: Poems by Thomas Wolfe (Scribner’s, 1945).

The cover of this slim hardback caught my eye when browsing through one of my favorite used bookstores in Charlottesville. Wonderful collection of poems from a writer with whom I share Western North Carolina roots.

Seven: Samuel D. Renihan, Crux, Mors, Inferi: A Primer and Reader on the Descent of Christ (2021).

I’ve been thinking of “the descent” the last couple years, having read the takes of Daniel Hyde, Matthew Emmerson, and Hilarion Alfeyev. Renihan adds more fuel to the fire, but I’m not quite settled on it yet.

Eight: John O’Malley, Trent: What Happened at the Council (Belknap Press, 2013).

A respected Roman Catholic scholar offers a survey of Trent and its response to the Protestant Reformation. What stood out to me was the astounding corruption of the Roman leadership, and this made me admire only more the courage and tenacity of the Reformers.

Nine: Joshua Schooping, Disillusioned: Why I Left the Eastern Orthodox Priesthood and Church (Theophany Press, 2022).

We hear quite a bit about former Protestants and Evangelicals who convert to Rome or Constantinople, but this brief work describes a pilgrimage in the opposite direction.

Ten: Brent Nongbri, Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept (Yale, 2013).

I’ve appreciated Nongbri’s writings on the text of the Bible and his challenging the dating of some manuscripts. This made me want to read some of his other writings, including this one on the comparative study of religion. He makes the argument that the very use and definition of the word “religion” has been influenced by modern Protestantism and inappropriately applied both to “world religions” and “ancient religions.”

Eleven: Gregory R. Lanier and William A. Ross, The Septuagint: What It Is and Why It Matters (Crossway, 2021).

This book provides some good information and makes some good points, like the term “Septuagint” is fuzzy, and it’s better simply to talk about the “Greek Old Testament.” Negative: It assumes the LXX (aka Greek OT) should be used to “correct” the Hebrew. Positive: Good discussion of how to understand quotations of the LXX (Greek OT) in the NT.

Twelve: Frank Furedi, Why Borders Matter: Why Humanity Must Relearn the Art of Drawing Boundaries (Routledge, 2021).

This isn’t a book about immigration but about borders or boundaries as a sociological concept. Some interesting applications for religion and even for Bibliology.

JTR

WM 239: Book Discussion: Why I Preach From The Received Text

Find info on the book here.

JTR

Free Sample: Why I Preach From The Received Text

Want to read a free sample from Why I Preach from the Received Text (coming July 22, 2022)?

Find the Editorial Introduction by Riddle & McShaffrey and the article by Archibald Allison, "Infallible Truth, Not Probability" here:

https://www.thegreaterheritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Sample-Why-I-Preach-from-the-Received-Text-ed.-by-Riddle-and-McShaffrey.pdf

JTR