Many people find reading a difficult task. Their challenges often arise from unfamiliarity and lack of practice. However, time constraints and the constant demands of modern life also play a part in raising barriers to the practice of reading. With these things in mind, it is important to devote what little time and energy we can spare for reading to good books. We would like to recommend some of our favorite selections from the past few months as a guide for your future reading. Or you may find a good last-minute Christmas gift for a friend or loved one who always appreciates a good book. If you have a good suggestion for reading, please leave us a short review in the comment section.
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Bernhard W. Anderson with Steven Bishop, Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), 228 pages.
This book is an excellent introduction to the book of Psalms. It’s a great resource for pastors, students, and church groups who are interested in reading the Psalms at a deeper level. Hebrew poetry is much different from English poetry, and many of its poetic devices are lost in translation. However, Anderson helps the average reader to interpret the Psalms by considering their form and their context. I think anyone who reads this book will gain a greater appreciation for the Psalter and its poetry.
—Recommended by Zach Vickery
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas (Louisville: John Knox Press, 2010), 91 pages.
Every Advent I try to read this brief devotional made up of letters by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Many of these letters were written by Bonhoeffer during the two years he spent in prison. He thought his helpless situation paralleled the themes surrounding Advent: “Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent. . . . One waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other—things that are really of no consequence—the door is shut, and can only be opened from the outside” (135). Each devotion includes a reflection from Bonhoeffer on themes such as waiting, mystery, redemption, and incarnation. Related Scripture passages are given with each devotion that are designed to encourage contemplation throughout the Advent season.
—Recommended by Zachery Maloney
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Craig Gay, Modern Technology and the Human Future: A Christian Appraisal (Downers Grove, IVP, 2018), 254 pages.
Earlier this year on the Forum, I reviewed Craig Gay’s latest book on technology. I first encountered Gay’s perceptive work years ago in The Way of the Modern World. I found it impressive, careful, and timely. I wondered, “In all of our fascination with worldview and culture, why don’t I see more professors, colleges, or seminaries requiring this book?” Gay has a way of speaking to the modern world with depth and understanding. He has delivered again in this most recent book.
Gay poses some questions not normally asked by techno-enthusiasts, such as “How does modern technology impact human being?” He then explores the direction of technological development, and how its very logic requires a constant push forward, regardless of whether we are prepared for its destination. He then probes some of the problems of what he calls the “technological worldview,” followed by two chapters in which a fully developed Christian worldview is called upon to evaluate, diagnose, and respond to our modern confusion. Analysts of our cultural moment who ignore Craig Gay’s work will be poorer for it.
—Recommended by W. Jackson Watts
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James Green, Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America (New York: Anchor, 2007), 400 pages.
Both of my recommendations for this quarter focus on responses to industrialism. In Death in the Haymarket, James Green argues that the burgeoning post-Civil War labor movement in Chicago was sabotaged by its own internecine warfare and radical fringe elements. Opening the book with Lincoln’s funeral procession through Chicago, Green gives a focused history of organized labor from the end of the war through 1900, in which varied labor groups attempted to respond to the mounting horrors of industrialism. He argues that the labor movement’s first attempts to unite began as the Civil War ended and employees began advocating for an eight-hour workday.
Led by William Sylvis, the eight-hour day movement was founded on the idea that common laborers were tyrannized by their employers who didn’t allow them enough free time during the day to enjoy the benefits of liberty, such as education, social mobility, and independence. Saddest of all, the laborers begged for free time away from the slaughterhouses and manufacturing plants to see the sun and flowers around the Great Lakes.
While Green gives attention to many organized labor leaders, he uses socialist and anarchist leaders, August Spies and Albert and Lucy Parsons, to drive his narrative. He follows their work to organize Chicago laborers culminating in the Haymarket bombing of May 4, 1886, along with the subsequent criminal trial of eight anarchist conspirators. The violence and radical rhetoric of Spies and the Parsons rightly turned public sentiment in Chicago against organized labor by the end of the nineteenth century. While the plight of industrial laborers separated from the created order by their urban industrial society should encourage our compassion, their response to the abuses of industrialization cannot be reconciled with Biblical Christianity.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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James M. Lang, Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2016), 272 pages.
James M. Lang has authored several books and myriad articles on the subject of teaching. Although Lang writes from the perspective of a professor in higher education, anyone interested in the subject of teaching, which occurs in both schools and churches, may find Small Teaching helpful.
Lang divides Small Teaching into three sections and nine chapters. In part one, he argues that knowledge and objective facts remain an important part of instruction, because students are cognitive beings. Part two builds upon part one, considering issues of understanding or “active learning” (86). Finally, part three begins with the presumption that human beings are emotive beings, which also factors into the phenomenon of learning.
Lang approaches every chapter (excepting some variation in the ninth) with a similar strategy: introduction, theory, models, principles, tips, and conclusion. In addition, each chapter describes a small teaching strategy (in contrast to a big teaching strategy) that teachers can employ, with “minimal preparation and grading,” in the classroom (8). Not all of the suggestions will work equally for all readers, depending on any number of factors (e.g., the personality of the teacher or the student make-up of a given course), but he gives enough of them that, surely, anyone could find helpful ideas.
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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John A. L. Lee, The Greek of the Pentateuch: Grinfield Lectures on the Septuagint 2011-2012 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 320 pages.
A common fault when reading Septuagint Greek is reading too much into the Hebrew interference with the Greek translation. Of course, there is going to be some Hebrew interference since the Septuagint is a Greek translation of a Hebrew document. However, this reality does not mean that the translator was unable to produce a translation in Greek idiom. John A. L. Lee seeks to correct this assumption in his book on the Greek of the Pentateuch. He points out details of the translation that attest to a translator that knew both languages well. Instead of labeling a “literal” translator as uneducated, Lee makes an excellent case that the more literal method of translation may in fact be the more sophisticated method.
—Recommended by Zach Vickery
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Peter J. Leithart, Revelation 1-11: International Theological Commentary (New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), 512 pages.
I’m not sure if we’ve ever commended a commentary to our readers, but I would be remiss not to call attention to Peter Leithart’s learned and fascinating theological commentary on the book of Revelation. I am currently still working my way through volume one, so I limit my recommendation to this one. Leithart is known as something of a provocateur. But even when readers disagree with him, they usually enjoy reading his work. His work on Revelation in this excellent newer commentary series has been nourishing to me as I have prepared sermons in recent months.
Leithart displays an impressive balance of Biblical exegesis, historical awareness, and theological care. One of the many insights that has been especially helpful is his attention to the myriad ways that Revelation echoes earlier Biblical texts and themes, especially the Old Testament. Leithart contends that, of Revelation’s 401 verses in our English Bible, arguably 276 of them contain an allusion to the Old Testament. Then he proceeds to demonstrate this claim (largely overlooked, I might add, in popular prophetic books and sermons!). For those planning to preach or teach Revelation or just looking to augment their own personal Bible study, I highly commend Leithart to you.
—Recommended by W. Jackson Watts
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Duane Litfin, Conceiving the Christian College (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 289 pages.
As a former president of Wheaton College (1993–2010), Duane Liftin has written an excellent book for those interested in the questions, pressures, and goals of Christian higher education (and Christian education more generally). Additionally, those who don’t work in education but who are interested in the life of the mind or who are interested in the role of education in the local church even, may also find much useful information in this book.
After presenting two primary academic models, the umbrella model and the systemic model, Litfin argues that the “centerpiece” of Christian higher education is Christ himself. Because He is the fountain, sustainer, and goal of all that exists, then all truth is truly God’s, and all subjects that may lead to or reflect truth are proper disciplines of the Christian college. However, this claim to truth within the broader academy is controversial and raises questions about epistemology.
Litfin argues that Christians should not succumb either to a modernist or a postmodernist epistemology but instead should rely upon that which God has revealed, which leads to epistemic confidence rather than to epistemic certainty (modernism) or epistemic doubt (postmodernism). A proper view of Christ and the world, as well as how the Christian comes to know about the world, leads to integrative thinking and integrative practice between one’s faith and his learning. Litfin concludes with a plea for “genuine pluralism” in which the broader academy recognizes the meaningful contributions of the scholars of Christian higher education (273).
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2010), 449 pages.
From 1999 to 2017, more than 700,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. While churches have the ability to function as spaces of hope for those struggling with addiction, many simply don’t know how to address this complex subject. In his book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Gabor Maté presents information drawn from his clinical work and personal life that will help those struggling with addiction and churches seeking to minister to the addicted. The uncensored detail of most stories may shock some readers, but it sheds necessary light on the devastating reality of addiction. I especially appreciate Maté’s attention to addicts’ desperate attempts to fill a spiritual void with substance abuse. I encourage anyone interested in understanding addiction to pick this book up. It’s never boring and never condescending.
—Recommended by Zachery Maloney
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Gavin Ortlund, Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 218 pages.
Gavin Ortlund’s Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals is both a guide to and a model for theological retrieval. Ortlund spends the majority of the first part of the book building a case for the value of theological retrieval, particularly from ancient and medieval sources. In the second part of the book, Ortlund demonstrates this retrieval by addressing the subjects of Creator/creation distinction, divine simplicity, substitutionary atonement, and pastoral vocation.
Of particular interest is Ortlund’s use of metaphor in chapter four to consider several key theological doctrines. Ortlund uses J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth, and Oxford for the sake of reflection on doctrines such as the extra calvinisticum. I cannot do the metaphor justice here. You’ll have to buy the book and read it for yourself. In all, this publication is one of the most enjoyable and insightful books I read this year.
—Recommended by Jesse Owens
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Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness (New York: Harper, 1995), 288 pages.
Perhaps the Christmas holidays are providing you with extra time to rest and relax. Maybe you’re like me and enjoy curling up with a good mystery when you get the chance. Might I recommend Dorothy Sayers’s Clouds of Witness for your reading pleasure?
This is the second novel in the Lord Peter Wimsey series and features an intriguing and satisfying mystery to capture your attention. Lord Peter Wimsey, second son of the Duke of Denver and amateur detective, is called upon to prove that his brother is innocent of a murder that took place on one of the family estates. Furthermore, Lord Peter’s sister is bound up in the matter as well. Assisted by his faithful butler Bunter and police inspector Charles Parker, Lord Peter must use his wits to discover the true murderer and defend his family’s honor.
—Recommended by Christa Thornsbury
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Robert Louis Wilken, Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019), 236 pages.
When I think of Robert Louis Wilken, I think of his writings on early Christianity rather than on religious freedom. However, Wilken has masterfully brought these two subjects together in his most recent book. It is common for scholars to argue that religious freedom is a sort of secular idea connected with the development of Enlightenment thought.
We’ve long resisted this idea at the Helwys Society Forum, highlighting that Thomas Helwys argued for religious liberty well before the flowering of Enlightenment thought. Wilken adds great detail to the argument by exploring the idea of religious liberty in ancient and medieval sources, of which the American founders were deeply aware. This sheds further light on the argument that religious liberty is not dependent upon the development of Enlightenment (one might even say “secular”) thought.
—Recommended by Jesse Owens
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Norman Wirzba, ed., The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2003), 276 pages.
Like Death in the Hay Market, Norman Wirzba’s The Essential Agrarian Reader concerns our response to industrialism. Wirzba is a well-known Christian intellectual, who currently teaches at Duke Divinity School. However, this book contains essays from a variety of perspectives, some more Christian than others.
Barbara Kingslover’s foreword, which reflects on the importance of agrarianism for those who left the farm for academia and suburbia, is lovely, poignant, and thought-provoking. Wendell Berry’s essay directly addresses the distinct characters of agrarianism and industrialism, arguing that our humanity is stripped from us by the machine and consumerism. Other essays propose various means of alleviating industrialism’s abuses. Some, like Brian Donahue’s “The Resettling of America” and Herman E. Daly’s “Sustainable Economic Development,” suggest interesting solutions, though I do not concur with their calls for strong government intervention.
On the whole, Wirzba’s book provides a more thoughtful and Biblical response to the abuses of industrialism than the socialism and anarchism of organized labor detailed in Green’s book. While I think The Essential Agrarian Reader would be good for anyone, it may be a more important work for suburban professionals and intellectuals who blithely dwell in the world of mass-produced food, concrete, and global consumerism.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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