Books of 2011

Here are the books I read in 2011. I'll list any book which I read at least 50% of in 2011. Books only partially finished will be noted with an * and books read on my Kindle will be noted with a "k." I'll comment on the books as warranted:

1. What are People For?, Wendell Berry - a Kentucky farmer who looks at life from a much needed perspective. You won't agree with everything he says, but you will look at rural areas and people with a new appreciation and question some of your most basic assumptions about Western life. Everyone should read something by Berry.
2. Christianity and Liberalism, J. Gresham Machen - A classic. Machen rips off the facade of liberal Christianity and calls it what it is; a different religion. 
3. To Change the World, James Hunter* - I didn't finish To Change the World, but I did drive Dr. Hunter to the airport after he lectured at RTS. He is very engaging, passionate, and brilliant. It was a real treat to spend 30 minutes chatting with him.
4. Culture Making, Andy Crouch
5. Christ and Culture, Richard Niebuhr
6. Handbook on the Prophets, Robert Chisholm
7. Doctrine of the Christian Life, John Frame
8. Bioethics and the Christian Life, David VanDrunen* - VanDrunen is an advocate of Two Kingdoms theology and it presents itself in his bioethics by seemingly advocating for a type of morality for believers and an ambivalence toward the actions of unbelievers.
9. Making Biblical Decisions, Franklin Payne*
10. In Living Color: Images of Christ and the Means of Grace, Danny Hyde - Does the 2nd Commandment apply to Jesus? 
11. The Death of Adam, Marilynne Robinson
12. Republocrat, Carl R. Trueman
13. Justification, James Buchanan - a great book on justification (this must come as a surprise given the clever title) written in the 19th century.
14. Justification, NT Wright - a not as great book on justification. Maybe from here on out we can all just agree that if you write a book on justification, you need to come up with a better title than just "Justification."
15. Sex, Economy, Freedom, & Community, Wendell Berry*
16. The Deep Things of God, Fred Sanders - Sanders unpacks (as much at mere mortals can) how the Trinity affects everything and why this is a central and crucial doctrine of the Christian faith. If you don't believe in the Trinity you aren't Christian (this means Mormons are not Christian. Period.)
17. Living in God's Two Kingdoms, David VanDrunen
18. Concise Reformed Dogmatics, J. van Genderen* - Okay, I didn't really read 50% of this because it is a really big book. I mostly just wanted to be able to put it on the list because a books that contain the word "dogmatics" in the title always look impressive.
19. The Making of a Leader, J. Robert Clinton (no relation to #42 or the Sec. of State)
20. To Be Told, Dan Allender - Allender helps you discover the story God has been writing in your life and how to get in step with him in crafting a beautiful ending. 
21. Tilt, Small Shifts in Leadership that Make a Big Difference, Erik Rees, Jeff Jernigan - not worth your time
22. Why We Love the Church, Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck - k (that second k wasn't a typo, I read it on my Kindle)- I really liked this book and think more evangelicals ought to read it.
23. Ten Myths About Calvinism, Ken Stewart - Or ten ways I want to distance myself from "those" Calvinist and still be friends with Arminians. There were parts of this book that I really liked and other parts seemed like an unnecessary apology to a non-issue, kinda like water apologizing for being wet.
24. Prodigal God, Tim Keller 
25. Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People Vol. 2, Michael Craton - Best history of the Bahamian people you'll ever read...heck, who are we kidding, you're never gonna read a history of the Bahamian people. But if you do...this is the one.
26. The Rage Against God, Peter Hitchens - I thought this was going to be the story of Peter Hitchen's journey from atheism to belief. It really was Peter Hitchen's argument for why atheism leads to socialism and then why that's a bad thing, interspersed with his personal anecdotes from living in Moscow in the eighties. Nonetheless, it was an engaging read from the brother of the recently deceased archbishop of atheism, Christopher Hitchens.
27. Who Chose the Gospels?, Charles Hill - This was written by one of my professors from RTS. If you want an easy to read book that completely debunks the theory that the early church just picked out the four gospel account which were most politically expedient...then look no further.
28. God So Loved He Gave, Kelly Kapic and Justin Borger - This is a really great book if for no other reason than I made the Acknowledgments (Justin is one of my closest friends from seminary). This is a look at the Redemptive Historical story of the Bible through the lens of generosity. It is a much needed adjustment to our consumptive American evangelicalism.
29. The Art of Prophesying, William Perkins - not what you think. Perkins was the Father of English Puritanism and this was his text book on preaching.
30. The Book of Exodus, Brevard Chiles* - best technical commentary on Exodus
31. Exodus, NIV Application Commentary, Peter Enns* - best overall commentary on Exodus
32. Living for God's Glory, Joel Beeke - k
33. The Gospel in the Pentateuch, Henry Law - k
34. A Golden Chain, William Perkins - k
35. Beer if Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing, Charles Bamforth - k - if you like beer, this is a really neat read. Bamforth is a professor of brewing at UC Davis (who knew you could major in Brewing?) which means he is an organic chemist who loves beer. The spiritual aspect of the book is blech ...but when he talks about beer it is fascinating. 
36. The Doctrine of the Covenant in Reformed Theology, Geerhardus Vos - k
37. Provocations, Soren Kierkegaard - k - I'm not really sure how to get that "o" with a slash through it.
38. Affirming the Apostles' Creed - JI Packer
39. The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism, Kevin DeYoung and Jerry Bridges - Another good one from DeYoung and somebody else.
40. Renewing Your Mind, RC Sproul

Currently, almost all of my books are in storage in a container somewhere in Orlando. I miss them. Soon, we'll actually end this transitional period and have a home in New Jersey. Until then, all my books sit in a box which is in a bigger box which is stored in a yet bigger box somewhere in Central Florida...kinda like the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones only nobody's face will melt off when they open up my books.

The Books of 2010

Here are the books I read in 2010. Books noted with an asterisk have only been partially finished (at least half). Books underlined are highly recommended.

1. *Old Testament Theology, Bruce K. Waltke
2. *Biblical History of Israel, Ian Provaan, et al.
3. Life Together, Deitrich Bonhoeffer
4. Paul, Apostle of the Heart Set Free, F.F. Bruce
5. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Books I & II, John Calvin
6. The Story of Christianity, vol. 2, Justo Gonzalez
7. Reformation Thought, Alister McGrath
8. Worship, Hughes Oliphant Old
9. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Bruce Waltke
10. *Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, B.B. Warfield
11. Ancient Future Worship, Robert Webber
12. *Seek the Welfare of the City, Bruce Winter
13. Going to Church in the First Century, Robert Banks
14. Paul’s Idea of Community: Early House Churches in Their Historical Setting, Robert Banks
15. The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption, Dennis Johnson
16. Paul in Fresh Perspective, NT Wright
17. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture, Graeme Goldsworthy
18. Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Sidney Greidanus
19. Here I Stand, Roland Bainton
20. The Theology of the Reformers, Timothy George
21. *Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation, ed. E. Gordon Rupp and Philip Watson
22. Selected Writings of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Harold Simonson
23. *A Patristic Greek Reader, Rodney Whitacre
24. *St. Cyril of Jerusalem’s Lectures on the Christian Sacrament, ed. FL Cross
25. Fools for Christ, Jaroslav Pelikan
26. Christ, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper: Recovering the Sacraments for Evangelical Worship, Leonard Vander Zee
27. Heart of a Servant Leader, John Miller
28. Pastoral Theology in the Classical Tradition, Andrew Purves
29. *Reformed Dogmatics vol. 4, Herman Bavinck
30. SimChurch, Douglas Estes
31. The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism, ed. Gregg Strawbridge
32. Children at the Lord’s Table: Assessing the Case for Paedocommunion, Cornelius Venema
33. The Elements of Counseling, Davis & Meier
34. To Be Told, Dan Allender
35. The Pastor as Minor Poet, M. Craig Barnes
36. Understanding Who You Are, Larry Crabb
37. The Use of the Scriptures in Counseling, Jay Adams
38. *Church Dogmatics, book I, Karl Barth
39. The Theology of the Book of Revelation, Richard Bauckham
40. Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures, Hermann Ridderbos
41. The Leader’s Journey, Jim Herrington, et al.
42. Why Johnny Can’t Preach, T. David Gordon
43. Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups, ed. Richard Foster
44. Christ and Culture, Richard Niebuhr
45. *The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
46. *Selected Poems, T. S. Eliot
47. *Broken Down House, Paul Tripp

What I've Been Reading

I was asked the other day what books I'd read in seminary this term. I thought it would be a good idea to post the books I read and brief blurb about each of them. I'll post my Winter Term books in a few days and then the Spring Term books.

Salvation Belongs to the Lord
John Frame
This is an intro to Reformed doctrines of Scripture. It is written in a simple, straight-forward manner.

Socrates to Sartre and Beyond: A History of Philosophy
Samuel Enoch Stumpf
This is a standard textbook on Philosophy. If you really like reading philosophy you probably wouldn't read a textbook. If you don't like reading philosophy you probably don't want to read a textbook about philosophy. Overall, it was one of my least favorite reads of the semester.

A Method for Prayer
Matthew Henry
This is a fascinating prayer book from everyone's favorite free Bible commentator. Henry outlines how to pray by praying Scripture. Each chapter has various types of prayer (Adoration, Confession, Petition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication) and each prayer is nearly all Scripture. Ligon Duncan has added an appendix that outlines Henry's prayers to make an easy prayer reference. I will continue to use this book for many years.

With One Voice
Reggie Kidd
Reggie was one of my professors. His book is kinda about worship, kinda about music, kinda about the heart, and kinda about Jesus. Reggie writes about three common styles of worship; Bach, Bubba, and the Blues Brothers. I found this to be an edifying read. I often found myself thinking about parts of the book long into the week.

Lectures on Calvinism
Abraham Kuyper
This book is a series of lectures that Kuyper delivered at Princeton in 1898. In the lectures he outlines how Calvinism interacts with various spheres of life. Kuyper makes a great argument for why Calvinism is the only worldview that adequately addresses religion, art, science, politics or the future. There are awkward moments where Kuyper writes less as theologian more like a white European colonialist...but overall it is a phenomenal book. My pastor in Lexington told me that if evangelicals had read his book we would have had a far better impact on society over the last 100 years. I agree.

The Gospel Myster of Sanctification
Walter Marshall
Walter Marshall (1628-80) was an English Puritan pastor. His book on sanctification is a liberating read. Marshall finds a sweet spot between the twin dangers of legalism and licentiousness. He outlines a biblical model to help the Christian pursue holiness. It was an encouraging book. It has 14 chapters and my only criticism is that there is little progression from one chapter to the next. If you want to read it, make sure to get the modernized translation...the original language is a little taxing.

Creation Regained
Albert Wolters
If I recommended only one book from my Fall semester, it would be this one. This is a biblical basis for a reformational worldview. The book centers around Creation, Fall, and Redemption. God created all things perfect. Sin marred and affected all things. Christ will come back and redeem all things. The heart of this is seen in Wolter's explanation of God's Structure (Creation as it was meant to be) and Direction (Creation as it was affected by sin). The fall affects all aspects of God's creation but God has called all Christians to participate in Christ's redemption of the world.

Tell the Truth
Will Metzger
This is an evangelism standard. Metzger helps Christians to share the whole Gospel to the whole person by the whole people. If you have questions about how to share your faith, this is a great manual to reference.

A Faith Worth Sharing
Jack Miller
This is a memoir of Jack Miller's experiences sharing his faith. He shares his successes and colossal failures in trying to share his faith. When you finish you realize that he has shown you how to share Christ with all the different types of people in your life. I often found myself reading his stories but thinking of similar people or situations in my life. You will be encouraged about sharing your faith by the book.

Evangelism and Sovereignty of God
J.I. Packer
Dr. Packer is a living legend of evangelicalism. In this book Dr. Packer clears us the confusion about the antinomy of Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility. Do you pray for your friends who do not know Christ? If you do then you believe in the sovereignty of God. If you believe in the sovereignty of God, then you should pray for the lost.

Christ-Centered Preaching
Bryan Chapell
Chapell serves as the president and professor of preaching at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, MO. He outlines the reason and methods of redemptive expository preaching. His method helps the preacher to find the redemptive focus of the text and then preach the Gospel answer to the problem. His process gives the preacher a structure to make sure that his sermon is clear, coherent and unified in presenting Christ.

The Supremacy of God in Preaching
John Piper
Piper's book addresses the heart of the preacher. Why should the preacher preach? He must explain and proclaim the supremacy of Christ to the world. In Part I Piper explains the Goal, Ground, and Gift of preaching in a Trinitarian formula. In Part II Piper showcases Jonathan Edwards as an example of preaching the supremacy of Christ.

We also read an unpublished book by Edmund Clowney and Tim Keller titled Preaching the Gospel in a Post-Modern World. It is a written form of lectures that they presented to students at RTS. It, like Chapell, helps the preacher to address the root sin issue in the listener's life and apply the salve of the Gospel to that wound.

If you have questions about any of the books, feel free to drop me and email. I'd love to share my thoughts on them. Enjoy!