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

More Thoughts on "How to Raise Boys That Read"

I’ve been thinking about the article I posted on facebook the other day. The article was about raising boys who read. Today, there is a growing gap between the proficiencies of boys and girls in reading ability. According to the author of the article, the main contributor to this trend is the over stimulation of boys with electronic media (e.g. video games). To combat this, parents and teachers often resort to the “gross” genre of books. These are the books that appeal to every boy’s fascination with all things disgusting, gross, and crass. The author makes the statement:

One obvious problem with the SweetFarts philosophy of education is that it is more suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals. If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn't go very far.

I agree with this statement…mostly. We must raise boys who can read well so that they can accurately handle the Word of God and lead the next generation of the Church. As I read through and interacted with the comments, though, something dawned on me. This article (or the well-meaning facebook friend who posts it) could leave a parent with a tremendous sense of guilt or even pride. Let it be said that neither guilt nor pride are healthy for those who find their identity in Christ. There is much wisdom in this article, but that statement has to be tempered. It must also be stated that raising your boys on fine literature is no guarantee that they will become good husbands, fathers, or professionals. Nor is letting boys play video games or not reading them Tolstoy a one-way ticket to Idiot-ville. There is a much greater force at play than our parenting. Don’t misunderstand me; parents have a high calling to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the LORD (Eph 6:4). But God’s sovereignty is much bigger than my effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) at parenting. God works through parents, but parents are not ultimate in determining the future of their children. I was never read good literature as a child. I played a lot of video games. Yet, by God’s grace, I’m a pretty good husband/father (I’m pretty sure Kim would back me up on this.). Let us never be lulled into thinking that a great education will make our sons more righteous. The Apostle Paul wrote, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). A steady diet of good literature will make your son more literate, certainly more intelligent, and probably less moronic, but it is no guarantee that he will be “good.”