Complete New Book List
September, 2016
“Free Grace Theology”: 5 Ways It Diminishes the Gospel, by Wayne Grudem. Must the gospel message include a call for people to repent of their sins? Is evidence of a changed life an important indication of whether a person is truly born again? To both questions, Free Grace Theology says no. But in this book, Grudem shows why the Bible says yes to both. This book is endorsed by John MacArthur, J.I. Packer, Darrell Bock, Sam Storms, and Thomas Schreiner, among others.
Eight Women of Faith, by Michael A.G. Haykin Biographical sketches of Jane Grey, Margaret Baxter (wife of Richard), Anne Dutton, Sarah Edwards, Anne Steele, Esther Edwards Burr, Ann Judson, and Jane Austen.
Home: How Heaven and the New Earth Satisfy Our Deepest Longings, by Elyse Fitzpatrick. We were made for another world, and what we truly long for is heaven and the new earth. Chapters include Surprises in the Garden of New Life, Seeing the City Abraham Saw, His Kingdom Has Come, and others.
When Trouble Comes, by Phil Ryken. The president of Wheaton College discusses the dark period when he was despairing and near-suicidal. Then he looks at men and women in the Bible who suffered dark times (also on CD).
Union with Christ: The Way to Know and Enjoy God, by Rankin Wilbourne. A book on the practical aspects of a critically important doctrine. Union with Christ is the heart of the Christian faith. Tim Keller calls it “the best book for laypeople on this subject”. And the book was reviewed and recommended by Derek Rishmawy.
The Blessing of Humility: Walk Within Your Calling, by Jerry Bridges. His last book before his recent passing (also on CD).
Being There: How to Love Those Who Are Hurting, by Dave Furman. Caring for your own soul as you care for others.
Impossible People: Christian Courage and the Struggle for the Soul of Civilization, by Os Guinness. While the gospel is exploding throughout the Global South, Western civilization faces militant assaults from aggressive secularism and radical Islam. Will the church resist the seductive shaping power of advanced modernity? Guinness argues we must engage secularism and atheism in new ways, with discernment and fresh articulation of the faith.
Between the Cross and the Throne: The Book of Revelation, by Matthew Y. Emerson. A brief (88 page) overview of the themes and imagery of Revelation, by one of evangelicalism’s brightest up-and-coming scholars. Emerson follows the general approach of G.K. Beale and Richard Bauckham, and shows how Revelation does not just deal with the future, but the past and present as well.
The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Early Rural Enlightenment in Early America, by noted historian John Fea. Traces the short but fascinating life of Fithian, one of the most prolific diarists in early America. Mark Noll says this insightful book shows how Fithian pursued the values of a cosmopolitan Enlightenment, in concert with the values of Presbyterian Christianity and American patriotism. It also explores the loneliness of a young man at college away from home for the first time. Although Fithian was best known for his diary of 1773-1774, Fea goes beyond that to examine his inner life, his experiences in the early American backcountry, and his role as a Revolutionary War chaplain.
The Fourfold Gospel: A Theological Reading of the New Testament Portraits of Jesus, by Francis Watson. Simon Gathercole calls this “an excellent introductory book (combining) astute historical detective work and elegant and thoughtful exegesis”. Recently read and recommended by Michael Bird.
In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz. A compilation of the journalistic work of two men in Jewish ghettos during the early 1940s, painting a dramatic portrait of actual ghetto life. Ask in library for a copy of Trevin Wax’s review. Trevin says “it will make you weep with hope that such an atrocity will never happen again”, as it made him long for the return of Christ, the Jewish Messiah.
The Temple and the Tabernacle: A Study of God’s Dwelling Places from Genesis to Revelation, by J. Daniel Hays. Visually stunning and theologically rich. Also draws out insights for the church today.
The Synoptic Problem: Four Views, edited by Stanley E. Porter and Bryan R. Dyer. Few NT issues have provoked more debate over the past four centuries than the relation of the 3 synoptic gospels to each other. The four hypotheses presented are Two Source, Farrer, Two Gospel, and Orality and Memory.
Reformed Dogmatics, Abridged, by Herman Bavinck, edited by John Bolt. One-volume abridged edition of the 4 volume classic of Reformed theology.
The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity, edited by Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering. Examines the history of Trinitarian theology and reveals the Nicene unity still at work despite ecumenical and theological differences. 43 chapters with articles by top Trinitarian scholars including Scott Swain, Simon Gathercole, Lewis Ayres, and others.
Paul and the Trinity: Persons, Relations, and the Pauline Letters, by Wesley Hill. Shows how Trinitarian theologies illumine interpretive difficulties in the texts of Paul’s epistles.
Four Views on Hell, 2nd Edition, edited by Preston Sprinkle and Stanley N. Gundry. Revised edition with new contributors. The four views are eternal conscious torment (Denny Burk), terminal punishment (John Stackhouse), universalist, (Robin Parry), and purgatory (Jerry Walls).
Talking with Bereaved People: An Approach for Structured Sensitive Communication, by Dodie Graves. Dodie Boyland Graves is an ex-CBCer who has 20 years of counseling experience and currently is a bereavement service coordinator for a hospice in the UK. She uses a table of six elements to give guidance, showing how to move forward after you have offered condolences
COMMENTARIES: Exodus, by T. Desmond Alexander (Teach the Text)
BOOKS ON CD: When Trouble Comes, by Phil Ryken. The book described above on CD; The Blessing of Humility: Walk Within Your Calling, by Jerry Bridges. His last book before his passing.
ADULT FICTION: Ties That Bind and Fraying At the Edge, by Cindy Woodsmall (The Amish of Summer Grove #1,2); The Witnesses, by Robert Whitlow; Without Warning, by Lynette Eason (Elite Guardians #2); Sins of the Past, by Dee Henderson, Dani Pettrey, and Lynette Eason (includes three novellas).