Explorers have fallen on hard times in our culture. Perhaps we were so dazzled by the extent of our nineteenth- and twentieth-century feats that our capacity to wonder at the challenge of adventure has been short-circuited. More likely, though, most Americans, who are soaked in luxury and decadence, have lost the will to shed their cushy lifestyles and embrace the sacrifice of exploration. For, to survive perilous journey, we must jettison our excess accoutrements. The more extreme the trek, the more we must leave behind.
Reading allows us to explore vast worlds far beyond our kin. A good book, regardless of length or subject, should force us to leave intellectual and cultural detritus in our wake just as the mid-nineteenth-century Franklin arctic expedition scattered silver spoons, cut-glass goblets, and china place settings across the ice. They force us to rethink everything—or at least one thing in its totality.
Below are some of our favorite odysseys from the past quarter. We recommend them to you, but we do not promise your safety. If you have a good suggestion for reading, please leave us a short review in the comment section.
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Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley, Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), 224 pages.
A colleague gave me this book just before my recent transition to serving as a chaplain with hospice care. Final Gifts has helped me develop my ability to provide comfort to patients and families at the end of life. Many report a deep sense of helplessness and inadequacy when they are caring for someone at the end of their life. What is the patient feeling? How is each member of the family responding to his or her grief? How should you, as a caregiver, respond to the needs and questions that arise?
As hospice nurses, Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their unique experiences with patients and families at the end of life and give valuable advice in navigating common concerns and questions. Most likely, if you are involved in pastoral ministry, you will experience what it looks like to provide comfort during times of death and dying. For this reason, I highly recommend this resource to every ministry leader and to anyone that has a loved one suffering from a terminal illness.
—Recommended by Zachery Maloney
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Adam J. Howell, Benjamin L. Merkle, and Robert L. Plummer, Hebrew for Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Reviving Biblical Hebrew (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), 208 pages.
Hebrew for Life is an excellent resource for past, present, or future students of Biblical Hebrew. Written in a way that sparks the interest of those who are just beginning or currently studying Biblical Hebrew, the book highlights the language’s importance and significance for interpreting the Old Testament. Not much helps a student of the biblical languages more than helping them realize the practical benefits of the endeavor, and this book highlights those benefits. Thus the book is especially encouraging for those who are just getting started.
On the other hand, keeping up with the biblical languages requires much discipline. When pastors leave seminary or Bible college, it is not uncommon for them to let their languages slip. Hebrew for Life is also helpful to these former students of the language that need help reviving their skills. I highly recommend this book for students at any stage of their Biblical Hebrew journey.
—Recommended by Zach Vickery
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Andy Johnson, Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global (Wheaton: Crossway, 2017), 128 pages.
I often ponder how God uses the ordinary means of grace by utilizing local church members in reaching the nations. We may never realize the significant impact that our two percent of undesignated giving each month or our weekly Sunday school offerings makes for missionaries halfway across the globe. In his brief book, Missions, Andy Johnson helps guide ministry leaders to see their role in spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. Johnson offers helpful feedback to churches on sending and supporting missionaries. The book covers specific ways to support missionaries through generous financial support, regular communication, and even sending short-term help. I found Johnson’s chapter on engaging the nations by other means to be freeing, because he explains helpful ways to start global mission work right where we live. I leave it to you, the reader, to discover what those other means are.
—Recommended by Zachery Maloney
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Benjamin L. Merkle and Robert L. Plummer, Beginning with New Testament Greek: An Introductory Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the New Testament (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020), 278 pages.
For many years, many wonderful beginning Greek grammar books have been published. But Benjamin L. Merkle and Robert L. Plummer have recently published a new classic. Beginning with New Testament Greek takes advantage of new advances in technology that were unavailable for previous grammars. They have incorporated many web links throughout the book that point the student to online resources, including mini-lectures and online vocabulary study tools.
Merkle and Plummer also include the most recent scholarship on issues pertaining to the verbal system like verbal aspect, discourse functions of tenses, and the middle voice. They also include many passages from the Greek New Testament in the chapter exercises, which helps new students build confidence. With its well-written style, pedagogical method, and online companion tools, this book will likely become the new standard for elementary Greek in most Christian colleges and seminaries.
—Recommended by Zach Vickery
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Ronald H. Nash, The Meaning of History (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1998), 181 pages.
Ronald Nash was a conservative, evangelical intellectual of the late twentieth century who taught at Western Kentucky University, Reformed Theological Seminary, and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for over three decades. In this short historiographical book, Nash brings his clear and biblical thinking to bear on a subject which was under attack in the late 1990s and is even more so now. Nash clearly and concisely explains the theological underpinnings of the historical discipline before giving a helpful overview of the major historical thinkers in the West since Herodotus. His treatment of Marxist and neo-Marxist historiography elucidates many of the assumptions that undergird the revisionist ideology that has led to tearing down monuments and renaming streets in major cities across the United States. I can think of few books that would be more helpful to each of us in this moment of social upheaval.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1971), 214 pages.
When I ordered Edith Schaeffer’s book earlier this year, I had hoped it would give me some practical wisdom for running our home. Thankfully, I was mistaken. I find it poorly titled, leading it to attract only the attention of women, when truly her audience is any Christian. Schaeffer takes seriously that God made us as creative beings in the image of our Creator God. Over the course of the book, she works through a dozen areas of every-day life (music, food, gardening, drama, etc.) where all Christians can find a way to reflect God’s creativity and express their own God-given personality.
In an age of expertise and celebrity, it can be easy to shirk our calling to creativity, thinking that we do not have the time or resources amid our everyday “drudgery.” Schaeffer encourages the reader through many stories, examples, and ideas that it is exactly in this work-a-day circumstance that we can bless others, ourselves, and God with creative endeavors. If COVID-19 restrictions have bored you, The Hidden Art of Homemaking is a great book to inspire some creative enterprise in your own home.
—Recommended by Rebekah Zuniga
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Roger Scruton, Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously about the Planet (London: Atlantic, 2012), 457 pages.
The recently deceased Sir Roger Scruton was a preeminent English philosopher who focused his many books and newspaper articles on the subjects of classical conservatism, aesthetics, and political philosophy. Green Philosophy is an excellent and accessible reflection on the importance of the environment. Scruton first considers the climate change movement, analyzing its claims and proposed solutions to manmade environmental destruction. Scruton concludes that whether or not the climatologists and radical environmentalists are right about manmade climate change, we all have a duty to care for the environment. However, the globalist and elitist solutions usually proposed are destructive to individual liberty, the nation state, and, as he convincingly argues, ultimately the environment itself. Drawing from classical conservative philosophy, Scruton contends that our love of home (oikophilia) is the most important motivation for caring for the environment. Thus the local community and the nation state are the only hope for curbing our proclivity for environmental destruction.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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Gene Edward Veith, Jr. and Matthew P. Ristuccia, Imagination Redeemed: Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015), 176 pages.
We rightfully think of man as a being of mind, affection, and action, but we neglect to see him as a being of imagination. Imagination Redeemed explores this latter component of man. The imagination is an aspect of man’s mind but yet also distinct from reason in the way that we commonly conceive of it. As Veith explains, “[T]he imagination often provides the subject matter and the impetus for our reasoning, our feelings, and our choices” (14).
These authors explain that we use our imagination much more than we suppose. Both reading God’s Word and obeying it requires the imagination. For example, over and again, the Scriptures use images to describe God, e.g., bridegroom, father, king, lord, priest, prophet, rock, and shepherd. Similarly, obedience to the creation mandate requires imagination, which man uses in his process of planning and inventing and building and creating. Neither is the life of sanctification possible without an active use of the imagination, whether we are talking about neighbor-love or about rejoicing, weeping, burden-bearing, and/or suffering with one another, which all require us to imagine ourselves in the shoes of another.
In other words, imagination regards much more than the arts or aesthetics or fiction; instead, it is wrapped into our very God-created nature. In short, Imagination Redeemed is a fascinating book, partly because it discusses a topic that does not receive ample attention. It is enjoyable, intriguing, and easy-to-read.
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels? (Wheaton: Crossway, 2018), 160 pages.
Several years back, Peter J. Williams published the helpful Can We Trust the Gospels? Williams is the Warden of Tyndale House, as well as a faculty member at the University of Cambridge. The book’s premise is fairly straightforward, introducing lay readers to some of the issues surrounding the veracity and trustworthiness of the Gospels. Each of its eight chapters addresses a key question, such as “Has the text changed?” or “What about contradictions?” Whether the reader is a non-Christian or not, the book serves as a helpful introduction to these issues. And, for the Christian reader, it will strengthen your confidence in the revealed Word of God. In the end, Williams affirms that the Gospels are trustworthy, and perhaps even more trustworthy than you might have expected or realized.
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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P. G. Wodehouse, Leave it to Psmith (New York: Vintage, 2005), 328 pages.
Originally published in 1923, Wodehouse’s final (though stand-alone) book featuring the immaculate, verbose, lovable Psmith (the “P” is silent) feels like a hilarious mixture of Shakespearean comedy, crime novel, and clever family sitcom. A perfect set of awkward coincidences places Psmith under another man’s name at the illustrious Blandings Castle, where jewels are stolen, love is kindled, crooks are caught, and a job (not having to do with fish) is procured. The witty cracks from Psmith, the ridiculous misunderstandings between Lord Emsworth and the “efficient” Baxter, and the perfect, unforeseen plot-turns had me smiling and giggling awkwardly to myself the whole way. If you need a break from headier reading, Wodehouse provides you with some good, clean fun perfect for the job. I highly recommend the audio version read by Jonathan Cecil.
—Recommended by Rebekah Zuniga
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