The Apostle Paul closes his epistle to the Ephesians with a memorable exhortation: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Eph. 4:8-9).
Much of Christian cultural thought finds its source in these verses and rightfully so. However, more broadly, Christians need to take seriously Paul’s last two commands which button the whole passage together: “think about these things . . . . practice these things.” Thinking and practicing are not easy orders to follow.
The kind of thinking that Paul is commending is meditative and extensive contemplation. We need to think deeply and at length about that which is true, that which is beautiful, that which is honorable, and so on. By chewing over things in our minds we are able to digest them and take them into our beings. As God’s Word becomes a part of our being we begin practicing what we have “heard and seen,” applying it to every area of our lives.
The Christian life is not amenable to loafers and hangers-on. Rather, the holiness of the Holy Spirit indwelling each believer demands hard changes and long, dangerous spiritual journeys. We must be willing to do the hard work of thinking and allow the Holy Spirit to have His perfect work in applying His truth to every aspect of our lives.
The books recommended below demand reflection on a broad range of subjects and suggest meaningful practice for each of us. Three of these works concern the nature and importance of the penal substitution view of atonement. Some engage prevalent ethical dilemmas in our day while others deal with the vocation of pastors in the modern world. As always some of our recommendations approach theological and philosophical questions through the imagination. We hope that everyone can find a good read in this group and we hope that you’ll share your own recommendations in our comment section.
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Peter Berger, Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist: How to Explain the World without Becoming a Bore (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2011), 264 pages.
Since the 1960s Peter Berger has been one of the most consequential sociologists in the Western world. Such titles as The Sacred Canopy and The Heretical Imperative have been widely discussed, especially by those interested in the sociology of religion. However, the assumptions, relationships, and experiences behind Berger’s work are a fascinating complement to his books. Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist is something of a memoir of the famed sociologist’s career. Unlike most memoirs this one lacks some of the length and detail that the zealous reader would have liked to see, especially concerning the development of Berger’s own religious and theological views. Nevertheless, for those who want to understand religious sociology better and to equip themselves to engage in sustained cultural analysis in contemporary times, Berger’s memoir is an enjoyable entrée.
—Recommended by W. Jackson Watts
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John Chrysostom, Commentary on Galatians (A.D. 397), 116 pages.
While studying the book of Galatians with my youth group this spring, I was introduced to John Chrysostom’s wonderful commentary on the same text. Having read some of his homilies previously I expected excellence, and I found nothing less. He addresses each chapter with such thorough but flowing analysis that you enjoy each chapter while simultaneously digging deep into theological and doctrinal discussions.
Because the Arians were active during this time, Chrysostom takes the opportunity to develop and affirm the co-equality and co-substantiality of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Yet he also delves into the economy of the Trinity and thereby their distinct persons. Especially interesting to me was his understanding of the penal substitution view of atonement and what being called out of the world looks like. Chrysostom is not a Free Will Baptist and our differences do appear from time to time. Over all, though, he has left us a wonderful resource that is too neglected among Free Will Baptists.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus (Wheaton: Crossway, 2015), 271 pages.
Hundreds of books are published each year on pastoral ministry and leadership. Since many of these have little to offer beyond what the classics provide, I am thankful for the occasional book that speaks to where I and many other pastors are. In a distinct pastoral and poetic way, pastor and homiletics professor Zack Eswine places the pastorate in a uniquely human framework in The Imperfect Pastor. Eswine shows the importance of daily apprenticeship with Jesus, understanding our limitations, and joyfully embracing the simple, specific places where the Lord plants us and those entrusted to our care. All pastors need a clear perspective on ambition, success, limits, patience, and rest. This book offers moving insight into all of these. Keep following the Forum for my interview with Eswine, scheduled to post on August 1.
—Recommended by W. Jackson Watts
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James K. Hoffmeier and Dennis R. Magary, eds., Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?: A Critical Appraisal of Modern and Postmodern Approaches to Scripture (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 544 pages.
Historical critiques of Scripture are not a new development. Even before Benedict Spinoza, scholars and skeptics alike have attacked Scripture from all sides. However, some critical positions are new. Recently, some have tried to argue a “middle ground” between critical scholarship and evangelicalism. Of course, this approach is always dominated by one presupposition or another and the middle ground is rarely realized.
Hoffmeier and Magary’s volume is primarily a response to critical scholars who also want to maintain the label of evangelicalism. Incorporating the best modern Biblical academics, this volume is a tour de force for the reliability of the Scripture. Pastors and students alike will benefit from the exegetical and philosophical discussions in this excellent read.
—Recommended by Christopher Talbot
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Steve Jeffrey, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution (Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 372 pages.
The doctrine of penal substitution is heavily criticized by non-evangelicals today as being cosmic child abuse, an invention of the medieval era, too violent, and/or simply unbiblical. Even some evangelicals doubt the Biblical grounding of this doctrine. Pierced for Our Transgressions is a Herculean attempt to defend the doctrine of penal substitution on Biblical, theological, and historical grounds. The authors demonstrate that the Bible thoroughly affirms the doctrine and that many theologians throughout Church history have affirmed it. They also argue that a proper understanding of the Triune God and justice directly addresses critiques that the doctrine is abusive or violent.
Simply exploring some of the Biblical texts that affirm penal substitution will prove helpful for all Christians. For those interested in the affirmation of the doctrine in history, the authors’ plethora of citations maintaining penal substitution from the early church through the twentieth century will be of great help. In my analysis the authors attempt to cover too much territory, which might leave some readers wanting more in certain sections. However, I wholeheartedly recommend this work as a remarkably thorough defense of the Biblical doctrine of penal substitution.
—Recommended by Jesse Owens
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Matt de La Pena, Last Stop on Market Street (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015), 32 pages.
Each year the American Library Association gives out several awards for excellence in literature for children and young adults, including the prestigious Newbery medal. This honor is given to the best work of literature for children produced in the previous year and has traditionally been awarded to children’s novels. This year’s winner was rather controversial, though, and the problem was not with the work’s content—it was a picture book instead of a novel. Though this is certainly an odd move by the Newbery committee, this book has much to offer.
Last Stop on Market Street concerns an extraordinary bus trip a little boy and his grandmother take through the city one Sunday after church. Their destination, though, helps the little boy to understand what it means to be a light in dark places, to take the church outside of its four walls and into the world (to paraphrase Carol Reid). Regardless of your age and whether or not you have children, read this book and be reminded of this truth yourself.
—Recommended by Christa Hill
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Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman: A Novel (New York: Harper, 2016), 288 pages.
In recent days and weeks, tensions in race relations have been high. As Christians we must be informed and articulate in how we engage with the injustices and struggles or our society and her people. As I think about the problems of our current culture, I think of Harper Lee’s phenomenal book To Kill a Mockingbird, in which Atticus Finch beautifully portrays integrity and pursuit of justice during a time when it wasn’t socially popular.
For that reason Go Set a Watchmen may sound like a peculiar addition to this list. Many have criticized the work for making the honorable Atticus Finch out to be a clansman. Yet Watchmen offers its own social commentary on American culture and systemic racism that is independent of Mockingbird. While some may disagree on how Watchmen should be interpreted in light of the previous volume, it stands as a reminder for all of us to “pursue justice” (Deut. 16:20).
—Recommended by Christopher Talbot
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C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce: A Dream (1946; reprint, New York: Harper Collins, 2001), 146 pages.
The Great Divorce has become one of my favorite Lewis books, and I’ve come back to it multiple times for a fresh draught. This last time through I took my high school Sunday school class along with me. Lewis’s smooth allegorical writing provides a palatable and enjoyable introduction to his writing even for “non-readers” and young people.
This is a fictional story of people being offered the opportunity to leave Hell to reach Heaven as a way for us to understand better what our Christian lives should look like now. Lewis makes clear in the introduction that he is not making any doctrinal statement about the state of the soul after death or where it resides. As an allegory this story is meant to explain deep spiritual truths to us through an engaging tale—and that it does.
The Great Divorce offers a wonderful description of how men and women allow sins big and little to enslave them and keep them from embracing the radical change that salvation offers. This delightful short story is incredibly revealing and convicting but Lewis also shines forth the hope of freedom in Jesus Christ. I finish the book changed every time.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture 2nd Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 351 pages.
Few living Christian historians are as insightful as George M. Marsden. His classic work Fundamentalism and American Culture is surely no exception. Marsden explores the relationship between Fundamentalism and American culture by examining the rise of Fundamentalism and its interaction with Protestant liberalism at the turn of the twentieth century. According to Marsden Fundamentalism was never monolithic, even when Fundamentalists shared certain essential beliefs such as the inerrancy of Scripture. Rather, the movement was made up of Baptists, Presbyterians, and Holiness groups who held a variety of millennial views. But they were all opposed to the rise of Protestant liberalism.
One of Marsden’s more interesting points, one that Evangelicals today would do well to remember, is that Protestant Fundamentalists were just as, and maybe more, socially active than their Protestant liberal counterparts. With the rise of the social Gospel, Fundamentalists began to abandon social activity because of its increasing connection to a Gospel-less Protestant liberalism.
Marsden also skillfully shows how the dividing lines between Fundamentalists were quickly drawn, denominations were painfully split, and Fundamentalism was thoroughly mocked as rural and backward. A careful reading of this work sheds much light on Fundamentalism and its Evangelical heirs. In fact, it helps make much sense of Protestant Christianity today.
—Recommended by Jesse Owens
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Kenneth A. Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture with a New Introduction (Wheaton: Crossway, 1989, 2012), 224 pages.
Cultural commentator Kenneth A. Myers is perhaps best known as the host of Mars Hill Audio Journal and the author of All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes. When I read this book as a young college student more than ten years ago, it marked the first time that I had come across certain categories in cultural analysis. I had previously learned about the importance of purity, truth, and wisdom in church and personal devotions, but I had not thought deeply on aesthetics, beauty, excellence, knowledge, timelessness, and other like-virtues, and how they apply not simply to content but also to form. As Marshall McLuhan memorably stated, to some degree “the medium is the message.”
Because God’s Word tells us that we’re to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” these directives matter for our sanctification: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31); “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8); and “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father” (Col. 3:17).
I recently reread All God’s Children and have been reminded how impactful this book was for me. Some books we read, they’re good, and we enjoy them—and that’s good. Other books we read, and they’re good, but they shape us deeply. Some seed of truth gets buried in our hearts and our minds, and we find with time that they grow into a marvelous, fruitful plant. For me All God’s Children has been such a book.
Myers helps us to take “every thought captive,” form and content. He introduces the concept of culture, illuminates the assumptions behind different types of culture and cultural artifacts, and then asks whether those assumptions are good or bad for us as living souls. The conclusions are personally challenging—real toe bruisers—but they’re spiritually rewarding. This work has fundamentally shaped who I am, and it can likewise shape you.
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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Karen Swallow Prior, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (New York: T.S. Poetry Press, 2012), 199 pages.
We Christians are sometimes referred to as people of the Book because we seek to live our lives according to God’s Word. At the same time, though, Christians have recognized the power of the written word in general to shape our moral imaginations and forge our characters. In her delightful memoir, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, English professor at Liberty University, shares the profound impact that great works of literature have had on her life. Each chapter offers thoughtful reflections on works such as Milton’s Areopagitica, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Bronte’s Jane Eyre, and Donne’s metaphysical poetry. Throughout, Prior illustrates the need for all thinking people, especially Christians, to read. Prior’s style is thoughtful, engaging, and, simply put, delightful. This book would be a great addition to all readers’ libraries.
—Recommended by Christa Hill
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Benjamin T. Quinn & Walter R. Strickland II, Every Waking Hour: An Introduction to Work and Vocation for Christians (Bellingham: Lexham, 2016), 115 pages.
We spend the better portion of our days and even our lives working, but few consider how they can honor God through their vocations. In Every Waking Hour, Benjamin Quinn and Walter Strickland help the reader see the theological connection between what we do on Sunday morning in the pew and what we do Monday morning at our jobs. Naturally a Christian is involved through his or her work on a daily basis. This bridge allows those in the church to integrate faith and work. I recommend this book to anyone seeking to make Gospel applications to their everyday work.
—Recommended by Zachery Maloney
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John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove: IVP, 1986, 2006), 380 pages.
Some books grace many lists of most important books from a given period of time. John Stott’s The Cross of Christ is frequently listed on “Most Important Books” lists for the twentieth century—and for good reason!
John Stott (1921-2011) was an Anglican cleric, theologian, and author. In an age when some would tempt us to forsake the cross of Christ and a penal substitution view of the atonement, Stott encourages us to remain steadfast. He reminds us that Christ’s cross upon which He sacrificed Himself as a perfect Lamb before a holy God is central. Christ’s cross provides propitiation, redemption, justification, and reconciliation, while also producing Christian community, love, and sacrifice.
As Stott says in his chapter, “The Centrality of the Cross,” “The principal contributors to the New Testament believed in the centrality of the cross of Christ and believed that their conviction was derived from the mind of the Master himself” (45). I commend this volume to you.
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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Mark A. Yarhouse, Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in A Changing Culture (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2015), 161 pages.
Issues in the area of sexual ethics have progressed recently in our culture. These new changes lead us to ask, “What is the church doing to minister to those who feel the distress associated with gender identity?”
In Understanding Gender Dysphoria, Mark A. Yarhouse discusses questions of sexual identity, including transgenderism and gender dysphoria. Readers will also find much of Yarhouse’s advice to be applicable to other ministerial areas besides gender identity issues. For more information readers can revisit my review of the book from June 2016. The rapid pace with which many of these sexual issues have progressed is alarming. This is why I am so grateful for this book.
—Recommended by Zachery Maloney
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