As summer begins to draw toward its conclusion, we would like to share some good reads we discovered over the past few months. These selections represent a wide array of topics that we think will interest you. Some selections will be great for personal reading, others for family time. Most of all, we think they will broaden your understanding of God’s creation and His work in it because they have had that result in our lives. Please leave us your favorite reads in the comment section.
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Voddie Baucham, Jr., Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 255 pages.
This summer I read through Voddie Baucham’s wonderful Family Driven Faith for a second time with some young fathers from my church. Baucham calls families to submit every area of their communal lives to God. He shows from Scripture and empirical evidence the essential role that parents play in the spiritual development of their children. When parents attempt to off-load their responsibilities to youth ministers, church programs, and Sunday school teachers, the results are disastrous for all involved.
With loving care for his readers, Baucham describes in bald terms the idolatry we find in American homes, even in most evangelical homes, and calls us to bring our whole family life under the lordship of Christ. He also offers excellent practical instruction about ordering our family lives around God, disciplining children, and building churches that equip families for spiritual warfare. Baucham even provides some helpful notes for the essential role that grandparents play in the spiritual formation of adult children and young grandchildren.
My second time through this book I was reminded of how hearing Baucham speak at Welch College years ago inspired me and my new bride to commit to daily family worship and how we applied other aspects of this book to our family life as God began providing us with children. Nearly fifteen years later, our family is in the middle of homeschooling and preparing for our oldest to enter adolescence. I was struck with nostalgia for the years that have passed, but I was also strengthened and encouraged by Baucham’s full-throated advocacy for home education and single-income parenting. On the other hand, I was convicted about areas of laxity that have crept into my spiritual leadership over my family. This read is a wonderful one for men and women preparing for marriage or childrearing, but it is also an excellent guide for those who are in the trenches of raising children now.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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Wendell Berry, This Day: Sabbath Poems Collected & New, 1979–2013 (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2013), 404 pages.
Wendell Berry, no stranger to HSF’s recommended reading lists, has been seemingly tireless in writing and publishing for more than sixty years. However, this wonderful collection of poems reveal that his work has been sustained by intentional rest, according to God’s design, on the Sabbath. Sabbath rest helps us to “understand that the providence or the productivity of the living world, the most essential work, continues while we rest. This work is entirely independent of our work, and is far more complex and wonderful than any work we have ever done or will ever do” (xxii). In other words, Sabbath rest squashes the idolatrous notion that our work is ultimate and reminds us that our work exists by and for God, the One Whose work is ultimate. Perhaps no lines capture this liberating sentiment more adroitly than the following:
“Your Sabbath, Lord, thus keeps us by
Your will, not ours. And it is fit
Our only choice should be to die
Into that rest, or out of it” (9).
The hundreds of poems contained in this volume, most of which reflect the agrarian life of their author in central Kentucky, are sure to give you a deeper appreciation for the Sabbath, for creation, and for re-creation—all gifts of our Creator. Read them slowly on Sundays for the most impact.
—Recommended by Joshua R. Colson
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Laura Doyle,The Empowered Wife: Six Surprising Secrets for Attracting Your Husband’s Time, Affection, and Attention (Dallas: BenBella, 2023), 280 pages.
Do not let the title deter you! This edition is revised from Doyle’s previous two works with equally egregious titles, The Surrendered Wife and First, Kill All the Marriage Counselors. When a trusted Christian homeschooling podcast did a short series on this book by Laura Doyle, I picked it up for myself and was amazed to find so much practical advice that aligned with Biblical truth, even though the author is not a professing Christian and does not base her argument on the Scriptures.
When Doyle’s marriage was on the brink of divorce, she decided to quit going to (secular) marriage counseling, which seemed to be making things worse, and decided to talk to older women who had happy marriages. These women gave her advice like, “Stop trying to control your husband”; “Respect how your husband makes his own decisions and don’t offer advice”; and “Show gratitude every day—even for the little things!” Doyle discovered that by changing her own attitudes and actions alone, she was able to bring about a whole atmosphere shift for her marriage.
Although many of the truths presented in the book can be found in some Christian marriage books and certainly would not replace a basic Scriptural understanding of marriage, I found Doyle’s perspective and advice refreshing; after all, I knew she would not be getting any accolades from her secular audience for telling wives to respect their husbands in order to fix their marriages! Doyle shares these “intimacy skills,” as she calls her six steps, because they healed her marriage, and she is passionate about sharing these truths with others in her mission to “end world divorce.” I highly recommend this book to wives that already have a good grasp of what the Bible teaches about marriage but need some practical help in what that can look like lived out in day-to-day life.
—Recommended by Rebekah Zuñiga
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Elisabeth Elliot, Suffering Is Never for Nothing (Brentwood, TN: B&H, 2019), 108 pages.
Jim and Elisabeth Elliot were married in 1953 after five years of a somewhat agonizing courtship. After only three years of marriage, Jim was killed on the mission field in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956. Elisabeth was now a widow and a single mother. Then Elisabeth’s second husband died in 1973 after a brief four years of marriage. Such a life acquainted Elliot well with suffering.
Suffering is Never for Nothing is a collection of talks that editor Jennifer Lyell compiled into this book with very minor editing. The talks have theological depth but are immensely practical. I want to provide just a few insights from the book. First, Elliot’s definition of suffering is intriguing: “having what you don’t want and wanting what you don’t have . . . which covers the whole gamut from the smallest things like a toothache or taxes or a tumor” (60). But she would add to this understanding that suffering is at the very heart of Christianity. Quoting Richard Baxter, she notes, “Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before” (30). As Elliot was fond of saying, “The cross is the gateway to joy” (xiii). Second, Elliot’s practical advice for sufferers is very helpful. One phrase that she repeats throughout the book is to “Do the next thing” (85). Elliot knew from experience that suffering could be bewildering. In such situations, all you can do is the next thing. Whether that is sweeping the floors, mowing the lawn, folding the laundry, or completing some work, simply do the next thing. Third, Elliot understood suffering as a potential offering back to God. “Everything,” Elliot writes, “is protentional material for sacrifice” (84). Referencing Psalm 51:17, Elliot contends, “I’m sure some of you have a broken spirit, a broken heart. God will not despise that offering if that’s all you have to offer” (80).
I highly recommend this immensely practical work written by someone who knew the subject well.
—Recommended by Jesse Owens
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Josh Hawley, Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs (New York: Regnery, 2023), 256 pages.
Josh Hawley is a U. S. Senator from the state of Missouri who has written a book you could read in a small group at church. It is written at a lay-level, and it is deeply Biblical. It is divided into two parts and ten chapters. Part one concerns man’s mission, battle, and promise, corresponding roughly to creation, sin, and redemption. Part two considers man’s role as husband, father, warrior, builder, priest, and king, which he correlates to different Biblical models, including Abraham, Joshua, David, and Solomon. In an age that treats the category of gender as fluid while simultaneously downplaying masculinity, this book is a good presentation of a Biblical model of manhood.
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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Paul Johnson, Jesus: A Biography from a Believer (New York: Penguin, 2010), 256 pages.
The late British historian Paul Johnson is well known for his staunch neo-conservative cultural and historical analysis in wonderful books such as Modern Times (1983), The Birth of the Modern (1992), and A History of the American People (1997), all of which I recommend.
However, in this post, I am giving a more qualified recommendation for his lesser-known biography of Jesus. Johnson was a Roman Catholic, but he also adhered to Darwinian evolution and at least flirted with the idea of female ordination to the priesthood. So, his commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture falls short of ideal in several ways. With that significant caveat in place, I found Jesus: A Biography from a Believer to be a delightful read.
Johnson deftly weaves together Gospel passages with historical context and analysis in a flowing style that is pleasing and intellectually stimulating. He explores the social, cultural, and political contours of Judean life and thoughtfully brings them to bear on his understanding of Christ’s actions and teachings. For me, Johnson’s biography offered a different perspective on the central figure of Scripture. He helped me to see familiar scenes, conversations, and sermons in a new light, even though I did not always agree with Johnson’s analysis. For these reasons, I recommend Jesus: A Biography from a Believer to discerning readers who are well-grounded in the faith and have a solid grasp on Scripture.
—Recommended by Phillip T. Morgan
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George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and The Princess and Curdie (1883), Puffin Classics (London, U.K.: Puffin, 2016), 497 pages.
I had not read these books for a dozen years until our life group read them over the summer. These books, written by George MacDonald, are truly delightful. Reminiscent of The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia in their form, The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie tell the story of the princess Irene and the coalminer Curdie. It explores themes relating to masculine and feminine ideals, class conflict, and care for outcasts in a manner that is enjoyable in its form and spiritually edifying in its tone. I cannot express the richness with which MacDonald uses language—it is no wonder that C. S. Lewis remarked that his mind was baptized when he read MacDonald (referring to a different book), although the rest of him would take longer. In the coming months, I intend to publish some essays exploring these books further.
—Recommended by Matthew Steven Bracey
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Lindsey Medenwaldt, Bridge Building Apologetics: How to Get Along Even When We Disagree (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2024), 266 pages.
Apologetics, if we are not careful, can become all about arguments: an argument from design, an argument from morality, and so on. Of course, apologetics is more than arguments. It is a defense but one that is offered, according to the apostle Peter, with gentleness and respect. There has been a small wave of books recently that have focused more on the posture of apologetics, such as Scott Elephant’s book The Faithful Apologist. Lindsey Medenwaldt’s Bridge Building Apologetics is another excellent work exploring this aspect of apologetics. In a time when social media and YouTube seem to bring out the worst in apologetics, Lindsey’s book encourages defenders of the faith to build bridges rather than burn them. Moreover, she seems to practice what she teaches here. Encouraging readers to build upon substantive friendship and truth is helpful instruction. If you are looking for a book to help your “posture” in apologetics, I think this one is a good place to start.
—Recommended by Christopher Talbot
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Andrew Peterson,The Wingfeather Saga (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook, 2020), 1520 pages.
While I already had a deep appreciation for Andrew Peterson as a musician—his Easter and Christmas albums are quickly becoming a family tradition—this series for middle-grade children and children at heart has made me an even bigger fan. The series chronicles the adventures of the three Igiby children in the fantastic land of Aerwiar—a land of magical creatures and legends but under the terror-filled rule of Gnag the Nameless and his minions, the Fangs of Dang. The Igiby children eventually learn that they may hold the key to freeing the land from Gnag’s rule but doing so will take courage, wisdom, and sacrifice.
While the first book of the four in the series begins as a fun and funny romp in world-building, the storyline quickly progresses and matures into a polyphony on the themes of grace, sacrifice, and identity. Peterson does not shy away from portraying evil in the starkest—and at times quite frightening—terms, but he also shows that evil from the outside is only one enemy; it is the evil that comes from our own hearts that can truly destroy us. However, he also paints a beautiful picture of how grace redeems, transforms, and transposes our failures and brokenness into beauty and blessing, as he expresses in a different place:
And when the world is new again
And the children of the King
Are ancient in their youth again,
Well maybe it’s a better thing
To be more than merely innocent
But to be broken, then redeemed by love;
Maybe this old world is bent
But it’s waking up.[1]
I highly recommend this book for your own reading or for a family read aloud for children around eight years old and older.
—Recommended by Rebekah Zuñiga
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Benjamin C. F. Shaw, Trustworthy: Thirteen Arguments for the Reliability of the New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2024), 142 pages.
As a quick caveat to this book recommendation, I do not advocate for many works of evidentialist apologetics. While space does not permit me to explain at length here, I think there are some philosophical difficulties that one faces when seeking to establish something like Gary Habermas’s minimal facts approach. For such reasons, I generally lean more towards a soft-presuppositional or verificational approach in my own apologetics. That said, non-Christians and Christians alike need good reasons for trusting the Scriptures. We have both metaphysical and epistemological reasons that are theologically orthodox and philosophically sound for trusting in the Bible. But we also have plain evidentiary reasons, some of which I have found helpful both as a young Christian and now, for trusting the Bible.
Ben Shaw’s new book Trustworthy provides a nice primer to the thirteen premier arguments for trusting the New Testament from an evidentialist approach. Readers may be very aware of (e.g., textual evidence) of some of these arguments but may find that others are new (e.g., undesigned coincidences). Shaw’s book is a short introduction, not an exhaustive examination of the arguments, but it is an excellent resource.
—Recommended by Christopher Talbot
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J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (New York: Harper Collins, 2016), 272 pages.
Former President and current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump recently selected freshman Ohio Senator J. D. Vance as his running mate in the 2024 election. Vance, a former Marine and graduate of Yale Law School, first came to fame with the publication of Hillbilly Elegy in which he recounts his life’s journey from an economically depressed area of Southern Ohio to the graduation dais at Yale. The book was such a hit that it was turned into a movie directed by Ron Howard, starring Amy Adams, Glenn Close, and Gabriel Basso.
Vance, like many other folks in the “rust belt” states, has roots in the hills of greater Appalachia. His grandparents moved from those hills for work in the middle of the last century, but many of the good-paying, manufacturing jobs for which folks like them came are no more. As a result, many people in these areas struggle economically and have developed feelings of hopelessness and helplessness that are only exacerbated by existing cultural factors. By chronicling his own experiences with broken homes, drug addiction, family strife, financial woes, and more, Vance hopes to help people understand “what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it . . . to understand what happens in the lives of the poor and the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children” (2).
Whether you agree or disagree with Vance’s political prescriptions for the societal maladies that he discusses in his memoirs, you cannot help but be drawn into his story. If nothing else, reading Vance’s memoir will help you understand the man who is now running to be Vice President as well as a significant section of the population that supports him.
—Recommended by Joshua R. Colson
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Ellen Vaughn, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2020), 298 pages.
“He is no fool who gives away that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” I first heard that famous quote from Jim Elliot as a high school student during a youth worship service. I was deeply moved by Jim’s words but even more by the account of his life. Jim, along with a group of young missionaries, sought to take the gospel to an unreached group of Ecuadorian Indians. But they were brutally killed by those to whom they sought to minister before they made much gospel progress.
Much of what we know about Jim comes from the accounts provided by his wife of only three years, Elisabeth. Elisabeth’s story and commitment to missions are moving on their own. She was a missionary before she married Jim. She was a missionary after Jim was killed, keeping the work in Ecuador going as a widow and a single mother.
Ellen Vaughn’s Becoming Elisabeth Elliot provides rich insight into the early life of Elisabeth as Vaughn sympathetically recounts these complex early years. Elisabeth grew up in a missionary home, was deeply pious, committed to missions, and clearly quite intelligent. Vaughn details Elliot’s spiritual maturation, her relationship with her family, her rocky early relationship with Jim’s family, and the prolonged courtship of Jim and Elisabeth with sympathy and honesty. Vaughn’s most insightful (and inspiring) work is drawn from Elisabeth’s voluminous diaries, which adds greater texture and detail to the account of her life.In all, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot gives the reader a deeper appreciation for a remarkable Christian woman, a missionary, a widow, and a gifted writer and speaker, within the context of the burgeoning evangelical missions movement of the mid-twentieth century. This biography is excellent.
—Recommended by Jesse Owens
[1] Andrew Peterson, “Don’t You Want to Thank Someone,” from Light for the Lost Boy (Centricity Music, 2012).
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