Book Review

Books for Christmas and New Year

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There are less than 10 days to Christmas, but if you have two day shipping and still need some gift ideas you can get these in time. Or, if you are wanting to ‘start the New Year right’, I have some devotional recommendations for you. Click on the links below to read my review of each book and get more information.

First, here are three short daily devotionals for you to start off the New Year:

Psalms in 30 Days, probably not better way to start a New Year or new devotion time than the Psalms.

Daily Liturgy, this is a great 40 day devotional that is not tied to any season

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, This a a Lent devotional, so you’ll have more time to order or read something first.

Or, if reading isn’t really your thing (thanks for visiting was is not basically a book review site) or you don’t have the time right now, or need something to fill a commute; try the Tune My Heart podcast. This is a 30 day liturgy and prayer podcast, all of them are less than 10 minutes and are a great way to start your morning.

If you are looking for something related by not a devotional, try Disciplines of a Godly Man, which is a very popular book and now my most popular post of all time.

If you are looking for some good non-fiction, Why Nations Fail, has been in the news recently as the authors have won this years Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Finally, four more books that I haven’t reviewed yet, but are worth mentioning:

Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves; this is probably my favorite book I’ve read this year. The subtitle is basically accurate, if any of it interest you, get this book. The final chapter is a little long and meandering, but the rest of the book is great.

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution; I’ve been meaning to write a review of this for years, but it is so impactful, I think it’ll be a multi-part review or maybe something different all together. I think very few books explain parts of our current cultural moment like this. Just a head up, it isn’t too long, maybe 400 or so, but it is on the more difficult side for reading. He interacts often with past philosophers and theologians. Don’t let that be a deterrent, just know if you don’t have a lot of familiarity, it can seem like a slog at parts.

Dune; this is one of my all time favorite works of fiction. The second movie is out, both movies are based on the one namesake book. If you liked the movies, you should check out the book. Or you haven’t done either, it’s worth grabbing to see what the hype is about.

A Christmas Carol; also one of my all time favorites, and I had to throw in some sort of Christmas book. I read this just about every year and watch two or three versions of the movie, the Muppets probably being my current favorite. Some of the scenes/dialogue are taking exactly from the book, which is something like 60 pages. So, you can rip through this in an afternoon if you were so inclined.

Hope this helps with last minute Christmas ideas, or books to start in January. I don’t think I’ve made a post quite like this, so let me know if it was useful or not.

Book Review: Daily Liturgy Devotional

/ J.K. / 1 Comment

Rating: Must read

Level: About 4-5 pages per day, easily less than 15 minutes depending on your own prayers; mostly easy read, the ‘concise commentary’ is accessibly to all, but some of the prayer book style language may be unfamiliar to many.

Summary

This is a slightly different take on the 30/40/season prayer book, which adds some nice variety while also making it a great reference book for the future. The book is broken into eight thematic sections of five days each – The Gospel, Faith, Love, Hope, Wisdom, Holiness, Perseverance, and Witness. There is also an intro which is relatively helpful (at least explains the few Latin words), but is also the dedication, which is slightly odd, but not really a big deal. The book concludes with footnotes and a further reading section.

Each day includes prayer, a scripture reading, followed with a ‘concise commentary’, a memory verse, prayer prompt, a hymn, and then a space to write thoughts/reflections (according to the author; there are no lined or sectioned areas). On the first of the five days for each section, you will pray the Gloria Patri, Agnus Dei, and Lord’s Prayer. The other four days follow the adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication model. Each section has a recommendation on what to pray as well as a prayer from the Bible or someone in history.

My Thoughts

Two criticisms out of the way first, it slightly bugs me that he didn’t do faith, hope, love. Second, and this is more for Crossway, they need to go ahead and just make an entire modern version of the Book of Common Prayer (I know the ACNA did one in 2019, and it is great, but I’m talking a brand new version, not just revisions). Especially the Psalter, which I’ve heard rumors for years that Crossway was working on. If anyone had the time, money, focus of mission, and theology to do this, it’d be them.

That’s it, those are my critiques. I’ve mentioned it my other reviews of these Family Liturgy’s or Seasonal (church calendar, not meteorological) Liturgy’s and especially the Psalm’s devotionals, this prayer book revival trend for us Evangelical Protestants has been incredible. I like everything about it. Learning common/ancient prayers, the modeling of prayers, the liturgical nature, it is all good.

The devotionals I grew up on, the one line of scripture and then a paragraph of commentary have a time and a place; especially new or immature believers, or those in especially busy times. However, the deeper more engaged, broader focused liturgy’s are what we really need more often. We need more depth, more prayer, more words from those who came before us. There is a reason our Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and other Protestant brother’s and sister’s never abandoned this model. The rediscovery and growth in prayer book for conservative Protestants has been wonderful. I think this is especially true for those second generation ‘independent’ or ‘non-denom’ mega church style believers.

This book is great in that it has those eight themes to study for a week (five days, but if you are like me, weekends are hectic, and I use this as a week day devotional). The mix of biblical and historical prayers is solid and helps to teach you ways to pray. The strange part was trying to sing the hymns. I tried to sing out loud by myself, but couldn’t often bring myself to do it. If that isn’t an issue for you, great. However, it is a good reminder that this works wonderfully as a family devotion/worship.

If you a new to the prayer book style or have read all of them, this is still one to get. Probably one of the better intros to the style, if you are new. If you are familiar, this a good one, especially with the themes and the slight change to prayer structures. All around, this a must read/have for those looking to expand or continue a serious prayer life. Also, this is being published Dec 2, 2024, so go buy it and start it the first week of the new year, since you will probably have the goal of increasing your devotional in 2025.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: On the Christian Life

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Rating: Must Read

Level: Very Short (<75 pages), relatively easy (editor uses footnotes for lesser known classical figures)

Summary

Where this book comes from is a little confusing, but it is an excerpt from Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, which is sold in modern times as two large books. However, Calvin wrote it in four section, with 80 ‘books’, which are essentially chapters. On the Christian Life comes from section three, books/chapters 6 through 10. This is not the first time this portion has been sold separately, variously titled the Little/Gold Book on the (Mature) Christian Life. The contents of the book are meant to be devotional and how we should live lives as Christians. 

The editor has chosen to keep the chapter numbers, instead of ‘translating’ them as well, so the book starts on Chapter 6 – The Life of the Christian, 7 – The Sum of Christian Life, in Which we Discuss the Denial of Ourselves, 8 – Bearing the Cross, 9 – Meditation on the Future Life, 10 – How We Must Use the Present Life and Its Means of Support. This book also includes the editors introduction which explains a little more about Calvin and the history of this book. The table of contents also list ‘How We Obtain Grace’ as if there is Calvin’s intro, but that is just a title page and comes form the name of Section three. However, ‘The Life of the Christian’ (Chapter 6, or the first pages of this book) functions somewhat like an intro from Calvin. 

My Thoughts

This may just be a pet peeve of mine, but I really don’t like keeping the chapter number as they are in the larger book. Surely I’m overthinking it, but having lead Bible/book studies for a long time, having names not match chronology seems confusing. While I’m nit-picking, small books like this often work better in leather (real or fake), especially to be read devotionally. Purely a preference of mine, but figured I’d through it out there in case Crossway reads this. 

This is a really a great intro to Calvin. For a man famous for publishing/writing, we really don’t have much from him. Technically, we wrote commentaries on (almost?) all of the Bible, but those don’t get much popular press. He wrote the Institutes which many people know, but few read. This makes him sound scholarly, as he was, but he was also a pastor with a heart for devotion, and that comes out in this book. A short, cheap, easy to read book is a good way for anyone to learn about any author. The Institutes are far more accessible than you may think, and this excerpt does a good job showcasing that. 

It is a newer translation, which I found very readable. I believe Crossway published this first, because a wholesale new translation is forthcoming. The editor has also added helpful footnotes for modern audiences, as well as keeping Calvin’s original ones. There were a few interesting translation choices, where they would footnote a word and then explain the original in a footnote, and it seemed to me that the original should have stayed or even made more sense sometimes. That being said, I don’t know all the context, and the newer word probably conveyed the original meaning better. Just thought it was interesting, as most translating is. 

As far as the content, the chapter on self denial is worth the book on it’s own. I can’t imagine something that present day American Christians need to hear more. As with the rest of society, we deny ourselves nothing and attempt to fulfil all our want in the pursuit of happiness. Bearing the cross is a good reminder that there are Christian who suffer in the world. The final two chapters blur together somewhat in my reading, but again I think it is something lost on Christians today, that focus on the future. As in, New Creation/New Life, not a few years in the future. It is difficult to not think of only the hear and now. 

This little book has been essential reading for a few hundred years now. I think it is something every Christian should read. 

 

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

 

Book Review: Biblical Typology

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Rating: If you are looking for something

Level: Short at just over 200 pages; medium to difficult, knowledge of literature helpful, written somewhat academically.

Summary

Typology might be an uncommon word for most people, but you may have heard that there are ‘types and shadows’ in the Old Testament that point to or are about Christ. In fact, that is the first part of the sub-title: How the Old Testament Points to Christ, (which the book does, but the ‘His Church, and the Consummation’ less so). This is the act of looking all people or events in the Old Testament, and seeing if they relate to Christ or his work. 

The book is broken into seven part, with multiple chapters in each: Introducing the Challenge of the Old Testament – Understanding the Old Testament, Interpreting Noah’s Flood, The Bronze Serpent; A Framework for Typological Interpretation – Basic Theology for Typology, The Shape of Our Response to the Bible; Introducing the Practice of Typological Interpretation – Introducing Clowney’s Triangle, The Tabernacle and Its Furniture, Clowney’s Triangle for the Episodes in Genesis, Underlying Principles for Clowney’s Triangle; Deeping Our Understanding of Typological Meaning – Symbolism and Theophany, The Nature of Meaning, Three Complementary Perspectives on Meaning, The Theme of Mediation, Comparing Types with Other Relations Between Meanings, Analogies, Symbols, Types, and Prophecies as Perspectives, Allegorization; Enrichment of Clowney’s Triangle – Enhancements to Clowney’s Triangle, Multifaceted Meaning, Boundaries for Typological Interpretation, Maxims for Typological Interpretation; The Practice of Typological Interpretation; Types in Mosaic Administration, Types in Redemptive Plots, Types in Creation, Types in the Earthly Life of Jesus; Interpretation of Analogies – Analogies as Similar to Types, Using the Triangle for Analogy, Analogies for the Attributes of God, Analogies for the Trinity, The Extent of Analogies. 

This also an intro and conclusion chapter, as well as five very helpful appendices (about 50 pages worth). 

My Thoughts

I struggled with this book. I was excited to get it, because the treatment of certain portions of the Old Testament is one of the more complicated issues we face during Bible Study. However, I’m not sure this book is a big help. While it is jammed with a lot of information, it is often disjointed at times. For instances, the first part of the book rolls through a few Old Testament events (such as the flood) and then discusses five ways to interpret or use these readings (or not use, as Poythress points out some churches just avoid the OT altogether). These are helpful, and critique some of the most common ways people (incorrectly) view the Old Testament – by moralizing the ‘stories’ or searching for ‘secret’ interpretations. 

So that first part is going well, discussing wrong interpretations, wrong views, how to develop holistic views, and what people have done in history. Then the part ends, and the second part briefly overview the theological impact of typology, and then part three (on interpretation) moves completely away from these (and the book never returns) and goes into Clowney’s Triangle. Edmond Clowney was a pastor and theologian, and past president of Westminster Seminary (where Poythress teachers). His triangle is an interpretation method that looks at original meaning, then moves how it points to Christ, and finalizes an application. I have never heard of this before, and honestly it might be the best treatment of application for a preacher you can find. I don’t know if Clowney himself ever wrote a book on this method, but someone else should. 

The book then jumps to technical aspects of language, back to the triangle, then to ‘practice’ (somewhat relating back to the first part of the book), then ends with analogies. Each part was interesting, and could be helpful, but it also felt like each part could be it’s own book. Certainly parts one and three could be much further developed. At times, it seemed like the author (or editor) wasn’t sure whether this was a narrative overview of interpretation or if this book should have been a heavy textbook that could be four times as long. Maybe that would make it a reference book? One you pull off the shelf when you need help with a sermon, but not one to read through? Honestly, it was hard to tell. 

In defense of the book, it might have meant to be a intro/survey of the issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if find out Poythress had the intention of using this as the intro book for a class on Biblical Typology, while explaining more in lectures and assigning supplementary reading. However for the average reader, this isn’t the best. Or even a community group leader/teacher for Bible study, this could be used as a reference on types, especially the first part (or the last, on analogies). I do think the chapter on the triangle is extremely helpful and would be valuable for any preacher or more formal Bible teacher (as in, someone who teaches dozens or larger groups, not small Bible study groups that are more discussion based). If that is you, then this book is for you, if you are looking for something. 

 

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

 

 

Book Review: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

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Rating: Must Have

Level: Easy (though helpful to have familiarity with liturgy); Long (400+), but each day is less than 10 pages

Summary

This is the third book by Gibson and Crossway of a liturgy for daily worship. The first, being a general 31 day guide called Be Thou My Vision, the second one, like this one is focused on a part of the church calendar, O Come, O Come, Emanuel (see my review here), which went roughly from Advent to Epiphany. I have to admit, I was confused by the dates of this book. The subtitle is A Liturgy for Daily Worship from Pascha to Pentecost. I thought this would be a good Monday to post, as Pascha is (I thought) another name for Easter and Pentecost is the 50th day after Easter. However, this is actually a Lent (timeframe) devotional, though Gibson writes “this [book] is not intended to be associated with the traditions of Lent..” I find this an odd and confusing choice.

This book is neither a 40 (or 46, as Sundays don’t count towards Lent) day Lenten Devotional, not is it a 50 day Easter (Pascha) to Pentecost devotional. Instead, it is a 48 day devotional that starts on Ash Wednesday, proceeds 42 days, and then has special service days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Resurrection Sunday (Easter/Pascha), Ascension Sunday (the Sunday after Ascension Day, which is 40 days after Easter),and Pentecost Sunday.

After a preface and acknowledgements, the books starts with an intro (titled Remembering Jesus), where Gibson makes something of a defense of ‘holy’ days, or having special days of remembrance. It is a really interesting chapter, and if you are in the reformed community, you know that there is a pretty sizeable split with strong feelings on both sides of ‘holy days’. 

The following chapter is a very useful (especially if you aren’t used to Liturgy) ‘how-to’ on using the format, which includes: meditation, call to worship, adoration, reading the Law, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, creed, praise, catechism, prayer for illumination, scripture reading, praise, prayer of intercession (and then further petition/prayer), Lord’s Prayer, benediction, and finally a postlude (doxology).  

There are also appendixes for tunes to various parts of the worship, Bible reading plan, and Author, Hymn, & Liturgy index.

My Thoughts

I still find the subtitle odd and do not understand why they would give it such a name. As noted above, Gibson doesn’t want this to be a traditional Lenten style devotional, but it would seem to me that explaining the difference in the book while giving a clearer title would be more helpful. Another confusing aspect is at one point he refers to this season as the ‘Pascal Season’, which coincides with Lent. This is again odd, as most English speaker use Easter not Pascha, and Easter Season (or Eastertide) is the time from Easter to Ascension Day. It is truly a perplexing decision. That being said, it is another wonderful book. I couldn’t come up with much new to say about how it works, so see below for what I wrote about O Come, O Come, Emanual: 

Honestly, if you attempt any personal or family worship this is a must have. I am a big fan of the structured (liturgical) worship, especially for family devotion. It really doesn’t make it easy to lead or do with your family or community. Really my only (minor) quibble with this is that with 16 parts, it might be just a little too long. However, if you are doing this with a family with young children or you find yourself short on time, there are always parts you can cut. That being said, some sections are only a line or a paragraph long; this shouldn’t take an hour or any extended time. 

If you are unfamiliar with liturgy or structured daily worship this is an outstanding way to get into it. Unless you are from a pretty free-flowing Baptist/non-denom/mega-church background you will probably recognize parts (if not all) of these sections. If you are Anglican, you can see the clear influence of the BCP (which is probably the best book that exist for personal and family worship). 

I know some people don’t like the repetitive nature of some parts of guides like these, saying and can be rote or unfeeling, but really that is up to you. If you don’t take it seriously, or just mindlessly repeat things, then yes, the downside is that it can be meaningless. However, the upsides are a daily reminder of how to worship God, what He has done for us, what so much of the church today and most have always believed and recited, and of course – scripture reading. This is more important than every in church life, especially if you do this as a family/community and use it to help shape and guide children in their beliefs. This is true of any structured worship, but I think is even more important for this time of year, when we are pulled away in so many directions, with so many competing interesting. As I said above, if you are looking for personal/family devotion/worship, this is a must have. 

*I received a free copy of this book from Crossway, in exchange for an honest review. 

Book Review: Journey to Bethlehem

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Rating: Put it on your list

Level: Easy, Short (5ish minutes a day/30 days)

Summary

In some ways, this is a typical 30-day devotional, with a section to read, then reflection, etc. However, I think Ryken has done something unique in his choices. It is easy to find a 30-50 day devotional that has writings from numerous authors in the past, but Ryken has only reserved 10 of the days to pure thoughts of others, the remainder of the days are reflections on hymns or poems. 

The book is broken into three sections, the first being Hymns, then what he calls ‘Classic Prose Devotionals’, and finally Poems. Each day follows the same format – the text (e.g. Joy to the World, an excerpt from On The Incarnation, The Magnificat), then a commentary/reflection, then a brief ‘devotional takeaway’, before a final note and word of scripture. There is also a short intro into each of the three sections. Finally, what he calls ‘notes’ which is essentially a bibliography, if you want to find more info, as well as two indexes – one for the people in the book, another referenced scripture. 

My Thoughts

I’ll start with the only thing I didn’t like, and that was the choice of categories. Choosing Hymns and then Poems, is too similar to me (he acknowledges as much in his into to Hymns, stating, ‘Every Hymn begins its life as a poem.’ That is very minor and nit-picky, maybe I just like symmetry too much, but I wonder if the book would have been better off as just hymns/songs/poems. 

Other than that, the book is great, it should be on everyone’ s list/rotation to read around Advent/Christmas. Ryken is a great write, and maybe an even better editor. I really appreciate the summary takeaway and then ending with scripture. His choices for each day are interesting and spread out (there are so many options), but there are plenty you will be familiar with, while adding some that may be new.

I knew six of the Hymns (and four are probably one everyone sang at a Christmas Eve service), the Prose included big names (Calvin, Luther, Augustine) but then other maybe not everyone has heard of (Bernard of Clairvaux, Spurgeon, Athanasius). Interestingly, he added the Nicene Creed to this section, which I really enjoyed. Similarly, the Poems included works of Chesterton, Milton, and Eliot, but I didn’t know any of the others. Except he put the Magnificat in this section, which was a good and interesting point to make. If you aren’t familiar with that name, it is the historic name for the section in Luke 1:46-55w here Mary responds to Gabriel after being told she will give birth to Jesus (it also kind of answer the question Mary Did You Know?, but I’m not trying to start a fight a Christmas). 

Overall, I highly recommend this book, the devotions are short enough to fit into a busy time and his choices of authors and especially hymns/poems makes it interesting and different enough compared to the so many other great and traditional ones out there. So, if you didn’t get to a devotional reading this past December or you did and are looking for something different next year, this is a book to put on your list. 

*I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Free E-Book: Disciplines of a Godly Man

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The Gospel Coalition is offering a free digital copy of Disciples of a Godly Man with an updated study guide. You should be able to download using this link, but it doesn’t say anywhere how long the promotion will last. The ask for your name and email, and you can opt out of the additional newsletters/promotions (though, then you’d miss out on free books sometimes).

I don’t often post links to free books (actually, I don’t often post at all anymore), but Disciplines of a Godly Man is my most read post of all time (and the most so far this year, as of Jan 4, so people are trying to start the year off right). In fact, if you search ‘reviews of Disciplines of a Godly Man’ I’m on of the top real results, even above The Gospel Coalition’s review (probably why they are giving it out for free, they feel threaten by the MMT). Anyway, go read my review, and then get the free book or by the hard copy, it really is a great book.

Book Review: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

/ J.K. / 2 Comments

Rating: Must Have

Level: Easy (though helpful to have familiarity with liturgy); Long (400+), but each day is less than 10 pages

Summary

This is another outstanding book by Gibson and Crossway, similar to Be Thou My Vision, but this one being focused on Advent, Christmas, and ends on Epiphany. For those unfamiliar, that is January 6th, so to have a round number of 40 days, it may start before ‘official’ Advent. That was the case this year, Advent started yesterday (which is late in the chronological Calendar), and the book starts on November 28th, which was last Tuesday. 

After a preface and acknowledgements, the books starts with an intro (titled Waiting For Jesus), where Gibson explains his reasons/hopes for this book. The following chapter is a very useful (especially if you aren’t used to Liturgy) ‘how-to’ on using the format, which includes: meditation, call to worship, adoration, reading the Law, confession of sin, assurance of pardon, creed, praise, catechism, prayer for illumination, scripture reading, praise, prayer of intercession (and then further petition/prayer), Lord’s Prayer, benediction, and finally a postlude (doxology).  

There are also appendixes for tunes to various parts of the worship, Bible reading plan, and Author, Hymn, & Liturgy index.

My Thoughts

Honestly, if you attempt any personal or family worship this is a must have. I am a big fan of the structured (liturgical) worship, especially for family devotion. It really doesn’t make it easy to lead or do with your family or community. Really my only (minor) quibble with this is that with 16 parts, it might be just a little too long. However, if you are doing this with a family with young children or you find yourself short on time, there are always parts you can cut. That being said, some sections are only a line or a paragraph long; this shouldn’t take an hour or any extended time. 

If you are unfamiliar with liturgy or structured daily worship this is an outstanding way to get into it. Unless you are from a pretty free-flowing Baptist/non-denom/mega-church background you will probably recognize parts (if not all) of these sections. If you are Anglican, you can see the clear influence of the BCP (which is probably the best book that exist for personal and family worship). 

I know some people don’t like the repetitive nature of some parts of guides like these, saying and can be rote or unfeeling, but really that is up to you. If you don’t take it seriously, or just mindlessly repeat things, then yes, the downside is that it can be meaningless. However, the upsides are a daily reminder of how to worship God, what He has done for us, what so much of the church today and most have always believed and recited, and of course – scripture reading. This is more important than every in church life, especially if you do this as a family/community and use it to help shape and guide children in their beliefs. This is true of any structured worship, but I think is even more important for this time of year, when we are pulled away in so many directions, with so many competing interesting. As I said above, if you are looking for personal/family devotion/worship, this is a must have. 

*I received a free copy of this book from Crossway, in exchange for an honest review. 

Book Review: Christianity and Science

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Rating: If you are looking for something

Level: Difficult (wordy, academic style, knowledge of enlightenment and higher critical philosophies/theories is helpful); Short – 230 pages

Summary

The book has 13 chapters – Intro, How the Concept of Christian Science Emerged, Defects That Clung to Christian Science, Positive Science, Evaluation of Positivism, Consequence of the Verdict, The Concept of Science, The Natural Sciences, The Humanities, Theological Science, Revelation, The Blessing of Christianity for Science, and A Christian University. There is also a lengthy Editors’ Introduction, which explains some of the translation issues and gives a little bit of background in to Bavinck’s life and situation. 

Written in 1904, but looking back over the previous 50-70 years, the book focuses on changes to society and to the university system that has come from recent official moves towards liberalism and secularism. Bavinck is focused specifically on The Netherlands, but also broadly on the post-enlightenment and higher critical movements of Europe in general. 

There is a also a good explanation of what Bavinck means by ‘science’, which was essentially synonymous with ‘learning’ or ‘knowledge’, and science was often still in the title of disciplines (e.g. Theological Science). The book was also originally titled Christian Science, which the editors changed due to the current American religious movement. However, the phrase is used throughout the book. 

It should also be noted that this is not a discussion of Christianity vs. Science, in the way of some of our modern American discussions. 

My Thoughts

I’ll get the negative out of the way first, if you haven’t read Bavinck before, it can be difficult. This may only bother me, but he has sentences that run for paragraphs, and paragraphs that run for pages. Also, he is distinctly a product of his time, the theological and philosophical arguments that were raging at the time are front and center in his writing. While most people are probably familiar with Kant, I’d guess that Schleiermacher is less well known (though maybe not to the type of people that would read a Bavinck book), let alone the list of other German philosophers and theologians that have faded into obscurity. The editors make short notes as to whom he is referring and what they did, but without some background knowledge, I’m not sure how impactful it is. The notes help for those who were contemporary politicians in The Netherlands, because their thoughts/arguments are pretty straight forward, but the writings of the academics and their nuance may be lost. 

That being said, so much of his writing then is still applicable to us today. It is odd as an American, hearing the arguments about the Government funding private (including religious) schools, but most of Europe started in a different place than we did. They are coming from an official (confessional) religion and then moving secular. So, often ‘equality’ means funding all viewpoints/religions equally, while here it means funding none. For a more modern/current take on these issues, look up Michael Bird, as he writing/arguing some of these same issues right now in Australia (where the Government does fund all schools). 

There are some esoteric arguments in the first few chapters, especially about ‘positivism’, but especially starting in the Humanities chapter to the finish, the writing sounds very contemporary. He points out the issues/problems of ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ argument of morality, while also criticizing the ‘private matter’ of  a ‘preference and taste’ view of choosing a ‘personal religion’. The Theological Science chapter discusses how theology can/should be taught and the issues of many schools moving (in some cases required) to religion departments; pointing out that if there is no universal or deeper truth, then the studies of religion may as well move to History or Psychology departments, or if the Bible is just writings, why not a subset of Literature? Finally, the University chapter is wild it how it almost predicted the future. He feared the political re-shuffling of the professors based on ‘openness’ and ‘tolerance’  not actually being use the way the word implies. He states, ‘according to the doctrine, there is room for all, but according to life, only for us and our friends. If you ever see studies/surveys of professors today and see their very narrow set of beliefs/viewpoints (for the most part), you can see he is correct. He even points to the fact that professors come from other professors and is less about how might be the ‘best’ and more about ‘who do we want to get along with’, which is just interesting to see that written 120 years ago. 

Overall, as is just about everything from Bavinck, this was a great book, he is truly a talented and gifted writing/academic. I just wonder how many people would benefit from this book, or rather who the audience would be. So, if you like Bavinck and are exciting more of his works are being translated to English, this will be pretty great. If you are in academia, you would also benefit. Obviously, some of the issues are a bit dated and the refences to contemporary Dutch politics isn’t always applicable. However, if you are studying or wanting to learn more about history and how we’ve gotten to our modern moment, this could be helpful. So, if you are looking for something, this book is great, but I do think you need to be looking to get much out of it. 

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Book Review: The Beginning of the Gospel

/ J.K. / Leave a comment

Rating – Put it on your list

Level – Moderate, written at popular level but Biblical knowledge is helpful; short (less than 200 pages).

Summary

This book is part of Crossway’s New Testament Theology series, and I think it is a fairy unique angle for study. The series preface says they are seeking, in this series, to take a Biblical Theological approach to the major themes of each book covered. If you aren’t as familiar with the term Biblical, it is as opposed to the more common Systematic way of handling theology; the latter being focused on topics first (sin, the church, etc.), while the former looks at overarching themes that unfold as you read through the Bible (or individual book in this case).

The book is broken into seven chapters – Divine Identity, Revelation, The Kingdom of God is at Hand, Repent and Believe the Gospel, Follow Me, What Moses Commanded, and Died, Buried, and Raised. There is also an introduction and epilogue. The intro chapter in this series is consistently one of the best out there on the topic. The on for Mark is less than 15 pages, but acts as a mini commentary. 

My Thoughts

This is a solid study on Mark. As mentioned above, it isn’t a traditional commentary, but focuses more on themes/theology of book. My main criticism would be that the chapters are almost too disparate. Other books in this series, while not having a unifying theme, still seem to flow more cohesively. That being said, if you are looking to teach/preach on Mark, this a book to add to your list. 

Particularly chapters one, two, and six are interesting in the connections he makes. First, who Jesus actually claims to be (and who his followers thought he was) is supposedly debated often today, but in reality His claims are clear. The chapters on handling the Old Testament is also instructive.

Something unique to Orr’s approach is the connection with both Peter and Paul to Mark. Mark is often associated with Peter’s perspective in the Gospel, but he also worked with Paul, and many of the theological elements of the Epistles are present in Mark. Whether Mark or Matthew were the first Gospel written is debatable, but either one would come later than most Epistles, so much of the original audience had the knowledge and writings, before the had the Gospels. I think that is hard for modern readers to remember, because we view it (and the Bible is arraigned) chronologically. There is also often a criticism from those outside the church that the Epistles, especially Paul’s, were a later change to Jesus’ message and that they altered the theology of the Gospels. Orr does a good job showing not only how aware Mark was of those letters but how his Gospel interacted (and agreed) with them.

If you are doing a Bible study or preparing a sermon series, this book can’t really stand on it’s own and would need to be supplemented with additional commentaries (especially if it is a sermon series). However, the chapters could be a good outline for a study and the book raises many good points and tackles some of the more confusing elements. If you are interested in deeper study of Mark, put this on your list. 

 

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.