Summer 2014 Reading List

I'm always eager for the school semester to end because that means that I can read! Sure, a seminary education is built around reading, but not free reading. It's reading to a deadline. Reading to answer questions. Reading for a test. It's reading with parameters and restraints, page counts and chapter summaries. It's not an exercise in personal indulgence and exploration: that's summer reading. 

Over the course of the semester I begin to long for this free reading. When I'm scouring some 17th century text for class, I have this habit of turning from my desk and looking longingly at my bookshelves, whispering sweet assurances to her that someday I will return (occasionally, I'll even walk over to the shelves and daydream about the books I'll read "when I have a chance"). Some people may think this borders on pathological, but hey, I'm an unapologetic bibliophile. 

The following list represents my summer reading shelf. I can't claim that I'll read all of these, or half of them even, but they are the books that I've optimistically set aside for my summer reading. 

Biography

Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: God's Anointed Servant in the Great Revival of the Eighteenth Century (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1990). Whitefield was at the center of the revivals of the 18th century. He was a fervent preacher of the gospel, he was filled with evangelistic zeal, and he ministered on both sides of the Atlantic. 

 

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Iain H. Murray, The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: 1899–1981 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2013). This Lloyd-Jones biography was one of the books we received in the zero dollar bookstore at Together for the Gospel in April. As a young preacher I'm eager to learn more about Lloyd-Jones, whose preaching ministry influenced so many.

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D. G. Hart, Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1994). Machen was a controversial figure and one who has had far-reaching influence-- for good and ill-- on his theological descendents, as John Frame ably pointed out.

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Theology

Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011). In an effort to start studying for oral comps next year, I'm hoping to cover a great deal of ground in Horton's systematic theology.
 

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Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (1648; reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1964). This book has a tremendous title. It's an expanded commentary on Philippians 4:11, "...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content." I'm reading it with an eye toward preaching through Philippians 4 in July.

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J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003). In January I read Allister McGrath's biography of J. I. Packer, though I have read only bits and spurts of Packer himself. Packer's Knowing God is considered a classic and has sold over a million copies since it was released in 1973.

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J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, rev. ed (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009). This is a re-read. Machen, whose biography is also on my summer bookshelf, wrote a gem in Christianity and Liberalism. This book clearly dissects liberal theology at several points and shows how liberal Christianity is really no Christianity at all. Machen's book is as applicable today as when it was first written in 1923.

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The Ministry of the Church

Robert K. Cheong, God Redeeming His Bride: A Handbook for Church Discipline (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2012). What is church discipline? Why does the Belgic Confession consider discipline a mark of a true church? What does discipline look like in a local congregation? Is excommunication the only form of church discipline? I hope that this book, which comes highly recommended, will answer some of those questions. 

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Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift That Changes Everything (Kingsford, AU: Mathias Media, 2009). This book comes with rave reviews from Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, and Al Mohler. Dever goes as far to say, "This is the best book I've read on the nature of church ministry."

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Biblical Studies

Andrew G. Shead, A Mouth Full of Fire: The Word of God in the words of Jeremiah. New Studies in Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012). Shead, writing in the highly regarded New Studies in Biblical Theology series, has written this study on word language in the book of Jeremiah. 

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D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and his Prayers (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992). Don Carson examines the prayers found in Paul's letters.

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Fiction

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings trilogy (London: Unwin Publishers, 1974). I have never read Lord of the Rings (it wasn't until last summer that I read The Hobbit for the first time). I don't speak Elvish. I don't study the maps of Middle Earth. But, as I've been reminded many times, I should read Lord of the Rings and so I've got this dandy edition (quite the artwork) to read through.

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Timothy Zahn, Heir to the Empire (Toronto: Bantam, 1991). With the new Star Wars movies set to release in the next couple years, I wanted to re-read some of the books that explore the Star Wars universe after the second Death Star is blown to bits by Wedge Antilles and Lando Calrissian. This is book one in The Thrawn Trilogy.

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Timothy Zahn, Dark Force Rising (Toronto: Bantam, 1992). This is the second part in The Thrawn Trilogy.

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