[special]Book Blurbs is a segment on the blog where I list books I’m reading along with a brief blurb about each book. The aim is to help you identify new authors and potential books of interests. Maybe I didn’t read every word of every page, but I read enough to mention them. You can find what I read in September-December of 2018 below. You can find all the Book Blurbs posts here.[/special]
Another round of Book Blurbs. I dabbled with more books than what’s mentioned but these are the noteworthy ones.
1. Old Testament Ethics for the People of God
by Christopher J.H. Wright – I love Christopher J.H. Wright’s writing. This book is super long — and admittedly, I didn’t even get close to reading the whole thing — but I loved what I read, and I want to introduce more Christian readers to Wright’s work, even if you don’t agree with everything he says.
2. When Life Goes Dark: Finding Hope in the Midst of Depression
by Richard Winter – Super helpful book on the emotions we face. Made my top 10 Books of 2018.
3.Pastoral Epistles, Volume 46 (Word Biblical Commentary)
by Bill Mounce – The format of this commentary series is cumbersome to access. The font, the font color, and the lack of spacing — it’s hard to read. But Mounce’s actual work is helpful, despite reading challenges of the book format.
4. An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophetic Books
by C. Hassell Bullock- A book that helpfully walks you through the prophetical books, some of the hardest parts of the Bible to understand.
5. The Interpretation of Prophecy
by Patrick Fairbairn – Old school. Very hard to read and understand. Probably only worth it if you’re serious about studying the Old Testament.
6. Strategic Pastoral Counseling: A Short-Term Structured Model
by David Benner – I’m now an advocate of this method — a short-term (five or six weeks) of concentrated pastoral counseling, as opposed to just counseling someone for an indefinite time period. I’ve found great value in this methodology. May be helpful for those of you who do pastoral counseling to check out.
7. The Politics of Ministry: Navigating Power Dynamics and Negotiating Interests
by Bob Burns, Tasha Chapman, and Donald Guthrie – Hasn’t even released yet (but it will be out soon). It was eye-opening and sad to read about the politics that happens in ministry.
9. Letters to the Church: A Survey of Hebrews and the General Epistles
by Karen Jobes – I’ve mentioned before that I enjoy Jobes’ writing. Here is a book on the general epistles and Hebrews. More intense than a Bible study but lighter than, say, a commentary.
10. Reasons of the Heart: Recovering Christian Persuasion
by William Edgar – a book on apologetics that speaks about engaging the heart.
11. Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice
by Bryan Chappel – Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon
has been massively important to me. Here, Chappel takes on the subject of worship. While there’s some room for disagreement on how we lead worship today, it was helpful for me to see how various Reformers led worship services in the past.
12. Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith
by Holly Ordway – Always a special delight to read a good book by an author and publisher I had not previously heard of.
13. Descriptions and Prescriptions: A Biblical Perspective on Psychiatric Diagnoses and Medications
by Michael Emelet – Very much on the technical side. Was eye-opening in many ways, and should prove to be a useful tool for pastors and ministry leaders, especially in the area of mental health.
14.The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham – The cover of this book looks scarier than a cover from a Stranger Things episode. Bauckham is a revered New Testament scholar in my circles. I very much enjoyed what I read. I would commend this work highly to pastors who are preaching through the book of Revelation, of for those of you that want to better understand the book. Revelation is easier to understand than you might think. Or at least parts of it are, anyway.
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