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March 2005 Ben's 2004 Reading List
I was recently asked what books I had read over the past year and after reflection
decided to post this list, purely as a record and not as recommendations. I have never
kept detailed reading lists and notes. This is probablly a mistake.
In Isaac Watts classic book on logic (which I began last year but decided to
temporarily put aside in favor of rereading a more contemporary treatment of
the same subject matter, Adler's Aristotle for Everybody),
Watts suggests journaling and an end-of-the-day review of everything one learned
on that day. Several of the books have been so incorporated into my thinking as to render
such an exercise pointless, yet others I had completely forgotten.
Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
was by far the most significant book I read in 1994 (I bought as many extra copies as I could afford,
to give away). I took extensive notes on Postman's evaluation of the affects of photography,
telegraph, radio and television on journalism, politics, education and religion: a transformation from
intelligent discourse to entertainment.
I read two books relating to the "New Perspective on Paul"
What Saint Paul Really Said by N T Wright (Eerdmans)
and then a defense of the reformation doctrine of justification by John Piper: Counted Righteous in Christ (Crossway Books)
I read several books of a biographical nature:
Mercy Streets was written by my pastor, Taylor Field (Broadman & Holman) and tells stories of ministry in the East Village.
In August I was fascinated with Frank Schaeffer's Calvin Becker trilogy: Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma (Avalon Publishing Group). These books are
works of fiction, and yet are supposedly "semi-biographical" descriptions of growing up the son of a missionary to European intellectuals and one of the 20th centuries leading
advocates of the Christian worldview.
I also read Doug Wilson's For Kirk and Covenant: The Stalwart Courage of John Knox
Pipers book The Legacy of Sovereign Joy (comparing Augustine, Luther and Calvin) was great and lead to my reading Theodore Beza's The Life of John Calvin
After perusing a little apologetic work by Alister McGrath (I have forgotten the name, Glimpsing the Face of God?) I decided to read several others
by him:
The Journey (Galilee); Christian Theology (still working on this one, a presentation theology from an historical perspective)
Finally, McGrath's The Renewal of Anglicanism (Morehouse Publishing) lead me down a rabbit whole on anglicanism on which I read:
The Middle Way: Voices of Anglicanism by Lee W. Gibbs (short biographies of
famous anglicans including Donne, Hooker, CS Lewis, Dorothy Sayers...) and a short treatise on anglican essentials (?).
I reread Mere Christianity by CS Lewis for the nth time and listened again to an audio version (Harper). This is one of those books I read often and always find that it has grown with me.
On education I read The Case for Classical Education by Douglas Wilson (Crossway Books)
The Paideia Proposal: an Educational Manifesto; Mortimer Adler; Collier
John Milton's Of Education and then several other essay & poems poems in the Portable Milton (Penguin Books)
Last year I did a significant amount of reading comparing covenant theology and dispensationalism as well as several books on eschatology:
A Primer on Dispensationalism John Gerstner P & R Publishing
The Gospel According to Dispensationalism; Kimbro, Reginald C.
Postmillennialism: An Eschatology of Hope; Keith A. Mathison
To A Thousand Generations: Infant Baptism and the Covenant Mercy of God; Douglas Wilson; Canon Press
Christian Baptistm by John Murray P & R Publishing
Also re-read sections of Progressive Dispensationalism by Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock (Baker)
The next four books have one thing in common, I ordered them from a small publisher in Bristol, VA (Draught Horse Press) with an
unusual selection of family, homeschool and reformed (radically postmil) books:
Biblical Economics and Eternity in Our Hearts: Essays on the Good Life both by RC Sproul JR (Draught Horse Press)
Drinking with Calvin and Luther: A History of Alcohol in the Church by Jim West (Oakdown)
Reforming Marriage; Douglas Wilson (Canon Press)
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2:28 PM 3/16/2004
Read ChristianWorldview.com thoughts on The Passion of the Christ
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March 12 - 2:20 PM
Booknotes on Theodore Beza's The Life of John Calvin. So check it out. . .
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The Return of the King: Best Picture, Perhaps, But Not Best Version
by Fleming Rutledge for Christianity Today
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The English Standard Version
by Vern Poythress of Westminster Seminary and on the ESV translation team
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Hollow Matrix
by Roberto Rivera y Carlo for Boundless Webzine
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Finding God inThe Lord of the Rings
by Jim Ware for Focus on the Family
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The Need to Read: Francis Schaeffer
Todd Kappelman from Probe Ministries
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Dusting off the Great Books
Matt Kaufman on how the classics of Western Civ are making a comeback on college campuses.
from Boundless Webzine
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Incomplete notes on Douglas Wilson's The Stalwart Courage of John Knox
Knox was born a two or three years before Luther posted his 95 Theses in 1517.
Reformation & revival was spreading through Europe. And "Scotland was a spiritual badlands"
(p. 5).
Ecclesiastical corruption was widespread in Scotland. So it is not suprising that
Knox was drawn to the Scriptures and the early church fathers while studying at St
Andrews.
After graduation Knox was ordained a priest. Under the preaching of a converted Dominican,
Knox himself was converted and suspected of heresy. Yet he gave no public support to the
Reformation until becoming a bodyguard for a Cambridge greek professor being pursued for
heresy. Knox's involvement began a chain of events that would lead to his call to ministry
and nineteen months as a slave in a French galley.
Knox was released under more favorable conditions in England. Henry VIII's death was
allowing greater theological reform and Knox's gifts were immediately recognized. He became
a chaplain to the king. I was suprised to find that, though Knox was of course
ecclesiastically presbyterian, during this time in England he exerted considerable influence
on the Book of Common Prayer and the 42 Articles, especially in regards to the theology and
practice of the eucharist.
While Knox wanted to reform the church from liturgical traditions, yet we see his
willingness to work with those who felt otherwise. When a sharp dispute arose in the
English-speaking church in Frankfort (where he was pastor), rather than insisting that all
the parties abandon liturgical traditions, Knox helped them reach an agreement of
compromise. For Knox, this compromise was based on his own conviction that such things were
of relative unimportance. He surely agreed with Calvin who called the liturgy in the Book
of Common Prayer "tolerable fooleries" that should eventually be put aside.
The city magistrates recognized his contribution. Yet the contraversy was great. Since
Knox had made derogatory comments about the king, the magistrates requested he leave the
city. . .
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