In the past two years during COVID, I’ve read a number of helpful books ranging in categories from understanding culture, to Biblical and theological studies. I’d like to preview and recommend a few of them to you.
Books I’ve read (or re-read) in the past two years that I would recommend to others:
Biblical/Theological
- Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, Westminster Seminary Press, 2020
- Michael Horton, Justification Volume 1 New Studies in Dogmatics, Zondervan, 2018.
- Michael Horton, Justification Volume 2 New Studies in Dogmatics, Zondervan, 2018.
- Gerhard O. Forde, On Being A Theologian of the Cross: Reflections on Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, 1518, Eerdmans, 1997.
- Geerhardus Vos, The Kingdom of God and the Church, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1972.
- Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology, Presbyterian and Reformed, 1972.
- L. Michael Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord: A biblical theology of the book of Leviticus, Inter-Varsity Press, 2015.
Cultural studies
- David T. Koyzis, Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies, 2nd ed, IVP, 2019
- Christopher Watkin, Jacques Derrida, Presbyterian and Reformed, 2017.
- Christopher Watkin, Michel Foucault, Presbyterian and Reformed, 2018.
- Christopher Watkin, Thinking Through Creation, Presbyterian and Reformed, 2017.
- Mary Beth Swetnam Mathews, Doctrine and Race: African-American Evangelicals and Fundamentalism Between the Wars, U. of Alabama, 2017.
- Esau McCaulley, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, IVP, 2020.
- Michael O. Emerson and George Yancey, Transcending Racial Barriers: Toward a Mutual Obligations Approach, Oxford, 2011.
- Anne Harrington, The Mind Fixers: Psychiatry’s Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness, Norton, 2019.
Worldview studies
- Herman Bavinck, Christian Worldview, Crossway, 2019
- Herman Bavinck, Philosophy of Revelation: A New Annotated Edition, Hendrickson, 2018
- Christian Smith, Moral Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture, Oxford, 2003.
- Christian Smith, To Flourish or Destruct: A Personalist Theory of Human Goods, Motivations, Failure, and Evil, U. of Chicago, 2015.
Apologetics
- Christian Smith, Atheist Overreach: What Atheism Can’t Deliver, Oxford, 2019.
- Peter J. Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels? Crossway, 2018.
- James D. Hunter and Paul Nedelisky, Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality, Yale, 2018.
- Alvin Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism, Oxford, 2011.
- Rebecca McLauglin, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion, Crossway, 2019.
Church history
- Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity, Yale, 1989.
- Heath W. Carter and Laura R. Porter, Turning Points in the History of American Evangelicalism, Eerdmans 2017.
- Larry Hurtado, Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, Baylor, 2016.
- Charles E. Cotherman, To Think Christianly: A History of L’Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center Movement, IVP, 2020.
- Brad Vermurlen, Reformed Resurgence: The New Calvinist Movement and the Battle Over American Evangelicalism, Oxford, 2020.
Cities
- Edward Glaesar and David Cutler, Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation, Penguin, 2021.
- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Modern Library, 1993.
- Daniel Joseph Monti, et al, Urban People and Places: The Sociology of Cities, Suburbs, and Towns, Sage, 2015.
- Patrick M. Condon, 5 Rules for Tomorrow’s Cities: Design in an Age of Urban Migration, Demographic Change, and a Disappearing Middle Class, Island, 2019.
Christian living
- David Powlison, Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness, New Growth Press, 2016
Devotional
- John Owen, Communion with the Triune God, ed. K.Kapic, J.Taylor, Crossway, 2007.
- John Owen, The Glory of Christ, abridged by RJK Law, Banner of Truth, 1994.
- John Newton, The Utterance of the Heart, Baker, 1979. John Newton, The Letters of John Newton, Banner of Truth, 1960.
