I don’t remember where or when I first heard that Mark Jones was working on a book about the beauty and glory of Christ. Yet, wherever or whenever that was I do remember thinking, “Definite ‘Book of the Year’ contender.”
A Strong Track of Superlative Works
It’s been a fantastic few years of publishing for the Canadian pastor. In the summer of 2012 he published A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Jesus Christ: An Introduction to Christology, which I believed is one of the most helpful little volumes on Christ you could ever put in the hands of a lay member. Later that year Jones teamed up with Joel Beeke in A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life, a beautiful behemoth of Puritan teaching on all manner of subjects. His 2013 book Antinomianism: Reformed Theology’s Unwelcome Guest? astutely applied historical and pastoral theology to an old poison that seemed to be creeping into popular evangelicalism.
Aside from some periodic goofiness on Reformation 21 (for example), Jones has been a blaze of magnificent productivity.
Time to Stare at the Son
His latest book, Knowing Christ, is scheduled to land on September 28th and is a welcome return to the favorite topic of Christology. If Jones’ recent publishing history is worth anything, we can be sure this book will surely find its way on the numerous “Best of the Year” lists come November and December. Here’s what the venerable Dr. Packer has to say in his foreword:
The Puritans loved the Bible, and dug into it in depth. Also, they loved the Lord Jesus, who is of course the Bible’s focal figure; they circled round him, centred on him, studied minutely all that Scripture had to say about him, and constantly, conscientiously, exalted him in their preaching, praises, and prayers. Mark Jones, an established expert on many aspects of Puritan thought, also loves the Bible and its Christ, and the Puritans as expositors of both; and out of this triune love he has written a memorable unpacking of the truth about the Saviour according to the classic Reformed tradition, and the Puritans supremely. Knowing Christ is a book calculated to enrich our twenty-first-century souls, and one that it is an honour to introduce.
The Banner of Truth’s run of greatness appears alive as ever.