I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal by Richard Lovelace. For years I’ve heard pastors I deeply respect recommend Lovelace’s classic book on spirituality. Tim Keller once said, “Anyone who knows my ministry and reads this book will say, ‘So that’s where Keller got all this stuff!’” After reading it, I totally agree. Many tenets of TGC spirituality we’ve come to know (gospel-centrality, the dangers of moralism, social and urban activism, among others) Lovelace articulated back in the late 1970s. While I think Lovelace is too kind to Pentecostal expressions of piety, Dynamics of Spiritual Life is, one the whole, utterly compelling. Few stones of spirituality are left unturned in this near 400-page work. The work’s unique values is the fact that it comes from the pen of a trained historian. Lovelace’s biblical and systematic theology is – in a good way! – nothing revolutionary, but he weds those disciplines to historical perspectives on revival and renewal I often found captivating. You probably won’t agree with every jot and tittle of Lovelace’s vision for renewal, but Dyanamics will nonetheless stir you to dream about biblical revival in your local church. So buy it, read it, and dream away.

The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God by Robert Louis Wilken. Wilken, Professor of Historical Theology and Patristic Studies at Creighton University, aims to uncover – recover might be the better word – the spirituality of the Church Fathers in The Spirit of Early Christian Thought. He says the intellectual work of the Fathers was “at the service of a much loftier goal than giving conceptual form to Christian belief. Its mission was to win the hearts and minds of men and women and to change their lives.” Focusing primarily on Origen, Gregory of Nissa, Augustine, and Maximus the Confession displays how these theological giants of old were preeminently “spiritual giants.” There is much food for thought in this book, but some of it is overshadowed by some of Wilken’s conclusions, which come from his worldview as a former Lutheran who converted to Roman Catholicism. While one can quibble with his interpretations, one cannot but sing the praise of the man’s prose. Wilken wields a mastery of language that at times left me speechless in its grandeur.

Christian Spirituality: An Introduction by Alistair McGrath. “Textbook” is the right word for McGrath’s introduction to the history of Christian spirituality. Filled with charts, pictures, and various visual aids, Christian Spirituality deals with the types of piety that “ultimately flow from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.” McGrath’s approach is broad and thus includes Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions of spirituality. Although I’ve still yet to read a textbook-ish introduction to biblical spirituality, McGrath’s volume is as fine an entry into Christian spirituality as you can read.

Evangelical Spirituality by James Gordon. When I saw the Table of Contents of this book I thought, “This is going to be a delightful read!” Chapters on giants of godliness like Edwards, Newton, M’Cheyne, Spurgeon, and Lloyd-Jones, alongside those focused on the lesser known Cowper, More, Dale, and Whyte looked magnificent. Well, let’s just say I was a wee bit disappointed. Gordon assumes too much from his readers; if your familiarity with an individual is only in name the author does little to help you gain additional familiarity. Evangelical Spirituality suffers greatly from a lack of cohesion, as many of the chapters read like a collection of quotes from primary and secondary sources with little care to coherent unity and transition. If you are in the academic pursuit of evangelical spirituality, this is a book to have on the shelf. If not, just move along.

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. The cover of I Am Pilgrim proclaims, “The only thriller you will need to read this year.” I am something of a sucker for espionage thrillers, let alone ones with superlative reviews to such an extent that one major online magazine calls it “the best book of 2014 . . . so far.” So I jumped in with moderately high expectations. The plot is quite simple: the greatest living US intelligence agent, “Pilgrim”, is sent to find “the Saracen”, the most terrifying terrorist to ever threaten our country. Yet, the simplicity belies a rather complex thriller. An investigation into a shocking NY murder gets your attention and Hayes never really lets it go until the final page. The tale does wander at brief points, most usually when it focuses on the Saracen’s movements, but Hayes’ debut novel is a thrilling triumph.

Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.

I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

Hearing the Spirit: Knowing the Father through the Son by Christopher Ash. Good Mr. Ash is rapidly becoming one of my favorite contemporary authors. There is insightful interpretation, historical sensibility, cultural understanding, and wit to boot in all his work. Hearing the Spirit finds Ash employing all his skill to answer the age old question of, “How does God speak?” Or as he would prefer it, “What is the relationship between the Spirit and the Word?” Appropriately, most of the book expounds the relevant truth from John’s gospel on matters of the Trinity and the word of God. Ash’s answer to the question of the Spirit’s work can be traced as follows :

• Jesus is the awesome revelation of the Father and He revealed the Father through words. (chapter 1)
• In a very real sense the ministry of Jesus’ was a failure – for a time. He made the Father known and yet nobody saw the Father. Until the cross, when sin was paid for, the Spirit could not be poured out and the Father known through the words of Jesus. (chapter 2)
• In the Bible’s words we have the authentic, faithful, and complete testimony of Jesus and His words, and therefore we have the revelation of the Father. The father is made known by Jesus, and Jesus is attested by the Bible. (chapters 3-4)
• The Bible is a complete testimony to Christ and therefore has an intelligible and stable meaning. (chapter 5)
• The objective, historical testimony of Jesus and the subjective testimony to Jesus of the Spirit are complementary and inseparable. (chapter 6)
• The Spirit’s ministry today is to graciously bring conviction that the objective testimony is true. (chapter 7)

Along the way Ash offers great clarity on mystical approaches to Christianity, the source of powerful preaching, the nature of living by faith, not by sight, and why Christians have a divine obligation to be skeptical (let the reader understand). An excellent and timely work!

The Grace of Godliness: An Introduction to Doctrine and Piety in the Canons of Dort by Matthew Barrett.  Barrett says, “While the number of volumes on John Calvin, the Heidelberg Catechism or the Westminster Confession, are legion, the same cannot be said concerning the Canons of Dort. . . . As far as I know, no book exists in English on Dort’s emphasis on piety. And yet, the topic of piety and godliness is one that saturates the canon.” Oh how right Dr. Barrett is. The Canons of Dort are not only, for my mind, as good as any other historic creed or confession at clearly delineating the gospel, they also represent a watermark of Reformed piety. If you can get a right understanding of God’s sovereign gospel then you will be well on your way toward holiness, humility, assurance, and reverent worship. The Canons of Dort will aid such godliness and Barrett’s book is a perfect introduction that classic document of Reformed faith and practice.

Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship by John MacArthur. As I watched last October’s Strange Fire Conference create no small amount of evangelical hullabaloo, I knew I’d eventually have to read the book. Well, this week I finally did. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. For several decades MacArthur has been the most visible, and popular, opponent of Charismatic and Pentecostal excess. The uniqueness of Strange Fire, and I suspect the reason it struck such a chord, is that it has firm clarity directed at the growing continuationist crowd. MacArthur’s exegesis of the relevant texts is typically lucid and confident, and his grasp of the historical flow of charismatic theology is compelling and strong. No matter where you fall on the continuum of spiritual gifts, this book would be well worth your time.

What a Friend We Have in Jesus: Spirituality in the Evangelical Tradition by Ian Randall. Alistair McGrath once called evangelicalism “the slumbering giant in the world of spirituality.” In What a Friend We Have in Jesus Ian Randall, Director of Research at Spurgeon’s College in London, sets out to document what evangelical spirituality is and how it came about. Spanning the time between the Great Awakening and the closing of the 20th century Randall effectively shows the unity and diversity found in evangelicalism’s emphasis on the cross, conversion, personal sanctification, and world missions. The work is an overview so Randall has to assume some level of knowledge with people and places, but I found the work informative, clear, and full of interesting tidbits about evangelicalism’s spiritual practice.

The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva. Before he was a best-selling thriller writer and the mastermind behind the widely successful Gabriel Allon thriller novels, Daniel Silva was a television producer at CNN. While overseeing shows like Crossfire and Capital Gang, Silva was quietly penning a debut novel that would be such a resounding hit the budding author would pursue writing full-time. The Unlikely Spy was that debut novel. This thriller is set in the throws and intrigue of the Double-Cross system which was enshrouded the truth of the Allies’ D-Day landing in, as Churchill famously said, “a bodyguard of lies.” Although the book doesn’t shine any new light on MI6, the Abwher, or war-time deception, the plot moves quickly and characters are believably developed. A fun read that, at times, seems strikingly similar to Follet’s Eye of the Needle.

Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.

I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

An All-Round Ministry by Charles Spurgeon. In 1865 Spurgeon began an annual conference for the students and alumni of his Pastor’s College; twelve of the best presidential addresses he gave at these conferences were eventually published as An All-Round Ministry. This book functions as something like a sequel to Lectures to My Students. Any pastor will profit from The Prince’s ruminations on pastoral ministry; his characteristic wit, wisdom, and biblical passion fall under the spotlight here. The eleventh chapter, “The Preacher’s Power, and the Conditions of Obtaining It”, is worth the book’s weight in gold.

Behold Your God by Donald Macleod. At some level, every theological fallacy is rooted in a false understanding of God. It’s quite wise then for pastors to consistently study the character and ways of God. One way I put this into practice is regularly reading or rereading books on the doctrine of God. Macleod’s Behold Your God is just the latest in my theology proper parade. I felt like I was invited into Macleod’s home for dinner and got to here him riff on the attributes of God and historical discussions about God. Fun stuff! I didn’t agree with everything he said – his quick disavowal of the historically defined impassibility being one example – but the chapters are helpfully short and clear.

The Hidden Life of Prayer: The Life-Blood of the Christian by David McIntyre. I am always helped by books on prayer. Even if the given book isn’t very good at least it gets me thinking about prayer. And whenever I think about prayer I normally soon find myself in the prayer closet. So I try to always be reading something on prayer. David McIntyre’s The Hidden Life of Prayer is one I return to every couple of years. It’s short, full of lively anecdotes, and packed with biblical and historical insights on a life of private prayer. The first two chapters – “The Life of Prayer” and “The Equipment” – are always challenging. Case in point: in the latter chapter McIntyre says, “The equipment for the inner life of prayer is simple, if not always easily secured. It consists particularly of a quiet place, a quiet hour and a quiet heart.” That kind of sound simplicity awaits anyone who would feast upon this gem.

The Prayer of the Lord by RC Sproul. For years I’ve meant to get around to Sproul’s exposition on the Lord’s Prayer, but it took the prospect of preaching on Matthew 6 to get me to finally open up this little gem. The Prayer of Our Lord is a model of biblical and systematic theology; all packed into 105 pages. Everything you’d expect from Sproul is here: etymological attention, philosophical rumination, theological explanation, and heart searching application.  I could see this book being uniquely helpful in morning devotions and in discipling relationships.

Teach them to Pray: Cultivating God-Dependency in Your Church by Paul Tauges. Day One’s Ministering the Master’s Way series is full of simple and short resources to provoke pastors. Paul Tautges’ little volume on prayer is an arrow worthy of every pastor’s book quiver. The book has three main sections: “Prayer – An Expression of God-Dependency” (Part 1), “Brief Sermons for Prayer Meetings” (Part 2), and “Practical Helps for Cultivating God-Dependency” (Appendices). There is nothing revolutionary nor original in Teach Them to Pray; the best sections are quotes from other pastors or theologians. Yet it will most definitely cause you to evaluate the place of prayer in your local. That reason alone is sufficient for me to commend the book to every pastor.

The Heist by Daniel Silva. Silva’s beloved Israeli spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon returns in The Heist, a novel quintessentially Silva-esque. As I’ve said before, Silva’s mastery is seen in how the Allon books are virtually free from the scandalous or promiscuous, and yet they still thrive. The Heist finds Allon pursuing Caravaggio’s masterpiece The Nativity, investigating the murder of a former British intelligence agent, and endeavoring to bring down the ruling family of Syria. The Heist is another solid work for Silva and is perfect reading on late summer nights.

The Bat by Jo Nesbø. Norwegian mystery writer Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole (pronounced “HO-leh) series currently stands at ten volumes and is something of a phenomenon in international publishing. For years I’ve had people, who know my propensity to read detective thrillers, tell me, “You must read Nesbø!” So I finally picked up The Bat, “The electrifying first appearance of . . . Harry Hole.” Well, electrified is not a word I would use to define my first experience of Mr. Hole. The narrative moves nicely when it concentrates on the investigation and pursuit of a mysterious Australian (yep, the Norwegian detective is sent down under in this one) serial killer. Yet, those intriguing thrills are too often derailed by Nesbø’s fixation on humanizing Hole by recounting the Norwegian’s dark vices. It may take another few years for me to move on to Harry Hole #2.

Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.