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Scripture itself has had the greatest impact on
my life. After all, the Bible is God's written revelation. It is the
Word of life. Other volumes have also provided me with great pleasure,
great challenges, and great encouragement. The following list is but
the beginning, for I have long been a lover of great books.
Daniel J. Boorstin. The Americans. 3 vols. New York: Vintage Books (Random House), 1958, 1965, 1974.
- These three volumes are individually subtitled The Colonial Experience, The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience, respectively. Every American ought to read Boorstin's history of our nation. Chapter 2 ("The Sermon as an American Institution") of The Colonial Experience, describing the normal setting for a Puritan sermon, should be required reading for church members. Because of Daniel Boorstin's modeling of good historical writing, I've come to expect the very best research and writing in what I read. His skilled historiography should be no surprise, however, since he was Librarian of Congress and senior historian of the Smithsonian Institute. All of his books are worth reading, but begin with these. Read these volumes to your family or encourage them to read them on their own.
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David Daniell.William
Tyndale: A Biography. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
1994.
- Good biographies are hard to beat. The lives of the saints have great power to challenge and encourage us in our faith. As a Bible
translator, I found this volume a treasure trove of information about
one of the greatest translators of the English Bible.
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Michael Green. Evangelism in the Early Church. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1970.
- Too often we tend to forget that the Early Church multiplied and spread as the result of their evangelistic endeavors. There are lessons to be learned from the Early Church that apply across the centuries. Green gives us a glimpse into our spiritual heritage--how the Early Church lived and witnessed. It is my understanding that a new edition of this classic will be published soon. Every pastor and lay leader should read it.
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Philip J. King and
Lawrence E. Stager. Life in Biblical Israel. Library of
Ancient Israel. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.
- King and Stager focus on Iron Age Israel (1200-586 B.C.) in this beautifully-illustrated, well-written, and superbly documented
volume. It is a very usable and valuable reference work for practical
application of archeological data to a descriptive study of life in
ancient Israel.
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John MacArthur. The Battle for the Beginning. [Nashville, Tenn.]: W Publishing Group, 2001.
- Good biblical exposition coupled with pertinent illustrations from science and nature is rare within the same volume. The Battle for the Beginning is a cogent presentation of creationism based upon sound biblical exegesis. This is a book that could be read with great profit in a family setting. Read it and encounter both the Creator and His creation as presented in the early chapters of Genesis.
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John Piper. The
Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God's Triumphant Grace in the Lives of
Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2000.
- Not only is this one of the very best Christian books I have ever read, it caused me to re-evaluate how I teach the Book of
Psalms. For several semesters I had taught a Hebrew exegesis course on
"Selected Psalms." They were mainly the same psalms each time. After
reading Piper's volume, the practices of Luther and Calvin altered my
teaching plan. They taught through a book of Scripture, continuing each
term where they left off in the previous term. That's how I now teach
Hebrew Exegesis of the Psalms.
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Charles R. Swindoll. The Grace Awakening. Dallas, Tex.: Word Publishing, 1990.
- Legalism in the church has stifling consequences, because it is anti-grace. Grace Awakening is a necessary wake up call for the New Testament church. Swindoll's book tackles this pernicious problem head on. As excellent as the book is, it has some rough spots to be aware of. Its discussion of shame is inadequate, especially in the failure to understand that problems in our human condition are due to our sinful humanity (even as believers).
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Warren W. Wiersbe. On Being a Servant of God. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1993.
- Once I began reading this little volume (150 pp.), I couldn't put it down until I had finished it. Wiersbe addresses ministers and laity alike in their service for the Lord. In 30 bite-sized chapters he discusses principles vs. methods, divine resources, human needs, ministering to difficult people, calling to servanthood, sacrifice, obedience, and many other topics related to spiritual service. The 18th chapter alone (the shortest of the 30) is worth the price of the entire book. This book is must reading for anyone involved in any type of ministry at any level in the church.
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Robert Dick Wilson. A Scientific Investigation of the Old Testament. Revised by Edward J. Young. Chicago: Moody Press, 1959.
- Robert Dick Wilson is an evangelical giant in Old Testament studies and my personal hero. His meticulous and methodical scholarship is virtually unequaled in the past century. Liberal scholars are still unable to unravel his carefully constructed argumentation for the inerrancy and trustworthiness of the Hebrew Bible. No one who has failed to read this volume should be teaching Old Testament seminary courses.
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James A. Borland, Christ in the
Old Testament
Paul R. House, 1,2 Kings (NAC)
Norbert Lohfink, Qoheleth (Continental)
Eugene Merrill, Deuteronomy (NAC)
Bruce K. Waltke & M.
O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax
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Unfortunately, a lot of books are published that aren't worth the paper on which they're printed. Marketing blitzes by publishers sometimes promote bad books rather than good. This section of my page on books will highlight books that I personally believe contain unsound and sometimes even doctrinally dangerous material. By focusing on these books I am not saying that you should not read them. I am saying that, if you read them, beware of certain things they say. Don't believe something just because it's in print--or because it's on the internet. Discriminating readers are good readers.
John Eldredge. Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001.
- A very good friend gave me this book. That's something good friends do. He's doubly a friend, however, because he also warned me about it. It's a book I agonized over, because it does have some good in it and Eldredge is an excellent communicator when it comes to modern men stomped on by radical feminism. However, theology and Christian living cannot be learned from Hollywood (my first problem with the book--a problem the author is aware of himself according to p. 92, but succumbs to again later on p. 126 and in spades on p. 200, where he equates movies with natural revelation!). Sadly, a man can read over half the book before he is confronted with the fact that some things he feels are not included in the image of God in man, but totally involved in the sin nature of fallen man (it finally comes on pp. 143-45). What does it mean to have "permission to live from the heart" (p. xi)? Which heart? My old sinful heart or my new heart in Christ (see pp. 133-34)? According to Eldredge, neither one of those is my "deep heart" (p.8). But, that is an element that is purely hypothetical because there is no Scripture to support it. How can aggression be "part of the masculine design" (p. 10) prior to the Fall? Without Satan, without a sin nature, without the world system, without the law of fang and claw, without death and disease, why would aggression be necessary?--there were no battles to fight before the Fall! If desire "reveals design, and design reveals destiny" (p. 48), what in the world is Jeremiah talking about when he says "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick" (17:9)? Eldredge's response is that, as believers, we no longer have that old sinful heart (p. 134). Paul didn't seem to think so (see Romans 7:14-25; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Galatians 5:13-15). There is legitimate, God-given desire (e.g., Philippians 2:13 where "to will" = "to desire"), but it has to be carefully defined and examined by the Word of God. However, Eldredge goes on page after page without ever warning men about the fact that their own hearts can deceive them. It probably would have killed the reader's interest in what Eldredge had to say, if he had placed Chapter 8 at the beginning of the book, but what if the reader finds confirmation for his "desires" in the first five or six chapters enough justification not to finish reading the book? Eldredge's diatribe against living by "principles" (p. 210) fails to mention that right principles (= propositional truths) are correctly obtained only from Scripture (as Eldredge himself states on p. 136). Eldredge's self-contradictions could confuse and mislead the man to whom you recommend this book. He might find confirmation that it's all right to spend time with the boys in the pub (p. 128; cp. p. 194). Can it be used with profit in a guided study with a group of men under the leadership of mature men of God? Yes, but wouldn't it be better to use more dependable material that you don't have to continually explain and contradict?
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Iain Provan. Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001.
- In his commentary on the Song of Solomon, Provan takes the love triangle viewpoint (p. 246). Within this triangle he makes Solomon the villain, who has forced his attentions upon the maiden whose love is for another (pp. 246-47). He concludes that the maiden had been victimized by "the anger of the men in her family" (p. 267). Indeed, Provan treats the Song of Songs as an anti-chauvinistic drama that sounds a lot like radical feminist exegesis (e.g., "as feminist theologians have pointed out, when God is male, the male tends to be god," p. 277). By means of tortured exegesis and prejudicial treatment of the text, he accuses the Old Testament legal tradition of fostering oppression and abuse of women (pp. 272, 278). His interpretation of 3:6-11 turns the royal wedding procession into a metaphorical satire depicting Solomon's bed riding "roughshod over the daughters of Jerusalem, on the road paved with sexual acts" (p. 303). Provan then claims that a sacrificial female victim rises from Solomon's bed "in the way that smoke rises up into the sky when sacrifices are burnt" (303). As if that were not enough, he decides that the love triangle involves the maiden's coerced public marriage to Solomon and, at the same time, her carrying on a physical relationship with her lover (pp. 321-22). Provan approves of that second relationship as "in all but legal reality a marriage" (p. 324). In other words, he presents a case offering biblical approval for extramarital liaisons and relationships!
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There are many books falling into the classification of "recommended" that do not rise as high as to be the "Best Books I've Read." Such books stimulate the mind, challenge the heart, and lift up the soul. Each has its own place and value. As briefly as possible, I will attempt to indicate that place and value for each book I recommend. Do I stand by every single statement occurring in these books? Absolutely not. Being as discriminating, critical, and sometimes cantankerous as I am, I can usually find something in even the best of books (outside the Bible) that I consider in error or unwise or misleading or confusing. However, I believe these books worth spending hard earned dollars to purchase used or new, cloth cover or paperback.
James Montgomery Boice. Psalms, 3 vols. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1996.
- One of the best expositional commentaries available on Psalms.
Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. Quest for Renewal: Personal Revival in the Old Testament. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.
- Too many expositors neglect OT spiritual revivals. A valuable study that will challenge your heart and your church.
John W. Wenham. The Goodness of God. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1974.
- A superbly reasoned response to questions like "How can God be good if He allows terrible suffering, wars, tsunamis, and hell?"
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© William D. Barrick 2004
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