Resources on Book Reviews
In my opinion, the best manuals of the Christian life remain the historic Reformed confessions and catechisms, and especially the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort. In them we learn what we are to believe about God and man, the way of salvation, the shape of godly behavior, and the life of prayer. Michael Barrett’s The Grace of Godliness: An introduction to doctrine and piety in the Canons of Dort places the Canons in their early 17th century historical context and provides a good exposition of its main points. Both the Canons and Barrett’s fine commentary identify the vital connection between the doctrines of…
Read MoreSeveral years ago one of Westminster’s teenagers recommended to me The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer. What a read! From beginning to end a fast-paced and moving story of heroism. Leyte Gulf was the largest naval engagement in history, and also the world’s last large-scale naval battle (or perhaps, more accurately, series of battles). Leyte was a desperate attempt by the Japanese to disrupt MacArthur’s Philippine invasion, and to keep the the Philippines and its vital natural resources under Japanese control. The book focuses on one engagement of the Battle of Leyte – the two-and-a-half-hour fight off the island of Samar. There,…
Read MoreNo fiction writer could have created the story of Englishman James Holman (1786-1857). At age thirteen, Holman joined the British Royal Navy and traveled to North America. For much of the remainder of his life he was on the move, never more happy and healthy than when traveling, even after he went blind In his mid-twenties. Disability did not dampen his enthusiasm for life. He studied medicine and literature at the University of Edinburgh, committing large bodies of materials to his capacious memory. Obtaining a machine used by British soldiers to write in complete darkness, he cultivated his considerable skills as a writer. Eventually, Holman set off to explore the world. By his death he was the most traveled man…
Read MoreMy friend Craig put me onto Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. Cholera devastates cities, a lethal enemy that, through the centuries, killed millions. The Ghost Map takes us to 1854 when a cholera epidemic ravaged London’s Soho district, and claimed more than six hundred lives. The death toll would have risen higher had not many anxious citizens fled. The dominant epidemiological paradigm of the day designated cholera an airborne disease, the product of foul air associated with overflowing cesspools and unsanitary living conditions. For several years prior to the outbreak, Dr. John Snow, a renown anesthesiologist, suspected the airborne theory wrong. When…
Read MoreHoliness by J.C. Ryle was the first book I read devoted to the believer’s personal holiness. Through the years I’ve returned to it many times for instruction and encouragement, and it remains atop my list of recommended books on the subject. Ryle loved the the gospel of God’s justifying grace in Christ. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Not human works but Christ, by his meritorious life and atoning death, saves believing, repentant sinners. God justifies, and he also sanctifies as he works in believers to purify and make them holy…
Read MoreSeventeenth century Puritanism produced some of Christianity’s most able preachers. Many of them received a university training that required the careful reading of texts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. A language-based educational system prepared future ministers to find a home in biblical texts. If they tutored children of the affluent, they sharpened their expository skills. (T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach. P&R, 2009) The written text no longer dominates America’s educational landscape, and comparatively few students devote themselves to rigorous study of literature or ancient languages before entering seminary. Preaching suffers. T. David Gordon’s Why Johnny Can’t Preach engages the modern preacher by considering his ability both to read biblical texts and communicate compellingly their God-breathed truth. The minister’s…
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