Here are my top books from 2017. They are listed in the order read.
Favorite Books:
The Making of Asian America - Erika Lee. This book covers quite a lot of ground as it documents Asian immigration from before Columbus up to today. After reading this, it gave me a greater understanding and respect for my immigrant family. It also also demythologizes the model minority and the idea that the Asian American experience is uniform.
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind - Mark Noll. "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind." This is a classic work from the
No Little Women - Aimee Byrd. I wrote a review at Out of the Ordinary. But in a nut shell, it's time we stopped dumbing-down women's discipleship, calling cultural ideals biblical, and implying or even stating that women can only be fed by a resource packaged in pink (or teal). I especially appreciate Aimee's emphasis on the sufficiency of the ordinary means of grace to equip the whole church, which includes women.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle, audio book. Some stories were better than others, but this was such fun to listen to. Simon Vance's narration was perfect.
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande. I am so glad a friend recommended this book. It's written by a non-Christian, Harvard-trained physician. His thoughts about mortality and how we deal with death are worth considering because it is possible for Christians to be so "already" that we are unable to honestly face some of the "not yet."
All That Is In God - James Dolezal. Is divine simplicity and the classical doctrine of God important? Yes! Does it make a difference to the believer in the pew? Yes!
The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, The Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World - Edward Dolnick, audio book. My daughter went to Europe this summer to learn about Newton, his rival Gottfried Leibniz, and the discovery of calculus. The lives of these men, their discoveries, and the time period are fascinating.
Perfectionism - B.B. Warfield. Warfield's critique is pertinent today because there is nothing new under the sun. We are still plagued by the influence of Charles Finney, Asa Mahan, Hannah and Robert Smith, and early Keswick theology even if it isn't labeled as such.
How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds - Alan Jacobs. This could be one of the remedies to recover the evangelical mind. Review here.
The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, & Gospel Assurance - Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters - Sinclair Ferguson, audio book. Legalism and antinomianism are two sides of the same problem - an inadequate view of God and the gospel. Ferguson steers clear of these two ditches and gives the reader a biblical way forward. This is such an encouraging and practical book because you don't have to rob someone of assurance in order to spur them on to holiness.
Honorable mentions:
The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity - Soong Chan Rah. Very thought provoking. I have some points of disagreement with the author, but I agree with his assessment that the majority culture church can learn much from the immigrant church in how it does community. Ingrained American individualism hampers Christian community. A different perspective can help expose the problems with our cultural defaults.
Is the Bible Good for Women? - Wendy Alsup. Wendy tackles the "hard" passages in the Bible for women and does a great job at addressing them from a gospel point of view.
The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity - Kevin Giles. If the Lord tarries, people in the future may be talking about the Great Trinity Debate of 2016, and Giles documents this well. The section on how to avoid biblicism by taking into account not only the scriptures but church history and sound reasoning is worth reading.
A Brief History of Sunday - Justo Gonzalez. How did Christians treat Sunday through the ages? The practice wasn't uniform, even among the Reformers. It was also affected by the socioeconomic conditions of the times. Getting a wider historical perspective may aid discussion about the 4th commandment and keep us from assuming that what we can do with relative ease is the same for the rest of the worldwide church.
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements - Sam Kean, audio book. This is just the sort of book to satisfy my inner chemistry nerd. My only quibble is that the print version had only author's notes and very minimal references. Not that I don't trust him, but just like professors want you to show your work, this reader wants an author to cite his sources.
The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, & Gospel Assurance - Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters - Sinclair Ferguson, audio book. Legalism and antinomianism are two sides of the same problem - an inadequate view of God and the gospel. Ferguson steers clear of these two ditches and gives the reader a biblical way forward. This is such an encouraging and practical book because you don't have to rob someone of assurance in order to spur them on to holiness.
Honorable mentions:
The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity - Soong Chan Rah. Very thought provoking. I have some points of disagreement with the author, but I agree with his assessment that the majority culture church can learn much from the immigrant church in how it does community. Ingrained American individualism hampers Christian community. A different perspective can help expose the problems with our cultural defaults.
Is the Bible Good for Women? - Wendy Alsup. Wendy tackles the "hard" passages in the Bible for women and does a great job at addressing them from a gospel point of view.
The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity - Kevin Giles. If the Lord tarries, people in the future may be talking about the Great Trinity Debate of 2016, and Giles documents this well. The section on how to avoid biblicism by taking into account not only the scriptures but church history and sound reasoning is worth reading.
A Brief History of Sunday - Justo Gonzalez. How did Christians treat Sunday through the ages? The practice wasn't uniform, even among the Reformers. It was also affected by the socioeconomic conditions of the times. Getting a wider historical perspective may aid discussion about the 4th commandment and keep us from assuming that what we can do with relative ease is the same for the rest of the worldwide church.
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements - Sam Kean, audio book. This is just the sort of book to satisfy my inner chemistry nerd. My only quibble is that the print version had only author's notes and very minimal references. Not that I don't trust him, but just like professors want you to show your work, this reader wants an author to cite his sources.
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