The Year's Best Books for Preachers...Continued from page 3
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
Other helpful titles include Pierre Grelot, The Language of Symbolism (Hendrickson Publishers), The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament by Clayton N. Jefford (Hendrickson Publishers) and The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority by Lee Martin McDonald (Hendrickson Publishers), and Commentary on the Gospels by Andrew Gregory, David Bartlett, Morna Hooker, and Henry Wansbrough (Fortress Press).
The preacher’s library should also include worthy volumes on theology, church history, and the history and development of Christian thought. This year has seen the release of many significant titles in this expansive category. Preachers will be particularly interested in works like The Pre-Existent Son by Simon J. Gathercole (Eerdmans). Gathercole, who teaches New Testament at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, argues that all three of the synoptic gospels reveal the preexistence of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
John M. Frame of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando has written Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (P & R Publishing). Frame argues consistently that “the Bible is not a miscellaneous collection of ideas but a coherent, consistent system of truth in which the major doctrines depend on one another.” Gilbert Meilaender of Valparaiso University has written The Freedom of a Christian: Grace, Vocation, and the Meaning of Our Humanity (Brazos Press). Meilaender, one of the most fertile Christian minds of our generation, understands that freedom represents one of the most significant theological questions of our time. How do we offer a distinctively Christian understanding of freedom in an age of personal autonomy as the dominant worldview?
Other worthy contributions in the field of theological studies include By Faith, Not By Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. (Paternoster), The Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth About the Antichrist by Kim Riddlebarger (Baker Books), Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile: Restoration Eschatology and the Origin of the Atonement by Brant Pitre (Baker Academic), Cross Words: The Biblical Doctrine of the Atonement by Paul Wells (Christian Focus), Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God’s Grace, edited by Burk Parsons (P & R Publishing), Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer by Bryan A. Follis (Crossway), and New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics, edited by W. C. Campbell-Jack and Gavin McGrath.
Additional titles include Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study by Markus Bockmuehl (Baker Academic), Why Good Arguments Often Fail: Making a More Persuasive Case for Christ by James W. Sire (InterVarsity Press), Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church edited by D. H. Williams (Baker Academic), Full Gospel, Fractured Minds? by Rick M. Nanez (Zondervan), and The Federal Vision and Covenant Theology: A Comparative Analysis by Guy Prentiss Waters (P & R Publishing).