I am in the unique and enjoyable position of receiving copies of most of the latest and greatest Christian books and I like to provide regular roundups of some of the best and brightest of the bunch. Here are some of the notable books that I’ve received in the past week or two.
A Theology of Mark by Hans Bayer – “Hans Bayer places Mark’s Gospel in its biblical context and explores the dynamic relationship between Jesus and his disciples—a process in which Jesus radically transforms them from self-dependent to God-dependent—beginning with their hearts.” (Learn more and shop at Amazon or Westminster Books)
The Juvenilization of American Christianity by Thomas Bergler – “Bergler traces the way in which, over seventy-five years, youth ministries have breathed new vitality into four major American church traditions — African American, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Roman Catholic. Bergler shows too how this “juvenilization” of churches has led to widespread spiritual immaturity, consumerism, and self-centeredness, popularizing a feel-good faith with neither intergenerational community nor theological literacy. Bergler’s critique further offers constructive suggestions for taming juvenilization.” (Learn more and shop at Amazon or Westminster Books)
The Eerdmans Companion to the Bible edited by Gordon Fee and Robert Hubbard – “Marked by a broad evangelical perspective, up-to-date research, and contributions from respected biblical scholars, The Eerdmans Companion to the Bible offers a reliable and illuminating guide to the entire Bible. Whether readers find the Bible familiar or foreign, they will appreciate the Companion’s informative articles and its commentary by Connie Gundry Tappy on all of the Old and New Testament books.” (Learn more and shop at Amazon or Westminster Books)
F. F. Bruce: A Life by Tim Grass – “The first-ever full-length biography of Frederick Fyvie Bruce (1910–1990), one of the most influential British biblical scholars of the twentieth century. Over his lifetime F. F. Bruce authored some fifty books and nearly two thousand articles and reviews. His career offers valuable insights into key issues that affected evangelicals from the 1950s onwards, including the relationship between academic theology and church life and the perception of evangelical scholarship within the academy at large.” (Learn more and shop at Amazon)
Dallas and the Spitfire by Ted Kluck and Dallas Jahncke – “Ted is an educated thirty-something father of two who’s been going to church his whole life. Dallas is a twenty-one-year-old former cocaine addict with a prison record who has recently become a Christian. When they agree to meet regularly for “discipleship,” they know that chatting once a week in a coffee shop just won’t cut it. Instead, they decide to get to know each other while restoring an old Triumph Spitfire. Filled with surprises and humor, Dallas and the Spitfire tells a gripping story of two lives changed, and along the way gives readers a new model for men’s ministry.” (Learn more and shop at Amazon)
Heroes and Monsters: An Honest Look at the Struggle within All of Us by Josh Riebock – “In this stunningly honest, thoroughly unconventional, and ultimately hopeful book, Josh James Riebock explores issues that form us into the people we are–issues of family, love, intimacy, dreams, grief, purpose, and the unexpected stops along the journey. With artful prose and vivid storytelling, he shows that pain and beauty are so inextricably linked that to lose the former costs us the latter.” (Learn more and shop at Amazon)
The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus by Alan Thompson – “At the popular level, Acts is more often mined for answers to contemporary debates than heard for its natural inflections. Instead of using Acts as a prooftext, Alan Thompson brings a biblical-theological framework to the account to expose Luke’s major themes as they relate to the book as a whole.” (Learn more and shop at Amazon or Westminster Books)
