Recently in Books & Documents Category

I must actively stop looking for more books to add to my 2007 reading list. Here are the last few I have decided to place on the list. Again, I am not promising I'll be able to get to all of the books I've listed, but I'm looking forward to trying!

Lord Foulgrin's Letters by Randy Alcorn

This repack of Randy Alcorn's gripping bestseller delivers us from ignorance of the devil's schemes. Foulgrin, a high-ranking demon, instructs his subordinate on how to deceive and destroy Jordan Fletcher and his family. It's like placing a bugging device in hell's war room, where we overhear our enemies assessing our weaknesses and strategizing attack. Lord Foulgrin's Letters is a Screwtape Letters for our day, equally fascinating yet destinctly different -- a dramatic story with earthly characters, setting, and plot. A creative, insightful, and biblical depiction of spiritual warfare, this book will guide readers to Christ-honoring counterstrategies for putting on the full armor of God and resisting the devil. Alcorn says to win the battle we must know our God, know ourselves, and know our enemy. Lord Foulgrin's Letters, in unparalleled and compelling fashion, helps us better know each.

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Dorothea Brooke, a young woman of impeccable character, marries the embittered Mr. Casaubon, who almost immediately dies. Eliot takes the reader through a labyrinth of nineteenth-century morals and conventions as Dorothea searches for fulfillment and happiness. Walter's delicious, upper-crust English accent and understated English inflections immerse the listener in a little-known world of hedgerows and manners. This reading would have been a complete success had the narrator only taken more care with the timing surrounding omitted sections of the abridged text. She races ahead without pause, often confounding the listener, who finds the action has suddenly moved to the next county--or country--without warning. A worthy, though flawed, presentation. R.B.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

In my seemingly never-ending quest for reading, my reading list for 2007 has its very own Nostalgia Edition. I read these books growing up, and I have rediscovered them. If you haven't seen them before, I recommend the whole series (of 8).

I am currently reading two books.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

"Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray makes a Faustian bargain to sell his soul in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. Under the influence of Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, where he is able to indulge his desires while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only Dorian's picture bears the traces of his decadence." "A knowing account of a secret life and an analysis of the darker side of Victorian society, The Picture of Dorian Gray offers a disturbing portrait of an individual coming face to face with the reality of his soul."--BOOK JACKET.

The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story by Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen

"This is a marvelous book that everyone in the church would benefit from reading! Written by two professors at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, it tells the whole biblical story from Genesis to Revelation as a drama in six acts with an interlude in the middle. In the first three "acts" God establishes his kingdom (creation), there is rebellion in that kingdom (the Fall), and God through Israel initiates redemption. In the interlude (the "intertestamental period") God's kingdom story waits for an ending. Then the story is completed with the coming of the King (redemption accomplished), the spread of the news (the church's mission), and the return of the King (redemption completed). What is marvelous about this book is that it is written so creatively without cliches so the reader sees the biblical story as if for the first time. The authors are convinced that most people read the Bible as a mere jumble of history, poetry, lessons in morality and theology, comforting promises, guiding principles, and commands. They never realize that the Bible is fundamentally coherent and challenges the "idols" of modern culture. This book deserves a place in everyone's library" (Amazon reviewer "Professor of Theology").

So what books are on my 2007 reading list? I admit it's an ambitious list... and in no particular order... with no promises that I will actually achieve reading every book on the list.... but 14 books on the list so far is a good start, don't you think?

Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation

Graeme Goldsworthy examines the foundations and presuppositions of evangelical belief as it applies to the interpretation of the Bible. He then surveys the hemeneutical history of the Christian church in a attempt to see where alien approaches have deconstructed our way of reading Scripture. Finally, he reconstructs an evangelical hermeneutics rightly centered in the gospel and rightly influenced by the method of biblical theology.