2020 Top Book List

Another year, another round of books. I’ve sat here over the last hour or so and just looked back at the titles I have read and the notes I took over the last twelve months. Some were forgettable; others were impressive. But a few were deeply impactful in more ways than one. It is wild how certain times, certain circumstances, both personal and cultural, can enhance the meaning of a specific text. Particular themes are timeless; God, death, sorrow, mortality, etc., and others are relevant only in the moment. Seeing what I have spent countless hours mentally digesting reveals thoughts and ideas that have and will shape me over my entire life but also affects the very decisions of today. What power the written word has!

The world of literature, old and new, has fascinated me for years now. It is a path forward and step backward. A great classic has the ability to place you on a train in reverse, looking out the window at what time, culture, people experienced and faced in ages past. A book hot off the press has the excitement of engaging new ideas and tackling new complexities in the age I find myself in. Finally, a work of theology can blur the past and the present by painting a picture of the eternal God whose disclosure is relevant no matter the year.

Yet as I passively retrieve the contents of books, they should actively lead me to pursue a fuller life. William Shirer wrote almost a century ago, “I love books, they connect you with the past and the present, with original minds and noble spirits, with what living has been and meant to others. They instruct, inspire, shake you up, make you laugh and weep, think and dream. But while they do enhance experience, they are not a substitute for it” (Twentieth Century Journey: The Start, 14). My hope is that the world of literature would enhance the world I live in. If history, fiction, theology, and philosophy can lead me to a greater love of God and neighbor, then it is a worthwhile endeavor. With that, here are this year’s titles that engaged my mind and pricked my heart the most.

5. Cyprian of Carthage: His Life & Mission by Brian J. Arnold

Most evangelicals like me have scant knowledge of church history past Martin Luther or even Billy Graham. Retrieving the treasures of old saints throughout the Christian story is a task that requires turning back the pages to times when the story of the church was in different contexts, different issues, even different doctrinal developments. The fruit of these investigations is seeing the timeless issues every Christian generation faces and humbly acknowledging the trials today’s church in America has never had to endure. Knowing the early church can help bring grace to doctrinal disputes and connect the Christian to a heritage he or she never knew they had.

I found such a connection in Saint Cyprian this year. Cyprian was a third century bishop converted to Christianity later in life after an existence of decadence. This talented and educated convert was quickly thrust into church leadership right before the greatest persecution of the church the world had seen up to this point. The trials and complexities of navigating such a time were immense. He made mistakes and learned from them. But in the end died a martyr’s death. Brian Arnold’s book is an accessible little volume introducing this great church father. The most striking point for me was Cyprian’s remarks on the Lord’s supper. Communion tends to be a downplayed event in the modern church. Saint Cyprian’s words struck me in the heart as to the effect this great sign can have on the sinner’s heart!

Favorite quote:

“Doubtless the Lord’s cup so inebriates them that drink, that it makes them sober; that it restores their minds to spiritual wisdom; that each one recovers from the flavor of the world to the understanding of God; and in the same way, that by that common wine the mind is dissolved and the soul relaxed, and all sadness is laid aside, and there arises an oblivion of the former worldly conversation, and the sorrowful and sad breast which before was oppressed by tormenting sins is eased by the joy of divine mercy” (Cyprian of Carthage, 113).

4. Why Should I Believe Christianity? By James Anderson

As someone deeply invested in apologetics, I am always looking for concise and accessible books to help the lay Christian and even the nonbeliever understand and hear the reasons for faith. To be sure, there are methodological concerns that really matter in how we approach apologetics and conduct this kind of evangelism, so finding a short and easy book on Christian apologetics that also upholds my methodological convictions can be tricky. Luckily, I have found that here in Dr. Anderson’s work; As a presuppositionalist, his starting place is my starting place. This will be the go-to book for a skeptic that I hand out from this point forward. His explanation of the Christian worldview and defense of it provides everything needed to give a thorough gospel presentation and a robust, presuppositional defense of the faith.

Favorite quote: (On the argument for God from human consciousness)

“No scientist or philosopher has ever come close to substantiating or explaining how conscious structures (minds) could be generated from non-conscious physical structures. Increasing the complexity of something doesn't result in a fundamentally different kind of thing coming into existence: a self-conscious subject of thoughts and experiences...Naturalistic evolution cannot explain how consciousness appeared in the first place. Evolutionary forces can only operate on things that already exist. Natural selection can only favor a conscious organism over a non-conscious one if a conscious organism is there to be favored...Worldviews which imply that rational, conscious minds developed late in the history of the universe, as the chance outcome of purely material processes, face some serious philosophical challenges.”

“The Christian Worldview does not (have these problems). It claims that mind preceded matter. The mind of God. A God who is eternal, self-existent, transcendent, personal being with a mind--and not just any mind, but a perfect, absolute, infinite mind. And God created the universe with both mental and material aspects from the outset: He created humans with minds as well as bodies. Our minds were created to think God’s thoughts after him. So the Christian Worldview believes both the mind and the matter came from God, and his mind existed first. What are the implications: Both the mental and the material have their source in God. We can say our minds are ‘fitted’ to understand the physical universe, which is one of the most basic assumptions of science” (Why Should I Believe Christianity?, 123-25).

3. The Wonderful Works of God by Herman Bavinck

Systematic theologies can be thick and painstakingly dense. One of the thickest and most extensive treatments of systematic theology in the reformed tradition is Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics; Attempting to work through his four volume set is not for the faint of heart. Fortunately, this abbreviated ST brings us the genius and firepower of Bavinck’s theological gifts in a condensed format and a more practical purpose. This republished title is Bavinck’s attempt to distill down the glorious truths of specific doctrines for Christians. I found it rich with deep theological discussion and doctrinal explanations that made my soul sing. A favorite moment was his early discussion of the problem of man and how to define his state. This is a question that befuddles many a theologian and philosopher, and I believe Bavinck pinpoints it precisely.

Favorite quote:

“In this, as Pascal so profoundly pointed out, consists the greatness and miserableness of man. He longs for truth and is false by nature. He yearns for rest and throws himself from one diversion upon another. He pants for permanent and eternal bliss and seizes on the pleasures of a moment. He seeks for God and loses himself in the creature. He is a born son of the house and he feeds on the husks of the swine in a strange land. He forsakes the fountain of living waters and hews out broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer. 2:11). He is a hungry man who dreams that he is eating, and when he awakes finds that his is soul is empty; and he is like a thirsty man who dreams he is drinking, and when he awakes finds that he is faint and that his soul has appetite (Isa. 29:8)…Science cannot explain this contradiction in man. It reckons only with his greatness and not with his misery, or only with his misery and not with his greatness. It exalts him too high, or it depresses him too far, for science does not know of his Divine origin, nor of his profound fall. But the Scriptures know of both, and they shed their light over man and over mankind; and the contradictions are reconciled, the mists are cleared, and the hidden things are revealed. Man is an enigma whose solution can be found only in God” (Wonderful Works of God, 6).

2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

One of the greatest literary discoveries of my life has been the writings of the Russian greats Tolstoy and Dostoevsky over the last eighteen or so months. There are no authors who can dig deeper into the human mind and soul than these two men; their ability to walk a reader through the depths of the human heart touches a part of me that I did not know anyone else saw. Their books both small and large have kept me up many nights this year. Shirer’s description of great books sums up these two authors: “Great literature demands more: that words convey substance, meaning, something that matters to the guts, the heart, the mind” (Twentieth Century Journey: The Start, 301). This one in particular, the most famous work of Dostoevsky’s, throws the reader into the challenges of the enlightenment and the evolution of society beyond belief in God.

Both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky saw what was coming in their country as they wrote their great novels in the mid-late 1800s. Russia was one of the last countries to be overtaken by the philosophical effects of the enlightenment and the “death of god” as Nietzsche coined it. The people of Russia, impoverished and walked over by Czar Nikolai II, were longing for liberation in some way. The solution of the Bolsheviks and the new world of secularizing Europe offered an enticing path for Tolstoy and Dostoevsky’s contemporaries, yet they fought with all the ink in their pens against this direction. Novels like Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov were produced from these two men’s desire to peel back the angst of their countrymen and show them the path that such a revolution would lead to.

In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, the main character, is a young man caught in the tension of this revolutionary thinking. If God is no more, if morality is not fixed, if it is all just a rat race, then man must rise up and be his own god and make his own standards. This crazy thinking leads to crazy living. After a long series of darkening moments and exhausting battles in his own head, Raskolnikov decides murder and thievery are the path forward for him in this new world. The narrative from here follows his own inner decay from the effects of his evil actions. Even though he has put on these new garments of worldview without fixed morality, he is tormented by his own humanity over the sins he has committed. This overwhelms him; he cannot shake the foundational worldview he claimed was outdated or useless. I won’t spoil the rest of the story, but this exhaustive look at the inner morality of a man’s thinking will sear your soul in unfathomable ways. Unfortunately, the goal of this depiction did not sway the majority in Russia from their future revolution, but it has struck the heart of many a person over the years by asking them to think through the outworking of a Nietzschen worldview.

Favorite quote:

The greatest moments in this book are extended dialogues within the main character’s head. Therefore, trying to quote one here would be too lengthy. If interested, the most incredible dialogue is the conversation Raskolnikov has with another character over his article “On Crime” and the extraordinary man. This is a direct examination of Nietzsche’s superhumanity. It’s breathtaking. It can be found in the Barnes & Noble Classics Series Edition (2007) on pages 246-254.

1. The Art of Pastoring: Ministry Without All The Answers by David Hansen

The genre or style of books I am most bored by is those that tend to be more practical. How to strategize, how to lead, how to pastor. “How to” books are just a slog for me to engage. Yet here, in this text, the author David Hansen engages pastors or future pastors like myself on “how to” in the flow of something kin to a memoir. There are no bullet points or big tips on how to be successful, rather there are stories of sorrow and tough decisions over a lifetime of unflashy ministry selected to teach pastors how to follow “the Way of the Cross.”

Hansen, who sets most of his book in the midst of his decades-long pastorate in the backcountry of Montana, pushes back against the task-driven, business guru triumphalism of much of the American church. This seasoned minister has been down the track, and has a lot of words and life to show those of us who are years behind him. Early on he attacks the platforming and corporation mentality in ministry poignantly. He states:

“The most insidious rationalization for a task-driven ministry is that it provides the pastor with a professional identity. A surgeon is a person trained and authorized to perform surgery. A teacher is a person and authorized to teach school. A pastor is a person trained and authorized to carry out pastoral tasks. As a professional, I am a person with expertise. Experts have esoteric knowledge with powers to accomplish tasks. Such knowledge makes us valuable to society. It separates me from those around me. I become ‘distinguished.’ My ego loves the distance by esoteric knowledge; it is the power of the witch doctor. But in the end the tragic distance created is within my own soul. When I move from being a lover of the soul to an expert about the soul, I objectify my soul from myself. In the end my ego is warped; it goes on a rampage, climbing ladders to assert itself. Better to be a follower of Jesus and no expert at that, just a sinner saved by grace, called to love because I have been bought with a price. I may lose my standing as an expert but I gain my soul. The pastoral ministry cannot be employer-driven, trend-driven, or task-driven. Pastoral ministry must be following Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ called me to this work and following him must be integral to realizing his calling” (The Art of Pastoring, 21-22).

He strikes at the deepest recesses of a pastor's heart here; the separation of the professional from the personal is a division that seems to ruin church leaders year after year who refuse to be “a sinner in the midst of Christian brothers” as Bonhoeffer puts it. My pastor always likes to say, “You can be impressive or you can be known.” Hansen calls us to choose to be known. To follow Jesus in repentance and faith vulnerably in the presence of God and our fellow Christians over pimping him out as no more than a tool to advance our careers.

A big theme throughout the book that pierced my soul was the centrality of a pastor following the “Way of the Cross.” He summarizes:

“Jesus specifically directed us to follow him in his life’s general direction, the Way of the Cross. Lest we object to bearing the cross as pietistic nonsense in a world of ‘scientific’ management principles and psychological method, simply observe that virtually all the trouble that the best, most talented pastors get into comes from not following the Way of the Cross. The best and most talented in pastoral ministry and in denominational hierarchies harm themselves and harm the church most through their unrestrained ego and unwillingness to step off the high places. Sexual sin gets the press, but ego sin kills the church” (The Art of Pastoring, 30).

If the low place is not the space a pastor stays in, then the high place will crumble under his feet. These words, written years ago, are literally the headlines of multiple fallen pastor’s this very year. In response to a recent revelation of a scandalous scenario, Drew Dyck tweeted, “A big-time Christian leader spends years engaging in narcissistic, deceptive, manipulative behavior. Finally he gets caught with his pants down (literally) and everyone gasps. ‘A leader has fallen!’ Psst...he fell a loooooooong time ago. And of course everyone around them knew it. But as long as they were a ‘success’ no one has the stomach to call them on it. Only once there’s something sexual do they get removed. Scary thing: If they don’t get caught in sexual sin, they can act like an absolute jerk for decades.”

For many, the identity statement of the apostle Paul, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14), is merely a bumper sticker. I don’t count myself out of this conversation; to abandon the low place of boasting only in the cross is a daily desire. I am pulled to want to make a big deal of myself in almost everything I pursue. Hansen calls us to skip the cheap glory and find the wood of the cross comforting because in the shadow of Christ’s crucifixion we find the true place to stand. This is easier said than done. Even Hansen admits:

“I had a theology of the cross, but I despised myself when it was time for me to hang there” (The Art of Pastoring, 70).

I feel you brother. For all the theological i’s I have dotted, the mark is missed daily in practice. This book called me to the Way of the Cross in life and in the future of pastoral ministry. It is a message that swims upstream in a violent current, begging us to find our place at the foot of the tree instead of in the lights on the stage.