Once again, I’m honored to choose my favorite nonfiction Christian
books published in the last calendar year, my twelfth consecutive list.
2017 proved to be the most difficult year yet (and I’m sure I said the
same thing last year), all driven by aggressive publishing momentum.
This year about 120 new titles caught my attention, and I set out to read the best of them until I could whittle down a list of my 17 favorite reads from the year. But before getting to the list, a few overall comments.
Female authors continue publishing new books at a swift pace, strong in 2014 and a little less prominent in 2015, but with more steam in 2016 and 2017. Women are now a mainstay and growing proportion of Christian publishing.
Christian publishing continues to deliver on aesthetics across the board, both on cover design and interior design, illustrated by projects like the ESV Illuminated Bible from Crossway and the beautiful Lost Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon series (volume 1 and volume 2) from B&H.
Once again, 2017 did not quite deliver biblical theology or commentaries like we saw in 2015, although we do continue to see solid contributions in two premier series: New Studies in Biblical Theology (IVP) and Short Studies in Biblical Theology (Crossway).
Closer to home, God richly blessed desiringGod.org and Bethlehem College & Seminary with seven new titles in 2017:
It was a strong year for books related to singleness, marriage, and dating. Along with Segal’s gospel-wise plea to the not-yet married, Deepak Reju helped women steer clear of man-duds; David Powlison offered healing for the sexually broken and hope forward in Christ; Ben Stuart helped to wisely navigate singleness, dating, engagement, and the early married years; and Lydia Brownback tackled the loneliness that will find us whether we “win” or “lose” at romance.
Several significant books in 2017 again attempted to unknot the questions over how Christians best relate to politics and society (no small task). The most talked about book of the year was Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option, a strategy of withdrawal from culture in order to better engage with it.
Also noteworthy was James K.A. Smith’s Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology, a call to return to a robust Augustinian and Kuyperian model in all its glory. Speaking of Abraham Kuyper, Craig Bartholomew wrote a captivating book, Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition: A Systematic Introduction (a book I reviewed for The Gospel Coalition). And 2017 marked the midpoint in Logos/Lexham Press’s ambitious English-translation work of the 12-volume Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology.
Over the last eighteen months, we’ve seen a swell of valuable books for the suffering and grieving — covering issues as broad as loneliness, depression, disability, chronic pain, terminal illness, raising special-needs kids, and the anguish of losing children. In 2016 we saw ten books from Eswine, Howard, the Wilsons, Ryken, Furman, Guthrie, Tada, Risner, Voskamp, and Taylor. In 2017, six more titles were added from Lydia Brownback, Russ Ramsey, Sarah Walton and Kristen Wetherell, Richard Belcher, Kelly Kapic, and Connie Dever. And two more noteworthy titles are slated for release in 2018: one from counselor David Powlison and a memoir from Jack Deere. The concentration of so many edifying titles, in such a short publishing season, is nothing less than a remarkable work of the Spirit.
Jared Wilson has written a shelf of valuable books, but this one is his
best yet. “For the sake of the cut-ups and the screw-ups, the tired and
the torn-up, the weary and the wounded — how about we demystify
discipleship?” Yes, and who isn’t inside these categories? Discipleship
is for the cut-ups and the screw-ups, the tired and the torn-up, the
weary and the wounded. Such a great sentence (worth repeating!) — and
such a wise book. Few modern authors pastor my soul through prose better
than Wilson.
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
series, intentionally didn’t write allegories (like Narnia). But in his
letters, Tolkien tips us off that spiritual truths saturate his works.
So how do we best mine out all the spiritual allusions in the
intentionally de-religioned world of Middle-earth? One way is to find
the threefold offices of Christ in the mix of characters that point to
Christ. “The center of all joy is Jesus Christ — the word-speaking
prophet, the sacrifice-offering priest, and the peace-bringing king.”
From this center, Ryken works back from Christ in this beautifully
illuminating volume, a capstone to what was perhaps the best twelve
months in Tolkien studies and monographs I’ve ever seen, which included Eilmann on Tolkien’s “highly distinctive Romantic longing for a lost world”; Coutras on Tolkien’s supreme articulation of majesty and splendor; and Rhone on Tolkien’s “mythopoeic” worldview which connects him to Lewis, Chesterton, and MacDonald.
The year was rather slow for large academic commentaries, but this
volume would have been the most important and significant commentary in
just about any year. An 800-page offering on Exodus from one of the best
minds in biblical theology, it’s a very good conservative commentary on
the text with great care given to apply this prominent Old Testament
narrative into the sweeping storyline of Scripture — like few but
Alexander can pull off. Also noteworthy, Andreas Köstenberger on the Pastoral Epistles.
Whenever I read Jonathan Edwards on the glory of Christ, I am surprised
again at how much time he devotes to Christ’s humility, obedience, and
demonstrations of love — the nitty-gritty acts of Christ’s life. Crowe
does something similar here. Jesus is the true second Adam in every way.
In his life, words, and attitudes, Christ was everything Adam failed to
be, and on this basis he becomes our substitutionary atonement. The
book echoes with the last words of J. Gresham Machen: “I’m so thankful
for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” The eternal generation of Christ was reclaimed in a bold way in 2017. May this also be known as the year that we reclaimed the active obedience of Christ — because without the life-obedience of Christ, there would be no gospel hope for him to offer us.
To be a Christian in the first two centuries was to be weird —
gloriously bizarre and odd. Christians handled marriage and sex and
worship and social action so distinctly from the Roman pagans around
them, it was impossible not to notice the differences. Hurtado has
masterfully recreated the stark contrasts in this book. His egalitarian
worldview emerges in places (especially when talking about household
codes, which he sees as socially constructed, not originating in the
Creator’s design). But this message of the cultural distinctiveness of
Christ’s followers is especially relevant for us today. A rich and
wonderful historical study! For other notable works in historical
studies, see Michael Kruger on the church’s identity struggle in the second century, and Brian Wright
on the place of communal reading in the Greco-Roman world, and how the
practice gave shape to the New Testament and fueled gospel spread.
Following their 2015 devotional
in the Psalms, the Kellers have produced a new companion devotional on
the Proverbs. As you would expect, it’s a magnificent collection of
bite-sized wisdom from Scripture and from their decades of cultural
engagement, church leadership, parenting, and marriage. This book would
be a delightful way to invest a year of reflection.
We need more brave authors willing to jump into the present racial
tensions and offer Christ-centered vision and hope for ethnic unity.
Trillia Newbell has written a very wise walk through creation, fall,
redemption, and restoration — all highlighting God’s plan for the
diversity among his image bearers, and all wonderfully explained and
illustrated for children. For adults, see Matt Carter and Aaron Ivey’s
historical novel Steal Away Home: Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Johnson, Unlikely Friends on the Passage to Freedom.
Great old books are important for a reason, but many of the best books
are also locked away from modern-day readers by ambiguities and dated
debates that make them inaccessible. Helping readers ease into classics
is one of the premier gifts that serious scholars offer to reading
Christians. In this spirit, Finn and Kimble have edited and delivered a
gift to unlock the great books of Jonathan Edwards. Every essay is
solid. This year we also saw the massive 700-page Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia edited by Harry Stout, a significant library add for any serious student of Edwards’s life, thought, and theology.
The authors write, “Whatever our emotional struggle — and we should put
every confusing, bizarre, and unruly feeling in this category, leaving
nothing out — we will find help and hope in the Bible. There is hope for
the teenage girl who wonders why her emotions feel out of control and
hope for the woman whose hormones stalk her every month. There is hope
for the employee trying to manage stress in the workplace and for the
mom who hates that she’s always getting angry at her kids. . . . When we
lose heart, when we feel helpless to change our emotions, we must
remember the gospel. God, who did not spare his own Son to save us from
our sins (Romans 8:32),
will not leave us to drown in our emotional rip currents” (27). It’s an
incredibly insightful book. Other notable books for women in 2017
include Lydia Brownback on the Psalms, Shona Murray on burnout, Jen Pollock Michel and Courtney Reissig on the dignity of the home, and Christina Fox on union with Christ and friendship.
Every one of us lives with a fallen and sinful sexuality, and every one
of us is influenced by the sexual dysfunctions of others. Most books on
sexual brokenness focus on one particular struggle, but leave it to
David Powlison to discern patterns of similarity that we can all relate
to, and to simultaneously address the gospel in two directions. “Some
books are written to help people who struggle with their immoral sexual
impulses. Other books are written for people who struggle with the
impact of sexual betrayal, molestation, and assault. But this book will
intentionally look in both directions,” Powlison writes, because “there
are not two gospels, one for sinners and one for sufferers! There is the
one gospel of Jesus Christ, who came to make saints of all kinds of
sinner-sufferers and sufferer-sinners, whatever our particular
configuration of defections and distresses.” In 2017, Powlison also
released the book How Does Sanctification Work?
Likely the most revered academic ethicist today, Anglican theologian
Oliver O’Donovan is writing books that will be read and studied for
decades to come. This year marked the completion of the third and final
volume in his series “Ethics as Theology” — or “ethics after Pentecost,”
as he has called it (see volume 1 and volume 2).
To use the author’s dynamic explanation of the trilogy, the series is
intended to explain “how the active self expands into loving knowledge,
is narrowed down to action, and finally attains rest in its
accomplishment” (1:103). Throughout the series, O’Donovan has shown keen
awareness of the centrality of joy in ethics, making him especially
valuable to Christian Hedonists. This final volume speaks of rest and
discipleship within an eschatological hope, weighted with the
expectations of future redemption driving our lives and loves now. It is
the capstone on a magnificent trilogy I’ll be rereading for years to
come.
If the author of Ecclesiastes could behold the raw tonnage of
commentaries on Ecclesiastes on the market today, he would surely
face-palm in the regret of an unheeded sage. Didn’t he warn us about the
overabundance of books? Yes, he did (Ecclesiastes 12:12).
So this book would at least have to be a superior offering to warrant
the paper it’s printed on. And it is. In the words of Don Carson, “The
past two decades have witnessed quite a number of popular expositions of
Ecclesiastes — and this one by David Gibson is the best of them.”
Consider the mic dropped.
Continuationism, as a conviction, is alive and well in Reformed circles,
signaling a great victory over several years of theological opposition.
But now what? Now that we have defended the spiritual gifts, how do we pursue
them in practice? This is the hard work, the daunting task, and the
somewhat awkward and uncomfortable practice of moving out from the
safety of theological debates and into the rather unpredictable work of
the Holy Spirit. Sam Storms has been preparing for this moment for
years, and we have been long awaiting a book like this one. In the words
of pastor Matt Chandler, in his foreword, “It is not an exaggeration to
say I have been waiting for this book for close to fifteen years.”
Chandler speaks on behalf of many pastors and believers of this new
openness, this new eagerness, not merely open to the gifts of the Spirit, but now in earnest pursuit of those gifts in practice, for ourselves, for the spread of the gospel, and for the health of our local churches (1 Corinthians 14:1).
Writes Storms, “we are responsible to actively and energetically pursue
spiritual gifts” (40). The rest of the book explains how.
This is the second book in Piper’s major new trilogy. Book 1, A Peculiar Glory, released in the spring of 2016, offered Piper’s account of Scripture’s self-attesting authority. Book 2, Reading the Bible Supernaturally,
launched in the spring, explains how Piper goes about reading and
studying to find meaning in Scripture, which requires both supernatural
and natural mechanics. Finally, Book 3, Expository Exultation,
launches in the spring of 2018, and there Piper will explain how
preaching is an act of worship. That’s the trilogy: authority, meaning,
heralding. This new book in the middle is loaded with practical help for
approaching the Bible, especially in part 3, pages 225–390, principles
which no Bible reader will want to miss. To hear Piper himself explain
the architecture of his new trilogy, see Ask Pastor John episode 1047.
It was the year of Martin Luther and the 500th anniversary of the
Protestant Reformation. Luther was a master at preaching and publishing
and convincing masses. And he was also a haunted man with demons in his
past that we must reckon with today. But of all the books published in
2017 on Luther and the Reformation, this 500-page version of Luther’s
life is most filled with cultural detail, wit, prose verve, and creative
energy — as we have come to expect from the pen of Metaxas.
The Protestant Reformation reclaimed a lot of things — including the
beauty and value of marriage. The Luthers enjoyed a sweet marriage in
many ways, but it was not without challenges. Katharina, the runaway
nun, carried incredible domestic responsibilities, but was not meek, and
often displayed a very strong will. Martin, the renegade monk,
respected women, but made disparaging comments about them too, at times,
even once making it clear that his ideal wife would be chiseled from
stone as a quiet and obedient woman (cringe). Needless to say, marriage
did not come naturally to either of them, but in the end, “Luther found
the best possible partner in Katharina, a woman who deeply loved and
respected him, yet also managed his volatile moods and his difficult
personality and offered him intellectual stimulation and companionship.
Luther undoubtedly understood how challenging and difficult he was.
Feisty and strong, courageous and smart, industrious and utterly
devoted, Katharina was, in fact, the perfect match for Martin Luther,
and he knew it” (212). They do complement one another in a beautiful
way. In her foreword to this book, Karen Swallow Prior writes, “Luther’s
decision to marry Katharina von Bora specifically contributed to the
Protestant understanding of marriage because of the particular ways
these two particular people shaped one another and the life they created
together. . . . [In our own time] — when marriage seems to be at once
despised and idolized, both within the church and outside it, and when
the very definition of marriage has been challenged, chastened, and
changed — the radical marriage of Katharina and Martin Luther serves as a
timely remembrance for the church.” Amen. May the 500th anniversary of
the Reformation be a celebration of the value and dignity of marriage,
and the preciousness of the home and domestic life — a mash-up of daily
chores, messy struggles, spousal tensions, sacrificial love,
wholehearted commitment, and transcendent joys and glories. Lastly, I
should say this book makes for a fascinating look at one of the most
unique couples in church history, but it’s not necessarily a reliable
blueprint for every Christian marriage. (Hang tight — books that explain
the design of marriage from Scripture will headline 2018.)
I first met Selderhuis by way of his 2009 biography
of John Calvin. This new work of Luther’s life is similar — a Dutch
biography translated into English, using sentences that are short,
punchy, and precise. I don’t know of another theologian or historian who
labors more diligently to make his works accessible like Selderhuis. No
doubt we have lost something of him in the translation, but what we
have in this biography is a rich gift to English readers. As Metaxas
writes long-windedly and often seems to intrude into the narrative,
Selderhuis writes with the subtle touch of brevity and precision of a
man trying to paint with bright colors while keeping his own
fingerprints out of the portrait. He gets details right, as you would
expect from a scholar of his repute. (Of all the books I read on the
Reformation this year, none better laid out the subtle historical
transformation of Roman Catholic indulgences from a rather harmless
certificate, originally, to something that became increasingly bold,
dangerous, and finally thoroughly heretical.) Selderhuis’s skills — his
readability, style, nuance, and focus on the interior of Luther’s
spiritual life — combine to make this work my favorite read of 2017, the
year of Martin Luther.
This year about 120 new titles caught my attention, and I set out to read the best of them until I could whittle down a list of my 17 favorite reads from the year. But before getting to the list, a few overall comments.
Female authors continue publishing new books at a swift pace, strong in 2014 and a little less prominent in 2015, but with more steam in 2016 and 2017. Women are now a mainstay and growing proportion of Christian publishing.
Christian publishing continues to deliver on aesthetics across the board, both on cover design and interior design, illustrated by projects like the ESV Illuminated Bible from Crossway and the beautiful Lost Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon series (volume 1 and volume 2) from B&H.
Once again, 2017 did not quite deliver biblical theology or commentaries like we saw in 2015, although we do continue to see solid contributions in two premier series: New Studies in Biblical Theology (IVP) and Short Studies in Biblical Theology (Crossway).
Closer to home, God richly blessed desiringGod.org and Bethlehem College & Seminary with seven new titles in 2017:
- John Piper, Reading the Bible Supernaturally: Seeing and Savoring the Glory of God in Scripture
- Jason DeRouchie, How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology
- Andy Naselli, How to Understand and Apply the New Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology
- Andy Naselli, No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What It Is, and Why It’s Harmful
- Brian Tabb, Suffering in Ancient Worldview: Luke, Seneca, and 4 Maccabees in Dialogue
- Marshall Segal, Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating
- Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
It was a strong year for books related to singleness, marriage, and dating. Along with Segal’s gospel-wise plea to the not-yet married, Deepak Reju helped women steer clear of man-duds; David Powlison offered healing for the sexually broken and hope forward in Christ; Ben Stuart helped to wisely navigate singleness, dating, engagement, and the early married years; and Lydia Brownback tackled the loneliness that will find us whether we “win” or “lose” at romance.
Several significant books in 2017 again attempted to unknot the questions over how Christians best relate to politics and society (no small task). The most talked about book of the year was Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option, a strategy of withdrawal from culture in order to better engage with it.
Also noteworthy was James K.A. Smith’s Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology, a call to return to a robust Augustinian and Kuyperian model in all its glory. Speaking of Abraham Kuyper, Craig Bartholomew wrote a captivating book, Contours of the Kuyperian Tradition: A Systematic Introduction (a book I reviewed for The Gospel Coalition). And 2017 marked the midpoint in Logos/Lexham Press’s ambitious English-translation work of the 12-volume Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology.
Over the last eighteen months, we’ve seen a swell of valuable books for the suffering and grieving — covering issues as broad as loneliness, depression, disability, chronic pain, terminal illness, raising special-needs kids, and the anguish of losing children. In 2016 we saw ten books from Eswine, Howard, the Wilsons, Ryken, Furman, Guthrie, Tada, Risner, Voskamp, and Taylor. In 2017, six more titles were added from Lydia Brownback, Russ Ramsey, Sarah Walton and Kristen Wetherell, Richard Belcher, Kelly Kapic, and Connie Dever. And two more noteworthy titles are slated for release in 2018: one from counselor David Powlison and a memoir from Jack Deere. The concentration of so many edifying titles, in such a short publishing season, is nothing less than a remarkable work of the Spirit.
Top 17 Books of 2017
17. The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together by Jared Wilson
Jared Wilson has written a shelf of valuable books, but this one is his
best yet. “For the sake of the cut-ups and the screw-ups, the tired and
the torn-up, the weary and the wounded — how about we demystify
discipleship?” Yes, and who isn’t inside these categories? Discipleship
is for the cut-ups and the screw-ups, the tired and the torn-up, the
weary and the wounded. Such a great sentence (worth repeating!) — and
such a wise book. Few modern authors pastor my soul through prose better
than Wilson.16. The Messiah Comes to Middle-Earth: Images of Christ’s Threefold Office in The Lord of the Rings by Philip Ryken
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
series, intentionally didn’t write allegories (like Narnia). But in his
letters, Tolkien tips us off that spiritual truths saturate his works.
So how do we best mine out all the spiritual allusions in the
intentionally de-religioned world of Middle-earth? One way is to find
the threefold offices of Christ in the mix of characters that point to
Christ. “The center of all joy is Jesus Christ — the word-speaking
prophet, the sacrifice-offering priest, and the peace-bringing king.”
From this center, Ryken works back from Christ in this beautifully
illuminating volume, a capstone to what was perhaps the best twelve
months in Tolkien studies and monographs I’ve ever seen, which included Eilmann on Tolkien’s “highly distinctive Romantic longing for a lost world”; Coutras on Tolkien’s supreme articulation of majesty and splendor; and Rhone on Tolkien’s “mythopoeic” worldview which connects him to Lewis, Chesterton, and MacDonald.
15. Exodus by T. Desmond Alexander
The year was rather slow for large academic commentaries, but this
volume would have been the most important and significant commentary in
just about any year. An 800-page offering on Exodus from one of the best
minds in biblical theology, it’s a very good conservative commentary on
the text with great care given to apply this prominent Old Testament
narrative into the sweeping storyline of Scripture — like few but
Alexander can pull off. Also noteworthy, Andreas Köstenberger on the Pastoral Epistles.14. The Last Adam: A Theology of the Obedient Life of Jesus in the Gospels by Brandon Crowe
Whenever I read Jonathan Edwards on the glory of Christ, I am surprised
again at how much time he devotes to Christ’s humility, obedience, and
demonstrations of love — the nitty-gritty acts of Christ’s life. Crowe
does something similar here. Jesus is the true second Adam in every way.
In his life, words, and attitudes, Christ was everything Adam failed to
be, and on this basis he becomes our substitutionary atonement. The
book echoes with the last words of J. Gresham Machen: “I’m so thankful
for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.” The eternal generation of Christ was reclaimed in a bold way in 2017. May this also be known as the year that we reclaimed the active obedience of Christ — because without the life-obedience of Christ, there would be no gospel hope for him to offer us.13. Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World by Larry Hurtado
To be a Christian in the first two centuries was to be weird —
gloriously bizarre and odd. Christians handled marriage and sex and
worship and social action so distinctly from the Roman pagans around
them, it was impossible not to notice the differences. Hurtado has
masterfully recreated the stark contrasts in this book. His egalitarian
worldview emerges in places (especially when talking about household
codes, which he sees as socially constructed, not originating in the
Creator’s design). But this message of the cultural distinctiveness of
Christ’s followers is especially relevant for us today. A rich and
wonderful historical study! For other notable works in historical
studies, see Michael Kruger on the church’s identity struggle in the second century, and Brian Wright
on the place of communal reading in the Greco-Roman world, and how the
practice gave shape to the New Testament and fueled gospel spread.12. God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs by Tim and Kathy Keller
Following their 2015 devotional
in the Psalms, the Kellers have produced a new companion devotional on
the Proverbs. As you would expect, it’s a magnificent collection of
bite-sized wisdom from Scripture and from their decades of cultural
engagement, church leadership, parenting, and marriage. This book would
be a delightful way to invest a year of reflection.11. God’s Very Good Idea: A True Story of God’s Delightfully Different Family by Trillia Newbell and Catalina Echeverri
We need more brave authors willing to jump into the present racial
tensions and offer Christ-centered vision and hope for ethnic unity.
Trillia Newbell has written a very wise walk through creation, fall,
redemption, and restoration — all highlighting God’s plan for the
diversity among his image bearers, and all wonderfully explained and
illustrated for children. For adults, see Matt Carter and Aaron Ivey’s
historical novel Steal Away Home: Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Johnson, Unlikely Friends on the Passage to Freedom.10. A Reader’s Guide to the Major Writings of Jonathan Edwards edited by Nathan Finn and Jeremy Kimble
Great old books are important for a reason, but many of the best books
are also locked away from modern-day readers by ambiguities and dated
debates that make them inaccessible. Helping readers ease into classics
is one of the premier gifts that serious scholars offer to reading
Christians. In this spirit, Finn and Kimble have edited and delivered a
gift to unlock the great books of Jonathan Edwards. Every essay is
solid. This year we also saw the massive 700-page Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia edited by Harry Stout, a significant library add for any serious student of Edwards’s life, thought, and theology.9. True Feelings: God’s Gracious and Glorious Purpose for Our Emotions by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Mahaney Whitacre
The authors write, “Whatever our emotional struggle — and we should put
every confusing, bizarre, and unruly feeling in this category, leaving
nothing out — we will find help and hope in the Bible. There is hope for
the teenage girl who wonders why her emotions feel out of control and
hope for the woman whose hormones stalk her every month. There is hope
for the employee trying to manage stress in the workplace and for the
mom who hates that she’s always getting angry at her kids. . . . When we
lose heart, when we feel helpless to change our emotions, we must
remember the gospel. God, who did not spare his own Son to save us from
our sins (Romans 8:32),
will not leave us to drown in our emotional rip currents” (27). It’s an
incredibly insightful book. Other notable books for women in 2017
include Lydia Brownback on the Psalms, Shona Murray on burnout, Jen Pollock Michel and Courtney Reissig on the dignity of the home, and Christina Fox on union with Christ and friendship.8. Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken by David Powlison
Every one of us lives with a fallen and sinful sexuality, and every one
of us is influenced by the sexual dysfunctions of others. Most books on
sexual brokenness focus on one particular struggle, but leave it to
David Powlison to discern patterns of similarity that we can all relate
to, and to simultaneously address the gospel in two directions. “Some
books are written to help people who struggle with their immoral sexual
impulses. Other books are written for people who struggle with the
impact of sexual betrayal, molestation, and assault. But this book will
intentionally look in both directions,” Powlison writes, because “there
are not two gospels, one for sinners and one for sufferers! There is the
one gospel of Jesus Christ, who came to make saints of all kinds of
sinner-sufferers and sufferer-sinners, whatever our particular
configuration of defections and distresses.” In 2017, Powlison also
released the book How Does Sanctification Work?7. Entering into Rest: Ethics as Theology by Oliver O’Donovan
Likely the most revered academic ethicist today, Anglican theologian
Oliver O’Donovan is writing books that will be read and studied for
decades to come. This year marked the completion of the third and final
volume in his series “Ethics as Theology” — or “ethics after Pentecost,”
as he has called it (see volume 1 and volume 2).
To use the author’s dynamic explanation of the trilogy, the series is
intended to explain “how the active self expands into loving knowledge,
is narrowed down to action, and finally attains rest in its
accomplishment” (1:103). Throughout the series, O’Donovan has shown keen
awareness of the centrality of joy in ethics, making him especially
valuable to Christian Hedonists. This final volume speaks of rest and
discipleship within an eschatological hope, weighted with the
expectations of future redemption driving our lives and loves now. It is
the capstone on a magnificent trilogy I’ll be rereading for years to
come.6. Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End by David Gibson
If the author of Ecclesiastes could behold the raw tonnage of
commentaries on Ecclesiastes on the market today, he would surely
face-palm in the regret of an unheeded sage. Didn’t he warn us about the
overabundance of books? Yes, he did (Ecclesiastes 12:12).
So this book would at least have to be a superior offering to warrant
the paper it’s printed on. And it is. In the words of Don Carson, “The
past two decades have witnessed quite a number of popular expositions of
Ecclesiastes — and this one by David Gibson is the best of them.”
Consider the mic dropped.5. Practicing the Power: Welcoming the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in Your Life by Sam Storms
Continuationism, as a conviction, is alive and well in Reformed circles,
signaling a great victory over several years of theological opposition.
But now what? Now that we have defended the spiritual gifts, how do we pursue
them in practice? This is the hard work, the daunting task, and the
somewhat awkward and uncomfortable practice of moving out from the
safety of theological debates and into the rather unpredictable work of
the Holy Spirit. Sam Storms has been preparing for this moment for
years, and we have been long awaiting a book like this one. In the words
of pastor Matt Chandler, in his foreword, “It is not an exaggeration to
say I have been waiting for this book for close to fifteen years.”
Chandler speaks on behalf of many pastors and believers of this new
openness, this new eagerness, not merely open to the gifts of the Spirit, but now in earnest pursuit of those gifts in practice, for ourselves, for the spread of the gospel, and for the health of our local churches (1 Corinthians 14:1).
Writes Storms, “we are responsible to actively and energetically pursue
spiritual gifts” (40). The rest of the book explains how.4. Reading the Bible Supernaturally: Seeing and Savoring the Glory of God in Scripture by John Piper
This is the second book in Piper’s major new trilogy. Book 1, A Peculiar Glory, released in the spring of 2016, offered Piper’s account of Scripture’s self-attesting authority. Book 2, Reading the Bible Supernaturally,
launched in the spring, explains how Piper goes about reading and
studying to find meaning in Scripture, which requires both supernatural
and natural mechanics. Finally, Book 3, Expository Exultation,
launches in the spring of 2018, and there Piper will explain how
preaching is an act of worship. That’s the trilogy: authority, meaning,
heralding. This new book in the middle is loaded with practical help for
approaching the Bible, especially in part 3, pages 225–390, principles
which no Bible reader will want to miss. To hear Piper himself explain
the architecture of his new trilogy, see Ask Pastor John episode 1047.3. Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World
by Eric Metaxas
It was the year of Martin Luther and the 500th anniversary of the
Protestant Reformation. Luther was a master at preaching and publishing
and convincing masses. And he was also a haunted man with demons in his
past that we must reckon with today. But of all the books published in
2017 on Luther and the Reformation, this 500-page version of Luther’s
life is most filled with cultural detail, wit, prose verve, and creative
energy — as we have come to expect from the pen of Metaxas.2. Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk by Michelle DeRusha
The Protestant Reformation reclaimed a lot of things — including the
beauty and value of marriage. The Luthers enjoyed a sweet marriage in
many ways, but it was not without challenges. Katharina, the runaway
nun, carried incredible domestic responsibilities, but was not meek, and
often displayed a very strong will. Martin, the renegade monk,
respected women, but made disparaging comments about them too, at times,
even once making it clear that his ideal wife would be chiseled from
stone as a quiet and obedient woman (cringe). Needless to say, marriage
did not come naturally to either of them, but in the end, “Luther found
the best possible partner in Katharina, a woman who deeply loved and
respected him, yet also managed his volatile moods and his difficult
personality and offered him intellectual stimulation and companionship.
Luther undoubtedly understood how challenging and difficult he was.
Feisty and strong, courageous and smart, industrious and utterly
devoted, Katharina was, in fact, the perfect match for Martin Luther,
and he knew it” (212). They do complement one another in a beautiful
way. In her foreword to this book, Karen Swallow Prior writes, “Luther’s
decision to marry Katharina von Bora specifically contributed to the
Protestant understanding of marriage because of the particular ways
these two particular people shaped one another and the life they created
together. . . . [In our own time] — when marriage seems to be at once
despised and idolized, both within the church and outside it, and when
the very definition of marriage has been challenged, chastened, and
changed — the radical marriage of Katharina and Martin Luther serves as a
timely remembrance for the church.” Amen. May the 500th anniversary of
the Reformation be a celebration of the value and dignity of marriage,
and the preciousness of the home and domestic life — a mash-up of daily
chores, messy struggles, spousal tensions, sacrificial love,
wholehearted commitment, and transcendent joys and glories. Lastly, I
should say this book makes for a fascinating look at one of the most
unique couples in church history, but it’s not necessarily a reliable
blueprint for every Christian marriage. (Hang tight — books that explain
the design of marriage from Scripture will headline 2018.)1. Martin Luther: A Spiritual Biography by Herman Selderhuis
I first met Selderhuis by way of his 2009 biography
of John Calvin. This new work of Luther’s life is similar — a Dutch
biography translated into English, using sentences that are short,
punchy, and precise. I don’t know of another theologian or historian who
labors more diligently to make his works accessible like Selderhuis. No
doubt we have lost something of him in the translation, but what we
have in this biography is a rich gift to English readers. As Metaxas
writes long-windedly and often seems to intrude into the narrative,
Selderhuis writes with the subtle touch of brevity and precision of a
man trying to paint with bright colors while keeping his own
fingerprints out of the portrait. He gets details right, as you would
expect from a scholar of his repute. (Of all the books I read on the
Reformation this year, none better laid out the subtle historical
transformation of Roman Catholic indulgences from a rather harmless
certificate, originally, to something that became increasingly bold,
dangerous, and finally thoroughly heretical.) Selderhuis’s skills — his
readability, style, nuance, and focus on the interior of Luther’s
spiritual life — combine to make this work my favorite read of 2017, the
year of Martin Luther.
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