Books and Stuff: January 2021

A new year brings new goals, and one of my many goals is to grow myself in my reading. Reading truly good books is a way for me to both be comforted and challenged, to grow my convictions and ultimately change for the better. Here are some of the books I have been reading thus far in 2021. 

As an aside, I would also like to resume writing on the blog with more frequency. I am busy with work and family, but I find writing to be helpful way for me to digest some thoughts on what God is teaching and what is going on in the world today. This most definitely something I would like to get back into in these very interesting days!

Some books read:

The Pilgrim’s Regress – C.S. Lewis

This is an allegorical retelling of Lewis’s spiritual journey from unbelief to eventual faith in Christ. Though someone, like myself, lacking Lewis’ philosophical acumen and an understanding of the intellectual class of his day will struggle to understand quite what everything is referring to—it is nevertheless an interesting read with some gems throughout. I enjoyed Lewis’s cartography: he builds a map of the various cities and houses, each representing popular ideas and philosophies in his day. The understanding of the North being the cold and more stoic “philosophies” and the south being the more animal, sensational—with the true way bisecting both was an interesting way of measuring ideas. Christianity, according to Lewis, is the middle way between both philosophical tendencies. This was the first book Lewis wrote as a Christian, and the deep-seated longing he writes so well of elsewhere, is a central theme in The Pilgrim’s Regress.

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self – Trueman

If we are to minister in this world effectively, we need to understand the roots of what this world believes, that we may effectively address their questions and false assumptions with the truth. Carl Trueman writes this account of what he calls the rise of the modern conception of self. In the introduction he tries to understand how the phrase “I am a woman trapped inside man’s body” can make sense to most people in this in this day and age. Essentially, how did we get here? What ideas and presuppositions undergird this modern idea of selfhood? If you are interested in history, and the history of ideas in particular, you will likely enjoy this book. Trueman starts with Rousseau, visits various Romantic poets, then touches on Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, followed by Freud (who’s tying of sexuality to core identity is fundamental to understanding our current moment). Finally, he takes a look at 20th century thinkers like Marcusa and others who marry a Marxist power dichotomy to a Freudian understanding of a very sexual humanity. 

The result is what we see today. The self reigns supreme, over biology, over facts, over yesterday. Nothing can get in the way of the self: “When teleology is dead and self-creation is the name of the game, then the present moment and the pleasure it can contain become the keys to eternal life.” Trueman describes this culture as a “deathwork”, and as such unsustainable long term. In many ways this is a sobering read, but it shows that many of the modern issues we are dealing with in 2021 are not chaotic aberrations, but logical developments of the rejection of the transcendental. 

The Distinctives of Baptist Covenant Theology—Pascal Denault

This is a short and punchy theological book contrasting two types of Covenantalism: Presbyterian and Baptist. What is unique about it is as it is a support for the Baptist persuasion, it furnishes no new arguments for the Baptist side, but rather pulls direct arguments from the original sources: the Particular Baptists and the Presbyterians of the 17th century. The question is, in short, what is the nature of the Covenants? Are the Old and New Covenants merely two administrations of one covenant? Or are they distinct and separate Covenants? 

Some may object that this is a nitpicky subject that has no bearing on the Christian life, but rest assured it does. Sacramentally, child baptism is the logical result of a one covenant model, and believer’s baptism the result of the two. Furthermore, the way we interpret the Old Testament also changes drastically depending on whether we hold to the former or the latter, as Denault writes: “The main hermeneutic consequence of the one covenant under two administrations model is the levelling and amalgamation of both testaments. The paedobaptist approach not only did not use the New Testament to interpret the Old but did the exact opposite.” Instead of viewing the Old Testament from the lens of the New, which a natural reading of the New Testament does, the one covenant framework incorrectly blends the two. This excellent theological work has sparked a great deal of interest in myself learning more about the Particular Baptists and their theology. These questions (ie: the nature of the covenants, how to interpret Old Testament) are things I need to sort out as I continue to do some lay-preaching in 2021.

Mauritius Command / Desolation Island--Patrick O'Brian

Last year I started reading some books for no other reason but for fun. See this article on the late theologian J. I. Packer’s penchant for reading mystery novels. This has forced me to amend my stringent rule of reading above my intellectual weight class as a means for personal growth. While I still try to do that, I also ran into C. S. Forester’s wonderful Horatio Hornblower series. These are Napoleonic era naval fictions following the career of a brilliant central English character, who works his way up from Midshipman to Admiral. These books are fantastic, and got me into the wider genre of “Age of Sail” naval fiction. A friend introduced me to the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey & Maturin series from which the excellent Master and Commander film is based. These books are 4 and 5 in the series and pick up upon the story of two very different, yet complementary characters as they face all manner of challenges, whether they be in the form of: unruly subordinates, French ships, on-board plagues, or the violent seas of southern latitudes. These are fun and well structed stories; hardly what I would call “light reading”. In the middle of a busy season of life these offer a very healthy escape.  

Sit, Walk, Stand –Watchman Nee

Ephesians is a deep book worthy of continual reflection in the Christian life. Watchman Nee, a well-known Chinese Christian of the last Century, wrote this short book on the three segments of Ephesians. The first is doctrinal: sit. We sit, we rest in the finished work of Christ. It is through this counter-intuitive resting we are then enabled and empowered to walk worthy of the calling we have received, and ultimately stand against the Spiritual darkness that confronts us. This was a good book and may be worth re-reading for me. Coming from a non-Western culture, Watchman Nee really challenges a few ideas we often assume to be right: one point being the Christian's obligation to "give up his rights" in following the way of the cross. Instantly my mind thinks of what does this look like for contexts God has given us responsibility over, such as family or political governance. Do we stand by and let the evil sweep a nation while we still have a say? I would argue no; nevertheless a rich, little book that offers much to glean.