Influential Books and Reading
This week I have been asked to share a little about the books that have influenced me and my thinking the most over the years. To do that, I need to think in categories, as I have a fairly eclectic academic background and reading history.
I’ll start with Scripture. When my beautiful wife Brooke and I were married, we chose Philippians 2:14–16 as the key text for our wedding. In this passage Paul wrote,
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.
While we have certainly not lived up to the imperatives of this passage, we chose it because we wanted our marriage to be one that was a shining light to others and one through which “the word of life” was always proclaimed. Paul’s relationship with the Philippians and his personal concern in the last few words—“in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing”—also reminds us of our parents, grandparents, and mentors who invested countless hours in us teaching us the truth. Brooke and I have always wanted to honor their love for us and their godly investment in us.
I also have a couple of “career verses.” Paul wrote to the Colossians,
I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. (Colossians 2:1–4)
Just a few verses later, as Paul continued to express concern about false teaching within the church, he wrote,
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
Paul’s words in these passages have always resonated with me because, as a professional in higher education, I have been encountering “fine-sounding arguments” and “hollow and deceptive philosophy” for years. I have personally experienced a radically progressive cultural agenda in secular graduate programs, and I have dealt with students affected by that same agenda at lower levels in the educational system. These verses were also foundational to my doctoral dissertation. While Paul was specifically concerned about bad arguments and philosophy within the church, his instruction is an important reminder for those of us in Christian higher education: truth—“all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”—is in Christ, not in man-made cultural agendas or the philosophies of politically correct critical theories.
I have done a lot of reading in apologetics and worldview over the years. Some of the most important apologetic books I have read are listed below:
- Why I Am a Christian edited by Norman L. Geisler and Paul K. Hoffman;
- The Reason for God by Timothy Keller;
- Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan;
- Is the Bible Intolerant? Sexist? Oppressive? Homophobic? Outdated? Irrelevant? by Amy Orr-Ewing;
- God-Breathed: The Undeniable Power and Reliability of Scripture by Josh McDowell;
- Truth Matters: Confident Faith in a Confusing World by Andreas J. Köstenberger, Darrell L. Bock, et. al.;
- The Skeleton’s in God’s Closet: The Mercy of Hell, the Surprise of Judgment, the Hope of Holy War by Joshua Ryan Butler;
- The Bedrock of Christianity: The Unalterable Facts of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection by Justin Bass;
- The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics by Robert A.J. Gagnon; and
- The Canon of Scripture by FF. Bruce.
A couple of worldview-related books that I have read recently and that I have found especially helpful are 10 Books That Screwed Up The Word: And 5 Others That Didn’t Help by Benjamin Wiker and America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything by Christopher Rufo. Any Christian education leader would benefit from reading these books, as they explain how and why radical ideas have taken root in our culture and educational system—and why these ideas lead to destruction, chaos, and human suffering.
Additionally, I have found three books on Christian education to be particularly influential over the course of my career. They are Foundational Issues in Christian Education: An Introduction in Evangelical Perspective by Robert Pazmiño, A Theology for Christian Education by James Estep Jr., Michael Anthony, and Gregg Allison, and Called to Teach by William Yount.
On a lighter note, William Zinsser’s classic book On Writing Well impacted me a lot thirty years ago.
Finally, I have always fondly remembered studying the British drama of the Stuart Restoration and “long” eighteenth century in graduate school. When the Puritan Oliver Cromwell came to power in England, he closed all theaters on moral grounds. When the Stuarts regained power in 1660, the theaters were reopened—and a period of theatrical decadence began. Pent-up moral rebellion led to plays that were extremely bawdy: imagine the worst of HBO dominating all television today. As the First Great Awakening began to spread in the early–mid 1700s, however, drama began to reflect the values of the times, so much so that many critics today view the drama from the latter half of the eighteenth century as overly moralistic and even uninteresting because of its aversion to questionable content. Thus, the drama of the Restoration and long eighteenth century has always reminded me of the importance of Christian influence in the culture. The light of biblical wisdom is powerful and attractive when it is unashamedly proclaimed…an important thing for those of us at Warner University to always remember. The reason that anti-Christian voices and powers work so hard to intimidate biblically orthodox Christians into silence is that they understand the power of Christ and biblical truth, for history is plain in this matter, as the evolution of drama in the 1700s reminds us. Like the leaders of the Great Awakening, may we lean into our obligation to influence the culture around us with a bold and unwavering faith and lives truly transformed by Jesus Christ.
