Book Briefs

Long plane rides are no fun, but they do mean more time to read.

Grant Wacker, America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation (Belknap/Harvard, 2014). This is one of those books that sat on my shelf for over a year. I read a few pages here and there, but never found the time to get through it cover to cover. I was about to give up on and put it on my resource shelf (i.e., to be consulted, not read). But at last minute I threw the book in my bag before flying to Geneva two weeks ago. I’m very glad I did. I couldn’t put it down. Even when I should have been sleeping, I kept reading. This is not a typical biography that moves chronologically through the life of the subject. Instead, it’s an interpretive look at why Billy Graham matters and what his life says about the relationship between religion and American culture. Wacker is honest about Graham’s faults, while remaining sympathetic to his message and finding aspects of his character and ministry inspirational and worthy of emulation. The last section on “Cracks in the Marble” and “Contours in the Marble” was hugely instructive. While one could wish for more of a theological lens in Wacker’s analysis, that’s not the book he set out to write. The book he did mean to write, he wrote very well.

Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism (Basic Books, 2016). I finished this one on the plane ride home. Levin, a former White House and congressional staffer and now an editor (National Affairs), a contributing editor National Review and Weekly Standard), and a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, has written an original and thoughtful book that thinkers on both sides of the political aisle should read carefully. Although Levin is a conservative, he faults both the Left and the Right for being “blinded by Nostalgia” and failing to propose meaningful solutions that do more than pedal a narrative of decline and pine for the good old days. An illuminating read.

J.C. Ryle, Simplicity in Preaching (Banner of Truth, 2010). Originally published in 1888, it’s amazing how relevant Ryle’s advice still feels. And it is easy to follow. When it came to direct prose, straightforward outlines, and memorable phrases, Ryle practiced what he preached. I can’t think of a pastor or ministerial student who wouldn’t be helped by setting aside a half hour to read this little booklet.

John Currid, Against the Gods: The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament (Crossway, 2013). In preaching through Exodus for almost a year–I started in August and preached on Exodus 17:1-7 last Sunday–I’ve been helped by Against the Gods and by Currid’s more larger work Ancient Egypt in the Old Testament (Baker Academic, 1997). Currid is well versed in the scholarship of ancient Egypt, yet conservative in handling the biblical text. He is also pastoral (especially in the Crossway book) in applying the fruits of academic study to the task of teaching and preaching. While it would be a mistake to make your next study through Exodus a weekly exercise in dissecting the deities of ancient Egypt, there are many valuable insights from Currid that will help you better understand how the Old Testament, and Exodus in particular, is a devastating polemic against the false gods of the nations.