Gerald L. Sittser

Ambassadors in Chains

History & Biography

“I have read a number of books over the years that represent, in my mind, scholarship at its best. They have been clear, winsome, literate, learned, nuanced, and somehow relevant. I return to them often and consider them models worthy of emulation. Richard Steele has written such a book. I hesitate to call him ‘old school,’ but he is exactly that. He is learned. He writes with elegance. He exercises good judgment and manifests wisdom. And he loves his subject, loves it as only one who knows it well can, like a mother loves a child’s face because she has gazed at it so often and with so much affection. I, too, came to love what he does because of the way he wrote this book. I found nothing but pleasure in reading it. I commend it to you with deep appreciation for both author and subject. You will not be disappointed.”

Chiaroscuro

Arts & Literature

“Who doesn’t pause, if even for a moment, to gaze at some wonder: an older couple, in their nineties, walking hand in hand under a canopy of autumn colors. Even busy and hurried people still pause because they cherish beauty. But some people do more. They not only gaze at beauty; they create it, in the stroke of a brush or the pluck of a string. Kimberly Beck does it with words. Her Chiaroscuro is like reading beauty. The book is divided into four sections: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. She visits and revisits the familiar world she—and we—know. She sees wonder in it: a horse’s breath on a cold day, the silent drift of a leaf falling to the ground, a heron standing as a sentinel on the shores of a lake. She has the rare gift of seeing beauty, feeling wonder, reflecting deeply on life itself, and finding just the right words to create beauty from it. I kept smiling as I read this lovely book. It awakened a longing for beauty, too. Thank you, Kimberly, for this gift.”

Coming Home to Your True Self

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“It occurred to me while reading this lovely book that Albert Haase is a wise and seasoned Christian man. It comes through in page after page. This book is informed, insightful and practical, everything you want a book on spirituality to be. Haase knows the subject so well that he writes from the inside, making it simple and clear. Coming Home to Your True Self made me want to do what the title says—find my true self in God. But more than that, it helped me make progress to that end.”

Companions in the Darkness

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“Diana Gruver has written a compelling book. In it she tells the stories of seven historical figures, some but not all household names, who suffered severe depression. Gruver does it just right, avoiding the many pitfalls that could have made the book excessively sentimental or judgmental. She lets the individuals describe their own experiences, refusing to subject them to modern clinical diagnosis. She chooses quotes from their writings that are so profound, human, and powerful that I kept tearing up, drawn into the nightmare of their condition. Her writing is clear and cogent and luminous. She tells their stories with sensitivity and compassion. She gives her subjects voices, as if letting them speak across the years to us. Her commentary and reflections along the way are full of hope. This is the kind of historical writing that is both responsible and moving. I will recommend this book to my friends.”

Desiring God's Will

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“David Benner releases us from the burden of having to figure out God's will, which too often becomes an obsession to us. Instead, he invites us to embrace the will of God as we know it for today. Along the way he provides enormously helpful categories: we should be willing but not willful; we should explore our true desires, not dismiss all desire as bad; we should realize that God's will has less to do with a particular decision and more to do with the most important decision we will ever make--to pursue God. I found this short book helpful and insightful. It was obvious that Benner did not write this book on a whim. The material has been simmering in his soul for some time.”

Eat This Book

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“Eugene Peterson has written a magnificent book about how to read the Bible. As any editor would say, a book must 'show,' not just 'tell.' Peterson's book does exactly that. The book itself has a biblical quality to it. Peterson uses vivid language; he tells and then reflects on wonderful stories; he invites readers to read their own stories in light of the story. This book is the fruit of decades of reading, pondering, conversing about, praying over, and living this story. Peterson encourages us to read the Bible as if we were dogs gnawing on a bone. Eat This Book made me lick my chops.”

Embodied Hope

Christian Living

“I know of many books about loss. I know of very few books about physical pain, which is the subject of Kelly Kapic's insightful and challenging book. His wife's experience of pain awakened him to the problem, and his broad study and deep reflection prepared him for the writing. Kapic accomplishes what is most difficult. Embodied Hope is personal, to be sure. A book like this one almost has to be. But it is also learned and pastoral. He interacts with great minds, both past and present. He explores relevant, even surprising topics, such as the significance of embodiment. Above all he lifts up Jesus Christ as the one who suffers with us and for us, who conquers death, who stands with us. This fresh book does it all. I learned a great deal while reading this book; I also felt a great deal. It is the combination of the two that I found so helpful.”

Formed for the Glory of God

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“We read Augustine, Calvin, Edwards and a host of other great theologians as if they wrote theology only to inform us, failing to realize that they wrote their works, as they preached their sermons, to form us, too. We thus do them an injustice if we see their books as providing us with nothing more than information. Kyle Strobel addresses this essential problem in the way he wrote about Jonathan Edwards. Formed for the Glory of God is not a practical book about Edwards's spiritual practices, nor is it a theoretical book about Edwards's theology. It is both at the same time, which is just as Edwards would want it. Strobel thus writes about Edwards as Edwards himself wrote. His attention to Edwards's theology of glory and beauty and love informs and shapes his exploration of Edwards's spiritual practices, which in both cases orient us toward God. This book did more than teach me; it awakened longing for God. It introduces Jonathan Edwards as the luminous, pastoral, passionate and deeply Christian man that he was. I heartily commend it to you.”

From Burned Out to Beloved

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“Bethany Dearborn Hiser used 'invincible' to describe herself during her early years of doing social work. I have known Bethany for many years, and I can testify that she did seem invincible. But as she relates, her invincibility came crashing down. This wonderful book tells the story of how wrong she was, and how wrong all of us are when we serve as if we were God's equal. Facing classic burnout, she discovered what it means to live in grace and freedom, to know one is beloved, to learn to rest and play, all the while continuing to serve. This book is a banquet of insight, beauty, truth, and practical wisdom. I started to read it to honor Bethany's request for an endorsement. It did not take me long to discover how much I needed to read it for me. Thank you, Bethany, for this helpful, honest, elegant little book!”

He Shines in All That's Fair

Theology

“The clarity and insight of this book will come as no surprise to people who have read Mouw's work before. He has an uncommon ability to combine scholarly research with pastoral concern and cultural relevance. He is masterful in his ability to make the Christian faith — and the Reformed tradition in particular — address the needs of today. I found this book to be unusually helpful in sorting out issues that have long vexed me. Intuition tells us that God gives some kind of grace to everyone. Mouw provides a clear and logical rationale for the intuition. He Shines in All That's Fair is an instance of the very grace Mouw writes about.”

Hope in the Wilderness

Christian Living

Foreword

“[Noel] shows us how to reflect honestly, biblically, and redemptively on our own stories. Her reflections invite readers to examine their own story and calls them to do so in light of the big story. I smiled a lot when reading it. I paused a lot. I thought a lot . . . thank God for Noel Forlini Burt.”

Just Do Something

Christian Living

“DeYoung explains so well what Oswald Chambers wrote a century ago, 'Trust God and do the next thing.' Sadly, our wrongheaded search for the elusive 'will of God' often prevents us from doing both. This book will help correct the problem.”

Living in Tension, 2 Volume Set

Christian Living

“Writing a theology of ministry is far more difficult than it seems, for it must bring worlds together that remain stubbornly separate . . . The task is made all the more difficult because of the subject matter itself, which is as peculiar as the gospel. This is the point Webster makes so thoroughly and insightfully. As a pastor, preacher, and theologian, he has done the work to write this book. It is his masterpiece. It will set the standard for how we understand ministry as learning to live in biblical tensions.”

Living the Lord's Prayer

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

Foreword

“I commend my dear friend Father Albert for writing this book on the Lord's Prayer, and I commend his book to you, the reader, to relish it, ponder it, pray it, and live it.”

Losing God

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“With unflinching honesty Matt Rogers tells his story of struggle, doubt and depression, which lasted for four long years. He shows us throughout this compelling narrative that we are complex beings--physical and emotional as well as spiritual. As Rogers points out again and again, our theology should line up with this complexity and thus address the whole person. I was strangely comforted by the book, for I saw Jesus reaching out to the lost, including those who live in the darkness of depression. I am grateful to Rogers for reminding me of that comforting truth.”

Making Disciples

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Most of us have followed a tour guide whose knowledge and love of a place captures our interest. Scholars can be like that, too. They open up a world hitherto unknown or unexplored by people outside the discipline. They do more than inform; they excite and inspire. Alex Fogleman has done exactly that in his book on catechesis, appropriately titled Making Disciples. He has clearly mastered the sources. The book is dense for that reason, but it reads lightly, helping readers stroll it as if on a pleasant hike. It demonstrates learnedness, yet it is surprisingly readable. It communicates a great deal of information, yet it never loses sight of the outcome, which is to apply catechesis to the church today. Fogleman’s book is nothing short of a wonder. It should be on every pastor’s reading list. I highly recommend it.”

Muted Cry

Philosophy

“The memoir is a medium of writing fraught with peril. Rarely is it done well. Caroline Simon is one of the few who has succeeded, as Muted Cry shows on every page. It drew me in and kept me there. She tells the story of her brother's long decline and death. It is his story, and hers too. Simon also draws on the story of another, the French philosopher Simone Weil, especially her deep reflections on "affliction," the physical and psychological equivalent of a multisystem organ failure. She tells the truth about his and her experience, as harrowing and intense as it is. He is the victim of affliction, she the suffering and confused witness. Muted Cry is an extraordinary piece of writing. I don't know many people who could have written it. Caroline Simon is one of them.”

Reading Scripture as the Church

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“Derek Taylor has discovered a side of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that most people, even scholars, know less well or not at all, which is Bonhoeffer as a guide to how the church should read the Bible. As Taylor explains, Bonhoeffer believed that the Bible is meant to do more than provide religious information. It is inherently a formational book, intended by its very nature to shape a community on mission to live as disciples of Jesus. Taylor knows Bonhoeffer well. He moves comfortably through a wide range of sources. He writes well too. He is clear, winsome, and always insightful. This book stands at the crossroads of Bonhoeffer as theologian, visionary, pastor, and preacher, which is true to who Bonhoeffer was. It provides a new angle of vision on this important and relevant figure of history. I highly recommend it as a book for pastors, not simply scholars.”

Remembrance, Communion, and Hope

Preaching & Worship

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Sabbath Gospel

Theology

“Sabbath is one of those religiously connotative terms. To older generations, it evokes long days at church, strict rules of conduct, and dress-up clothes. To younger generations, it evokes memories of leisure, play, and chores, which bring an end to the weekend. But more than anything, it evokes longing. We're weary and busy. We want rest, deep rest. G. P. Wagenfuhr and Amy J. Erickson's Sabbath Gospel engages the topic with rare freshness and insight. Their book does not limit itself to exploring Sabbath as the last day of the week, or the first, as Christians tend to assume. It organizes the entire biblical story as an extended commentary on God's plan to give us rest—the rest of his kingdom rule, the rest of redemption, the rest of community, the rest of a restored Garden of Eden in which we live fully as members of God's household. It is a rest for people who live as exiles, no matter their rank, wealth, and power. I have read many books on the Sabbath. I have read none like this one. It sets a new trajectory for how we think and experience the Sabbath. It is theology at its best: compelling, persuasive, subversive, and livable.”