Leland Ryken
History & Biography
“27 Servants of Sovereign Joy is a landmark book. A cursory look at the table of contents might lead one to expect a retreading of familiar material, but the book is a triumph of originality—so much so that I do not hesitate to call it a page-turner. Piper does a wonderful job of taking us into unexpected corners of his subjects’ lives and writings. The book is a monument of research and scholarship. Of course, the final effect is spiritual edification, which the book conveys in abundance. The scope of the book and quantity of detail is breathtaking.”
Apologetics
“Apologetical Aesthetics has so many virtues that it is hard to know where to start and where to stop. In the field of upper-level Christian scholarship on aesthetics, this book ranks as the best of the best. The scope of research is so breathtaking that it is hard to imagine that any important source on the subject has been omitted from consideration. . . . As a work of apologetics, the authors strike an admirable balance between claiming too much for beauty and too little.”
Approaching the Bible as Literature
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Thomas Schmidt's book is a welcome entry into a field that I have cultivated for nearly half a century. Two qualities of his book are particularly noteworthy. One is the comprehensiveness with which Schmidt approaches the subject. The other is the practical orientation of the book, which makes it a book of methodology as well as theory.”
Discipleship & Christian Education
“The virtues of this book are immediately evident. It asks the right questions, provides the right answers, and illustrates the claims made about art and music with analysis of examples—all within a context of the Christian faith and the Bible.”
Arts & Literature
“One of the obvious virtues of this book is its balance between theory and literary criticism of specific authors. The first five chapters are a carefully constructed Christian aesthetic. The second half of the book applies the theory to five authors. The splendid organization of the book makes it easy to read, and there is an admirable range in the subjects covered, as the five theoretic chapters systematically discuss the questions that Christians really ask about the arts, while the addition of Shakespeare and Jane Austen to Christian fantasy writers provides a pleasing scope. Finally, the book has a latent apologetic angle that I liked, not only in the theoretic chapters with their defense of the arts, but also in the chapters on specific authors, as Barrs explains why he is an enthusiast for each of them.”
Expository Reflections on the Gospels, Volume 3
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“The most obvious virtue of this commentary is its thoroughness. It is a triumph of scholarship—a one-volume library of the best that has been written on the Gospel of Mark. But it is more than that—a blend of head and heart, with the author’s intermittent sharing of his life experiences lending both human interest and a testimony to the reality of the good news.”
Christian Living
“God Has Spoken is one of J. I. Packer’s most important books. It is nothing less than a summary of his lifelong teaching about the Bible. It is three books in one, offering a summary of Christian teaching about the Bible in the history of the church, a complete survey of what the Bible itself says about God’s written and spoken word, and an application of all this data to the contemporary hermeneutical scene. The final effect of Packer’s book is to serve as a corrective to error and an encouragement to fully embrace the Bible at both personal and institutional levels.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“The most obvious virtue of this book is its thoroughness. It covers and explains all the important aspects of English Bible translation—all the theories, all the issues, all the familiar English translations. The result is a book that can be trusted as a survey of English Bible translation in its totality.”
Arts & Literature
“The portrayal of heaven and hell is one of the great literary themes of Western literature, and is a subject that should be of high-priority interest to every Christian. . . . Markos writes with his usual insightfulness, and he again does what he does best--serves as an engaging travel guide through this chosen body of literature.”
History & Biography
“J. I. Packer's primary legacy is the influence he held over events in Christendom and over people's lives during his lifetime. . . . J. I. Packer gave evangelicals a place to stand in regard to the authority of the Bible.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“The most characteristic failing of preaching and Bible teaching today is the almost total lack of attention to the genres of the Bible. The customary approach to the Bible is to operate on the premise that every passage belongs to the same undifferentiated genre, understood to be a repository of ideas. Kristie Anyabwile knows that adequate analysis of the Bible requires close attention to its specific genres. Her book is an introduction to the major genres of the Bible, and she shows how an awareness of these genres can guide our encounter with a passage in the Bible. This book moves beyond accurate theory (information about the genres of the Bible) to practice, and a major strength of the book is that it contains an abundance of tips for reading and interpreting the Bible in light of its genres.”
Arts & Literature
“Milton's Inward Liberty is a work of specialized Christian scholarship of the highest quality. The author's thoroughness of research is breathtaking. To see all of this scholarship applied to an author of towering importance in English literature makes the venture all the more rewarding. The book represents a theological reading of an important concept in the thinking and poetry of John Milton and is a refreshing throwback to an era when Christian scholarship was allowed to be Christian scholarship, not a propaganda tool wielded in the service of a liberal social agenda.”
Bible Studies & Devotionals
“The most obvious virtue of O Sacred Head, Now Wounded is its comprehensiveness. It brings together passages from the Bible, the creeds and catechisms of the church, readings from the great Christians through the ages, and an abundance of liturgical materials. This abundance is firmly organized and meets the all-important criterion of being well thought out.”
Christian Living
“Brad Baurain has written a marvelous book on the important Christian virtue named in the title—waiting well. The biblical data on waiting came onto my radar screen half a century ago when I composed my first explication of Milton's sonnet on his blindness, which ends with the line, "They also serve who only stand and wait." Having thought about the subject over the years, I can say with confidence that Brad Baurain's book covers all of the important aspects of the subject. This book turns the prism of waiting in the light of Scripture and careful thinking. The result is a devotional book of the highest order.”
Christian Living
“The most noteworthy feature of this book is the author’s ability to assimilate vast quantities of data, condense it, and put it into a systematic format. This begins with a wonderful biographical chapter and then proceeds to Packer’s theology. A brief version of the systematic theology that Packer has long promised the world, this book is a triumph of scholarship.”
Discipleship & Christian Education
“This book is a staggering achievement. Written by the foremost contemporary authority on the intersection of classicism and Christianity, this triumph of scholarship encompasses the best that has been thought and said about education and virtue in the entire Western tradition from Aristotle through C. S. Lewis. This book is a complete sourcebook for thinking Christianly about education today.”
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
“Dana Bennett has written an innovative book on how to read and teach the Bible. It is a readable book that the common person can understand, yet it is informed by scholarship of the highest order. . . . Another strength is that the author shows a literary awareness that the Bible is a book of human experience, rooted in everyday reality. This book is a wonderful corrective to certain tendencies in conventional approaches to the Bible. It opens the door to seeing new dimensions of the Bible and passing these on to students and groups.”
Christian Living
“The strength of Bertrand's book is its comprehensiveness, as the author turns the prism of worldview until every angle has been illuminated. Bertrand maintains our interest throughout with an incipient narrative thread in which his understanding of worldview is told as the sum of his own discoveries and experiences in relation to worldview. The book actually has the quality of a suspense story in which the reader is led to wonder what Bertrand discovered next in regard to worldview.”
Sherlock Holmes and the Needle's Eye
Fiction
“familiar material. Len Bailey has tapped one of his life passions—the Sherlock Holmes stories—as an avenue to explore unexpected nuances in visits to ten Bible stories. In keeping with the detective story format, each of the Bible passages is formulated as a mystery to be solved. Fifty pages of investigative questions at the end highlight the ten questions and give excellent prompts to reflecting on or discussing the passages.”
NOTE: Only includes books currently in our catalog; not necessarily a complete list.
Understanding English Bible Translation
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
Windows to the World: Literature in Christian Perspective
Arts & Literature
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
Biblical Studies & Commentaries
History & Biography
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