Mark Noll

Monastic Prisons and Torture Chambers

History & Biography

“Ulrich Lehner, who has become a master of all things Catholic in eighteenth-century Europe, here examines the sorry record of crime and punishment within selected European monasteries. His conclusion is persuasive--that moral failings of these institutions should not overwhelm other evidence of improved moral standards in the Tridentine Church. All who look for a fuller account of official Catholicism in the era whipsawed by both the Enlightenment and rising governmental absolutism will thank him for the careful research underlying this book.”

No Man’s Land

History & Biography

“Protestant equivalents to Catholic religious orders for women have rarely received the attention they deserve. In this book Priscilla Pope-Levison’s diligent, wide-ranging research opens up the remarkable story of Methodist deaconesses—active in many countries from the late nineteenth century well into the twentieth, continuing today especially in African American churches, effective in a wide range of ministries, and particularly inspirational in teaching, evangelism, and social outreach among the urban poor. The book’s revelations should be as important for encouraging similar services today as for rescuing a largely forgotten history.”

No!

Theology

“Historians are not well positioned to offer firm theological conclusions about debated points in theology. But speaking as a historian, it is obvious that Christian Reconstruction, or Dominion Theology, has come to play a significant role in American life. To anyone it should be obvious that Paul McGlasson's response to this theology is clear, charitable, forceful, and biblical. McGlasson's effort to make the Christian gospel the center of his rejection of Dominion Theology makes this a particularly important book.”

Ownership

History & Biography

“This book is unusually well researched (showing that Wesley, Edwards, and Whitefield actively or passively supported slavery even after Quaker Bible believers had published solid arguments showing the system's evil). It is patiently argued (bending over backward to explain charitably why these landmark evangelicals acted as they did). It is also painstakingly self-reflective (asking, If we condemn earlier Christians for unthinking support of their society's evil, what evils might we be supporting unthinkingly today?). The result is unusual clarity about the past and, even more, a compelling imperative for examining our own lives today.”

Packer on the Christian Life

Christian Living

“The writings of J. I. Packer have been a great help to many believers in many ways. It is therefore most welcome that Sam Storms has synthesized insights from those writings in this helpful, accessible book. I’m sure Pastor Storms agrees that the very best thing about his book would be if it encouraged readers to dive into Packer’s works themselves.”

Patron Saints for Postmoderns

History & Biography

“Taken together these 'patron saints' become a most valuable 'cloud of witnesses' for the many and varied circumstances of Christian believers in our own day. Careful reading of this well-crafted book will pay rich rewards.”

Pocket History of the Church

History & Biography

“Jeffrey Bingham has written a carefully etched series of postcards from a big country called The Past. Those who attend to these messages will be illuminated, instructed and edified. Many will soon realize that there is much, much more to learn about the bearing of Christian history on the present. But all should be thankful for the engaging introduction provided by this book.”

Political Visions & Illusions

Ethics, Culture & Social Issues

“Political nostrums fly thick and fast in contemporary life--from print, radio, TV, pulpits and (perhaps most of all) casual conversation. David Koyzis's welcome effort uses wise biblical reasoning as well as the hard-won experience of Dutch Calvinists to winnow through the modern world's blizzard of competing politcal claims. Koyzis's analysis is both an effective survey of the world's contemporary political options and an encouraging Christian word on how to discern the critical differences. This book's combination of readable theory and wise Christian thinking is a first-order contribution to Christian political thought in its own right.”

Polycentric Missiology

Evangelism & Missions

“During 2010 and 2012 five gatherings convened on five continents to commemorate the landmark 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. Allen Yeh, who attended all five, has helpfully organized and creatively analyzed the main themes, discussions, debates, controversies, and proposals from these conferences. The result is an important report on the state of missionary thinking today, but also a persuasive demonstration of the book's subtitle—that contemporary Christian mission is now 'fromeveryone to everywhere.' It is an unusually helpful, unusually perceptive study.”

Princeton Seminary in American Religion and Culture

History & Biography

“The life of Princeton Theological Seminary spans a momentous two centuries in the history of the United States and a period just as momentous for Reformed faith in America and abroad. James Moorhead's excellently researched study brings that history to life. . . . This fine book deserves a wide readership.”

Prisoners of Hope?

History & Biography

“The best historical work balances two different tasks--fair treatment of the subjects studied and perceptive analysis of how and why they acted or believed as they did. In these terms, 'Prisoners of Hope?' is a model volume. It treats the millennial beliefs of nineteenth-century British and Irish evangelical Protestants as significant truth claims in themselves, but also as revealing indications of involvements in broader political, social, and ecclesiastical contexts. The book offers fresh reading as well as fresh stimulus for further research.”

Process and Providence

Science & Faith

“Bradley Gundlach has written the best kind of history -- deeply researched, beautifully written, carefully thought through. He rehearses how scholars at Princeton Seminary and Princeton University dealt with the evolution question(s) -- with balance, learning, nuance, perception, and theological depth -- the very qualities that mark this book. One can only hope that this fine historical study will encourage those in our day who continue to wrestle with the evolution question(s).”

Prophet, Priest, and King

Theology

“their thoughtful reflections on the person and work of Christ reflect viewpoints from around the world (Brazil, China, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Taiwan). Sensitivity to those diverse local cultures, combined with common faithfulness to Scripture, makes for a compelling book. The authors articulate—but also fruitfully discuss among themselves—a range of important subjects, including standards of personal and communal purity, struggle between spiritual and terrestrial authorities, and relations between human and divine governments. “Theology in context” is the goal, and the goal is won.”

Quality with Soul, How Six Premier Colleges and Universities Keep Faith with Their Religious Traditions

Discipleship & Christian Education

“Robert Benne is a clear-eyed, perceptive, and theologically astute observer of contemporary Christian higher education. Quality with Soul benefits from other recent studies of this topic, but it also goes beyond them with its full-orbed, multidimensional assessment of six important Christian colleges in six different Christian traditions. This book should spark as much fruitful discussion outside those six traditions as within them. It is a very fine effort.”

Reading Evangelicals

History & Biography

“The clever double entendre of Daniel Silliman’s title is more than matched by the insights and sheer readability of the book itself. Its patient account of million-selling evangelical novels is full of unusual wisdom about the authors of these books, but also their publishers, the bookstores that sold them, and (not least) the multitudes who have read them. Silliman’s depiction of American evangelicalism as an ‘imagined community’ defined in large part by these best sellers is thought-provoking in the best way possible.”

Reconstructing Evangelicalism

Church Leadership & Ministry

“This timely book continues efforts by the Center for Pastor Theologians to clarify understanding of the Christian message, assess the ever-present ‘noise’ of a media-obsessed generation, and encourage church leaders to focus their efforts on Gospel proclamation. It makes a particularly important contribution in concentrating on first-order Christian truths as a way to deliver American Evangelicalism from the various forms of cultural captivity that pose such serious threats today.”

Redeeming Our Thinking about History

Theology

“Vern Poythress has written carefully about how a proper Christian doctrine of providence should (and should not) shape a believer’s understanding of human history. His book is particularly welcome in showing that ‘history’ includes a wide range of possibilities and that most of them can contribute (though in different ways) to Christian study of the past.”

Regeneration, Revival, and Creation

History & Biography

“Serious scholarship on Jonathan Edwards has reached the point where it is hard to imagine anyone being able to say anything fresh or inviting. The editors and contributors to this fine collection show that there is still rich fruit to be harvested from the New England theologian-pastor-theologian who was a forest of insight in himself. In this case the contributors explore Edwards as an inspiration for personal ‘lived Christianity,’ group Christian renewal, and a God-oriented understanding of the physical realm. The general quality of the book is unusually high.”

Reluctant Revolutionary

History & Biography

“Andrew Eliot was a prominent Boston clergyman at the time of the American Revolution, but unlike several of his fellow ministers who became ardent patriots, or a very few who remained loyal to Britain, Eliot was too cautious in his politics and too moderate in his theology to draw historians’ interest—until this well-researched and carefully argued book by John Oakes. Through an exhaustive examination of primary sources, Oakes has shown why the career of someone who remained in the middle—between ardent revivalists and fashionable rationalists, between eager patriots and hesitating loyalists—also deserves patient consideration. The result is a book rich in detail about revolutionary Boston and full of insight about the virtue of faithful pastoral service through tumultuous times.”

Remaking the World

Christian Living

“Andrew Wilson’s book is extraordinary in every way: extraordinary in the breadth of research; extraordinary in the multitude of world-significant events that Wilson identifies for 1776; extraordinary in the depth of his insight on what those events meant (and continue to mean); extraordinary in the verve with which he makes his arguments; and, not least, extraordinary in the persuasive Christian framework in which he sets the book. Remaking the World is a triumph of both creative historical analysis and winsome Christian interpretation.”