We’re posting summer reading suggestions from some of our contributors here at DSR. These are recommendations that we want to share with you to hopefully point you to some good books, as well as let you get to know some of our writers a little better. These recommendations will be made up of both old and new books from a variety of genres.
Here are the other recommendations:
Today’s recommendations are from Evan Knies. Evan and his wife Lauren are originally from Louisiana. He recently graduated from Boyce College, and is now beginning classes at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and is serving as Pastor to Students at Bullitt Lick Baptist Church. Evan is also the founder and primary director for DSR.
For students, summers are welcome breaks from the intensity of a semester’s studies. For everyone in the workforce (even teachers these days!) summers may feel less like a vacation. Yet there is still something about the hot summer months that just make all of us feel a little more relaxed. The days are longer. Baseball is in full swing. Cookouts are a good idea, and kids are out of school. And for readers and booklovers, summers always bring with it a unique season of reading goals. That’s true for me anyway, and I want to share some of my summer reading plans with you. These eight books (some of which I’ve read and some I’m planning to read for the first time this summer) look to be great reads that I’m excited about.
- The Whole Christ, by Sinclair Ferguson
Church history matters. Controversies in church history matter, because oftentimes the controversies just keep coming back. Ferguson guides us through the background of “The Marrow Controversy,” and unpacks its relevance for modern believers through its intersection and tension of grace, legalism, and antinomianism.
2. Planting Missional Churches, by Ed Stetzer and Daniel Im
Church planting is key to fulfilling the Great Commission. Church planting is even needed in areas like the Deep South where it may appear at first glance that there are more than enough churches that exist already. Stetzer and Im provide readers with helpful discussions of the purpose and work of planting faithful gospel churches.
- The Saving Righteousness of God, by Michael Bird
I’m interested in anything that has to do with Paul and the key theological doctrines of justification, imputation, resurrection, and salvation. This is a good book to dig into for further studies on these key theological themes.
- Living in the Light of Money, Sex, and Power, by John Piper
The whole ministry of John Piper has been to serve one aim: To entrance others with the joy found only in the glorious presence of Christ. That beautiful and joyous glory, unfortunately, is oftentimes distorted and dimmed in our own world because we place lesser lights as the supreme suns in the solar systems of our lives. Piper once again provides us with encouraging instruction on how life, true life, is meant to work – a life where the pleasures of money, sex, and power are hung in their proper place, revolving around the goodness and glory of God.
- The SBC and the 21st Century, Edited by Jason Allen
The Southern Baptist Convention, still the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, has entered the twenty-first century in the midst of intense change – both culturally in North America, with the task of missions around the world, and among the local and autonomous churches that make up its fellowship. The current context that the SBC finds itself shows that these are crucial days for the denomination. This book has a lot of great essays by key Baptist leaders setting directions for our mission and ministries of the gospel in the coming years.
- Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena (Vol. 1), by Hermann Bavinck
This is a massive and magisterial library of Reformed Theology. If you are a pastor or seminary student especially, this set belongs on your shelf. And once it’s there, you might as well start with volume 1.
- A Biblical Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, Edited by Miles V. Van Pelt
I’ve really been looking forward to this book and its counterpart on the New Testament (Edited by Michael Kruger). As someone who teaches and preaches weekly I’m appreciative of any resource like this that helps to both unfold and connect the story of the Bible.
- The Mind of the Spirit, by Craig Keener
Your thought-life matters. It really does. This book, which will release later this summer, looks to be a helpful study of Paul’s theology of thinking, thinking that for the believer has been transformed by the Spirit through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The King’s Table 