Thursday, January 13, 2011

A Few Books I'm Reading (if anyone cares)

1. Ray Stedman, Authentic Christianity. A pastoral exposition of passages in 2 Corinthians. Challenging and encouraging words by a faithful Bible teacher who pastored for forty years.
2. Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics, 4th ed. If every elected official read this book, we would not be in a recession. There are economic realities that cannot be changed through "verbal virtuosity," in his phrase.
3. John Stott, The Authority of the Bible (booklet). Reread this recently for material on biblical inspiration. Excellent.
4. John Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God. I am not a Van Tillian and I take a different approach to arguing for biblical authority (the one Stott gives; see above), but Frame gives you a good workout and is very thorough. My doctrine of the nature of biblical authority is probably virtually identical to Frame's, however.
5. Terry Teachout, Pops. This is the biography of Louis Armstrong, one of the pioneers of jazz and an inimitable personality. Teachout is one of our better writers on the arts.
6. Chris DeVito, ed., Coltrane on Coltrane. A thorough collection of interviews and some commentary on John Coltrane (d. 1967), jazz saxophonist nonpareil.
7. Matthew Elliot, Faithful Feelings. A biblical (New Testament) study of emotion, which cogently argues for a cognitive view: emotions have intellectual content, can be directed by reason, and should be normatively evaluated and cultivated. Very profound so far.

3 comments:

Ken Abbott said...

Sure, some of us care a lot. I'm always looking for good book recommendations, even if I don't read every title on every list. Keep 'em coming.

Fran Szarejko said...

I read a great deal and am always interested in what others are reading. I jut finished the amplified version of "Mere Christianity," "Being Logical" by D.Q. McInerney & "The Lutheran Difference."

D. A. Armstrong said...

Every now and then I see the books you are reading and have a question for you. Approximately, how many books do you read in a year? 5 years ago, I made a New Years resolution to read 52 books, 1 book week. I ended up reading 48 books, but a 2 of them were over 600 pages. This year my resolution is to read 26 books. If one turned off the TV, I think that this would be a very reasonable goal.

Also, are you familiar with the works of Etienne Gilson? If so I'd be interested to know your thoughts on him. I just finished his book The Unity of Philosophical Experience.