“The gospel cannot be preached and heard enough, for it cannot be grasped well enough,” wrote Martin Luther.*

By God’s grace I have been a Christian for 38 years. I agree with Luther—I still cannot hear the gospel enough. Each morning I seek to preach the gospel to myself by my study of Scripture and through the strategic reading of supplemental books about the cross. Over the past several months it has not been difficult to find enough books to fill this role. Six wonderful new books on the gospel have been published in the last five months, and they constitute a portion of my recent reading diet. Here they are:

God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom by Graham A. Cole (Dec 2009), 257 pages. This is a technical but reader-friendly addition in the NSBT series (New Studies in Biblical Theology). And not only is it detailed and readable, but I found it to be deeply moving, too. Many times throughout this book as I read about the atoning sacrifice of our Savior I ceased reading, looked up from the book, and broke into song. (In the interest of full disclosure, this often happens when I read. I am a noisy reader and often break into song while reading.)

God the Peacemaker is a wonderful book that explains why God's intention to restore shalom (peace) to his creation requires the death of Christ. Cole writes in the introduction:

We live in a troubled world. As I write, there are reports of a devastating cyclone in Myanmar, an earthquake in China, fighting in the Sudan and Iraq, shooting death after shooting death on the south side of Chicago. The list could go on and on. The waste of human life is enormous....Yet Christians believe in a good God who as the Creator has never lost interest in his world. The key evidence and the chief symbol of that divine commitment is the cross of Christ....Central to the divine strategy is Christ, his coming and his cross. The troubles and calamities will end. (19)

In recent years there have been many books that emphasize God’s restoration of shalom, but too few that highlight the central role of the cross in this plan.

By Grace Alone: How the Grace of God Amazes Me by Sinclair Ferguson (Feb 2010), 118 pages. Few have taught me more about the gospel of the grace of God than Sinclair Ferguson. I was reminded of the profound influence of his ministry in my life a couple years ago when I did this interview with him about the cross. Through his sermons and writing I am personally reminded of grace, affected by grace, and inspired to lead by grace. His latest book on the gospel of the grace of God is a gem—showing us why we should be amazed by it. Ferguson writes,

Being amazed by God’s grace is a sign of spiritual vitality. It is a litmus test of how firm and real is our grasp of the Christian gospel and how close is our walk with Jesus Christ. The growing Christian finds that the grace of God astonishes and amazes. Yet we frequently take the grace of God for granted. (xiv)

Ferguson writes as a man who is himself amazed by grace.

Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus by D.A. Carson (Feb 2010), 168 pages. In the preface Carson writes,

Nothing is more central to the Bible than Jesus' death and resurrection. The entire Bible pivots on one weekend in Jerusalem about two thousand years ago. Attempts to make sense of the Bible that do not give prolonged thought to integrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are doomed to failure, at best exercises in irrelevance. (11)

This book is not only not doomed to failure but destined to serve readers in their appreciation of the gospel as he expounds on both the death and resurrection of the Savior. As Mark Dever says in his endorsement, "This professor can preach. These are model messages on crucial passages." They are crucial passages, presented as a model of exegesis and exposition. The book is developed around five core passages: Matthew 27:27–51, Romans 3:21–26, Revelation 12, John 11:1–53, and John 20:24–31. Pastors can easily adapt this structure and use these passages to develop a sermon series to serve their churches.

Atonement by various authors, edited by Gabriel N.E. Fluhrer (Feb 2010), 142 pages. This is a compilation of messages delivered over the years at the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. Contributors include J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, and Ferguson. In his preface, editor Gabriel Fluhrer opens the book with these pointed words: "This is a book about blood and it soaks every page" (ix). And a little later he writes,

Today, along with other great doctrines of the Christian faith, the doctrine of the blood atonement of Christ is under attack. It is derided as “cosmic child abuse” and traded for a grandfatherly sentimentalism that muffles the piercing cries of the Savior being nailed to the cross. The pride of our sin dilutes the simple, clear, and shocking teaching of the New Testament: God killed his perfect Son to save hate-filled rebels from the wrath they deserve. (x)

The messages included in this book were finely chosen.

What Is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert (April 2010), 124 pages. Gilbert's new book on the gospel is clear and compelling. I wrote in my endorsement that I hoped to place this book in the hands of every pastor and church member. And the only thing I would add is that I hope it finds its way into the hands of non-Christians as well. I agree with Mark Dever: "This little book on the gospel is one of the clearest and most important books I've read in recent years." Help me put a copy of this book into every hand. Buy a case of them and begin giving them away immediately!

It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement by Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence (April 2010), 223 pages. This series of sermons was published out of concern over the neglect of the gospel in the life of local churches. In the preface Dever writes,

Have you wondered about the cross lately? Have you wondered where it is in your own church, or in your own life? It's our prayer that these meditations will help you re-center your life on God's sacrifice for us in Christ and join in the celebration that's going on eternally as the saints in heaven praise God for the Lamb who was slain for us. (15)

Like Carson’s, this book can provide a pastor with a sermon series on the gospel. The 14 sermons are presented in canonical order on these texts: Exodus 12, Leviticus 16, Isaiah 52:13–53:12, Mark 10:45, 15:33–34, John 3:14–18, 11:47–52, Romans 3:21–26, 4:25, 5:8–10, 8:1–4, Galatians 3:10–13, 1 Peter 2:21–25, and 3:18.

I am grateful that we have many wonderful (and affordable) books about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need these books because we cannot read enough about the gospel. We cannot read enough about the gospel because we cannot grasp it well enough.

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* What Luther Says: An Anthology, compiled by Edwald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia, 1963), vol. 2, pp. 563–564.

Theologian Jonathan Edwards looms large in church history and in the history of theology. Yet because his writings are often very difficult to read, they are inaccessible to many readers. Making Edwards’s theology and writings accessible to a broad audience was the burden behind a new series of books: The Essential Edwards Collection.

The set contains short paperback volumes for a total of 760 pages. It was written and edited by Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney with an introduction by John Piper. The series includes five topical books:

• Jonathan Edwards: Lover of God
• Jonathan Edwards: On Beauty 
• Jonathan Edwards: On Heaven and Hell
• Jonathan Edwards: On the Good Life 
• Jonathan Edwards: On True Christianity
  

C.J. endorsed The Essential Edwards Collection. Here’s what he wrote:

Books on the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards could fill a library. So where does an average reader (like me!) begin? Right here, with The Essential Edwards Collection. Strachan and Sweeney provide a doorway into the life and teaching of one of the church’s wisest theologians. But this book is more than history. The authors have included notes of personal application to help us apply the life and teaching of Edwards to our own lives. I’ve read no better introduction to Jonathan Edwards.

And here are four other noteworthy endorsements:

D.A. Carson: “Everyone says Jonathan Edwards is important. Quite frankly, however, his writing style is pretty dense by contemporary standards, so few pastors and other Christian leaders have invested much time reading him. Edwards is one of the ‘greats’ of whom everyone has heard and whom relatively few have read. This new series tackles the problem. Here is the kernel of much of Edwards’s thought in eminently accessible form.”

Mark Dever: “In The Essential Edwards Collection, Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney play the role of the good friend who pulls the book down off the shelf. With knowledge and excitement, they open the large and intimidating tomes, and point to some clear and searching section which illuminates God’s truth and searches our hearts. In this collection, Edwards is introduced to a new generation of readers. His concerns are made our concerns. This is a worthy effort and I pray that God will bless it.”

Al Mohler: “Why hasn’t this been done before? The Essential Edwards Collection is now essential reading for the serious-minded Christian. Doug Sweeney and Owen Strachan have written five excellent and accessible introductions to America’s towering theological genius—Jonathan Edwards. They combine serious scholarship with the ability to make Edwards and his theology come alive for a new generation. The Essential Edwards Collection is a great achievement and a tremendous resource. I can’t think of a better way to gain a foundational knowledge of Edwards and his lasting significance.”

Carl Trueman: “Jonathan Edwards is surely one of the most influential theologians of the eighteenth century, yet until now a representative sample of his work has required the reader either to wade through poorly printed double-column editions or to purchase incredibly expensive scholarly editions. Now at last we have a wide-ranging and representative sample of his work published in an attractive, accessible and, most important of all, readable form. The authors are to be commended for the work they have put into this set and I hope it will become an important feature of the library of many pastors and students of the Christian faith.”

Kevin DeYoung recently responded to my interview questions. That interview was posted in two parts (here and here). As promised I wanted to add a third post to tell you about Kevin’s books.

I really like Kevin’s books. I think he is one of the finest young authors in the church today and I recommend all of his books. Here they are:

Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be (with Ted Kluck). My introduction to Kevin-the-author. This is the best critique of the emergent movement written for a popular audience that I have come across.

Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion (with Ted Kluck). This book is on the short list of my favorite books on the importance and value of the local church.
 
Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc. On the topic of seeking guidance from God in the decisions of life, this book is the best I am aware of. It also has the longest subtitle since the writings of the Puritans.
 
Freedom and Boundaries: A Pastoral Primer on the Role of Women in the Church. Excellent argument for—and celebration of—the complementarian position of gender roles in the church.

The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism. Kevin’s latest work is scheduled for release in April. Doubtless this will be the finest book I will have ever read on the Heidelberg Catechism. It will certainly be the first.

 

Today on his blog Kevin DeYoung posted C.J.’s most valuable reads of 2009. Read about C.J.’s picks here.

 

I first met Kevin DeYoung in the pages of his book Why We’re Not Emergent (Moody, 2008). Somewhere around page 50 I became his fan. Since that time I’ve also had the privilege and joy of becoming his friend.

Kevin is the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, and the author of four books (more on his books in a forthcoming blog post). I asked him 14 questions on topics like books, devotions, preaching, and sports, which he was happy to answer.

Meet my friend Kevin DeYoung.

Kevin, thank you for your time! Please describe your morning devotions. What time do you wake up in the morning? How much time do you spend reading, meditating, praying, etc.? What are you presently reading?

We have four small children so my sleep pattern is somewhat dependent on how (if!) they all slept. But usually I wake up between 6:30-6:45, a little later if it is my day off (Monday), or if I had a late meeting the night before. On average I spend about an hour in morning devotions. I start by reading 5-10 pages of some classic Christian book (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment at present). Then I sing a Psalm. Then I read 3-4 chapters from the Bible. I’ve used lots of different reading plans. Right now I’m using a plan that gets me through the whole Bible once a year and Psalms/Proverbs twice. I am in the minor prophets right now. After reading, I work on some Scripture memory, the second half of Romans 12 at the moment. Finally I spend about 25 minutes in prayer, often on a walk if it is not too cold outside. None of these segments take too terribly long, so I’m usually done in an hour or a little more.

What book(s) are you currently reading in these three categories: (a) for your soul, (b) for pastoral ministry, or (c) for personal enjoyment?

For my soul: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs; Forerunner of the Great Awakening: Sermons by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen edited by Joel Beeke; Letters of John Newton

For pastoral ministry: Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth by Alistair McGrath; Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity by William Murchison; The Holy Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson; commentaries on Mark

For personal enjoyment: Macbeth; The Predictioneer’s Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita;
Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design by Stephen C. Meyer

Apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?

I’ve read Calvin’s Institutes several times. I try to go back to it every few years. The theology is rich, passionate, biblical, and ministers to my soul. I see new things every time I read the Institutes. Plus, Calvin, especially in the Battles translation, is easier to read than Jonathan Edwards and many of the Puritans.

When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?

Sadly, I have no system in place. I’ve tried a few different times to implement something, but I didn’t stick with it. If I see an article in a magazine or journal that I like I’ll make a copy and put it in my files (arranged by topics). But for books I just underline, write in the margins and hope I remember where things are later.

If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture), who would it be and why?

That’s a hard one. I could learn a lot from so many—Augustine, Calvin, Edwards. But I would pick John Newton. He was not the most prolific theologian, but I figure I can always read Luther or Owen today, but I can’t get the man John Newton. He seems so wise, balanced, and godly. He would make a great mentor, especially for a pastor. A close second would be Irenaeus or one of the other Church Fathers, just because they were not far removed from the Apostles.

What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?

If people walk away from your sermons and think you are really smart, you probably have preached a bad sermon. At first I thought it was good if people were impressed by my learning, but now I see that wowing people with my studies is exactly the wrong thing to do. Along these lines, I’ve heard Earl Palmer say that he aims at the high school junior or senior in his sermon. This makes sense to me. A high school senior is used to thinking (we hope) and can handle new ideas and concepts (we hope), but we should not assume he has a deep background in the Bible and theology. That’s a good target audience.

What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?

The best book on preaching is Preaching and Preachers by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. John Stott’s Between Two Worlds is a close second. Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students is also one of my favorites.

I have benefited from listening to many preachers, including: John Piper, Alistair Begg, Tim Keller, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney. I don’t think most sermons read very well in print, but Martyn Lloyd-Jones and J.C. Ryle are notable exceptions.

We will pick up here in part two of my interview with my friend Kevin DeYoung.

A compilation book of the messages delivered at the 2008 Together for the Gospel conference is now available. Titled Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology (Crossway, 2009), the new book is authored by Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, Albert Mohler, and C.J., with contributions by Thabiti Anyabwile, John MacArthur, John Piper, and R.C. Sproul and one additional piece by Greg Gilbert.

What follows is a glimpse at the contents, a link to each original conference message audio recording, and a brief comment on each message/chapter taken from Dever’s introduction to the new book.

Chapter 1: Sound Doctrine: Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry (Duncan). Message audio. Dever: “Ligon Duncan begins this volume as he began that conference. He entered the lists asserting that systematic theology is a worthwhile task. Indeed, in days when the narrative form of biblical theology is attracting great (and deserved) attention, it is too often being pitted against systematic theology. Ligon defends the usefulness and necessity of systematic theology with clarity and vigor. A pastor must remember the truths in this chapter or risk losing the gospel itself” (pp. 12–13).

Chapter 2: Bearing the Image (Anyabwile). Message audio. Dever: “In his address at Together for the Gospel, Thabiti challenged us to recognize that the category of ‘race’ is irredeemable. It brings far more confusion than light, more contention than understanding, more prejudice than impartial judgment. As you turn to that chapter—perhaps the most explosive of the conference—open your mind and get ready to think” (p. 13).

Chapter 3: The Sinner Neither Willing nor Able (MacArthur). Message audio. Dever: “John MacArthur delivered a message on human depravity that was a model of clear thinking. In it, John masterfully assembled the witness of Scripture (in the very way Ligon had encouraged us the previous day) on this vital topic. John showed that a mistake here is a mistake in the foundation of understanding the nature of our problem. He laid out challenges currently facing this doctrine and concluded by calling us to be faithful to this aspect of the message, no matter how hard we may find such faithfulness” (p. 13).

Chapter 4: Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology (or) Questioning Five Common Deceits (Dever). Message audio. Dever: “The next message was mine. I had been mulling over for some time the confusion about the content of the gospel. The message came together as I reviewed notes I had made some months earlier about various issues that needed ‘addressing.’ I began to notice that each one evidenced a distortion of the gospel. With encouragement from my T4G brothers—and the Capitol Hill Baptist congregation—I worked and reworked the material until I felt I got close to saying what I wanted to say. I wanted to get evangelicals talking about what the gospel is exactly” (pp. 13–14).

Chapter 5: The Curse Motif of the Atonement (Sproul). Message audio. Dever: “R.C. Sproul brought to the conference what many felt was the most devotionally rich meditation on the sacrifice of Christ. And he did it by meditating upon the curse motif in the Old Testament! In his own inimitable conversational style, with wide learning and profound biblical understanding, R.C. took us on a tour of Old Testament practices, verbally painting scenes before our eyes. Again and again, as we stared into the depth of those practices, we began to see the cross of Christ more and more clearly until, well, let me simply encourage you to read what I heard many call ‘the best I've ever heard R.C.’ And, I promise—it's not R.C. you'll be glorifying when you're done” (p. 14).

Chapter 6: Why They Hate It So: The Denial of Substitutionary Atonement in Recent Theology (Mohler). Message audio. Dever: “This conference in many ways was birthed out of our concern that the atonement is being misconceived and mistaught in too many evangelical books and churches. It was Al who decided to wade into the sea of literature and explain to us what has happened. With a mastery of the literature that is both exceptional and yet typical of our well-read friend, he led us to see the lines of misunderstanding—of attack—that have been laid down against Christ's death being in the place of sinners. His conference message, now here in print, should serve as a guide to the literature and, even more fundamentally, to thinking carefully about the atoning work of Christ” (p. 14).

Chapter 7: How Does the Supremacy of Christ Create Radical Christian Sacrifice? A Meditation on the Book of Hebrews (Piper). Message audio. Dever: “The last day of the conference, John Piper brought the cross into our own lives and ministries. He posed the question, ‘How does the supremacy of Christ create radical Christian sacrifice?’ Looking through the last few chapters of Hebrews, John called for us to live radical lives so as to have radical ministries. He called us to be God's men. He called us to be certain that in such a ministry suffering will come” (p. 15).

Chapter 8: Sustaining the Pastor's Soul (Mahaney). Message audio. Dever: “The final message was once again given by the conference pastor C.J. Mahaney. C.J. preached a wonderful message titled ‘Sustaining the Pastor's Soul.’ He presented Paul as an example of one who suffered without complaint and served with obvious joy, regardless of the circumstances. And he called us to be ‘happy pastors,’ too. What was it he repeatedly said? ‘How striking that the one with the most responsibility was the one with the most joy.’….Even though this message appears as the book's last chapter, if you're a pastor and feeling particularly pressed, let me suggest that you begin there” (pp. 15–16).

Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology is a follow-up to the first volume, Preaching the Cross (Crossway, 2007), which developed out of the messages delivered at the 2006 T4G conference.

Puritan John Owen penned an unforgettable statement about God’s love: “The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him, is not to believe that he loves you.”*

Stop for a moment and reflect on that sentence—it could change your life.

Now, let me ask you three questions: Do you believe in God’s personal and passionate love for you? Are you delighting in God’s unconditional love? Or have you laid a sorrow and burden upon your adopted Father by questioning his love for you or refusing to believe that he loves you?

If you are uncertain of God’s love for you—or simply unfamiliar with the gift of adoption—I want to encourage you to restrict your spiritual diet for a season so that you might experience the greatness of God’s love. This is more than an academic exercise; this study is a means to experiencing God’s affection, closeness, and generosity as Father. Immerse yourself in an extended study of this topic, this passage (Galatians 4:1–7), and other passages on this topic.

Allow a godly scholar to hold your hand as you study, explore, and experience this topic. I would recommend three resources, ordered from the easiest to read to the most technical:

• J.I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP, 1993), 316 pgs. Especially note chapter 19: “Sons of God.”

• Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God (Banner of Truth, 1989), 144 pgs. Especially note his chapter: “Delighting in the Father’s Love.”

• Trevor J. Burke, Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor (IVP Academic, 2006), 233 pgs.

Why devote so much time to studying the doctrine of adoption? For fresh motivation I close with words from J.I. Packer:

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.…Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.**

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Notes:
* John Owen, Communion with God (Banner of Truth, 1991).
** J.I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP, 1993), pp. 201–202.

In the first half of our series, my friend David Powlison introduced us to two fictional works that each featured pastors—Cry, the Beloved Country and Gilead. In the second half, which you are about to read, David recommends six fictional works he classifies as “dark realism,” books that look honestly at the darkness of the human heart without Christ. Along the way David will explain what pastors can gain from works like these.

Like the previous half, this interview except was transcribed from an audio recording.

PART 2: DAVID POWLISON ON “DARK REALISM”

I am a real believer that pastors need a better sense of the messiness of life. You can have your nose in the Bible, you can do all your exegesis, and you can actually miss how gritty the Bible itself is. And you can certainly miss it and develop little idealistic, plastic-smile versions of the Christian life that are not reckoning with what real life is, the things you read about in a history of World War II or in Dostoyevsky. Even in a redeemed sense of things you read in these other two novels [Cry, the Beloved Country and Gilead] that have a powerfully redemptive, overtly Christian theme to them.

I mandated my class read three books. Cry, the Beloved Country and Gilead were two of them. For the third one I gave them the choice and they could pick from a list of the most despairing—but thoughtfully despairing—twentieth-century works I could think of:

•  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

•  The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill

•  Anton Chekhov's Short Stories

•  A short story by Raymond Carver

•  Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

•  The Plague by Albert Camus

I called these six books "dark realism." They are all worldviews that explore the darkness of human life. What I like about them is that if there is no Christ, they are right. And I don’t think we present Christ well if we do not reckon with the alternative, and the alternative to Christ is darkness.

I have appreciated all six of those books. Conrad, in Heart of Darkness, is looking about as straight as one can look into the pit of the human heart, and he sees the horror of human evil. Conrad is so profoundly pessimistic, an almost unalleviated cynicism and darkness. I think if you want to know about the nature of sin and death, it really behooves us to be aware of some of the more modern writers.

Chekhov is interesting because he has an equally pessimistic worldview, but there is a kind of common grace. Chekhov treats his characters with love, with a palpable love and respect in the way that he portrays people, even though he has no basis for it. In his worldview you die, and that's it. But there is a kind of dignity and grace of spirit.

One very admirable thing about all these guys is that they value honesty. And even if I fundamentally disagree with their vision, there is a certain way in which they have a love for what is true and a hatred for false fronts and hypocrisy.

They usually hate religion—which is what they think Christianity is. And they don’t have kind words to say about the church, but I always think it's worth hearing us at our worst, or hearing how we may be coming across, not because I don’t believe in Christianity, but because the Bible I read has an even more unsparing critique of the church's failings. But the Bible also has a Redeemer.

So these six books will give you vicarious wisdom to learn about people. But they shouldn’t rattle your faith—this is the alternative to faith!

More to come…

I appreciate David’s list of books (and just in time for summer). Over the coming days and weeks be watching for more from David.

Coming soon we will be posting a number of audio clips we recorded with David, including a narrated bibliography. I asked David to walk through several resources on biblical counseling that he has authored over the years to explain why he created them, who will benefit, and how. I think this recording will provide a useful overview to David’s most valuable tools for pastors.

We also recorded four short podcasts with him on topics including good advice versus the Good News, cravings and conflict, feelings versus reality, and the value of personal emotion. Stay tuned for more.

May our summer reading remind us of the light of the gospel that broke into our darkened souls. And may these books supply us with a sobering reality of sin’s darkness and generate a deeper love for the lost.

Recently we hosted my friend David Powlison for a week as he taught biblical counseling at the Pastors College. We were honored that he would make time in his schedule to come and teach us.

As you can imagine, for the students in the classroom and for me in my interactions with David, the week was rich and rewarding. And from that week with him I ended up with a bundle of counsel, including what has become a few blog posts and five audio interviews. Over the next couple weeks we plan to share a little of what I learned with you.

On Literature

On one evening, over dinner at a favorite Gaithersburg restaurant, I asked David a number of questions on various topics. Not surprising, we began with a lengthy conversation on sports and athletics. I gained a new appreciation for David’s athletic heritage, his personal gifting, and incredible knowledge of baseball. Some of this will emerge in the audio interviews segment I’ll soon share.

But part of our dinnertime conversation included David sharing on the topic of why pastors should read literature. And by “interview” I mean that I sat back in my seat and listened to a 17-minute monologue from David on books. The time was rewarding, and I think other pastors will benefit from David’s recommendations.

He began talking about literature by recommending two novels that feature pastors—Cry, the Beloved Country and Gilead. You can read about these titles in today’s post. Next time David will introduce us to six books he calls “dark realism,” and how these books can help pastors learn about real life vicariously.

Both of these excerpts were transcribed from the audio recording. Makes me wish I could have dinner with David more frequently! Enjoy.

PART 1: DAVID POWLISON ON PASTORAL LITERATURE

Of course, we are not all wired the same, but there are an awful lot of pastors who only read objective expositional things. Human life has poetry; it has drama. Much of the Bible is much more understandable from a more literary standpoint.

In fact, two of the great novels have pastors as their hero. And both show the inner workings of real life.

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

This is one of the books that undid apartheid in South Africa. There are characters in that book that I will not be able to talk about without tears. It’s a story of tragedy, focused on a black, rural pastor, Stephen Kumalo, who is a poor, simple man from the dirt country. His son [Absalom Kumalo] goes to the big city and commits a murder, gets caught, and gets caught up in the gears of the criminal justice system. Stephen goes to the big city to find his son.

Three people help him. One is a fellow pastor named Theophilus Msimangu who befriends him and goes to bat for him in a thousand ways. Stephen is a country guy, he doesn’t know how the city works. And Msimangu helps him. And every time the protagonist expresses his deep appreciation for all that he has done and commends the man's Christian character, Msimangu stops him and says, "I am only a poor wicked sinful man, but God put his hand on me." And there are about three variations on this theme; this profound sense of the real scale of value and why it is that one does this. It's not that he is some great hero, he is a weak sinful man, “But God put his hand on me.”

There is another character, an elderly widow, who rents a room to this man. She is from the church and her name is Mrs. Lithebe. And every time he thanks her for all her very basic kindnesses to him—like a roof over his head, a simple meal, and little aid—this woman of no education and no standing responds along the lines of: "For what else are we born, why else do we live?" She is a woman who wears charity. It is what life is. Why else are we here? You needed help, I have a room—it's your room. Absolute simplicity of faith.

The other thing that I found profoundly moving was the spiritual dynamic. At the end Stephen tries to come to terms with what is happening to his son and he goes to a mountaintop to "vigil," in which he is in a sense composing and “ordering his soul” in their classic Christian sense of the inner discipline of Christian truth and faith—confession of sin, profession of faith, giving of thanksgiving, intercession. He is an Anglican, so in one sense he is walking through what are familiar forms of the Anglican liturgy, and yet they are not rote, they are the living and thoughtful fiber of Christian life and faith. And it is such a wonderful portrayal of faith in action that’s not plastic, not sentimental, not hyper-emotional, not overly intellectual, it's simply real life being brought to the real God.

Cry, the Beloved Country was written in 1947. I read it in high school and had read it again in college.

[Later] I taught an advanced methods course. And one of the things I was concerned about with our students is that people obviously have to get hands-on knowledge of working with people. But it's also possible to get vicarious knowledge of people through reading. So I began thinking about novels. We read three different novels and this was one I picked. I had gone back and read it a few years ago and was again struck with the richness of the portrayal of human life—the fear, anger, love, betrayal, guilt, repentance, ambivalence, the fact that real life is never tidy. Our theology can be tidy, but life is never tidy. That does not invalidate the theology, it just means that theology is knowing what direction north is in a chaotic storm. There is a storm (life) and there is north (good theology). Good theology is critical, but life doesn’t actually play in the same terms as something neat and tidy.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. The hero is John Ames, a 76-year-old pastor who is dying. He married late in life and has a 7-year-old boy, his only child. He had another child die in childbirth 50 years before. But he is dying of heart disease and he is leaving a legacy for his son and you wonder how it even works as a book. It’s a 250-page novel that is essentially his letter to his son, a son who will be unable to read it now, but perhaps in 10 or 15 years, when his father is long in the grave. This will be his legacy for his son.

It's written by a woman, Marilynne Robinson, and she is a Calvinist. I heard her speak in the Philadelphia public library. Here you have this crowd of 400 people in the audience to see this famous Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and she gets up. I kid you not, one questioner from the audience says, "Now how on earth did you as a woman get into the mind of an aging, dying pastor, and with all this theological stuff?" Her answer was, "Well I'm a Calvinist and I think about these things all the time."

Cry, the Beloved Country, you can read straight through. Gilead, I find, you cannot read more than 10 pages, it's just too rich. It's like eating cheesecake, you cannot eat a whole pie at once, a couple bites and you need to sleep on it, and read more tomorrow. It is so provocative.

[Next time David Powlison shares six more recommended titles for pastors.]

Since we’re talking about Os Guinness, I pulled my stack of well-worn copies of his books off my shelves. And one of the most dog-eared, check-mark-littered, and highlighted copies is the book Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance (Baker, 2003).

The book is a piercing critique of the church’s uncritical pursuit of relevance for the sake of relevance. His argument: “Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more irrelevant” (p. 12). Guinness explains it like this:

By our uncritical pursuit of relevance we have actually courted irrelevance; by our breathless chase after relevance without a matching commitment to faithfulness, we have become not only unfaithful but irrelevant; by our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and our relevance. Our crying need is to be faithful as well as relevant. (p. 11)

This is because, as Guinness writes, faithfulness to eternal truth is the means to genuine cultural relevance. In every generation, our goal is centered on the proclamation and advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the local church. Only because of the gospel’s continued relevance is it rightfully called the “good news.”

The gospel is good news. In fact it is “the best news ever” because it addresses our human condition appropriately, pertinently, and effectively as nothing else has, does, or can—and in generation after generation, culture after culture, and life after life. Little wonder that the Christian faith is the world’s first truly universal religion and in many parts of the world the fastest growing faith, and that the Christian church is the most diverse society on planet earth, with followers on all continents, in all climates, and under all the conditions of life and development. Of course, Christians can make the gospel irrelevant by shrinking and distorting it in one way or another. But in itself the good news of Jesus is utterly relevant or it is not the good news it claims to be. (p. 13)

Escaping the Cultural Captivity

The strength of Guinness’s book is not only the insightful criticism, but the constructive vision he presents to the reader. Chapter six, “Escaping Cultural Captivity” (pp. 95–112), was especially helpful. Guinness writes,

Without God, our human knowledge is puny and perverse, limited on the one hand by finitude and distorted on the other by sin. That said, and that said humbly, three things can help us cultivate the independent spirit and thinking that are characteristic of God’s untimely people. In ascending order, they are developing an awareness of the unfashionable, cultivating an appreciation for the historical, and paying constant attention to the eternal. Each is crucial for effective resistance thinking. (p. 96)

Guinness then develops each of these points:

1. Awareness of the Unfashionable: Because the cross runs across the grain of human thinking, the faithful choice is often not the culturally popular choice. Guinness introduces the countercultural actions of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany. While the Führer demanded complete allegiance, Bonhoeffer was stressing the cost of discipleship and allegiance to Christ alone. In all generations, the church needs to cultivate an awareness of the unfashionable to avoid being captured by the popular or “relevant.”   

2. Appreciation for the Historical: Americans, Guinness writes, seem to know everything about what’s happened over the past 24 hours, but little about the past 600 or 60 years. “Essential for untimeliness is appreciation for the historical, for no human perspective gives us a better counterperspective on our own day” (p. 100).

Guinness continues,

Mere lip service to the importance of history will not do. We each have to build in a steady diet of the riches of the past into our reading and thinking. Only the wisdom of the past can free us from the bondage of our fixation with the present and the future. C. S. Lewis counseled, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” (p. 104)

On the next page, he quotes Lewis again: “The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of history blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books” (p. 105).

3. Attention to the Eternal: “Essential for untimeliness is attention to the eternal, for only the eternal is eternally relevant” (p. 105). The way to remain relevant is to stay on the path of eternal truth. Guinness asks us to consider, if we are seeking to be relevant, why? To what end are we seeking relevance? “Nothing is finally relevant except in relation to the true and the eternal….Only the repeated touch of the timeless will keep us truly timely” (pp. 106, 112).

Yet again, it’s worth quoting him directly:

How then do we lift ourselves above the level of the finite and the mundane to gain an eternal perspective on what is true and relevant? The biblical answer is blunt in its candor. By ourselves we can’t. We can’t break out of Plato’s cave of the human, with all its smoke and flickering shadows on the wall. We can’t raise ourselves above the level of the timebound and the earthbound by such feeble bootstraps as reason. But where we are limited by our own unaided efforts, we have help. We have been rescued.…God has broken into our silence. He has spoken and has come down himself. And in his written and living Word we are given truth from outside our situation, truth that throws light on our little lives and our little world. (p. 107)

Conclusion

I highly recommend Prophetic Untimeliness, especially for pastors. We would do well to heed Guinness’s call to faithfulness: “It is time to challenge the idol of relevance, to work out what it means to be faithful as well as relevant, and so to become truly relevant without ever ending up as trendy, trivial, and unfaithful” (p. 15).