Over the summer I have been reading a number of books including two about the resurgence of Calvinism in the latter half of the 20th Century and beyond. The first Catching the vision (EP) is subtitled 'Roots of the Reformed recovery', the second Young, restless, reformed (Crossway) is subtitled 'A journalists journey with the new Calvinists'. Both books deal with the same theme, though there are many differences and almost no real overlap (except the Banner of Truth). Let me list some
1. The first is journalistic and by an older man (John J Murray) the second more like straight history and by a young man (Collin Hansen)
2. Murray, a Scotsman, focusses on the UK; Hansen, an American, on the USA
3. The first is chiefly concerned with the period 1950-1981, the second with the nineties and beyond
4. Both have indices but there are few people in both. Calvin, Edwards, Hodge, C Henry, C S Lewis, Lloyd-Jones, Luther, Machen and Packer were the only ones I spotted - all dead but one
5. The first is about a rather narrower movement than the second
6. The books are talking about two different things - Murray is on pretty full-orbed (pietist) Reformed theology while Hansen is on five pointism
7. The very cover designs say a lot about the books' style
The first (staid and modernist in style) is dealing with Lloyd-Jones, Jim Packer, Iain Murray, John Murray, etc, and the Evangelical Library and EMW and BEC the second (more hip and post-modern) with John Piper, C J Mahaney, Mark Driscoll, etc, and student conferences and Calvinist rappers. Arguably the second wave would not have arrived without the first.
I was aware of practically every major individual mentioned in both books (having heard many of them preach in person) but for various reasons I guess I am more au fait with the characters in the first book.
A little bit of reflection is good for us and these two books do it well. I commend them to your perusal if you have not come across them yet.
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