Christmas Books 2026

One of the nice things about Christmas is the acquiring of new books. Half of the ten above I bought myself (Poem for every day, Xmas Quiz Book, Dickens and Christmas, an ebook on the Post Office scandal and the devotional based on Messiah by Dave Gobbett and his wife). The other five were gifts (Poem for every night, DK Xmas book, Alistair Begg's Xmas devotional, The redeemed man collection and the Book of 100 childre's books). I have read the DK Xmas book and the book introduing a hundred childrem's books. I didn't quite finish either of the two devotionals and the poetry books will hopefully finsihed by the end of the year. I started the Dickens book and am reading the one on the Post Office.

Women of Grace and Guts

This historical work by Juila Jones covers a fairly little known aspect of mission in India at the beginning of the twentieth century. I suppose this is pretty ordinary and unspectacular work but it has produced fruit that continues to this day. The unusual aspect of what is presented is that it concentrates on the the work of women who, as the title suggests, are marked by grace and guts (Winifred Booth, Ruth Morling, Olive Elliot and others, including the many Indian Bible women). The story deserves to be rescued from the yellowing pages of the SBM Herald and presented in this way. This well reasearched, well illustrated work is well worth seeking out. (One or two typos but no-one is perfect).

Thomas Bilney: Forgotten Reformer

This brief little book seeks to rehabilitate the little known martyr Thomas Bilney. Information about Bilney is limited but Stuart Fisher has done a very thorough job in gathering what there is and presenting the material in a warm and devoted way. Two appendices show that Foxe's history can be relied on and that although Bilney recanted once he did not do so a second time. The timeline and the many illustrations add to the attractiveness of the book, part of an excellent Day One series.

Austin Walker on Robert Hall Junior

The Theology of Robert Hall Jr.: The Undermining of Calvinism among the English Particular Baptists (Studies in Baptist History) Paperback – 20 Feb 2024 by Austin Walker, 266 pages, H&E Academic ISBN 1774841398

This really is an excellent work in Reformed Baptist history, looking at a well known but rather obscure figure. It well deserves the honorary doctorate it is rumoured to have received. Rather than giving us a straight chronological account Dr Walker walks us around the subject several times but without repetitioin, enabling us to see the subject from several different angles. This work is the result of long and careful research. Robert Hall Jr is difficult to write about as his theological positions were not always predictable or stable. He appears to have rejected federal theology early on but come back to it but never to have properly embraced a full orbed Particular Baptist position. His open communion views are better known. Dr Walker's thesis that Hall and his teaching had a powerful and detrimental affect on Particular Baptists stands up well and his final warning is worth hearing.

Day Off Week 44 2025

Managed to fit in a day off this week, mostly reading but I alos watched some Alan Partridge, which is funny enough but for me, only ever mildly so.

Crossway Short Classics

As stated previously I have been working my way through a set of ten short classics published in a series by Crossway a few years back. I hav enow read them all and here are my notes on the final seven.

First a sermon by Spurgeon on not despising the day of small things (with a shorter piece for ministers). It is classic Spurgeon and very encouraging - just as it says on the tin. Once again the beautfiful cover and presentation adds to the joy of the experience. Like others in this series I could find the text elsewhere but it was so good to read it through in one sitting or so. I was more than encouraged.

The J C Ryle also has the same beautiful presentation as the others in this series. Yes, it can once again be found elsewhere but once again it was a worthwhile exercise to sit and read it once more in more or less one sitting. Really enjoying this series.

These two sermons (the Lord's work in the Lord''s way and No little people) are not the sort of thing one immediately thinks of when thinking of Francis Schaeffer but such notes were sounded throughout his ministry and can be found elsewhere in his written works. I liked this quote “Often men have acted as though one has to choose between reformation and revival. Some call for reformation, others for revival, and they tend to look at each other with suspicion. But reformation and revival do not stand in contrast to one another; in fact, both words are related to the concept of restoration. Reformation speak of a restoration to pure doctrine, revival of a restoration in the Christian’s life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture, revival of a life brought into proper relationship to the Holy Spirit. The great moments in church history have come when these two restorations have occurred simultaneously. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation, and reformation is incomplete without revival.” (No Little People).

Th next I read was the surprise contribution to the set. A litte longer than some, it contains four sermons by the dual heritage African/White American, Lemuel Haynes. The final sermon is against slavery and has a strength that comes from the author's own background. All the sermons are brief and to the point and well worth reading by all. This is an extract from the larger book "Lemuel Haynes: Black Puritan, Black Republican", also in my library but only partly read.

Martin Luther is always worth reading though his writings make up a vast library. This recent translation of The freedom of a Christian by Robert Kolb makes it very easy to read and this work is a basic one and short enough to read in no time. Nice intro by Carl Trueman.

Really loved the Jonathan Edwards one on Heaven a world of love though I must have read it before as it is found in Charity and its fruits. Edwards simply describes heaven as it must be in terms of it being a place of love. This has the effect of making you long for heaven and long to be more heavenly minded now. There is a short section describing hell in similar terms which works well. So glad to have read what was for me the ninth book in the seriies.

The life of God in the soul of man by Henry Scougal is the longest of the series and well worth reading. I have long been aware of it (see https://publishdarticles.blogspot.com/2018/03/books-in-history-scougal-on-life-o... ) Scougal seems to come at things from a different angle to many and this would be a great book for a religious person.

Engaging With Thomas Aquinas

On Monday we met at the Pastors Academy in Finchley once again for our reading group. Our subject was Leonardo De Chirco's book on engaging with Aquinas. I was leading so I'll reproduce the questions I prepared below. About ten of us met. We were all quite favourable towards the book which we found helpful though not essential. We decided next time to look at a couple of C S Lewis books.

Questions

How much did you know about Aquinas before reading the book? Have you read any of his work? What did you think of de Chirico's book? Who would benefit best from it?

Introduction 1-11 Are you aware of the evangelical love story with Thomas? (5) How would you answer the five questions on page 6? (“What should we make of this entire discussion? … ie sifting what is good and rejecting what is deviant?”) Also a sixth question as we move on to page 7?

1 The life and work of Thomas Aquinas 12-31 How do you tend to think of the Middle Ages? Is your ultimate goal to see God or to love him? Which is most important - the true or the good? (18) Why is Thomas better remembered than Bonaventure? (19-21) What do you make of Thomas's 1273 mystical experience? (25) How impressive is 8 million words? (26) [Dickens – 4.6m, Shakespeare – 884,000, Bible – 780,000]

2 Sources and synthesis of Thomas Aquinas's thought 32-67 Does a good theologian need a good knowledge of science? (33) Was Thomas's use of Aristotle a theologically compromised use of the Christian faith? (34) Is Aristotle of any use to us? Are some truths of faith accessible to reason? (38) What do you think of Thomas's five attitudes to the Word? (42) Have the inspired apostles and prophets ever said anything contrary to the dictates of natural reason? (44) Did Thomas understand justification by faith? Did he understand total depravity? Is the exitus-reditus motif of any use? (55-57) How do we relate nature and revelation? (59) What do you make of Thomas's five arguments for God? (62) Was Thomas too optimistic? (65-67)

3 Roman Catholic appropriations: from veneration to magisterial affirmation 68-93 Should the accrued venerations of medieval spirituality towards Thomas affect our attitude to him? Is there a Protestant equivalent to Thomas ie someone accepted as the standard representation of Protestantism? How important is the difference between Thomas and Thomism? What is the significance of the legend of the Summa and the Bible? (76) Is Thomas useful to Protestants in proving the incompatibility of Rome and the Reformation? (78) What is wrong with John of St Thomas's approach to Thomas? (80) Why did Thomistic trends from Trent onwards provide the best apologetics for the Roman status quo intellectually and symbolically? (81) What can you learn from Rome's opposition to modernism? (84) What is the significance of Pope Pius XI's 1923 encyclical? (85) “The irony was… neo-Thomism... built a… system that, to fight against the Enlightenment, ended up assimilating the rationalistic outlook of its plausibility structures.” Discuss. (86) What about Thomas's “theological guide” status? (89) Is de Chirico right to note the lack of reference to Protestant theologians in FR? (91) Is the reference to Thomas's Mariolatry significant? (92, 93)

4 Protestant readings of Thomas: circling around evangelical eclecticism 94-124 What are the implications of Schaff's statement? (94) Which approach to Thomas is best – that of Luther (95-100) Calvin (101) Zanchi, Dorsche (102, 103) Bucer, Vermigli (105ff) Melanchthon, etc (109) Turretin and Owen (110ff)?? What about Kuyper's approach? (114) and Bavinck (116ff) and Van Til and Schaeffer (119ff)? How about A Vos and Geisler (121ff)? Can and should evangelicals learn a great deal from Thomas? (123) Was Thomas a Proto-Reformer? (123)

5 Legacy and critical issues… contours... trajectories of Thomas's architectural thought 125-158 Are people naturally open to God? (125ff) Does grace scrap nature or bring it to perfection? (128) How important is it to distinguish common and special grace? (131, 135) How important is what is said about the development of the understanding of nature and grace by Rome? Where does general revelation sit in your theology?Any remarks on what is said about Vatican II? (145-149) Does Christianity need Greek philosophy? Is Bavinck's comment helpful? (150-153) “Updating without changing” – how well does that seem to sum up Romanism? (157)

6 Thomas Aquinas for evangelicals today 159-172 What colour hat for Thomas? (159) Can an evangelical be a Thomist? (160) Thomas on the doctrine of God: Frame or Trueman? (161-164) Can de Chirico's principles be improved, modified, increased? (165-172) Have you been avoiding conversation with Thomas? What is the significance of his having an integrated system? (169) Did you expect more reference to Sproul and apologetics? (171) Are you being mature about this?

A Tidy Faith

While at the Carey Conference I took opportunity to buy the new systematic theology by Jonathan Bayes. I was aware of the book and checked with Jonathan whether he was aware that the word tidy has different connotations in South Wales. He wasn't. So inadvertently he has entitled his book orderly faith and brilliant faith. No problem there. Any systematic theology by a Baptist is a rare treat (Gill, Dagg, Erickson, Grudem is about it). This one is 648 pages long and works to a system where we get exegesis first then a systematic formulation of the doctrine with reference to the 20 or so confessions or catechims he has consulted plus other non-western documents. Thirdly, a bit of history and then, finally, practical application. There are 16 chapters and a bibliography. Jonathan is a regular Baptist in Derbyshire but this work has grown our of his overseas lecturing, chiefly in the far east. I notice it is available from Amazon in hardback, paperback and (very cheaply) kindle format.

Day Off Week 50 2024

A more formal day off this week. I went for a walk on the Heath, which is part of my usual routine these days. I had a coffee at Kenwood House. Two new books arrived - Jonathan Landry Cruse's Sing in exultation! (now going cheap at ICM). This is a devotional for Christmas making use of lines from Christmas hymns. It is nicely done with room to write your own thoughts (which I  have begun doing). It gives no information about the hymns themselves. I also got the 2008 P&R hardback The Incarnation in the Gospels (Reformed Expository Commentary) which turns out to be the relevant comments from the respective commentaries plus a few extras. I am also dipping into A poem for everyday of Christmas an anthology chiefly with children in mind. Good to read poems well known and obscure. Also reading Christmas Carol as I try to every year and Nutcracker which I don't think I've read all the way through before. Plus some John Fawcett for a project I have on. I also watched the Martin Scorsese documentary on The Beatles just out (more elsewhere) and then in the evening we watched the final episodes of Anthony Horowitz's Moonflower Murders. This dramatises the second of three novels he has done in the Agatha Christie style. All very clever. The solution not that good sadly but lots of fun on the way (apart from the over acting of Mark Gatiss). 

Foxe's Book of Martyrs

I started reading this a little while ago and finished it the other day. I am glad to have read it as it is a real classic. The edition I used is in a series of Chritian classics by Hendrickson. The one prolem is that this is an abridgement and I seem unable to find an authentic unabridged version anywhere online. What I have read is as gruesome as people say it is. At one point it seemed as though the persecutors were trying to find evermore crue ways to kill people. One admires the martyrs, although on occassion one wonders if more coud have been done to preserve life. What an issue persecution is. Strangely its existence appears to back up the truth claims of Christianity,

Island Aflame by Tom Lennie

Finished reading this today. It is subtitled: The Famed Lewis Awakening that Never Occurred and the Glorious Revival that Did. I greatly enjoyed it. Written in what I suppose is a journalistic style, Mr Lennie manages to straddle the sceptical but sympathetic line (something I hgenerally aim at myself) as he seeks to explore the revivals in the Hebrides under Duncan Campbell in the late forties and early fifties. You cannot move in the (Reformed evangelical( circles I move in without hearing at some point about Duncan Campbell and the revival in the Hebrides - the two sisters who prayed, the sense of Gpd, the conversions, etc. What this book does, very helpfully, is to try and untangle fact from fiction, truth from exaggeration. It is meticulous and completes the task, I felt, very well, destroying the myth but preserving the core truths of what was undoubtedly a work of God. It means admitting that Duncan Cambell was a pathological liar and that the Free Church made some big mistakes but this sounds much more like what happened than anything else available. Check it out.

Repackaging Christianity by Andrew Atherstone

This is a very thorough write up of the whole Alpha story and its various twists and turns. It is good to have it all written down in black and white. Atherstone tries to be balanced, reporting various criticisms at times and seeking to be candid. It is very useful therefore although it does tend to toe the party line rather insted of being more critical.

A number of things struck me. John Wimber, who died in 1997, had quite an influence on the whole HTB/Alpha world. Atherstone describes a meeting at HTB where Wimber claimed a word of knowledge that revealed that ten people in the room had athletes foot! Nine stood but Nicky Gumbel resisted at first, rather embarrassed. It is an amusing story in some ways yet for HTB's John Collins it was as though for an hour or two they were back in New Testament days seeing the disciples at work. This is utter nonsense. How the devils must be laughing to know this story.

More seriously still, there are claims of miraculous healing in the book. Most of it is the relief of aches and pains and unverifiable. But then there is a claim that someone was healed from blindness! A woman called Jean Smith from Cwmbran (where I am from) was the person supposedly healed in 1997. So I looked this up and saw that Dr Peter May mentions the case in a paper on the subject. He points out that this claimed healing was never validated by an ophthalmologist. And so it is mere hearsay. For Andrew Atherstone to repeat it in this unqualified way is irresponsible.

Another sad thing that is part of the story is the way that although Alpha originally had a good statement on the priesthood of all believers and the fact that sacrificing priests are not needed today. French RC bishops objected, however, when Catholic version so Alpha were made and so Gumbel deleted such statement from his Questions of Life.

It is not difficult to see good in the Alpha story but again and again there are things that are very unhelpful and so it still has to be avoided by right thinking Christians.

To the man called Belmonte I say Yes!

Rare pic found in the book (CHS on his 39th)

I bought this book because of its lovely cover and the fact that Spurgeon's name appears on it. I don't always read books I buy straight away but I am glad I did this one as it is very much a book for reading on holiday and although officially holiday is over for me the memory is still lingering at least until September arrives. I think all the material in the book is available elsewhere but it has been put together well and demonstrates that Spurgeon loved his holidays and was a great believer in reading the book of nature as well as the book of Scripture. Wonderful little hardback. Thank you Mr Belmonte.

Pre-conference days in Aber

We are here in Aberystwyth for the EMW conference. We came up from Cardiff on Friday in order to be at the funeral of Arthur Murray, a godly man who lived most of his life in Aber and was for many years a member in Alfred Place, where the funeral was. My son Rhodri led the meeting and there were tributes from one of Arthur Murray's daughters and Stuart Bell.

On the Lord's Day Rhodri preached twice - from Matthew 5 and Romans 8. A great blessing to be there.

On Monday the church had organised an excellent lecture by Heather Nicholas on Whitefield and his books. (Heather is studying Whitefield at PhD level). This was marking the fiftieth anniversary of the church's bookshop, which began near the station and has been next to the church since 1994. Good sales followed I think. (I bought some volumes myself, including one on Whitefield by James Schwenk, which I'd not seen).

Westminster Conference Papers 2023 Now Available

The published papers for the Westmminster Conference have now been published (through Ettrick Press). The collection includes six papers - Aaron Prelock on Aquinas, Benedict Bird on Matthew Poole, Lewis Allen on Henry Venn, Thomas Brand on The cry of dereliction, Paul Wells on Beza and David CAmpbell on Eric Liddell. Do get hold of it.

Pilgrim's Progress

Just over a year ago I was at the Art of Shepherding Conference in Islington and they were selling copies of the attractive Banner edition of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress at a good price and so I bought a copy. Not much happened for a while but then I adopted the current policy of trying to read through the classics bit by bit and so this morning I finished the second part. I have read this second part at least once before and it is very good though not as good as Part 1 which I have read several times. It is the sort of book worth reading several times in a lifetime. If not every year, every ten years at least. At present I am also reading The Holy War and one or two other things.

Day Off Week 27 2024

I managed to have a traditional day off this week. That is to say I did some reading (a small paperback - a biography of Leslie Land by Ian Shaw and a large hardback - Unruly by David Mitchell). I also went out for a coffee. There was also time to further one or two projects I am working on. I enjoyed the day.

What's So Funny About God? Steve Wilkens

This is the second of my birthday books that I have now read (or almost read in this case). The great things about this book is that it is full of jokes. Some of these I would personally reject as unwholesome but there are not too many of these. Wilkens is a philospher but he attempts a general theology of humour and has some good things to say on the whole. He has read all the other books on this subject, it seems, and footnotes a number of these books. His subject is not humour in the Bible but he does include two interludes on Sarah and Esther and he inevitably touches on the subject. A very interesting read.

Grace Abounding

Over the last few weeks I have been slowly re-reading John Bunyan's classic autobiographical work - Grace abounding to the chief of sinners. I say re-reading as this was one of the first Christian books I read. I got hold of a list of secondhand books from somewhere in Northern Ireland and bought and old hardback copy in blue cloth. (I had read Pilgrim's Progress and would go on soon to read Bunyan's work on prayer - I am currently re-reading the former too). Bunyan was an obsessive who had certain peculiarities. However, God's grace to him is not in doubt and his story does make for interesting and salient reading. The Banner edition is done beautifully (as is their PP; they should do The Holy War in similar style).

Haykin on Revival

Despite being cobbled together to some extent, as it uses material from elsewhere to tell its story, this is an excellent introduction or refresher course on the subject of revival and on 18th century church history more generally. It ends with eight theses regarding revival. it is well written, cogent and includes some important material that can be found elsewhere but not in such a succonct and well crafted form. This is a great resource.