“Bring… the books” (2 Timothy 4:13). I think this was the
first year the number of books I listened to outstripped the number I read. Here
are a dozen or so highlights of 2025 (in no particular order):
First: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching & Preachers
(Hodder and Stoughton, 1971).
I re-read this classic on evangelical preaching in 2025 and x-posted
many of the aphoristic quotations.
Second: David N. Samuel, Pope or Gospel? The Crisis of
Faith in the Protestant Churches (Marshalls, 1982).
This year I discovered the writings of the founding presiding
bishop of the Church of England (Continuing). Excellent defense of traditional
Protestant Christianity and critique of compromise in the contemporary Church
of England (and Protestant liberalism in general). I also read his book The
Church in Crisis and have started a couple of others.
Third: Paul Kingsnorth, Against the Machine: On the Unmasking
of Humanity (Thesis, 2025).
Compelling critique of dehumanizing tendencies in the digital
age, written by a formerly disillusioned British humanist who searched for
meaning in Wicca and Buddhism, before turning to Christianity (EOC). This book
will make you want to throw away your cell phone (or put it in a box and only
take it out sparingly).
Fourth: Brent Nongbri, God’s Library: Archaeology of the
Earliest Christian Manuscripts (Yale, 2018).
A bona fide expert in evaluating manuscripts of antiquity surveys
the earliest extant writings of Christianity and points out the scholarly challenges
(and even fraudulent misrepresentations) of these documents in various areas,
including the reliable dating of them. Lots of quotes from this will likely appear
in my writing/speaking in 2026.
Fifth: Inger N. I. Kuin, Diogenes: The Rebellious Life and
Revolutionary Philosophy of the Original Cynic (Basic Books, 2025).
An unexpected find. Stimulating survey, reconstruction, and
reflection on the life and teaching of the Cynic philosopher Diogenes, the man
who lived in a jar and told Alexander the Great not to block his sun-bathing,
by a UVA classics professor.
Sixth: Joel R. Beeke, Revelation (Reformation Heritage
Books, 2016).
I did a one sermon per chapter bird’s eye view Lord’s Day
afternoon preaching series through Revelation in the last half of 2025 and found
Beeke’s commentary, based on his own expositional preaching through the book, a
help.
Seventh: Gary Taubes, The Case Against Sugar (Anchor,
2017).
As I’m getting older and wanting to stay healthy and strong
as long as I can, I’ve been reading a bit more on health and aging. This book
will make you rethink any use of sugar in your diet.
Eighth: Caleb Morell, A Light on the Hill: The Surprising
Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism
(Crossway, 2025).
This is a “biography” of Capital Hill Baptist Church in
Washington, DC. I have my own critique of the “Nine Marks” church movement, but
I enjoyed learning about the life and history of this congregation.
Ninth: Kingsley Amis, The Alteration (Carroll &
Graf, 1976).
What would the British Isles, North America, and the rest of
the world be like if the Protestant Reformation had never take place? This
sci-fi alternative-history fiction offers one fascinating vision. This led me
to another vision of this scenario in Keith Roberts’ collection of intertwined short
stories Pavane (1968) and to Philip K. Dick’s alternative-history vision
of post WW2 in The Man in the High Castle (1962).
Tenth: Philip H. Eveson, Baptised with Heavenly Power: The
Holy Spirit in the Teaching and Experience of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
(Mentor, 2025).
I got the book having read some excerpts online from the
appendix sharing a portion of Lloyd-Jones’ personal journal on his own spiritual
struggles. I did not skip to the end, however, when I got the book, and
profited from reading it all the way through. Great insights into “the Doctor’s”
theology of the Holy Spirit, Spirit baptism, revivals, and preaching.
Eleventh: (The Venerable) Bede, The Ecclesiastical History
of the English People (Latin original c. 731; A. M. Sellar English
translation, 1907; listened on Libri Vox).
Classic account of the arrival and spread of Christianity in England
from the Romans to the Anglo-Saxon periods.
Twelfth: Howard Markel, The Battling Brothers of Battle
Creek (Vintage, 2018).
Listened to this history about the rivalry between John Harvey
and W. K. Kellog after visiting Battle Creek, Michigan last August and touring
the Seventh Day Baptist Church, the Seventh Day Adventist Tabernacle, the
remains of the Battle Creek Sanitorium (now the local federal building), and Oak
Hill Cemetery. Spellbinding historical account of everything from Adventist fervor
in the nineteenth century, frontier expansion in America, developing views of modern
health and medicine, and the genesis of the cutthroat “cereal” industry.
Reads (Listens) from 2024.
-Tolle Lege
(et Audi)
