Personal Reflections: A Dozen Interesting Reads (Listens) in 2025

“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)