Theological Book Recommendations - I

I recently wrote several book suggestions for economics. I would like to write a few recommendations on religious/theological works as well. This list is by no means complete – even of the books that I would recommend. Also, as with all subjects, there are countless books published on the topic, and I have not read even one one-hundredth of one percent, so there are probably innumerable books out there that others could recommend to me. Therefore, these are simply recommendations – not an attempt to be an end-all discussion about which books one must read.

I would like to start off discussing my favorite theological authors and list several books by each with brief discussions of each. I really enjoy each of these writers a great deal, and the order they appear below is simply the order they came to my mind, not necessarily an order of favorites. In this post, I will start with one of my favorite authors.

Peter Leithart

I would recommend to anyone anywhere to read anything they can get their hands on by Dr. Leithart. He is simply one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. I have fallen far behind on reading his books, because he seems to write books faster than I can read them. I will list and discuss several here.

Before discussing, though, I would like to make a caveat. Most of the writers I am going to be discussing come from the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition. That may seem at first to pigeonhole my exposure to one small section of the total Christian Tradition. And certainly Leithart and many of the others are firmly planted in the Presbyterian/Reformed Tradition. However, certainly with Leithart (as well as Jordan, our next author) you really get the best of all worlds. These guys are extremely well read across the vast array of the Christian tradition. They constantly quote or reference scholars/authors/thinkers/pastors from all sorts of various Christian denominational affiliations. Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and others are referenced extensively – or if not, their influence can be seen in their writings. Therefore, you get a truly Catholic (in the good sense of the word) reflection on things theological along with the doctrinal boundaries of the broader Reformed world. This makes it far more interesting, readable, and informative than someone stuck only within the reformed world, while at the same time not losing the moorings that reformed doctrinal boundaries give you.

That said, allow me to discuss Leithart’s work.

The Kingdom and the Power

I think this was his first major book length publication. I have seen evidence on Amazon of earlier books or collaborations, but I believe these are minor compared to this. This is absolutely one of my favorite books. Very readable, very thought provoking. It is scholarly (filled with endnotes referencing a variety of sources) yet accessible, in my opinion, to the average, or even slightly below average reader. This is my favorite level of book to read. Most popular level stuff is just so much fluff, not really saying anything. On the other end of the spectrum is scholarly work that makes my eyes gloss over while I try to read it. This book (as with most of Leitharts work) is incredibly deep while still being readable.

The topic of this book is pretty much given in its subtitle Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church. Leithart discusses the Christians role in the current "cultural wars." Written in the early 1990s some of the issues and people mentioned may seem a tad dated now, fifteen years later, but this is not even distracting. Leithart’s argument is not that Christians should be politically active in some certain way, or not active, or anything of the like. (He discusses early some of his own activism and/or lack thereof in the anti-abortion movements) His point is that actually the most political thing the church can do is to be the church. The church is most politically active when her people are gathering on a regular basis and corporately worshipping the One True and Living God, praying, singing, confessing, loving one another, communing. This is where the Kingdom is manifest. This is how societies will change primarily. Any political or social activism by Christians individually or collectively needs to flow out of a culture of coroporate worship.

A House for My Name

Subtitled A Survey of the Old Testament. This book is exactly what that subtitle says – well almost. It is not really a full survey of the entirety of the Old Testament Writings (Torah, historical books, wisdom literature, Psalms, Prophets). Instead it is really a survey of Old Testament History – basically outlining the major themes from Genesis through the intertestamental period. Like any good OT discussion should do, he finishes with the wonder of the Gospel and how it fits into, and completes, the story. The Old and New Testaments are not two separate entities, but are indeed one story that the OT starts, and the NT completes.
This book does not simply reiterate the stories told in the OT, but discusses the typology of the OT. This very brief review can not begin to touch on what this means – you’ll just have to buy the book! However, this is one of those handfuls of books that I absolutely recommend to everyone. You can gain so much from learning that the OT is not simply a collection of stories designed to be example to us. What does the creation story mean? What was the Garden? What does the flood and Ark of Noah signify? How does the Ark relate back to creation? How does it relate to Eden? Why is the basket of Moses referred to as an Ark? Why are there multiple stories that repeat similar themes? Barren women conceiving? Women killing bad guys (usually with a head injury)? What are literary panel structures? What are chiastic structures? How does worship and covenant renewal fit into the OT? How does it flow into the NT? I could go on and on. Great, great book. Again, deep and scholarly, yet readable and accessible to even a simpleton like me!

Blessed are the Hungry

Subtitled Meditations on the Lord’s Supper. Another great book. Unfortunately, in most protestant churches the Lord’s Supper is just not a noticeable part of the culture. Oh maybe once per quarter, or if you are lucky, once per month (I went to one Baptist Church for about 3 ½ years and celebrated communion, I think, twice!) you get to chew on a bland cracker and have a sip of, ugh, grape juice. However, Leithart considers the Supper to be the "world in miniature; it has cosmic significance. Within it we find clues to the meaning of all creation and all history, to the nature of God and the nature of man, to the mystery of the world, which is Christ. It is not confined to the first day, for its power fills seven. Though the table stands at the center, its effects stretch out to the four corners of the earth."

That’s heavy stuff. Leithart then goes on to 28 Old and New Testament Passages concerning the importance of the communion meal. He relates areas you would have never thought of back to the Supper. Some are easy – think of the feeding the five thousand. Jesus took the food in his hand, gave thanks, and distributed it, thereby feeding thousands. He follows the same procedure in the Last Supper. Some of the OT passages may seem to be a stretch, until you start to realize how common such things are, and that really all of scripture is ultimately about Christ communing with His Church. All of a sudden, another key to understanding Scripture is opened up. This with the previous book will certainly bring you a long way to better scriptural wisdom.

This book closes with the only long essay in the whole thing (Most of them are less than 5-6 pages.) The long essay looks at the Lord’s Supper in Christian history, suggesting that most of the controversy has focused on the wrong thing. The question is not what happens or does not happen to the communion elements. The question is what happens to the communion participants. Good Stuff!

Against Christianity

Yes, the title may sound shocking. I think it was intentionally provocative on the author’s part. As should be obvious, Dr. Leithart is not against the faith, Our Lord, Scripture, Christian living, etc. However, he is against what many people seem to posit as the faith. That is, namely, that we can reduce all of scripture to some list of propositions and call this list of propositions "Christianity." Then of course, anyone who assents to these propositions is a "Christian". This is a major truncation, in fact a misrepresentation, of what the faith actually is. The faith is really a whole new way of being human. It is not something we assent to and maybe participate in on Sunday Morning, then leave at the altar. It is something to be lived. We are followers of Christ morning, noon, and night, seven days a week. Our whole life is not simply colored by our Christian beliefs (assents to propositions) but in fact our very nature and existence is dead and resurrected into newness. The depth of this relatively short book is simply mind boggling. The writing is among Leithart’s best, though at times least accessible. I did notice that when I re-read the book a second time, I got a whole lot more out of it. This is also among Dr. Leithart’s most controversial works. Particularly since a large portion of the Presbyterian/Reformed world actually does believe that "Christianity" is simply an "assent to certain propositions."

A Son to Me

This book is an exposition on the books of I and II Samuel. Many typological themes are picked up on and hammered home. Think of this as A House for My Name expanded to greater detail – honed in on a particular book of the Bible. It’s been a while since I read this, so it is hard to comment. However, as the title suggests, the theme of ‘sonship’ runs throughout the book(s) of Samuel. Samuel became a ‘son’ first to Hannah, of course, but also then to Eli. David became a ‘son’ to Samuel. Hmmm, the Father and the Son. Any Christian implications in this book of the Old Testament?

From Silence to Song

Subtitled The Davidic Liturgical Revolution. This book picks up on the fact that early in the history of the nation of Israel (Leviticus in particular) there was no music involved in worship. With the kingship of David, this changed. (I’m sure you all noticed that when studying the OT , didn’t you??? Me neither!!!) David instituted Levitical Choirs, and instrumentalists. ‘Song’ is really glorified speech and prayer. This represents a major step forward in redemptive history. Dr. Leithart draws out many important implications of this for Christian life, worship, and finally for eschatology. Pretty short book, yet fairly deep reading.

Others

I have read at one time or another all of the books above, but Dr. Leithart has written many more which I will briefly mention here. Yes, they are all on my reading list!

The Brazos Commentary on I and II Kings

( I am not sure if this is the exact title) The publishing company Brazos is working on a series of Biblical commentaries by various heavyweight theologians. Dr. Leithart seems to have great interest in Old Testament Studies, particularly the periods covered by Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. He has done extensive studies in these areas. I have heard great reviews about this book. I would think it would stand alongside A Son to Me, (Samuel) and From Silence to Song (which is largely from Chronicles) along with the relevant sections of A House for My Name to give the unseasoned a great overall view of this period of Biblical history.

Other books that I have not yet read, but certainly intend to at some point include The Promise of His Appearing. This is a commentary on the NT book of II Peter. Solomon Among the Postmoderns; The Baptized Body; Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, and Hope in Western Literature. In addition to this, he has written other literary works including Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide to Six Shakespear Plays. Miniature in Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austin. Writer of Fancy; The Playful Piety of Jane Austin. Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature. And finally Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy. As you can see, the man has a widespread knowledge of theology, history, and literature.

One other work worth mentioning is The Priesthood of the Plebs which was actually Leithart's doctoral thesis at Cambridge University in England concerning baptism. All of these works are available all over the web, although some are getting hard to find and sometimes expensive. And really, there are other books and untold articles and essays by Dr. Leithart. Several essay collection books (The Federal Vision, The Case for Covenant Communion and several others) have essays by Dr. Leithart. Hopefully I have wet your appetite and you may start checking some of these out.

I have actually had the great privilege of meeting Dr. Leithart on several occasions, even attending a small gathering for dinner a couple of times. For someone obviously in the upper echelon (did I even spell that correctly?) of intellectualism, he is as down to earth and pleasant to be around as one could imagine – even autographing several of my books. Great Guy. Great Books. I have heard him teach and preach – several times on the Samuel and Kings sections that he was working through while working on his books – What a treat! In fact, he will be here in town at our church in July '08. Check out our web page to the right if you want to find out about it.

If I had to recommend only one Leithart book (that would be very difficult) I think it would be A House for My Name. I think every Christian needs to read this book. It will help so much in your biblical studies and understand. And isn't understanding God's Word one of our highest callings as Christians?

Whenever I get around to posting again, I will write about James B. Jordan who has actually been something of a mentor for Dr. Leithart. Again great stuff!