Spring Reading

Most of us aspire to read more. We desire to be better informed or deeper thinkers, but life often gets in the way. Time slips by.

With the limited time we have, we ought to use it wisely. We can’t afford to waste it on poorly written or misinformed books. So, I’ve shared some of my favourite Christian books, all worth your attention.

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The Secret Place of Thunder by John Starke. I need to reread this book. I devoured it over the summer and found it nourishing to my soul. In it, Starke shows us the beauty of an obscure life in a world of posturing and performing.

There’s a part of many of us that longs for notoriety, but Christ advocates something better and altogether different. He commands that our giving, prayer and fasting be done in secret, removed from the gaze of others. As Starke describes, there’s great freedom when we embrace this hidden life poured out for God alone.

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The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Classics are classics for a reason, so I discovered. I read this only a few months ago after having had it on my reading list for years. This book is profound, imaginative and, most surprisingly, incredibly witty. It made me reflect but also smirk. It is both deep and light-hearted. It was a joy to read, perhaps also helped by the short chapter lengths.

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Remaking the World by Andrew Wilson. The West is weird. Very weird. The norms we embody would be unrecognisable to those living centuries before us - and so too for much of the non-western world today. We are an anomaly. But why? How did we get here as a society?

Wilson tackles this complex question with much-needed clarity. He glides between philosophy, geography, sociology, and science as he helps us locate our place in world history. Useful reading for anyone wanting to critically and thoughtfully engage with secularism.

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The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun. I read this relatively soon after surrendering my life to Jesus and found it captivating. I couldn’t put it down. Since then, I’ve reread it several times, and it never fails to grab you by the collar and shake you awake from spiritual slumber.

Brother Yun tells his personal story of coming to faith in communist China as a teenager before becoming a church leader and facing the fiery trials of professing biblical Christianity in a hostile state. Shocking, inspiring, and raw, this read is not for the faint-hearted.

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Surprised by Jesus by Dane Ortland. You probably know Dane Ortlund from his book Gentle and Lowly. It’s a great read. In my opinion, Surprised by Jesus is equally good. Ortland takes us on a flyover tour of the four gospels, drawing out the overarching message and design of each. It may sound academic, but it’s incredibly accessible and written to continually surprise you with the undeserved grace of God towards sinners.

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My favourite reads of this past year

I think every Christian should try and read (or listen to) good books that stretch you and cause you to grow. We’re living at a time when thinking has become more shallow; when we’re more likely to snack on short videos and hot takes rather than sit and think with furrowed brow, chewing on a pencil. One thing you can do to stand apart from the lemming-like madness of the modern age is simply read more, and read more deeply. It’s a proven method of growing more wise.

That said, not all books are equal. Some of them are actually worthless. I’ve learned to pay much closer attention to the recommendations of other people. 

In that spirit, I thought I’d share my five favourite books from my reading over the past year.

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The Genesis of Gender by Abigail Favale. Apart from anything else, this is a wonderfully well written book. Favale is a professor at the University of Notre Dame and a very gifted writer. She has been on a journey, having been immersed in feminist and gender studies literature, and then in her adult life converting to Christianity as a Catholic some years ago. This gives her a unique and provocative perspective on the question of what it means to be a woman. I don’t agree with everything in this book, but I loved it nonetheless.
 

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The Thrill of Orthodoxy by Trevin Wax. It’s very sad to hear of so many people ‘deconstructing’ their faith these days in a reaction against whatever forms of Christianity they’ve experienced. If they don’t abandon faith altogether, they usually end up with some kind of altered and adapted version of Christianity: pared down, stripped back, pruned of all the awkward, thorny and difficult parts, but actually no longer orthodox and no longer Christianity at all. In this brilliant book, Wax makes a case for ancient orthodoxy in all of its complexity and wonder.

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Humility by Gavin Ortlund. We’re living in the age of narcissism, when life is a performance and social media is the stage. The more you think about this, the more nauseating it becomes. But the gospel calls us to joyful self-forgetfulness. It’s a kind of freedom that only comes through humility. And I believe that humility is at the heart of our faith, not only because Jesus is the humble servant, but also because nobody can call themselves a Christ-follower unless they have humbly acknowledged their utter bankruptcy and inadequacy and need for him. This small book on humility is punchy and provocative. I loved it.

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Confessions by Augustine of Hippo. It’s a little embarrassing that it has taken me until this year to finally read this classic. I was persuaded to have (another) crack at it after reading John Piper’s short biography of Augustine. Confessions is a truly unique book written by one of the most influential theologians of all time. Growing up in the North African part of the Roman Empire in the 300–400s AD, Augustine was captured by certain philosophies and religious beliefs, and was a slave to lust. He was interested in Christianity, but he didn’t want to give up sex outside marriage. His believing mother, Monica, was a woman of prayer who had prophetic dreams confirming that her son would come to know Jesus. Augustine finally buckled and acknowledged Jesus as Lord, and history was altered by the impact he would have. This book is written to God as a confession or prayer in which Augustine mingles together his story with some philosophy in a strange way. There were moments when I gasped, and moments when I scratched my head in confusion.

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The Death of Porn by Ray Ortlund. It is no secret that pornography is one of the most destructive forces we face today, and that young men especially are too often the casualties as they get bound up in chains of shame and lust. I sometimes wonder how different the Church of Jesus would look today if porn were not so easily available. In this brilliant book, Ortlund senior (father to Gavin of Humility and Dane of Gentle & Lowly) writes a series of letters to young men. It’s a heartfelt plea to get serious in dealing with this issue personally, and then joining the cause of justice by seeking to eradicate porn altogether. It’s a life-giving, hopeful and encouraging read. But perhaps not one to give as a Christmas gift.

Summer Reading For The Soul

As the weather slowly warms up these next few months, many of us might be booking trips and taking time off. As you are reading this email, I’m packing my own bags en route to California for a few weeks of sunshine, pool time and In ‘N Out burgers.

But just because we may be resting up over the summer months, it does not mean that we can’t keep growing in our faith and our understanding of and love for God.

One way to do this? A bit of reading for our soul. Maybe now’s not the time to slog through Carl Trueman’s 432-page The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self or John Piper’s 750-page thumper Providence (though if you do decide to, good for you! Let me know how it was!), but there are plenty of great new and classic options to flip through as you sit by the beach or wait in a crowded train station.

The book I can’t seem to stop recommending to others lately is The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry. Deeply-researched, this is a mince-no-words cautionary tale on how the sexual revolution may have brought more harm to women and men than help. Though the author isn’t a believer, her case is a strong one. You may have also already picked up Rosaria Butterfield’s The Gospel Comes with a House Key and encountered the author’s radical ways of showing hospitality to her neighbours and strangers but maybe you can also check out her first book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert? Her coming-to-faith story was just as radical as her hospitality skills and it’s elegantly-written, hopeful and encouraging on the transformative power of God. 

Then for those who are in the mood for a bit of fiction, why not give the classic Gilead by Marilynne Robinson a whirl? This novel, often seen as a literal reinterpretation of the parable of the Prodigal Son, is a beautifully-written and moving tale about an ageing minister’s recount and musing of his life.

I’ve also asked a few other life group leaders at church for their summer reading recommendations. The recs were practical, pastoral and evangelical and C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters seems to be having an “it” moment (it was recommended by four of our lifegroup leaders!)

Hope you spot some that you’ll be able to take with you to a nearby coffee shop or a far-flung tropical island this summer! Happy reading!

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Book Recommendations from 
Grace London Life Group Leaders

Cezar Rugasira:

Strangely Bright? Can you love God and enjoy this world? by Joe Rigney 
This book calls us to enjoy God's creation for His sake and to the glory of His grace towards us. It explains - in simple terms - how we as Christians can truly love God and enjoy this world that He has made.

Praying with Paul by D.A. Carson
Carson looks at the prayers of Paul in the Bible and shows how we can grow our Spiritual discipline of prayer and reap the spiritual fruit promised to us as we commune daily with our God. 

Hugh Van Nierkerk:

Living Life Backwards by David Gibson
I basically read this book once every two years to help remind me of what matters most & centre my life around those things.

Generous Justice by Tim Keller
One of the most helpful challenges to the practical outworking of my faith - a reminder of our call to care for the outsider (grounded in God's grace towards us).

Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
A science fiction book is probably not a typical suggestion for this list, but I found it helpful in using a different lens to think through and remind me of God's beauty.

Megan Howe:

Art & Faith: A Theology of Making by Makoto Fujimura
A completely different way of looking at faith and art. Fujimura parallels faith with the way God works through us with Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending it with gold.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero
Who you are is more important than what you do and you can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature - those are just two of the big ideas from this book. Very transformative for me personally and a book I often read again and again with other women in the church.

Liturgy of the Ordinary by Trish Harrison Warren
So much of faith is all about the mundane. Warren shows how she works out her faith in the small everyday acts of making lunch, looking for your keys or driving to work.

Daniel Ogbanna:

The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges
Every Christian has a desire to obey the call to be holy as God is holy. This book pulls together wisdom and practical insights from scripture and Bible teachers across Church history to encourage and enlighten us on how to do that. Concise, super readable and relatable. 

Evangelism as Exiles by Elliott Clark
Gone are the days of Christianity being the dominant worldview in the West so we must adapt how we think about evangelism to reflect the new reality. The author draws on teachings from the book of 1 Peter and his experience as a Western evangelist in a Central Asian “closed” country to help us rethink how we reach the people around us with the gospel.