As I reviewed the books I’ve read in 2025, I realised just how many I’ve read. In my year in books, I’ve included my top books in five pairs that fit together. God’s been kind in giving me access to much that has stimulated my mind, my heart, and given me some joy.
Two Academic Biblical Studies Books: Bridging the Testaments & Modern Genre Theory
My year in books began with a couple of books that were written by people I met at Moore College — Andy Judd was a classmate while George Athas taught me Hebrew and Old Testament. Both their books offered excellent insight into how we interpret the scriptures. Moreover, I was delighted to see that George dedicated his book to me (though I should probably add that it was dedicated to all his students and not me in particular).
Modern Genre Theory (Andy Judd)
Judd’s book offers insights into how different genres communicate and should be interpreted. I’ve already written a longer review, so I will just say here that I think the book is a great help to anyone looking to read the Bible deeply and explain their reasoning in doing so.
Bridging the Testaments: The History and Theology of God’s People in the Second Temple Period (George Athas)
Athas’ book offers insights into the historical context of the post-exilic history of the people of Israel. This obviously should deeply inform how we might read the latter prophets of the Old Testament as well as theological and political situations we meet in the New.
Into what contexts were some of the prophet’s oracles speaking both personally and in their final canonical form? How did the Sadducees come to dominate in the temple? How were the Pharisees so influential throughout wider Judea and Galilee? What exactly were the messianic, temple, and Kingdom-of-God hopes of the Jewish people at the BC/AD turn?
Athas’ work offers a long and complex story and while there are moments where I’m not sure how confident we can be of the reconstruction Bridging the Testaments offers (either space here nor my expertise would warrant a critical review), overall, I think Athas provides many insights. He helps us understand why the latter prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Apostles spoke the way they did, with the imagery they chose and called for the kinds of social and personal reforms they did.
Two Detective Novels: The Hall Marked Man, The Impossible Fortune
The latest offerings in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club and Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike series are page turning entertainers. Both offer more than excellent detective puzzles. Under the surface they are, in my view, books about complex friendships.
The Thursday Murder Club: The Impossible Fortune (Richard Osman)
Osman’s cast of (very!) active retirees reminds me of my former congregation in Dongara. A group of friends who’ve lived rich lives, are happy to critique and joke about each other. But they show up with a deep respect and mutual admiration for each other. It would be a joy to find such a group when I’m in my 70s and I know the church offers us this kind of family in this life.
The Hall Marked Man (Robert Galbraith)
Galbraith’s sub-plot of the friendship between the two main protagonists is a genuine frustration to the reader which makes the book all the more enjoyable. Strike is about a pair of best friends who from time-to-time hold back in speaking out of fear of losing their friendship. The lack of risk and vulnerability inevitably becomes the cause of heartache they could have been spared if they had simply trusted the other enough to say what they really thought. I suspect we’ve all lived this kind of relationship somewhere along the line so it’s nice to learn from fictional characters about what not to do.
Two Self-Help Kind of Books: How to Know a Person & Permission to Feel
How to Know a Person (David Brooks)
My wife recommended David Brooks How to Know a Person. I found it both convicting and encouraging as it delved into the selfishness we often exhibit in conversations. It reminded me how often I fail to listen and how even when I do listen, I’m using my listening to judge. At the same time Brooks offered rich ways to progress conversations, ask great questions and overall, left me encouraged rather than deflated when it comes to knowing others well.
Permission to Feel (Marc Brackett)
Permission to Feel was recommended on a staff conference I attended. Brackett’s goal is to put many psychologists out of work by providing people with better psychological language and resilience. This is a lofty goal. We’re in the grip of a mental health crises, aren’t we? Yet I think he’s on to something. Often the reason for counselling is simply a desire to understand what we’re feeling and find someone who will listen and help us process. He names five skills to build emotional intelligence: Recognising, Understanding, Labelling, Expressing, and Regulating. Brackett’s own personal story, woven into the book, is a powerful example of how people can overcome incredibly traumatic experience.
Two Economics-ish Books: Revenge of the Tipping Point & Freakonomics
Revenge of the Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
Malcolm Gladwell’s Revenge of the Tipping Point was a fascinating thirty-year follow up to Tipping Point (which I have not read). He traces through several examples of tipping point mechanisms: lack of genetic diversity, TV-shows, and super-spreaders (to name just three). He shows, for example, how the USA went from passing laws protecting traditional views of marriage to laws specifically allowing for gay marriage within just a few years (arguing that the TV show Will and Grace was probably far more influential than lobbying). In the end, he shows how a range of tipping-points came together to create the US opioid epidemic which kills tens of thousands of people each year.
Freakonomics (Stephen D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner)
I read Freakonomics as a longtime listener to the podcast of the same name. Like the podcast itself, the book is interesting and offers hunches alongside facts and figures in a way that, while interesting, I’m not sure always captures the full story. For example, I’m not entirely convinced that the crime rate in the USA dropped because of the introduction of legalised abortion in the 1970s, especially since I’ve seen the same crime drop data linked to the reduction in exposure to lead. Nevertheless, for a book that is now twenty years old, there were some stories I found fascinating and would never have considered otherwise: how and why sumo wrestlers might cheat, for example.
Both books have been encouragements to read data carefully and creatively to find insights that we might otherwise ignore because of our intuitional or traditional assumptions.
Two Devotional Books: J-Curve & Hope in Times of Fear
The final pair of books are much more devotional. I found both quite useful for some self-reflection and growth in discipleship.
J-Curve: Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life (Paul E Miller)
Paul E Miller’s book encourages Christians to be willing to align with the pattern of Jesus: dying to self, making sacrifices and enduring suffering in order to experience with Jesus the resurrection power he offers by his spirit. Miller’s willingness to include his own shortcomings and story of growth is an encouragement that even when we’re aware of the need for transformation and conformation to Christ as well as the means to step into it, we often fail to appropriate it. I found it a little bit “American” in moments, a quality that I’m not entirely sure I can define, but if Aussie readers will look past that I’m sure they’ll find some help and encouragement to have Christ grow more within them. This is a helpful book in considering what it looks like to take up our cross and follow him. We join him, as much as we can, in his death so that we can join him in his resurrection.
Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter (Tim Keller)
Tim Keller’s book on the resurrection explores what Christians believe about the resurrection and what difference it makes both personally and politically. Written while he was battling pancreatic cancer, enduring the covid pandemic, and witnessing the Black Lives Matter protests, Keller’s book is set in the midst of genuine personal hardship and social unrest. In light of his personal context, I’m a little bit reticent to say that I found there were moments where Keller was perhaps a little over dependent on “feeling” Christ’s presence rather than on the very solid ground of the facts of the gospel. No doubt a sense of Christ’s presence is powerful in such moments. That said, his defence of the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the promise of the resurrection age is worth the price of the book alone. The resurrection really has (and will!) change everything, so thinking through all these matters is an important pastime for any disciple of Jesus.
As I said at the beginning, I’m thankful for lots of great books to read in 2025 and I’m looking forward to what I might come across in 2026!
