Part of the series “My Year In…”
I am deeply grateful for the people who gave their time to write books reviews for The Gospel Coalition Australia to equip Christians in Australia and beyond. They also graciously took on my edits and comments. You’ll see some of their Year in Books throughout this series. For now, I’ve divided My Year in Books into three categories: 1) Culture and Politics, 2) Evangelism and Apologetics, and 3) Ecclesiology and Liturgy.
1) Culture and Politics
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (Jonathan Haidt)
Haidt explains in detail the societal and familial harms of social media and the smartphone, especially for young people. The Anxious Generation is not for the faint of heart, but even the faint of heart should steel themselves for what I think is a necessary read. Highly recommended for any parent, teacher, or minister to young people. There is much to learn from Haidt’s practical tips for managing smartphones as a community.
Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture (Christopher Watkin)
Biblical Critical Theory critiques the dominant philosophies and philosophers of the contemporary West with the God’s story in the Scriptures. Watkin shows how the Bible offers a better story than Marx, Foucault, or Ancient-Near-East despots. For example, the message of Exodus as ‘freedom for service’ stands opposed to the cultural message of freedom for my own purposes. This is a longer volume which will arm readers with strong biblical critiques of many dominant cultural messages.
Made in Our Image: God, Artificial Intelligence and You (Stephen Driscoll)
‘AI will kill us all’ is not the message of Stephen Driscoll’s Made in Our Image. For that message watch 2004’s iRobot. Driscoll cuts through the fear and gives a biblical theology of what it means to be human. But why? So that we are rooted in the story God tells about humanity, that we are image-bearers who God created to rule creation under him. That’s a calling AI can’t usurp.
Barefoot Disciple: Five Money Habits For Modern Disciples (Yoel Frank)
Frank is a former accountant, so I guess that means he knows how to count money. As a Christian former accountant he is writing to give you tips for counting your money as you live for Jesus. Frank’s mantra is ‘live on min’. His target audience is people coming out of uni. He gives them a biblical framework for thinking about money—giving, saving, and spending. Listen to the audiobook for the dulcet tones of Perth’s own Ed Surrey. The book stands out for its many practical tips and biblical grounding.
Unshaken Allegiance: Living Wisely as Christians with Diminishing Religious Freedoms (Patrick Parkinson)
Parkinson helps us wade through the unsettling legal changes wrought on us in post-secular Australia. Discombobulating is probably the right way to describe the Christian experience, especially within the last decade. Parkinson encourages his readers to hold fast to Jesus above all else. There are helpful tips in chapter nine for living with discernment as we navigate new laws while staying faithful to Jesus, no matter the cost.
Australia: A History (Tony Abbott)
Abbott is trying to achieve two objectives with his history of Australia: 1) provide a robust national history which some believe most Australians do not have, and 2) present this history without bias. There is a level of detail here that is missed in the primary school curriculum and is absent from the year 12 curriculum given that covers the post-war period. Abbott sees Australia as a primarily liberal (small ‘l’) project. There is truth to that frame. Contemporary Australia was born when liberalism was ascending. Individuals form the cornerstone of his history. The only references to Christianity in Australia are brief. The Bible in Australia or Post-God Nation are the books to read for a history of Christianity in the great south land.
2) Evangelism and Apologetics
The Gospel After Christendom: An Introduction to Cultural Apologetics (Eds. Collin Hansen, Skylar Flowers, Ivan Mesa)
Once you get past the broadly American cultural outlook (which I think is noticeably to Australia and probably the UK), The Gospel After Christendom is a thought-provoking volume that will add necessary tools for evangelism and preaching to every pastor’s toolbox. Expert authors such as Christopher Watkin, Rebecca McLaughlin, and Sam Chan make helpful contributions. Hansen wants pastors and ministry workers to be ‘cultural climatologists’ who pay attention to cultural messages and proclivities so that they can speak the gospel to the lives of people more incisively.
How to See Life: A Guide in 321 (Glen Scrivener)
The Scriv has a novel beginning for his evangelistic book: the Trinity. That’s not the first place I would have gone. But introducing people to the Father who loves the Son in the joy of the Spirit becomes the launching pad for Glen Scrivner to explain the creation of the world, our place in it, and the love of the Father through the Son who came for our redemption. Something to give to a friend who doesn’t want to read a gospel with you quite yet.
How to Speak Life: Sharing Your Faith in 321 (Glen Scrivener)
How to Speak Life is the book to give all the participants in your evangelism training course for homework. Scrivener gives Christians eight helpful phrases they can use to bring Jesus up in regular conversation. I thoroughly recommend this book.
The Missing Peace: How Christmas Brings the Calm We Crave (Sam Chan)
Give this sixty-four-page book to the visitors who come to your church this Christmas. While there is no engagement with the challenges that come with the Christian life, the promise of real and lasting peace in Jesus is extolled with Chan’s characteristic craft and skill. This book will especially suit those with zero knowledge of Christianity.
Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm (Jeremy Clarkson)
If you think Clarkson is unusual I’d agree, but he’s funny. The book is written with the same hilarity and sarcasm as the Amazon Prime show. If you’re a superfan, you’ll listen to the audiobook for your banal drives home from work. There is a big Christian lesson in this book: the ease with which Clarkson references biblical themes and stories in everyday conversation better than most Christians do. Clarkson does it mostly to mock, but once adjusted with godly intentions, talking about Christianity in everyday conversation is something we can all learn from Britain’s latest celebrity publican.
3) Ecclesiology and Liturgy
The Heritage of Anglican Theology (J. I. Packer)
Packer provides a romantic vision of Anglicanism. Five years after my first read-through, I was heartened by the unique historical contributions of Reformation Anglicanism and how that model has much to offer the church today. Packer does not deeply engage with other traditions that have remained within the Anglican Communion, hence my description of this book as romantic. Cranmer’s national reform project remains very much unfinished. This is the book to read if you want to sharpen your Anglican bona fides or you are considering Anglican ministry.
You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (James K. A. Smith)
Smith will sell you on the necessity of thoughtful and historic liturgy. Liturgy will achieve what you want for your people: story them into the gospel against the sweeping tides of the secular story. However liturgy is not the only nor necessarily the primary answer to discipleship ills. Once one knows how to swim, the water is good. But even then, warnings are needed. Liturgy is learning to swim, but there are rips—significant life moments for which liturgy won’t be sufficient.
