Christian Ministry – recommended texts

Grace Baptist Church (Cape Coral, Florida), pastored by Tom Ascol, lists on its website the following list of recommended books in the area of “Christian Ministry”:

• The Christian Ministry; With an Inquiry into the Causes of Its Inefficiency by Charles Bridges
• An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times by John Angell James
• Cross and Christian Ministry, The: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians by D.A. Carson
• An All Around Ministry by Charles Spurgeon
• The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter
• Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry by John Piper

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Click here for other recommendations by Tom Ascol.

Christianity and Culture

Grace Baptist Church (Cape Coral, Florida), pastored by Tom Ascol, lists on its website the following list of recommended books in the area of “Christianity and Culture”:

• Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
• unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
• They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations by Dan Kimball
• The Unchurched Next Door: Understanding Faith Stages as Keys to Sharing Your Faith by Thom Rainer
• Christ and Culture Revisited by D.A. Carson
• Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ by Stephen Nichols
• Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth by R. Albert Mohler

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Orthodoxy & Heresy In The Early Church

In his course on the “Ancient and Medieval Church” at Covenant Theological Seminary, David Calhoun recommended the following texts For Further Study on the topic of Orthodoxy & Heresy in the early church (the annotations are his):

Jones, Peter. The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An Old Heresy for the New Age. 1992.
Shows how the gnostic heresy of self-deification has returned with a vengeance in the New Age
Movement.

McGrath, Alister E. The Genesis of Doctrine. 1990.
A useful study of how Christian doctrine came into existence, by the prolific British historian theologian.

Orr, James. The Progress of Dogma.
Famous work in which the 19th century Scottish theologian argues that “the history of
dogma…is simply the system of theology spread out through the centuries.” pp. 21

__________   Quotes of Interest   __________

“The age of the martyrs has a powerful attraction even to the casual reader; the age of the heresies leaves him bewildered and distressed. Yet the agents in both were discharging an equally necessary function. Both were upholding the truth of the gospel; the one against the power of the world, the other against the wisdom of the world. The martyrs had this advantage, that the force of their testimony was concentrated in one supreme moment, was expressed in one heroic act, which commands universal sympathy. The controversialists had to live through a protracted struggle and are judged by their utterances, and all their human weaknesses which the conflict remorselessly revealed.”
~ Mandell Creighton, quoted by B. B. Warfield, Selected Shorter Writings, 2: 214

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“The rejection of heretics brings into relief what your church holds and what sound doctrine maintains. ‘It was necessary for heresies to occur so that the approved may be made manifest’ (I Corinthians 11:19) among the weak.”
~ Augustine, Confessions, 7. 19

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“Christianity is not something utterly formless and vague, but has an ascertainable, statable content, which it is the business of the church to find out, to declare, to defend.”
~ James Orr, The Progress of Dogma, pp. 8, 9

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“The errors of heretics…force us to deal with unlawful matters, to scale perilous heights, to speak unutterable words, to trespass on forbidden ground, compelling us to err in daring to embody in human terms truths which ought to be hidden in the silent veneration of the heart.”
~ Hilary of Poitiers, Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity , 2, 2

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Charles Spurgeon – recommended titles

Grace Baptist Church (Cape Coral, Florida), pastored by Tom Ascol, lists on its website the following list of recommended books by and about Charles Spurgeon:

• Morning and Evening, by Charles Spurgeon
• Lectures to My Students, by Charles Spurgeon
• The Treasury of David (3 vol.), by Charles Spurgeon
• The Soulwinner, by Charles Spurgeon
• All of Grace, by Charles Spurgeon
• Autobiography of C.H. Spurgeon, by Banner of Truth
• The Forgotten Spurgeon, by Iain Murray
• Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching, by Iain Murray
• Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, by Lewis Drummond
• Spurgeon, by Arnold Dallimore

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Check out the Spurgeon Archive

Biblical Theology

Grace Baptist Church (Cape Coral, Florida), pastored by Tom Ascol, lists on its website the following list of recommended books in the area of “Biblical Theology”:

• According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible by Graeme Goldsworthy
• Biblical Theology: The History of Theology From Adam to Christ by John Owen
• Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments by Geerhardus Vos
• Biblical Theology: Retrospect and Prospect by Scott Hafemann
• New Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Exploring the Unity & Diversity of Scripture by IVP
• Turning Points by Vaughn Roberts
• The God of Promise and the Life of Faith: Understanding the Heart of the Bible by Scott Hafemann
• The Christ of the Covenants by O. Palmer Robertson
• The Christ of the Prophets by O. Palmer Robertson
• Drama of Scripture, The: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen
• God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Story-Line of the Bible by Vaughn Roberts
• God of Promise: Introducing Covenant Theology by Michael Horton

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Related

• Index To Great Quotes
• Lord Acton’s Western Civ Reading List
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Christianity and Pagan Systems of Thought

In Ronald H. Nash’s book Christianity & The Hellenistic World, he has a section entitled For Further Reading which lists books that support his claims that Christianity did not borrow any of its essential beliefs from pagan systems of thought. They are shared below along with his annotations:

Armstrong, A. H. An Introduction to Ancient Philosophy. Boston: Beacon, 1963
Armstrong’s book is the clearest and best-written introduction to ancient and Hellenistic philosophy available.

Clark, Gordon H.  Selections From Hellenistic Philosophy. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1940.
Clark not only supplies lengthy selections from major Hellenistic thinkers but also provides helpful introductions that often relate the subject to Christianity.

Cullmann, Oscar.  The Christology of the New Testament. Rev. ed. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963.
Cullmann’s account includes important criticisms of Bousset and others who argued that early Christianity’s picture of Jesus was influenced by paganism.

Davies, W.D. and Dabue, D., eds.  The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956.
This collection of scholarly essays contains a number of chapters that deal with questions raised in this book [Christianity & The Hellenistic World].

Kim, Seyoon. The Origin of Paul’s Gospel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982.
A Korean scholar updates the argument of Machen’s Origin of Paul’s Religion.

Machen, J. Gresham. The Origin of Paul’s Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1925
Still a classic in spite of its age, Machen’s work is outdated for the most part only in its treatment of Gnosticism.

Marshall, I. Howard, ed. New Testament Interpretation: Essays on Principles and Methods. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977.
Another collection of essays, many of which are relevant to the concerns of this book [Christianity & The Hellenistic World].

Metzger, Bruce M. “Methodology in the Study of the Mystery Religions and Early Christianity.” Chapter 1 in Historical and Literary Studies: Pagan, Jewish, and Christian. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968.
Required reading on the relationship between Christianity and the mystery religions.

Nock, A. D. “Early Gentile Christianity and Its Hellenistic Background.” In Essays on the Trinity and the Incarnation, edited by A. E. J. Rawlinson. London: Longmans, Green, 1928
As old as it is, Nock’s essay is still relevant to the debate.

Rahner, Hugo. “The Christian Mystery and the Pagan Mysteries.” In Pagan and Christian Mysteries, edited by Joseph Campbell. New York: Harper & Row, 1955.
Another indispensable source, this time by a Roman Catholic scholar.

Wagner, Gunter.  Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1967.
An extremely important book dealing with more than just baptism. It is full of much helpful material on Christianity’s alleged dependence on the mystery religions.

Wilson, Robert McL.  Gnosis and the New Testament. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968.
One of many books and articles by a prominent British scholar on Christianity’s allege dependence on Gnosticism.

Yamauchi, Edwin.  Pre-Christian Gnosticism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973.
This is the first book anyone should read on the subject of Christianity and Gnosticism.

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Related

• Ronald Nash – Saying “Goodbye” To A Friend I Never Knew
• Index To Great Quotes

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The Study of Church History

“It is always essential for us to supplement our reading of theology with the reading of church history…
If we do not, we shall be in danger of becoming abstract, theoretical, and academic in our view of truth;
and, failing to relate it to the practicalities of life and daily living, we shall soon be in trouble.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Can We Learn from History?” Puritans, pp. 215-16

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In his course on the Ancient and Medieval Church at Covenant Theological Seminary, David Calhoun used the textbook The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation by Justo Gonzalez. In his lecture on “The Study of Church History”, he recommended the following texts:

Clarke, Kenneth.  Civilisation: A Personal View.  1969.
An overview of western history with special emphasis on the arts and a humanistic interpretation of what it all means.

McGrath, Alister E.  Christian Theology: An Introduction.  1994.
Historical theology presented ably and as simply as possible.

Moffett, Samuel H.  A History of Christianity in Asia: Beginnings to 1500.  1992.
The first of two masterful volumes covering the neglected story of Asian Christianity, this history traces the spread of Christianity to Persia and India, and then overland to China, where evidence exists of Christian activity dating from the 7th century.

Pelikan, Jaroslav.  The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 vols.)
The magnum opus of a great scholar (a Lutheran who recently converted to Eastern Orthodoxy).

Potok, Chaim.  Wanderings: History of the Jews.  1978.
A wonderfully written story of the Jews by an acclaimed novelist.

Schaeffer, Francis A.  How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture.  1976.
Schaeffer’s influential study of the rise and (mainly) the decline of western thought.

Shaw, Mark R.  The Kingdom of God in Africa: A Short History of African Christianity.  1996.
Part 1 covers the church before the emergence of Islam; part 2, the medieval centuries of Islamic domination; part 3, the missions and colonial eras; and part 4, the remarkable story of twentieth-century African Christianity.

Williams, Charles.  The Descent of the Dove.  1939.
Idiosyncratic, brilliant, perplexing, and illuminating history. Eugene H. Peterson wrote in Take and Read, “When I started reading [Charles] Williams [The Descent of the Dove], I was a sectarian, ‘related’ only to a small coterie of people who lived and thought and prayed like me. When I finished, I was part of a congregation centuries deep and continents wide” (p. 1).

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And in the subsequent lecture on “The Growth of the Church,” he recommends:

The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in Transmission of Faith.
One of the most important books of Christian history of the 1990s. By a Scottish mission
historian and missionary.

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In lecture three on The Martyrs, he quotes from and/or recommends the following:

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

F. F. Bruce, Spreading Flame: The Rise and Progress of Christianity from Its First Beginnings to the Conversion of the English

Maier, Paul L. The Flames of Rome: A Documentary Novel