Good Stuff to Read
If you’re like me, you can’t help but feel horribly ignorant with regard to much of our Christian heritage. I know a few of the main figures, but very little aside from the biggest names.
It has been a wonderful blessing to study this past year or so under Dr Haykin at TBS because he has done so much to bring church history to life for me. Fortunately, he does it in a way that challenges you with very practical application to the Christian life that we live now. It is no mere academic exercise.
I’m currently going through a couple of Dr Haykin’s books and have enjoyed another one previously, so I thought I’d recommend them to whoever thinks they’d like to make themselves a little more familiar with a couple of our forefathers in the faith.
I had the chance to read this book several years ago. It simply contains about 50 of Watts’ lesser known hymns. Absolutely fantastic devotional material.
Oliver Cromwell is an absolutely fascinating character who is often written about and studied, but few have come to appreciate the Puritan spirituality that pervaded all of his life and his thought.
Whitefield is always a wonderful study. The devotion with which he writes stirs the heart.
These books are all available from the Joshua Press website and are all very inexpensive. The format is simple and easy to read: the first section contains writings by Dr Haykin overviewing the spirituality of the person in question. The other part of the book is made up of selections from their writings so that you can familiarize yourself with the figure in a firsthand sense by engaging with the primary sources (and you don’t even have to go to a library!).
These books are absolutely wonderful because they introduce you to some key figures of our faith without being incredibly demanding of your time or mental energy. And as with everything Dr Haykin does, these books are primarily concerned with practical spirituality and how our lives can be more conformed to the image of Christ by the power of the Spirit now because of what these men wrote so long ago.
Related posts:
- Blame the Bad Christians…?
- Thinking About How You Read
- A Time for Asceticism?
- Free Audio Resources from ChristianAudio.com
- The Mozambique Christian Book Ministry Fund
- How to React to the Fall of Rome – Part 1
- How to React to the Fall of Rome – Part 2
- I Love Christians!
- I believe in the Holy Trinity–Part 2
- Chronological Listing of the New Testament Books
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Your uncle mentions my uncle in his Sept. 30th blog…small world!
October 4th, 2006 at 9:18 am
You’re gonna have to help me out… he posted lots on Sept. 30… who’s your uncle?
October 4th, 2006 at 10:18 am
How are things…sorry I haven’t commented in a while. I hope and pray that all is well with you.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Oh – sorry…Thom Rainer, he’s mentioned simply as “Rainer.”
October 7th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Thanks for the heads up on the books.
Nick