2007 TSS Book-of-the-Year contenders

A number of readers have asked to get a glimpse into my list of forerunners to the 2007 TSS Book-of-the-Year award. To date, here is an alphabetical list of contenders. There will be a number of books printed this Fall so take this list for what it is — a start. … This year we see a heavy emphasis on the themes of the Atonement and communion with God. The overall balance of doctrine and spirituality or contending and communing, is quite striking.

Here is the list to date:

A Sweet Flame: Piety in the letters of Jonathan Edwards (Reformation Heritage Books). A short but excellent collection of Edwards’ best letters edited by Michael A.G. Haykin. Would make for a great poolside read. [PIC]

Assured by God: Living in the fullness of God’s grace (P&R). Edited by Burk Parsons, this volume contains a collection of essays by Philip Graham Ryken, Al Mohler, Joel Beeke, Sinclair Ferguson, John MacArthur, Jerry Bridges and R.C. Sproul on the topic of assurance in salvation.

B.B. Warfield: Essays on his life and thought (P&R). Edited by Gary L.W. Johnson.

By Faith Alone: Answering the challenges to the doctrine of justification (Crossway). Edited by Gary L.W. Johnson and Guy P. Waters but includes chapters by David Wells, Cornelius Venema and Al Mohler this work tackles contemporary attacks upon the gospel but especially those of N.T. Wright. This book also alerts to the growing tendency to downplay the distinctions between the Evangelical and Mormon gospels. [More info] [PIC]

Can We Trust the Gospels?: Investigating the reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (Crossway). Written by Mark D. Roberts (you may remember him as the man who recently debated atheist Christopher Hitchens). The reliability of the biblical Gospels narratives are always questioned and increasingly on a more popular level thanks to NPR and Elaine Pagels. Roberts very detailed works argues persuasively that we can in fact trust the Gospels. [PIC]

Chosen for Life: The case for divine election (Crossway). This classic by Sam Storms was originally published in 1987 by Baker under the title, Chosen for Life: An introductory guide to the doctrine of divine election. [More info] [PIC]

Church History: A crash course for the curious (Crossway). Written by Christopher Catherwood this work will appeal to a large audience. Catherwood sets out the history of the Church from a global perspective and at all times relaying the implications of history to contemporary events. [More info]

Communion with God: The divine and the human in the theology of John Owen (Baker Academic). The long-awaited printing of Kelly M. Kapic’s research did not disappoint. [PIC]

Communion with the Triune God (Crossway). The classic book written by English Puritan John Owen in a new edition edited by Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor. Expected out Oct. 12th.

Doing Things Right in Matters of the Heart (Crossway). By John Ensor.

ESV Literary Study Bible (Crossway). With notes written by one of the Church’s great writers (Leland Ryken) this Bible is intended to help readers meditate upon and apply large sections of the text. Due out Sept. 7th.

Exploring the Bible: A Guide to the Old and New Testaments (Crossway). As an introduction to the Bible and an overview of the Old and New Testaments this books is three-books-in-one. Written by R. Laird Harris, Samuel J. Schultz, Gary V. Smith and Walter M. Dunnett, these books were written for the Evangelical Training Association. [More info] [PIC]

The Expository Genius of John Calvin (Reformation Trust/Ligionier). Written by Steven J. Lawson this short work traces out 32 distinctives from the expositional ministry of the great Reformer and sets them out as patterns for contemporary preachers. [PIC]

The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the vision of three pioneering African-American pastors (Crossway). Thabiti Anyabwile’s debut highlighted Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833), Daniel A. Payne (1811-1893) and Francis J. Grimké (1850-1937). The book contains one short biography of each man but is largely comprised of sermon transcripts. Anyabwile’s books are significant in that they challenge the contemporary African-American churches to consider the gospel of first importance and is thereby calling for large-scale reform. [More info] [PIC]

The Future of Justification: A response to N.T. Wright (Crossway?) by John Piper. Due out in November.

The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety: John Flavel’s doctrine of mystical union with Christ (Reformation Heritage Books). Flavel is one of the great Puritans and this study by Stephen J. Yuille looks at one facet of his theology. The doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ lies at the heart of the Puritan pursuit of godliness. [PIC]

John Newton: From disgrace to amazing grace (UK: Continuum/US: Crossway). A new and much-needed biography written by Jonathan Aitken, a former British politician who was sentenced to prison for perjury which led to his bankruptcy and divorce. While in prison Aitken was saved in the manner of Chuck Colson. This 400 page biography is interesting, appropriately detailed and includes a great deal of previously unpublished material. Despite being the author of the Church’s most popular song (“Amazing Grace”), biographies of Newton (a profane slave trader turned Christ magnifying saint) are surprisingly scarce. This is an amazing story of a wretch saved by amazing grace written by a sympathetic author (“like John Newton, Aitken found in abysmal depths the first steps toward redemption”, p. 13). [More info] [PIC]

Justified in Christ: God’s plan for us in justification (Christian Focus). Edited by K. Scott Oliphant this compilation includes an intro by Sinclair Ferguson and chapters by men like Carl Trueman, William Edgar and Peter Lillback on the importance of justification by faith alone, in Christ alone. Looks at traditional problems with Roman Catholic theology and contemporary concerns with N.T. Wright on union and imputation. [More info] [PIC]

The Majesty of God in the Old Testament: A guide for preaching and teaching (Baker Books). Renowned Old Testament scholar Walter C. Kaiser Jr. says we should preach more of the Old Testament and in his newest book he takes the preacher by the hand and shows them exactly how. Walking through 10 texts, Kaiser models exegesis and outlining of each specific texts. But in it’s easy-to-read format and concluding application questions in each chapter, this book will double as a group study of God in the Old Testament. [PIC]

Pages from Church History: A guided tour of Christian classics (P&R). By Stephen J. Nichols, this work looks at the most historically important Christian books.

Pierced for our Transgressions: Rediscovering the glory of penal substitution (UK:IVP/US:Crossway). Written by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey and Andrew Sach this has proven to be a runaway success in the UK defending the core of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The American edition will be released by Crossway on Nov. 7th.

Preaching the Cross (Crossway). The transcripts from the 2006 Together for the Gospel conference written and delivered by Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, John MacArthur, John Piper and R.C. Sproul. An all-star lineup and maybe the best compilation on the topic of preaching the gospel.

The Reading and Preaching of the Scripture in the Worship of the Christian Church: The Modern Age (Eerdmans). Volume six of Hughes Oliphant Old’s massive series that has traced the history of preaching from the Biblical era (vol. 1; 1998), the Patristic age (vol. 2; 1998), the Medieval church (vol. 3; 1999), the Reformation period (vol. 4; 2002), Moderatism, Pietism and Awakening (vol. 5; 2004) and now the most recent volume covering the modern age of 1789-1989. Volume six alone is about 1,000 pages and covers preachers like Broadus, Kuyper, Maclaren, Moody, Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones. Very insightful work for preachers. [PIC]

The Reformation: How a monk and a mallet changed the world (Crossway). With brevity, pictures, call-out boxes and humor, Stephen Nichols walks through the highlights of the Reformation to help us see that “the Reformers saw nothing less than the gospel at stake” (p. 21). [More info] [PIC]

Revelation and Reason: New essays in Reformed apologetics (P&R). Edited by K. Scott Oliphint and Lane G. Tipton.

Signs of the Spirit: An interpretation of Jonathan Edwards’s ‘Religious Affections’ (Crossway). Written by C. Samuel Storms. To be released on July 13th.

Sweet Communion: Trajectories of spirituality from the Middle Ages through the Further Reformation (Baker Academic). Written originally in Dutch by Arie de Reuver, this academic work was made available in English in 2007. It traces the influences of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) and Thomas à Kempis (1379-1471) upon the “Dutch Puritans” like Willem Teellinck, Herman Witsius and Thodorus and Wilhelmus à Brakel. The seven biographies that fill this volume are excellent. [More info] [PIC]

Through Western Eyes. Eastern orthodoxy: A Reformed perspective (Christian Focus). By Robert Letham.

The Truth of the Cross (Reformation Trust/Ligonier). A study of the Atonement by R.C. Sproul. Due out in July.

The Truth War: Fighting for certainty in an age of deception (Thomas Nelson). By John MacArthur.

Any suggestions to this list? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading and stay tuned later this year when we announce the winner. Tony