Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund
This is definitely the best book I've read in 2023, and one that I plan to re-read many times. Its main point is so simple, yet so profound. It unpacks Jesus' statement (Matthew 11:29) that He is "gentle and lowly in heart". Jesus' love (and the love of His Father) for us as His people who believe in Him does not falter or wane when we stumble into sin. Instead His love is constant. He is able to sympathize with our weakness, and is able to save to the uttermost those who believe in Him. Etc Etc. This is one of the most encouraging books I have ever read. It filled me with excitement about getting to live forever with Jesus. I highly recommend this book to every Christian and every nonChristian. I have purchased several copies to give away. Read it!
Pray and Protect: Practical ways to keep your churches and ministries safe, by Patrick Sookhdeo
This book goes into many dangers to churches, and how to protect them. It includes things about physical security of the campus, and financial/emotional boundaries for church leaders. It is good, but very brief. It would be a good conversation starter for church administration teams.
Excavating the Evidence for Jesus, by Titus Kennedy
This book looks at archeological artifacts and history around the life of Jesus. It contains a lot of good information, and it is up-to-date. It has a good viewpoint, of Biblically-faithful/conservative background but avoiding hype/oversensationalism, and with a proper dose of skepticism toward what artifacts can tell us. However, the writing style is somewhat slow and repetitive. The author tends to repeat each fact 2 or 3 times over several pages. It would be a good companion to a book like New Testament History by F.F.Bruce, which did not have many pictures.
More Than A Battle: How To Experience Victory, Freedom, and Healing from Lust, by Joe Rigney
This book seeks to bring three viewpoints to overcoming sexual sin: seeing sexual sin as immorality, seeing sexual sin as addiction (i.e. chemical), and seeing sexual sin as brokenness (due to past traumas). Rigney contends that all three perspectives are helpful. He writes the book primarily for men, and includes many sections of 'A note to mentors', about how to help other men. He encourages people to hate the sin and love the sinner, to celebrate small victories and pursue honesty and a better understanding of the circumstances that lead to falling into temptation. Overall I think this is a good book about this issue. He wrote it out of many hours of pastoral counseling and out of several conferences held at his church.
Male And Female He Created Them, by Denny Burk, David Closson, and Colin Smothers
This is a nice discussion guide about topics related to gender and sexuality from a Biblical point of view. All of the viewpoints were pretty standard conservative-Christian viewpoints, and it delves into most of the relevant questions people ask today related to LGBTQ and other sexual controversies (including pronouns). Some of the points seemed weakly supported, although they tried to give at least a little bit of Biblical support for most of their views. They kept a gentle pastoral tone throughout, and included a chapter about how to help and counsel people who are struggling with gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction. It's designed for group discussion, so includes discussion questions, pre-meeting reading, leader notes, videos, etc.
Third Culture Kids, by David Pollock, Ruth Van Reken, and Michael Pollock
This book has interesting information about children who grow up on the missionfield or in other situations (corporate, military) where they have to change cultures when growing up. It has lots of information about what culture shock and reverse culture shock looks like, and the difficulties and losses that these kids face, and how it affects them. It includes a lot of short stories and anecdotes. It has suggestions on how people can adapt more easily and make the transitions easier. It is a very lengthy book. This is a helpful book for understanding people who grew up in other cultures or between cultures, or MK's, etc.
Testimonies to the Truth, by Lydia McGrew.
McGrew presents several lines of evidence affirming the accuracy and historical reliability of the New Testament gospels, specifically by listing several reasons from the writing style to believe that they were closely based on accurate/truthful eyewitness testimony. Her chapters discuss (1) how the authors got geographical place names and rulers correct (without the ability to look up such information in an encyclopedia/etc if they were trying to write much later) (and they were even more accurate than some other contemporary 1st century authors or scholars from 19th/20th centuries), (2) customs and culture (such as the concept of multiple high priests living at the same time, specific correct coin names/values, and frequencies of first names at that time), (3) undesigned coincidences (how one account incidentally/casually/accidentally confirms another account in some detail... she has written a separate excellent book "Hidden in Plain View" on this single topic), (4) 'unnecessary details' and (5) 'unexplained allusions' (she argues that the level of detail in the gospels is higher than the typical historical report of that time, but less constant than the modern hyper-realistic historical-novel style, and basically the irregular nature of the vivid details and the occasional random allusions show that the gospels have the texture of eyewitness testimony, because that is the same way that eyewitnesses tell stories about important events they witnessed), (6) reconcilable variation (real differences in the stories between the gospels, but still mostly able to be harmonized successfully, just like eyewitness testimony), and (7) & (8) unified personalities across the different accounts (Peter, Mary, Martha, Thomas, and especially Jesus). She writes in a very informal style, aimed at the layman rather than the theologian, but has up-to-date scholarship and plenty of endnotes and citations. It is very hard to write an apologetics book with a balance between not enough scholarly detail, versus too much scholarly detail, but (like Peter Williams' great book "Can We Trust The Gospels"), McGrew has hit pretty close to an optimum balance here (her other books such as "the Mirror or the Mask" and "Eye of the Beholder" go into more scholarly detail). Each chapter includes summary points and discussion questions, which make this book great for study groups. I highly recommend this book for every Christian, especially for those just starting in apologetics. I think nonChristians could also benefit from it to concisely understand many aspects of the case for the reliability of the New Testament gospels.
Person of Interest, by J. Warner Wallace
This book discusses the impact Jesus had on the world... for example, on his disciples, on later art/literature/science/architecture/movies, on other world religions, etc. It also discusses the "stage" that God had set in the timing for the arrival of Jesus, with the prior prophecies, the invention of the alphabet, Roman roads and shared Greek culture, etc. Wallace also sought to show that there was a common expectation of a supernatural messiah figure at that time, with the characteristics that Jesus had. Wallace tries to portray Jesus as super-unique without using the Bible much, just going from other historical sources. Wallace ties together each chapter with the history of his own quest to understand the historical Jesus from his formerly atheist background, and with a true crime story from his detective days. This is an easy-to-read book, but most of the author's points feel overstated. There is definitely some helpful apologetic material included (about the disciples, other religions and other messiah figures, etc), but many of his points feel overstretched and they feel like the rhetoric of his points could easily have been tweaked to apply to some other religious figure, or his same arguments could be made in favor of other religions. I think his earlier book "Cold Case Christianity" is better overall, or some other books.

 
Why Believe, by Neil Shenvi
This is an incredibly well-written "general apologetics" book, covering why belief in God is reasonable, and especially belief in Jesus Christ and Christianity. It is solidly logical, but filled with anecdotes, humor, sincerity, and a warm, personal feel. This is right up at the top of such books, alongside "Mere Christianity" by CS Lewis and "The Reason For God" by Tim Keller. Shenvi's book has some unique contributions. Since he is a scientist, he handles the issues related to science and faith (and naturalism) very well. He also deals well (briefly) with comparisons between Christianity and Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism. He presents the Trilemma (Jesus must be either Liar, Lunatic, or Lord), as well as a good solid section on the reliability of the New Testament (dealing with the "Legend" option). He writes quite a bit about the Gospel and sin. He has a better succinct set of answers to the problem of Evil than any other apologetics book I've read. Basically, he says that no one argument answers the problem of Evil, but together (he presents several answers which work together) they answer the objection well. He also presents a unique argument from the idea that we ought to seek the truth... Shenvi shows that this sense of obligation we feel (that we ought to seek the truth / true answers, not just answers that make us feel good) points to the existence of the God of the Bible, and argues against atheism. One or two sections were more philosophical and harder to read (such as about why the fact that the universe is so predictable and explainable by mathematics points to the God of the Bible), but those sections might be enjoyable for science-/philosophy-minded people. This is a top-quality book, and I will likely be ordering more copies to give away, and re-reading it again in the future.

Scribes and Scripture, by John Meade and Peter Gurry
This is an interesting book about the process of how the Bible came to us today, from the early days when it was being written, to the early manuscript copies, to the process of canonization, to the modern translations. It has a lot of interesting details. It talked about how (for example) some of the Old Testament scribes seem to have updated the word usage of their copies, whereas other scribes kept the older word usage even after the language had changed. It had a nice balance of popular-level non-academic writing but with some academic details. I'd say it's recommended for those who have interest in this topic.

Where God Came Down, by Joel Kramer
This is a fascinating book about the archaeology of certain key places in Israel. It is full of photos and maps, and shows the archaeological evidence at many of the spots that have been visited over the centuries by Jews and Christians, such as Mamre, Bethel, the city/palace of David (and the tombs of the Kings), Mount Moriah (Temple Mount) and nearby digs, the crucifixion and burial area of Jesus, and many more. It shows two synagogues built by early Jewish Christians (Messianic followers of Jesus). It ties all of these places and their archaeological evidence in repeatedly to the Bible's main point, about our need for a Savior because of our sins, and how God has repeatedly predicted the coming of Jesus. Highly recommended book.

The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History, Colin Hemer
This is an extremely thorough and scholarly book about the historicity of the book of Acts in the Bible. It presents many points in favor of historicity. However, it is too dense and scholarly to be an enjoyable read for most people. I liked the way he pointed out that the main reason most scholars had dismissed the historicity of Acts is for very weak reasons, and mostly because of scholarly (seminary) group-think... i.e. 'because all the other scholars thought that way', and that the actual evidence supporting Acts is quite strong compared to other historical documents. Since Acts and Luke were written by the same author, this supports Luke too, and thus all the gospels (because Matthew and Mark are considered to be earlier than Luke).

Lament for a Father, Marvin Olasky
Thought-provoking book... Olasky wrote this out of remorse because he had had a bad relationship with his father and had not asked him much about his life. Olasky researched more about the times his father lived through, after his father's death. This book is very historically informative, but very sad. There's a good little postscript. Most people probably would not enjoy this one.

Can We Trust The Gospels? by Peter J. Williams
This is an excellent book. It is surprisingly short and succinct. He has condensed some of the best evidence for the historical accuracy of the New Testament Gospels into a very well-written book. He compares them with information from Tacitus, Pliny, and Josephus (not relying on the Testimonium), and compares the amount of historical biography we have about Jesus to the amount we have about Jesus' contemporary Emperor Tiberius (we have the same or more about Jesus). He discusses evidences such as the matching name frequencies and undesigned coincidences. He has good brief discussions of the Synoptic Puzzle and various apparent contradictions between the Gospels. He compares the NT gospels with the apocryphal gospels of Phillip, Thomas, Mary, etc. He discusses whether the text has changed or been lost over the centuries, and the manuscript evidence we have. He has a really excellent response to the "bias" objection, on his first page of chapter 1. Overall this is a GREAT resource, highly recommended for anyone, Christian or nonChristian. It clears away objections to learning from the Bible about the life and teachings of Jesus, the greatest person who ever lived.

Saving My Assassin, by Virginia Prodan
Wow. This is an extremely gripping and well-written true memoir. I started it intending to read just the first chapter and ended up reading the whole thing within a few hours. It is the true story of a woman who grew up in Romania under the communist dictatorship, and how she became a lawyer and then a Christian. She began defending innocent people who were being oppressed by the government, and began to suffer oppression herself by the government, but God protected her (even through a failed assassination attempt). She later immigrated to America. Extremely highly recommended, for all audiences. It is especially relevant for Christians in today's time, as an example of how (practically) to endure persecution.

Biblical Geology 101, by Michael Oard and Robert Carter
This is an excellent book about geology from a creationist perspective. It reads like a elementary-school textbook, with keyword terms bolded, lots of good pictures and diagrams, etc. It is well-written, easy-to-read (no math) up-to-date, and evenly paced. It covers the evidence for Noah's global Flood, information about radioisotope dating and catastrophic plate tectonics, fossils, megasequences, rock types, the Ice Age, and age of the earth. I think this would be a great "first book" to give people with scientific information supporting the Bible's Flood account (alongside "The Creation Answers Book" by creation.com / CMI). I liked this one a little better than "Carved In Stone" which I read at the same time, although both are good. Biblical Geology is more even-paced and well-edited. Highly recommended for children who like science, or even adults.
Carved In Stone: Geological Evidence of the Worldwide Flood, by Timothy Clarey
This is a very beautiful book with interesting information about geology, in particular, how geology fits very well with the Biblical account of the Global Flood of Noah's time. It is a summary of some original research, as well as a summary of Biblical flood geology, with a lot of pictures. It talks about the various "megasequences" of rock layers in many continents (in particular, the book studies North America, South America, and Africa). It discusses how these massive flat deposit layers fit better with a Global Flood view than the secular view. It also describes how plate tectonics fits in with the Bible's account of the flood. It provides a lot of geological background and explanation of the concepts. It discusses how fossils form. It has a thorough section on the creationist view of the one large Ice Age, and the causes for it. It nicely explains the mysteries of the "geologic column", such as why there are similar rock layers with similar fossils on many continents in the same vertical order, but why there are (according to the secular scientists) "hundreds of millions of years" of completely missing erosional evidence between many of the layers. Clarey has a background as a petroleum industry geologist, so his explanations of the origins of oil and coal are particularly good. The book seemed to need more editing to remove redundancy, as many points were repeated several times (and even the same figures were repeated several times in different chapters). There were many figures that were more research-paper-type figures that would be appreciated by a professional geologist rather than a non-geologist. However, despite these drawbacks, I found the book still worthwhile to read. It was very interesting to read about how all the layers and megasequences in the geological column are full of marine fossils, such as sharks and dinosaurs being buried in the same rock layers. He also has excellent descriptions of radioisotope dating and how Carbon-14 dating points to a young earth. These (and many more) facts point strongly to the global flood, confirming the Biblical account. This is a good and non-mathematical summary book of the latest creationist views on geology.
Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, by Mark Vroegop
This book is all about lament, in the Bible and in the Christian life. Vroegop talks about the importance of lament and how lament is exemplified in the Bible, such as (but not limited to) in the Psalms and in Lamentations. Lament, according to Vroegop, has 4 parts: Turn to God, Bring your complaint, Ask boldly, and Choose to trust. He says that Biblical lament provides a "framework" for our emotions during times of suffering... not suppressing our emotions, but neither letting them rule our lives... instead bringing our emotions to God. As we do this, following the examples of scripture, our emotions will be channeled in helpful directions and we will receive God's comfort and hope. Vroegop shares his own family's story of suffering, and other stories. He has a lot of chapters of practical advice for pastors/churches and how to use lament to help suffering people, including situations of lamenting racial injustice. I recommend this book.
Standing in the Fire: Courageous Christians Living in Frightening Times, by Tom Doyle
This book shares true stories of several Christians living in the Middle East. All the names and details have been changed, and lots of fictionalized dialog has been added. It tells how many initially hostile Msl people eventually came to know Jesus. The book was ok, but I wished it could have been less fictionalized (though I understand his reason for doing so). He shares three principles he learned from talking with these persecuted believers: choose what voice you listen to, make faith your filter, and PRAY.
Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, by Jason L. Riley
In this book Riley talks about the policies of the American government in the last 50 years (since 1970's) and shows how welfare-type and affirmative-action-type programs are hurting black people. It is a very well-written book. He shares stories from his own life, as well as lots of results from studies and lots of fitting quotes from relevant leaders. The six chapters are well-focused and interesting, covering black culture in America, crime, employment laws, education, and affirmative action. As the title implies, he describes how after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's which was focused on providing equal opportunities for everyone regardless of race, the next 50 years have focused increasingly on enforcing equal outcomes, which requires discrimination against people... and he shows how this recent focus has hurt black people (especially impoverished black people) in many ways. I wish he could have talked more specifically about his recommendations for how to change the situation, but he clearly implies his answer. This is a secular book... it is missing the power that comes from the love of Jesus Christ, but it is still worth reading for its secular wisdom. I recommend this book for everyone.

Here are some more book reviews. To see all, click the book reviews category/tag link on the left side.

Deeper: real change for real sinners, by Dane Ortlund
This is an extremely good book, highly recommended for everyone. Its theme is how to grow closer to God. Here is how the author himself summarizes the book (p. 172)- "The nine chapters of this book are not sequential steps in growing: they are different facets of the one diamond of growth. In order to grow, we need to see who the real Jesus is (chap. 1), collapsing into his arms and continuing to do so all our lives long (chap. 2) as those united to him (chap. 3), drinking down his undeserved love (chap. 4) and full legal exoneration on the basis of his own finished work (chap. 5), being therefore freed up to walk in the light (chap. 6) and receive the anguish of this life as the gentle hand of God to help us rather than to punish us (chap. 7), seeing the love of Christ by inhaling the Bible and returning our love to him in exhaled prayer (chap. 8), and actually experiencing the love of heaven through the indwelling Spirit (chap. 9). This is a book with one point: Be astonished at the gracious heart of Jesus Christ, proven in his atoning work in the past and his endless intercession in the present. Receive his unutterable love for sinners and sufferers. Stop resisting. Let him draw near to you. Gaze upon him. As you do so, transformation will come in the back door. If you try to change simply for change's sake, you can only change your behavior. You can't change your heart. But mere behavioral change isn't change at all. Peel your eyes away from yourself -- even your change or lack thereof -- and ponder Christ. Commune with him. Open the vent of your heart. Receive his love and counsel from Scripture. See him in the preached word and sacrament at your local church. Look at him."

Chasing Love: Sex, Love, and Relationships in a confused culture, by Sean McDowell
In this book, Sean (son of Josh) McDowell presents a case for following the Biblical pattern for sexual purity and many topics related to it, including marriage and singleness. This book is aimed very specifically at high school students, and all of its application points are targeted for them. It is well-written and easy-to-read, with short, focused chapters. I think it would be a good book for most Christian high school students to read and ponder and discuss.

 
Liberty to the Captives, by Mark Durie
In this book, the author first discusses the three ways that Islam recognizes for people to interact with it... either becoming a Muslim ("shahada"), accepting the status of a "dhimmi" ("dhimma") (2nd-class citizen accepting oppression during life in an Islamic-majority country), or death. Next, the author compares and contrasts the life of Muhammad and Jesus, both of whom experienced significant rejection by people. However, the way they responded to it was extremely different. Muhammad basically took up arms (later in his life) to get revenge on people who disrespected or rejected him, whereas Jesus repudiated revenge and warfare and allowed himself to be killed... then raised up from the grave. Next, the author explains how Muslims who leave Islam and come to Christianity need to specifically reject the patterns of shahada/dhimma and prounounce God's promises, officially trusting in God's way. I was a little skeptical of his focus on cultural curses and family sin patterns etc in the last chapter, but I was intrigued by his point that Christians who grow up in Muslim-majority countries can accidentally, subconsciously, imbibe the cultural mindset of dhimmitude (e.g. constantly apologizing to Muslims for their Christian beliefs and living in constant fear and shame), instead of the attitude of the glorious freedom of the children of God that the New Testament talks about. I think this book, with its very unusual perspective, could be worth reading and helpful for people, especially people coming out of a Muslim background. It would pair well with Richard Bailey's book "Who God Is".

Josh (McDowell): The Excitement of the Unexpected, by Joe Musser
This is a biography of Josh McDowell that goes through 1980 (so it doesn't cover the most recent 40 years of Josh's life, as he is still alive). It goes through his background and tough family background, how he came to know Jesus, and early ministry years. It describes some of the things he learned, such as learning humility through being forced to take care of conference logistics/cleaning instead of preaching which is what he wanted to do. It talks about the various romantic relationships he had, and how he met his wife. The book had a slightly hagiographical flavor. The final chapters of the book show some of the downsides/stresses/problems/critiques of his extremely busy ministry life. I think it could be useful to learn some things about ministry (the importance of humility, the importance of doing things in God's strength rather than human strength, the perfect timing of God and that God never wastes anything, how God protects those who are doing His work, the importance of godly friends supporting ministry leaders, etc), and as a window into the Christian subcultures of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

 
Soul Care: Seven Transformational Principles for a Healthy Soul, by Rob Reimer
This book presents 7 principles: Identity, Repentance, Overcoming Family Sin Patterns, Forgiveness, Healing Wounds, Overcoming Fears, and Deliverance. He presents his points relatively clearly, with a nice mix of stories (especially about his marriage and about various interactions with his students and conference attendees) and Bible discussion. I found myself agreeing strongly with about half of his points that seemed very biblical, and being extremely skeptical of the other half which seemed quite extra-biblical. Points that seemed biblical were the ones about finding our identity and sense of worth in Christ rather than in our accomplishments, the importance of repentance and forgiveness, and trusting in God and focusing on His opinion in the Bible rather than on human popularity or fears about being rejected by humans. Points that I was skeptical about were Overcoming Family Sin Patterns (I think it's likely that such patterns do exist, but if it should be a huge focus of the Christian life, why didn't the Bible say more about it?), and his anecdotes about healing emotional wounds and deliverance (from demonic spirits that are oppressing Christians). I do think that emotional wounds are real and often need healing, and I do think that demonic spirits are real and Christians may sometimes need deliverance from them, but I was skeptical about some of the anecdotes and techniques he shared, and about the relative importance of focusing on those topics, which the Bible seems to put less emphasis on. However, he seems to have more experience than me in those topics, and I didn't notice much that was overtly unbiblical (except for his tendency to assume when talking to people that whatever image or thought popped into his mind was a message from God... this seems dangerous if not deliberately/consciously checked against Scripture)... so I hesitate to "condemn" it... I would suggest that if you read this book, read those chapters with skepticism and compare them constantly to what the Bible says. The other chapters (Identity, Repentance, Forgiveness, Overcoming Fears) seemed great and well worth reading for everyone.

Christianity and Wokeness, by Owen Strachan
This is a powerful and beautiful book. Strachan discusses "wokeness", which he defines as "the state of being consciously aware of and 'awake' to the hidden, race-based injustices that pervade all of American society; this term has also been expanded to refer to the state of being 'awake' to injustices that are gender-based, class-based, etc." He also says that "in intellectual terms, wokeness occurs when one embraces the system of thought ... called Critical Race Theory." His chapters cover (1) How Wokeness is entering the culture, (2) How Wokeness is entering the Church, (3,4) Why is Wokeness an ungodly system? (Theological issues, Cultural issues), (5,6) What does the Bible teach about Identity and Ethnicity? (Old Testament, New Testament), and (7) Hard questions on American History and other hot topics. Strachan shows how wokeness provides wrong doctrines of humanity, sin, and salvation, while actually promoting racism (while claiming to fight against it) and partiality. He shows that wokeness and the closely related intersectional worldview seek to tear down God's created order in other areas, such as Biblical complementarianism in the home, and how they see "hierarchy of any kind as evil abuse". Wokeness also "overturns the Gospel's 'no condemnation in Christ' promise", and thus turns people away from the true gospel, the true good news that the Bible contains. He discusses the difference between "equality of opportunity" vs "equality of outcome", and "distributive" justice vs "retributive" justice. He points out the problems with how wokeness pushes for "standpoint epistemology" and a "resulting contest for power". The chapters about the Biblical view of identity and ethnicity are really good. Strachan reminds that God created one human race, with diversity (male and female), in the image of God... then the fall brought enmity and strife. Then God spread out the nations, ensuring diversity and distinctiveness. Then when God founded the nation of Israel, He constantly told them to welcome the strangers into their community (Leviticus 19:33-34), and demonstrated this with stories such as Ruth. Then in the New Testament, God united Jews and Gentiles as one family, through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13-18). Now we can have true unity between people of every ethnic background (and socioeconomic status, etc), through Christ. Yet this "does not cancel the fact that image-bearers have natural affinities... nor does it cancel out our own backgrounds and ethnicities." Strachan carefully discusses the ethnic tension that arose in the early church in Jerusalem (Acts 6) and how it was handled, dealt-with, and basically solved. In the future, (Revelation 5, 21) people from all nations will praise God together, and will bring the "glory and the honor of the nations" to God, indicating continuing diversity along with unity. Says Strachan, "Our secular age urges us to do this, telling us our sex, our skin color, our language, our economic status, our educational pedigree, our looks, and many other factors matter most about us. While these characteristics are a part of our story, they are not and must never be ultimate in our Christian identity. ... We must remember that Jesus takes embittered and hostile ethnic groups and makes them one. Our ultimate identity is only and always in Christ." (p.172) His final chapter has excellent discussion of some hard questions on slavery, systemic racism, and various pushbacks, as well as practical applications of the rest of the book. I recommend this book.

Fault Lines, by Voddie Baucham

In this book, Voddie presents a case against the Critical Social Justice (CSJ) worldview as it exerts influence in the American church (and denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention and magazines such as ChristianityToday) and in American society. His main point is that CSJ (the popular-level worldview based on the legal Critical Race Theory and other worldview roots) is dividing/splitting the American church and will continue to do so, and he is seeking to 'sound a warning' and encourage people to focus more on the Biblical gospel and Biblical justice rather than on "social justice". He carefully describes CRT from its original founders (Bell, Crenshaw) and roots (Marx, Gramsci, the Frankfurt School) and popularizers (Delgado, DiAngelo, Kendi). He distinguishes between Biblical justice, versus social justice. He says that "real justice requires truth", including truth about the famous incidents of black people being killed by police. He discusses several of the details of these recent cases, and also discusses what studies have found regarding disparities in policing. He discusses several aspects of the religious nature of 'antiracism' and the 'woke movement'. He discusses 'ethnic gnosticism' and standpoint epistemology. He quotes several popular Christian pastors and teachers and discusses the problems with what they are teaching from a Biblical point of view. He spends a full chapter discussing the 2019 SBC Convention and its controversy about Resolution 9 (about CRT and intersectionality).
It is a very personal book, as he tells stories about growing up as a black man in Los Angeles, and eventually becoming a black pastor in Texas, then later faculty at a seminary in Zambia. He tells of encounters he has had with racial prejudice over the years. He tells about his involvement in the SBC and the Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel, etc.
There were many points he shared that were fascinating to me. One was that the majority of black pastors and church leaders that he taught at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston, held pro-choice views.
This book's concepts are so controversial that podcasts such as Southside Rabbi (KB and Ameen Hudson) spent 4 hours criticizing the book (Season 2 Episode 15 and 16) despite the hosts not actually having read the book first (they hosted guests who had read it... such as Bradly Mason... I can send you my notes from the podcast if interested... the reason I listened to all 4 hours is that an esteemed black friend of mine recommended it to me asked me to listen). Mason criticizes Baucham's statistics on police shootings, saying that we should instead be focusing on the number of police-to-citizen contacts, where Mason says systemic racism in policing is shown. They implied (Ep. 16 ~min 30ff) that Baucham was being careless with his discussion of CRT, first making it sound 'toxic', then lumping other things that he didn't like underneath the CRT label. However, when I read the book, it seemed that Baucham was very careful and did not do this (so Southside Rabbi's discussion was actually misleading).
Also, Mason on Southside Rabbi's podcast (Ep. 16 ~min 30-40) accused Baucham of misconstruing or misquoting or mixing up the quotes from Delgado's textbook on Critical Race Theory. Mason has published some related critiques of Baucham's book which you can read here if interested. https://alsoacarpenter.com/2021/04/21/the-faulty-lines-in-voddie-bauchams-thought-line/ The critiques seem to focus on exactly which scholar first taught particular doctrines and exactly which year, trying to show that Baucham got these details wrong and is thus not to be trusted. Many of Mason's critiques seem weak and overwrought, in my opinion. Mason does seem to show that Baucham should have been more careful in his use of quotation marks when quoting from Delgado's definition of CRT, and that Baucham should have been more clear that when he implied that Delgado highlighted 4 key presuppositions of CRT, Baucham was actually leaving out some of the tenets that Delgado wrote, and Baucham was synthesizing some of Delgado's other points in his own wording. I think Baucham's book could have been made stronger by addressing more of the points made by KB and Hudson and Mason, particularly the points about them suffering under unfair/unjust prejudicial treatment by law enforcement in Chicago (and the legal structure behind the enforcement). I would love to hear a multi-episode discussion between Baucham and KB and Hudson on those topics. It could well be that both are right, in a sense - Baucham right that CRT is anti-Biblical, and KB & Hudson right that systemic/institutionalized racism exists in certain locations and situations (they cite Ferguson as an example). It could be that Baucham is right about the statistics about unarmed black men (vs white men) being killed by police, whereas KB & Hudson are right about the daily experience of many black citizens being stopped/harassed (but not shot) by police related to crimes they did not commit, or stopped for misdemeanors that a white citizen would not have been stopped for. Even if Baucham were to agree with KB & Hudson regarding the harassment-by-police situation on the ground (and hopefully KB & Hudson would agree regarding recent polling indicating that black people want more police involvement in their neighborhoods rather than less), Baucham's points about the Biblical critiques of CRT are very helpful.
Overall, I think that Baucham's book is definitely worth reading. It is good to listen to voices on both sides of these issues, and Baucham is a passionate, experienced (as a black man in America), well-researched, thoughtful, and Biblical voice to consider.

Born Again That Way, by Rachel Gilson
This is a great book. Rachel shares her own story of growing up in a secular environment, and discovering she was attracted to other women. Then when she went away to college, several factors brought her to suddenly realize who Jesus was, and her own status in God's sight. After she started following Jesus, she wrestled with her feelings of same-sex-attraction (SSA), and she shares about the things she has learned about godliness and temptation in this book. The book is well-written, very honest, and well-nuanced. She has lots of great advice, and great stories (from others as well as from herself). I think this would be a perfect book to read for a Christian who is struggling with feelings of SSA, and it is also encouraging and enlightening for all other Christians too. I'm not sure if a non-Christian would enjoy it, but there is nothing particularly offensive in it (other than holding tightly to the Bible)... it's well balanced. She distinguishes well between temptation and sin, and has helpful discussion about the terms which Christians use to define themselves (and the controversy over terms like 'gay Christian', etc). Chapter 7 is very encouraging for Christian singles to read... it has the standard reminder about holding on to Jesus but it presents it very well... the reminder that our identity is in Jesus and that what we have to look forward to with/from the Lord Jesus Christ is bigger and better and more satisfying (in the long run) than marriage or anything else.

 
God, Greed, and the Prosperity Gospel, by Costi Hinn
This is a great book, where Costi (nephew of Benni Hinn) tells his own story of growing up rich in the Hinn family, then gradually realizing the Biblical problems of his family's lifestyle, and coming to know Jesus Christ personally. It explains the true gospel clearly, and the problems of the "prosperity gospel" teaching. Easy to read, highly recommended.

Here are some more recent reviews. For more, see the book reviews category link on left.

White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
I do not recommend this book for most people. However, it was an interesting read to hear the thoughts of a person with her worldview (liberal/progressive secular woman who believes in the tenets of Critical Race Theory, and whose job is providing diversity training seminars to mostly-white groups at various organizations). It was also interesting to read her anecdotes. She talks a lot about whiteness, and presents the prevailing societal views on race, racism, whiteness, blackness, colorblindness, white privilege, white fragility, etc. The helpful aspect of this book was that she discussed that we have cultural blind spots based on our upbringing, and some of these relate to race and skin color. We all accidentally misunderstand some of our privileges and the challenges faced by people without those privileges, and we all say things that offend other people without meaning to. One of many unhelpful aspects of this book was that she presented "white fragility" as a Kafka-trap, that is, if you protest that you are not racist or don't have white fragility, that itself proves that you are racist and have white fragility. (She also defines racism in systemic terms rather than the older definition of individual prejudice.) I noticed that she contradicted herself in several places in the book, and reinforced racial stereotypes even as she claimed that doing so was bad. As Neil Shenvi and others have pointed out in their reviews of her work, she is missing the crucial information that the Bible provides, that we should root our identity in God and His view of us, rather than our socially-constructed group identities. The Bible's approach leads to real forgiveness and peace and reconciliation, whereas the secular "anti-racist" approach does not. Her last chapter was the most interesting, as she tried to explain the take-away actions. She said that it was impossible to ever stop being racist (participating in racist systems) or having white fragility, the only best possible outcome would be to "try to be less white" and be constantly learning and growing in awareness of others and (I assume) to be able to make other people feel more comfortable. While hospitality is great, she is missing the most powerful answers that the Bible provides.
See https://shenviapologetics.com/the-worldview-of-white-fragility/ and https://shenviapologetics.com/critical-theory-quotes/ for more helpful info.

Reading While Black, by Esau McCaulley
The author looks at how black people in America have interpreted the Bible over the centuries. He focuses on how slaves interpreted the Bible (when they were allowed to read it), and how slaveowners interpreted it, and how Christians have interpreted the passages dealing with race and slavery in the decades since slavery was abolished. He discusses the black perceptions on unjust policing in America. He is seeking to argue against opposing viewpoints from two different sides. On the one side, he is arguing against liberal black liberation-theology scholars who say that the Bible is an oppressive book that we should discard. McCaulley says no, the Bible has plenty to say about justice and it has historically given hope to black people, so we should study and obey it. On the other side, he is arguing against white scholars who focus too much (allegedly) on individual salvation and not enough on societal transformation and justice, and McCaulley says the Bible's teaching (especially Old Testament but also some New Testament) has a lot to say about seeking to make a more just society. He talks about his own crisis of faith in college/seminary, where his liberal Bible professors were reinterpreting the Bible. (Neil Shenvi has a great review of this book here: https://shenviapologetics.com/questions-and-answers-a-short-review-of-mccaulleys-reading-while-black/ ), and as Shenvi summarizes, McCaulley discusses "questions like “what does the Bible say about policing and the responsibilities of government?” (Chapter 2), “can the church advocate for political reform?” (Chapter 3), “does Christianity address Black concerns for justice?” (Chapter 4), “is there an African presence in the Bible?” (Chapter 5), “what do we do with Black rage?” (Chapter 6), and “does the Bible endorse slavery?” (Chapter 7) which are often particularly important to the Black community." Shenvi notes that some of McCaulley's exegesis is overly strained, as he tries really hard to pull out social-justice themes from certain passages like Romans 13. I agree with Shenvi's points. McCaulley writes "on the edge" of orthodoxy, and generally stays on the side of affirming the Bible. He has good insights on the context of Paul, John the Baptist, Jesus, Moses, Mary, and others from a viewpoint of living under oppressive regimes. Yet he occasionally attacks straw-man arguments (especially in chapter 3, about political protesting/activism). For example, he writes on page 52 about "the popular misconception that Christians are called to pray and not to speak plainly about contemporary concerns". I know of no Christian anywhere who ever recommended that approach. Overall, I think this book is worth reading, perhaps in a discussion group with other Christians. I don't think it should be taken alone as the best overall discussion, but I think it could be helpful especially to young black Christians who feel theologically isolated (i.e. that none of their white Christian friends are asking the sorts of questions of the Bible that seem most relevant in their situation). McCaulley emphasizes that the Bible IS INDEED still crucially relevant to today.

Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth, by Thaddeus Williams
This book asks 12 thoughtful questions about "social justice". He writes about "Social Justice A" vs "Social Justice B". A is Biblical, B is not. He seeks to write in a very balanced way, with points at the end of each chapter listing possible misunderstandings that he is NOT saying in each chapter. He has good concern for opposing injustice. He makes a lot of good points in this book. There are so many points made that it is a little hard to digest. I think it might be a good book for a discussion group. There were a lot of great anecdotes, and excellent little life stories from 12 people (plus more, such as John Perkins' forward), illustrating the points discussed in the chapter. His 7 appendices addressing specific hot-topic justice issues were very interesting to read, and quite bold/ambitious. Overall, I recommend this book. Even if it is only one of the books you read on this topic (alongside those from other perspectives), his perspectives are well worth considering.

The Spy and the Traitor, by Ben Macintyre
This is a fascinating biography (pair of biographies) about a famous Russian KGB agent who ended up spying for the British in the 1980s, and the American CIA agent who betrayed him, and how the Russian escaped from Russia. It is very well written, and contains great research helping to understand the people involved. It also has great explanations of the culture and questions of that time period, and sheds light on how communist beauracracies work, and also on what motivates different people. It shows the importance of teams of people working together to support others. Highly recommended.

Here are some recent book reviews. For more, see http://tim223.xanga.com/category/book-reviews/

Return of the God Hypothesis, by Stephen Meyer
This excellent book looks at evidence of fine-tuning in the universe (habitability of Earth, fine-tuning of physical constants and "Big Bang" parameters, etc), and concludes that it makes more sense that the Earth & universe was designed by an Intelligent Designer who is transcendent, that is, not limited to physical time and space... i.e., by God. This follows up on his excellent books Signature in the Cell and Darwin's Doubt. Overall this is a great book, and mostly readable. He does delve into some very heavy physics topics when talking about the theories of the beginning of the universe from alleged "quantum fluctuations" or a multiverse, but he uses almost no math to keep it readable for non-specialists. He covers all the standard objections, which is very valuable... things like the anthropic principle, Hawking's imaginary time scenario, oscillating universe, panpsychism, the multiverse theory with its physical and philosophical problems, the "God of the Gaps" accusation and Bayes theory. He talks about Boltzmann brains. He covers all the major people and their theories, in a very readable way, with little photos of each person. This book is about as good as it gets for covering the secular universe-origin theories and showing why they don't work and are actually anti-scientific. He weaves his own story through the book, including his interactions (and debates/conversations) with some of the key people. A couple small caveats - Meyer is not necessarily a young-earth creationist, so his apparent views on the Big Bang and age of the universe do not mesh quite easily with the Bible. However, most of this book is still useful for young-earth creationists, and it is helpful to read the evidence cited in support of the Big Bang (and the theory's problems too). Also, Meyer's style is very slow and deliberate and even redundant at times, so there were some pages which repeated the same idea 3 or 4 times as he slowly developed it... The style could be condensed in a future revision to make it shorter and more readable. But it is still a valuable read, even perhaps for group discussion.

Too Good To Be False: How Jesus' Incomparable Character Reveals His Reality, by Tom Gilson
This book's main point is that Jesus' character is unique (astonishing divine self-conception and authority with deep humility, moral purity, generosity, and love, including mixtures of traits which would normally be a turn-off in most people (e.g. never admitting making a mistake) which somehow attracted people to him), and unlikely to have been concocted by a group of later authors (and even if they tried, unlikely for all the different authors to have merged successfully into a coherent biographical portrait across multiple books, audiences, locations, and times). The book brought up some very interesting things about Jesus in the gospels, such as that He was never said to have "faith" in God (which would be unusual for a respected religious teacher), and that He never talked about God as "Our Father" (only "My Father" or "your Father"... the one exception is when his disciples asked him about prayer and he told them to pray, "Our Father"... the implication being that His Son-Father relationship was different than our relationship with God). I enjoyed this book and recommend it to others, but I think that most skeptics would not be convinced by its reasoning. Christians would probably enjoy it more. It is very easy to read, with lots of little anecdotes and quotes.

Here are some more book reviews.  See the category link on the left for more.

The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices, by Lydia McGrew
In this book she refutes the increasingly popular idea in NT studies that the gospel writers used "literary devices", which are alleged techniques commonly used by ancient historians to "invent" historical details, "transfer" words from the original speaker to someone else for theological reasons, etc. (For example, Michael Licona teaches this view in his book 'Why are there differences between the gospels'). Instead, she shows that they used the "Reportage" model, which is that they were reporting history in an accurate fashion (though sometimes using achronological topical arrangement or synopsizing for brevity). This is a very thorough and very important book. She shows that actually most ancient Greek/Roman historians at that time did NOT use those literary devices, and that even if they did, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John would not likely have read their works or learned that "Bioi" genre/style. She then goes through many of the alleged discrepancies between the gospels and shows how they can be harmonized. In three or four instances, she posits that the authors of the gospels made a simple error (she is not an inerrantist), and shows that this is much more likely (and even more useful) than that the authors deliberately changed the story for theological reasons. This book dovetails well with the previous book "Hidden in Plain View" about how the gospels "accidentally confirm each other" with "undesigned coincidences". The book also has great information on the secular historians at that time.

So the Next Generation Will Know, by Sean McDowell and J. Warner Wallace
This is written primarily for those who are in direct frequent contact with Christian children, such as youth group pastors or parents. It's about how to connect with the new generation (Generation Z, the iPhone generation), and how to help them to not only understand Christianity and understand the evidence for it, but believe in it and CARE about it. The first part of the book was kind of boring, but it got better. They share some of their failures as youth group leaders / educators in a Christian school, and how they made changes to have students have more transformational time, not just fun time. They recommend "TAB"- mixing the three aspects of Theology, Apologetics, and Behavior, into all teaching of youth. They suggest good question topics of high apologetics interest. They recommend times of training, followed by scheduled 'challenges' for the youth... missions trips, evangelism trips, service trips, visiting a group of people who have a different worldview, etc. I think this is worth reading for every Christian, and repeatedly every couple years, and discussing with others.

Attached, by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller
This book discusses three different styles to relational attachment, especially in romantic relationships. The three styles are Anxious, Avoidant, and Secure. Anxious people are nervous about the relationship, and respond to relational stress by trying to talk more and increase emotional intimacy. They are quick to see relational problems as indicating that they are a failure. Avoidant people try to avoid emotional intimacy and seek 'space' and 'distance' in their relationships. Secure people are easily able to show emotional intimacy, and tend not to worry about their relationships. The authors suggest (based on psychological studies) that almost everyone falls into one of these styles, or a mixture (like Avoidant-Anxious). They suggest that people are genetically predisposed toward them and are also somewhat conditioned by childhood examples, and that people can sometimes change over time. Also, people can take note of their own tendencies and apply coping mechanisms to avoid problematic excesses. The authors discuss the problems that manifest in relationships between Anxious and Avoidant people, and other pairings, and how to try to mitigate them. The last two chapters have excellent general advice for romantic relationships and happier marriages, such as how to fight verbally in a healthy way with one's spouse. The book is completely secular, so it misses the powerful perspective that comes from the Bible on marriage and relationships (and its scenarios are very secular, with lots of stories of couples living together without being married, and all the stress associated with that). However, as secular romantic relationship books go, it is a decent read. The central concept is a helpful tool, though it should not be applied too rigidly.