The Year's Best Books for Preachers
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
The demise of the book has been predicted for years now – its doom supposedly inevitable after the advent of the digital age. Well, someone forgot to tell the reading public in general, and preachers in particular, that the book is supposedly dead. Among preachers, the book is very much alive.
This is for good reason, of course. Books are the arsenal of the pastor’s work, the basic equipment of the pastor’s study. Those called to preach the Word find themselves the friends of books. Of course, the question is this – which books shall we read?
This annual review essay is intended to help preachers identify at least some of the books that belong on the preacher’s bookshelf.
We start, naturally, with books about the Bible. Frank Thielman of Beeson Divinity School has written the title Theology of the New Testament: A Canonical and Synthetic Approach (Zondervan). This massive work, wide in scope and keen in analysis, brings together Thielman’s canonical understanding of Scripture. As Thielman explains, “The study of New Testament theology is . . . .a narrow and self-defeating enterprise. When pursued within the church and under the authority of the texts, it can provide the means through which the prophetic voice of the texts is heard clearly in the modern church and, through the church, in the world.”
In keeping with his canonical method, Thielman presents each of the New Testament books while simultaneously attempting “to honor the theological connections between these different texts by summarizing them” and by providing a theological overview.
Similarly, Eugene H. Merrill of Dallas Theological Seminary and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has published Everlasting Dominion: A Theology of the Old Testament (B & H Academic). Merrill states his approach clearly: “At the onset we have, without apology and equivocation, undertaken our work with the settled conviction that the Old Testament is the written word of God, revealed by Him to the prophets of old, preserved from error in matters of fact and doctrine, and authoritative for both Israel and the church.” Merrill, one of the most seasoned and respected Old Testament theologians of our time, presents a thorough and expansive theological analysis of the Old Testament and its writings.
One of the daunting challenges faced by any preacher is that of preaching through the Old Testament. One of the most helpful models of how to engage the Old Testament in preaching is provided by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D. C., in his significant new book, The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made (Crossway). Dever provides a single sermon on each of the Old Testament books.
Why should Christian preachers give so much attention to the Old Testament? As Dever explains, “The undeniable emphasis that Jesus placed upon the Old Testament Scriptures is that they testify to Him. Of course they testify to all sorts of other things as well: godliness, faithfulness, the progress and regress of God’s people, sinfulness, judgment, and so on. But Jesus, along with the apostles and the other authors of the New Testament, emphasize that the Old Testament, above all, is about Him.”