Top 3 Lesser Known Books

Conversation stimulater:

Name three of your favorite “lesser known” books that you have read and why you chose them.

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Try to Remember by Paul R. McHugh, which I read before I found out he has opposing gender reassignment since the 70’s. I read it on the recommendation of a friend (Kamilla). If you want to understand modern psychiatric and psychological care from the inside, and the internal battle raging in the field, as well as the real problem with Freudian ideas and how there isn’t such a thing as multiple personality disorder, how false memories are formed, and the damage they can do, this is the book to read. Also, if you want to know why PTSD is so common and what to do about it. Oh, and why the DSM is a joke. Can’t recommend this highly enough. I think every pastor should read it.

God Is Red by Liao Yiwu, on the recommendation of my dad. A book about Communist repression of Christianity in China, written by a non-Christian who had already written about repression of other groups under the regime. Very helpful in thinking about living under serious persecution. Also quite moving.

The Provincial Letters by Blaise Pascal (starts on page 340 at the linked version) on the recommendation of my dad. Not only will you read a good defense of ridicule. You will see it quite effectively used against types of reasoning and justification of things that are still common today and tempting to each of us.

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I don’t read as widely as I ought so I don’t have much to offer.

People of the Promise: A Mere Protestant Ecclesiology A stimulating series of essays on protestant ecclesiology that covers a wide swath of topics in that field. Free to read on Kindle Unlimited if you have it (how I found it).

The Protector Compelling and often times devotional bio of Oliver Cromwell. Recommended by a friend.

The Beauty of God Essays from a Weaton conference on the arts. Required reading for a class on took on the Arts in Western Culture. Really hit or miss - but when it hits, it hits.

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I can’t say these are necessarily top three, but hopefully they are interesting to someone.

Hammer of God - Bo Giertz. This is a Swedish novel about Lutherans as they struggle to accept the implications of God’s free gift of His death and our salvation during various difficult and tempting times in history, ending in WW2 (it was published in the 40s.)

Mythical Man-Month - Fred Brooks. This is fairly well known in the software field but is generally applicable. It’s essentially a humanist treatise on why we cannot complete what we set out to do. And it has some good stories and principles for being effective in your vocation.

Any of the Wodehouse omnibi containing his Mulliner stories. Wodehouse is well known, but if he were better read, I think more of the people I encounter would be good-humored and content!

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I’m very late to this party, but…

Pastor Hsi is a wonderful biography of a Chinese man who became a Christian and then worked tirelessly to evangelize his fellow Chinese. The link I’m posting here is for a used version that costs $46, unfortunately, but I’m skeptical of the other reprints. As you can see, the book was published at a time when the author signed her name, “Mrs. Howard Taylor.” I’m suspicious that the best parts may be altered in the newer versions.

Servant of Slaves is a biography of John Newton that is rather sentimental. I remember it, however, because there were extended sections on how Newton’s wife grew bitter and rejected the faith later in life. I took it as a strong warning not to take things for granted. The book claims that she returned to the faith before her death… but I was left wondering.

That’s only two, but I picked both of those because biographies are great.

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Brand by Ibsen: Dad had a copy and it was good
Attack Upon Christendom by Kierkegaard: like an OT prophet writing parables for Gospel Coalition, Evangel Presbytery, and the Muscovites
Justification by James Buchanan: treasure after treasure, all leading to deep understanding how Rome’s doctrine is very sophisticated mercantilism (although Buchanan doesn’t mention it)

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I have Buchanan on the short list right now, though I have to admit that I’m still not very far into it. That’s an important one, for sure. This is in no way complete, but I’m excited that this is in the works:

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We should do the version of Luther’s commentary on Galatians that I have, explaining to people how bad modern versions are.

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The version Pastor Bayly is referring to is this one. This book was my introduction to Pastors College, our very first class led by Pastor Bayly w this book. Unbelievably helpful. I lent my copy out (I’m sure to one of *You troublemakers out there have it! ;). Thankfully my better half found another copy online for me last Christmas, for, ahem, less than $580 Lol. But Tim is right, if you compare this version with other modern versions, it’s simultaneously laughable and even more so lamentable, all the priceless content they edit out.

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Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ by Bunyan. - I read this years ago and was encouraged and strengthened by knowing God’s free grace in Christ. He expounds John 6:37 “All that the Father gives to me will come to me and I will no-wise cast out.” Bunyan is one of the most readable puritans, making it a good one even for those who aren’t willing to put in the work for old books.

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The Resilient Life I was at a ministry retreat and we were offered our choice of a handful of books to take home, read and pass on. Several of the other titles I already owned so I picked this one up. Not theological, not intellectual, but it came at the right time for me. Pretty much changed my life. Full of great insights and wisdom. MacDonald connects the race of life with cross country running. I know it sounds cliché (how many books have done the same?), but he manages to make it fresh and full of power. Perhaps much of its impact came from the fact it was the book I needed, when I needed it. Regardless, highly recommended.

The Forgotten Fear I don’t know if this one qualifies as “lesser known”, but it showed up on Tim Challies kindle sale page and I bought it for a couple bucks. Excellent. I will definitely reread it.

Shardik Can I include a novel? I read and enjoyed Watership Down (which probably does not qualify as a “lesser known book”). I found Shardik on the shelf in a Goodwill and realized it was by the same author. Figured it was worth a shot. I’m glad I tried it out. It’s a ponderous epic, that trudges along and made me think of LOTR in the sense of having depth, as if you were peeking into a world that was much bigger than the vignette the author was highlighting for you. It follows the journey of a tribesman hunter who encounters a massive bear. His tribe worships the bear, so he sees the bear as the incarnation of his god. The rest of the book is an exploration of what people do when god shows up. An awesome book if you enjoy epic fantasy.

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Is this from some kind of forthcoming Warhorn Classics site or something?!

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Adding it to the list.

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As someone who likes to read histories and biographies, I’ve found that compilations of letters or journalist’s stories are often as much if not more insightful than one man’s summation, e.g. McCullough’s John Adams is great, but reading the letters that passed between John and Abigail are better. You’ll quickly discover that broad histories gloss over so much detail that they often distort the big picture rather than clarify it. In that vein, I’d suggest these three from Library of America:

  • Reporting World War II: American Journalism 1938-1946

  • The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence 1775–1783

  • The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It

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Which is to say primary sources, and fully agreed. But we’re so insecure today that even publishers issuing public domain classics are deleting text that threatens their readers, so you can’t even depend upon primary sources when they’re abridged. My favorite account of this is opening up Multnomah’s “reprint” of Baxter’s Reformed Pastor (what I consider the best book on pastoral ministry) and finding in the text halfway through a parenthetical statement by the publisher something to the effect of “At this point, Richard Baxter goes into a long discussion of church discipline which is of limited use to the modern reader, so we’ve left it out.” The same thing is true about Crossway’s modern reprints of classic commentaries. They’re bowdlerized, and Luther on Galatians is awful. But then, today, Crossway and Tyndale and the Lockman Foundation do this even to Scripture, so it should be no surprise they do it to Baxter and Luther, also.

Good to see you out and about, dear brother. Glad you weren’t hit as hard as others. Love,

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I read Hammer of God years ago. Weird little book, but it has some powerful sections describing people coming to grips with the true gospel.

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A post was split to a new topic: Help needed: Commentaries that use the KJV

I’ll stir it up a little bit:

  • Domain modeling made functional — if you’re going to program, this book will show you a way to do it functionally in the small and in the large (somewhat advanced)
  • Doug Tennapel’s Tommysaurus Rex — Great graphic novel read with my two boys.
  • Joe Boot’s The Mission of God — I grew up watching Star Trek and got optimism there. Little did I know the Bible was full of it for the future.
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New Year’s bump to one of my favorite topics in hopes that there might be some new additions to it in the coming days.

Here’s a couple of “lesser known books” on cultural issues that I believe are worth reading:

Target: Prime Time: Advocacy Groups and the Struggle Over Entertainment Television by Kathryn C. Montgomery (1989)
Well researched and startling in some of its revelations, especially regarding how the abortion and gay lobbies were able to successfully and strategically find a voice within the television industry. The chapters on the Maude abortion episode (ch 3) and the one about the establishment of the Gay Media Task Force (ch 5) detail the tactics and specific strategies utilized to ensure how TV would help shape public perception of abortion and homosexuality. Written by a secular sociologist so not from a Christian POV but highly informative, although the chapter on the Christian response to the moral free-for-all on TV (ch 8) is not as fair as the other chapters.

Forgetting How to Blush: United Methodism’s Compromise with the Sexual Revolution by Karen Booth (2012)
If you want an up-close look at the moral, theological, and institutional compromise behind the decline of a major denomination, this is full of important first source research and clear connections. Of particular note is information about Ted McIlvenna, a major liberalizing influence on sexuality in the denomination in the 1960s. The book sadly makes some compromises with the Side B position near the end (the author recommends books by Mark Yarhouse, Wesley Hill, Matthew Lee Anderson, and Jenell Williams Paris) but in terms of outlining the hidden history of Kinsey’s influence in the UMC, it is very helpful.

The following are not books but rather sermons that I have found particularly worth reading.
“Distrust of the Word” by James W. Alexander (1853; this printing is from 1861)
A sermon about the various ways Christians are tempted to distrust the Word of God.

The Difficulties and Temptations Which Attend the Preaching of the Gospel in Great Cities by Samuel Miller (1820)
A fantastic counter-point to the “for the city” ideology of Keller.

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