I had the opportunity to read 28 books in 2018 - a couple of repeats, but the vast majority new books to me. Here, in no particular order, were my favorite new books last year.
G. K. Chesterton, Four Faultless Felons. A collection of four delightful short stories - "The Honest Quack," "The Moderate Murderer," "The Ecstatic Thief," and "The Loyal Traitor." Each of the 4 short stories features a criminal who is yet blameless in their transgression. The "moderate murderer" is accused of attempted murder for shooting the governor of British India. Yet the shooter, an expert marksman, deliberately shot to injure, not kill - and only shot in order to save the governor from a successful assassination around the next bend in the path. Chesterton's whimsical stories are individually engaging and collectively captivating - a thorough pleasure!
Geraint Lewis and Luke Barnes, A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Lewis and Barnes are both professional academic physicists, who explore the apparent fine-tuning of our universe. They walk through numerous elements of the natural world that have to be precisely what they are in order for life to be possible anywhere in the universe. After analyzing several elements of fine-tuning is great detail, Lewis and Barnes then consider the possible sources of cosmic fine-tuning. Lewis, an atheist, contends for multiverse (the existence of a plethora of independently existing universes, each with different constants and laws) as the best explanation for our universe's fine tuning - after all, he reasons, if there are billions of universes, one of them is liable to have the right conditions for life: we just happen to find ourselves in that universe. Barnes, a Christian, argues for divine design as the source of our universe's fine-tuning - God desires to (and successfully does) create a world in which complex creatures can arise and learn to love Him. The deep beauty of A Fortunate Universe is the charitable dialogue between believer and skeptic on the undeniable fine-tuning that we see in the universe. A difficult but richly rewarding read.
Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery (HarperCollins, 2007). I have long admired the life and career of William Wilberforce, one of the pivotal figures in the English abolitionist movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After his conversion to evangelical Christianity, Wilberforce tirelessly pursued abolition of the slave trade and emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire. Metaxas is certainly guilty of hero-worship in Amazing Grace, but he nonetheless does a credible job of presenting the contours of Wilberforce's life - familial, personal, political, and religious. Other figures crucial to abolition are given adequate light of day, but the spotlight shines brightest of Wilberforce. His biography inspires contemporary Christians to pursue God's calling and purpose in their lives as well - who knows where the next Wilberforce will come from!
Nancy Pearcey, Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Baker, 2017). I have admired Pearcey's work since her inaugural How Now Shall We Live? and was eager to work through her magisterial volume on contemporary issues in gender and sexuality. Many commentators today contend that post-Christian sexual ethics are rooted in a deep physicality - a love for the human body and its physical pleasures. Pearcey's primary contention in Love Thy Body is the opposite - that the move toward the normalization of homosexuality and the affirmation of gender fluidity marks an abhorrence of man's physical form. The sexual revolution has seen man exert pre-eminent control over the laws of nature plain in physical order, rejecting his created physicality in favor of self-chosen identities. Pearcey is always thoughtful and articulate, and clearly has her finger on the pulse of contemporary society. Another difficult but tremendously fascinating venture.
J. B. Stump, ed., Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design (Zondervan, 2017). Stump draws together spokespersons for young-earth creation (Ken Ham), old-earth (or progressive) creation (Hugh Ross), evolutionary creationism (Deborah Haarsma), and intelligent design (Stephen Meyer). The four authors set forth arguments and evidence in favor of their own positions, and charitably (for the most part) pose objections to the others. Christians all affirm the doctrine of Creation - it is the how and when of creation that are matters of dispute, and that dispute is nicely encapsulated in Zondervan's new counterpoint book. It is worth every Christian's time to investigate the reasoning behind the positions that they do not personally embrace.
There is much of worth to read, and insufficient time to indulge it all. I am thankful for all I learned from my literary adventures last year, and hope for more of the same this!
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