A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Our friend Pastor Jack Jeffery has compiled a helpful reading list for understanding our times. We post it here with his permission and for your enjoyment!
For The Present Distress
1 Corinthians 7:26
Required readings for the present distress (in order of publication):
- Psalm 2, 37, and 73[1]
- Matthew 28
- Revelation 19–20
- Augustin, The City of God, trans. Henry Bettenson (Penguin Classics). Also available at Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
- Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1937).
- Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper & Row, 1951).
- Carl F. H. Henry, Christian Countermoves in a Decadent Culture, A Critical Concern Book (Portland: Multnomah, 1986).
- Carl F. H. Henry, Twilight of a Great Civilization: The Drift toward Neo-paganism (Wheaton: Crossway, 1988)
- Jacques Barzun, The Culture We Deserve, ed. Arthur Krystal (Middletown: Wesleyan University, 1989).
- Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life (New York: HarperCollins, 2000).
- D.A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008).
- D.A. Carson, The Intolerance of Tolerance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009).
Collateral readings for the present distress (in order of publication):
- Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity, 1968).
- Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City (Wheaton: Crossway, 1969).
- Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church At The End of the Twentieth Century (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity, 1970).
- Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church Before The Watching World: A Practical Ecclesiology (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity, 1971).
- Francis A. Schaeffer, and C. Everett Koop, Whatever Happened To The Human Race? (Wheaton: Crossway, 1979).
- Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster (Wheaton: Crossway, 1984).
John T. “Jack” Jeffery
Pastor, Wayside Gospel Chapel
Greentown, PA
[1] Other Psalms, particularly the celebration of God as King in the Royal Psalms (93–99), are also of spiritual benefit during dark times of national or international trauma.