Favourite Books of 2023

Theology and Culture

Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, by Christopher Watkin.

Watkin is a Yorkshireman who teaches French Literature in Australia. In this chunky book Watkin uses Augustine's City of God as a model of how to use the Bible in cultural engagement. I have found it bristling with insights and hope to go over it again to try to retain some of the stuff I have learned from it.

Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds, by Chris Brauns. 

This is the one book (apart from the Bible) that I took into hospital with me in November. Chris is an American Presbyterian pastor with a lot of experience of helping people work through the pastoral issues related to forgiveness. He lands squarely on the need for repentance to precede forgiveness. Some people are horrified by such a stance, and many would be puzzled, but Brauns makes a solid case that, to me at least, is convincing. I am still working through issues in this area myself and this book has been a helpful guide.

Into His Presence: Praying with the Puritans, by Tim Chester.

Tim is an old friend of mine, and I have benefitted from so many of his books - he is a prolific writer. I am not normal big on written prayers, but having enjoyed The Valley of Vision a couple of years ago, thought I would give this a try. I was not disappointed. Gave copies to the family for Christmas.

What Makes Us Humans? And Other Questions about God, Jesus and Human Identity, by Mark Meynell.

Mark calls this a "short book about a big subject". There can be few subjects that are so important in our cultural moment. It is so vital we get a proper view of what it means to be human when all around us people are questioning reality and coming to grief. If you haven't read anything on this, please give this one a read. It is one of a series on hot topics by The Good Book Company called 'Questions Christians Ask'. They are bite size, biblical, and brilliant.

Reality and Other Stories: Exploring the Life We Long for through the Tales We Tell, by Matt Lillicrap and Peter Dray.

Stories are fundamental to what it means to be human (see above). Matt and Peter reflect on seven kinds of stories that we tell each other. This book started as a series of talks by Peter at Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union and then reworked with Matt, using the framework provided by Christopher Booker in his The Seven Basic Plots. It's brilliant.

Missiology

Motus Dei: The Movement of God to Disciple the Nations, edited by Warrick Farrah.

News from far-flung places suggests that great numbers of people around the world are turning to Christ. And we are told that a leading factor in this movement is a relatively new method of church planting or disciple making. Motus Dei (Latin for the 'Movement of God') is a multi-author work that reflects on this phenomenon in a number of contexts around the world. It's a mixed bag. I offered to review this book for the International Journal of Frontier Mission but the project snowballed and now a whole issue is to be given over to it with my review article being followed by responses by other writers. Spoiler alert: I am sympathetic but have serious misgivings.

Biography

A Camaraderie of Confidence: The Fruit of Unfailing Faith in the lives of Charles Spurgeon, George Müller and Hudson Taylor, by John Piper.

This is the fourth book that I have read in this series of potted biographies by Piper. They spring from papers that he has given at his annual pastors' conference at Bethlehem Baptist Church. They are always super-encouraging and challenging. Piper doesn't focus on critique or analysis, though he could, but he does think freshly on his subject. His concern is to bring the faith of these three great men into focus so that we would emulate that faith in our day. I gave copies to a bunch of pastors in my area, with whom I hope we too form a camaraderie of confidence in the Lord.

Fiction

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie.

I am not an aficionado of crime fiction as some of my friends are, but this has got to be one of the best. An excellent plot with a stunning plot twist. 

At the Foot of the Snows

Review of At the Foot of the Snows: A Journey of Faith and Words among the Kham-speaking People of Nepal, by David Watters with Steve and Daniel Watters (Seattle, Engage Press, 2011, 375 pages, £9.43).

In the spring of 1990 the Peoples' Movement for Democracy ushered in a new era of political and religious freedom to the country of Nepal. I had been out of the country for a year due to what we might call a difference of opinion between myself and the immigration authorities. I was set to reenter when the movement reached its height and the army opened fire on a huge protest killing fifty unarmed protestors. Within 48 hours the king capitulated to the will of the people and a multi-party constitutional monarchy was reinstated. Two days later the border opened and I got on a bus and crossed the border from India. The change of view on the part of the authorities was astonishing. I began planning how we might make the most of that new openness while it lasted and four months later three trucks that were having to leave India were headed up to the border laden with good literature. Up to this time it had been impossible for us to import literature into the country. Now they just waved the trucks through, papers duly signed. One of those trucks stopped off at Duncan Hospital on the Indian side of the border to pick up a box of 400 Kham New Testaments that had been sitting at the hospital for five years waiting for this moment. This book is the story of how that NT was translated, and what a great story it is.

David and Nancy Watters entered Nepal with their three-year-old son Steve in 1969. Daniel was born soon after, while David and Nancy were learning the national language. They had joined a well-equipped team of linguists who had secured a written agreement with the government to map the minority languages of the country, reduce them to writing and establish their grammars and linguistic relationships. Their purpose was to translate the Word of God so that all the peoples of Nepal could read it in their heart language. David and Nancy were led through extraordinary providences to a little known group called the Kham, a people living in the West of the country in the high valleys 'at the foot of the snows'.

The narrative moves swiftly, though perhaps somewhat choppily, through the initial forays into the area, establishing a home in very difficult conditions, identification of a language helper, and the labour of a lifetime in learning the language and translating the NT. All the while, in the background, are the momentous changes going on in the country which came to have a huge impact on both the translators and the people.

This is a story of hardship, discouragement and pain, and faith, endurance and joy. In turn I was moved to tears and elation at the way the Lord led the Watters and answered their prayers, and I have been deeply challenged about my own faith and commitment. This is the best missionary biography I have read in a very long time. Get yourself a copy and have your vision stirred and your faith stretched.