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Archive for the ‘Recent Reading (Book Recommendations)’ Category

God is Our Refuge and Strength

Posted in Psalmody, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), WPE Editor on October 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The following is a book review of God Is Our Refuge and Strength: 150 Devotional through the Psalms, written by my good friend, Rob Ventura, and Bill Boekestein. Banner of Truth is publishing it, set to release this month.

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If you pick up a well-worn Bible from a serious Christian, you will often find a slightly darker band along the edge of the pages. Pretty much in the middle. Crack it open at that point, and you will find the Book of Psalms. And there’s good reason. In the library of Holy Scripture, the Psalms hold a prominent place in God’s self-revelation and strike the deepest chords in the heart of every believer. Bill Boekestein and Rob Ventura’s God is our Refuge and Strength: 150 Devotionals through the Psalms is a welcome offering for any reader of the Psalms.

This book is more a devotional than a commentary. And yet, it is a more dense devotional. Not that it is inaccessible, mind you. Hardly! I would hand this volume to a thoughtful high schooler. But by ‘more dense,’ I mean that Refuge and Strength is more intentional in dealing with the actual exegesis, or the historico-grammatical meaning of each psalm. Yet the density is anything dry or cumbersome; rather, it lets the psalm’s natural beauty and real devotional character breathe. You get biblical sentiment without sentimentality, romance without mush, piety without its sickly, saccharine look-alikes. This devotional flies much closer to the ground of the actual text—and thus to true religion!—with all its dread majesty, raw realism, self-abasing confession, and perplexity. But it does this all in manageable and engaging daily meditations.

Several other great features struck me in reading through the book. First, there is a refreshing honesty in coming to the text of the Psalms. “Many modern Christians have an uneasy relationship with the psalms. We believe that the psalms, as with all Scripture, are ‘breathed out by God and profitable’ (2 Tim. 3:16). Yet, reading and singing them can feel uncomfortable” (xix). That honesty of the reader fits with the very honesty of the Psalter itself. The “psalms are realistic. They provide a song for even mature believers who want to ‘be glad in the Lord’ (Psa. 32:11) but don’t always feel like it” (60; Psalm 42). The authenticity of the Psalter commends itself, especially to those who know something of the ‘dark night of the soul.’ “The writer is struggling. He feels trapped in darkness. He suffered from spiritual dehydration, stubborn sadness, and extreme uncertainty and pessimism. He feels trapped beneath the pounding torrent of God’s waterfall” (61; Psalm 42).

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Recent reading: Tribe and Fair Sunshine

Posted in Culture, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), Sabbath/Religious Reading, Social Issues on July 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Just finished Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. A really thought-provoking, short non-fiction book that explores how bankrupt modern society is in meeting our deeper needs for identity, social belonging, and human purpose. Writing from firsthand experience in warfare, he reflects on the paradox of how men actually find hidden blessings in their battlefield “bands of brothers,” only to find the highly fragmented, individualistic society to which they return has nothing to offer them but a complete void. No wonder traumatic events like war and other tragedies, which band people together in a common purpose, actually reduce the incidence of mental health problems or at least mitigate them.

A little more from Wikipedia:

In Tribe, Junger discusses how the human experience is profoundly different in modern society compared to in the small groups (or tribes) in which people have historically lived. While people in tribes were interconnected and dependent on each other, people in modern society, he argues, often feel detached from their neighbors and experience deep fissures along sociodemographic lines. The modern man may go his whole life without needing to put himself at risk to help other people, given the availability of the police, fire department, and other emergency services; despite being surrounded by people, the modern person may also feel incredibly alone and isolated. These observations give rise a central question of Junger’s book: why do veterans often express that they were happier in times of war than at home?

As a caveat, bear in mind that the author is not a Christian and presupposes the theory of evolution in appraising social phenomena.

Also reading the modern classic Fair Sunshine with the family on the Lord’s day. Jock Purves gives compelling accounts of various Presbyterian heroes and heroines from the late 17th century persecutions in Scotland under the cruel tyranny of the Stuarts. Definitely for high school readers and up, both in terms of language level and mature content. The tortures, while not gratuitously explained, are conveyed enough to disturb any reader. But such wounds are sweet, as the are the bearing in the “body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

One of the most moving things in these accounts are the farewell speeches of these noble martyrs on the gallows. A sample here from Hugh McKail in 1666, when he was only 26 years old:

Now I begin my intercourse with God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations; farewell, the world and all of its delights; farewell, meat and drinks; farewell, sun, moon and stars.

Welcome, God and Father; welcome, Sweet Lord Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant; welcome, Blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all consolation; welcome, glory; welcome, eternal life; welcome, death. O Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit; for thou hast redeemed my soul, O Lord God of truth!

Truly, these are such “of whom the world was not worthy.”

I might just add that we have found Douglas Bond’s books written for children about the Covenanters really good. Start reading Duncan’s War with your family, and you’ll likely read the rest!

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Recent reading: Dachau & the Western Front

Posted in Postwar Consensus, Nationalism, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), Sabbath/Religious Reading on July 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Aubrey and I just read A Theatre in Dachau by Hermanus Knoop. This was the second book by a Dutch Reformed minister who was thrown into this notoriously vicious concentration camp in World War II and lived to tell. And what a testimony it was. Knoop used as theme his narrative the “theatre” or “spectacle,” first used under inspiration by the Apostle Paul, “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men” (1 Cor. 4:9). While the scenes he recounted were of unspeakable horror and inhumanity, the spectacle of Christians like him were paradoxically the very inverse of what their tormentors saw. While they saw contemptible and despicable weakness in their victims, those with faith—including their Christian readers—witnesses nothing short of the “beauty of holiness.” And Knoop, of course, witnessed the glory firsthand:

In the concentration camp of Dachau the God of all grace did wonders of grace by His Word and Spirit every day. Oh, it was indeed a dreadful time for me that I spent there, and yet it is not at all a hollow phrase when I say that I would for no amount of money have missed this time of my life, since it was so unspeakably rich in grace. I saw God there. The Lord was in this place. It was a house of God and a gate of heaven.

This book was more of the same, which we read together some years back: Faith and Victory in Dachau by Jack Overduin—also by the same publisher, Inheritance Publications. Just like Knoop’s account, it all came down whether this Reformed minister should “obey God rather than men.” Either the Reformed Churches, ministers, schools, and parents capitulate to their Nazi occupiers and peddle their propaganda for them, or they resist and pay. Rev. Overduin paid. And so his stirring account in the bowels of Dachau. Both of these books are so worth reading, though this one you may need to find it on the used market.

Rewinding a generation to World War I, my daughter Annie and I read All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque in anticipation of watching the cinematic remake back in 2022. This classic novel portrays enthusiastic fresh-faced German boys volunteering themselves for their existential awakening (or rather, mortification) in the trenches of France. The book was truly great, and the film definitely did it justice. The scene where the protagonist finds himself in a crater between the trenches, ineffectively trying to finish off a dying French soldier, is so powerful. As the unconscious dying man gurgled, the German found in the nameless man’s pocket a picture of him and his family back in France. The humanity of it all came down on him hard. War is a taste of hell, and it is simply madness to court it.

The other moment that struck me was the scene portraying the Treaty of Versailles signed in a passenger train car. While watching it in the theater, I leaned over and whispered to Annie. When the French later surrendered in World War II in 1940, the Führer ordered that very same train car be found and re-used ceremonially for their capitulation to the Germans. In many ways, World War I ended and World War II seminally began in 1917 when the Allies imposed extreme war reparations that became wholly unbearable for Germany. While Hitler proved a madman, he certainly had a flair for poetic justice. If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. Interestingly, the Nazis banned the book precisely because it frowned on German nationalism and war-mongering.

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Recent reading: Mack on marriage

Posted in Family & Family Issues, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations) on November 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Just finished listening to an audiobook version of Wayne A. Mack’s Strengthening Your Marriage. Highly recommended. Especially appreciated his chapter on developing and keeping up good communication between spouses, a really insightful and practical chapter on figuring out your shared finances, and—what perhaps surprised me the most—a chapter on child-rearing. The latter makes buckets of sense when you realize that marital tension is aggravated by poor and sloppy discipline, or beneath that, an unbiblical “philosophy” of child-rearing.

Great refresher for strong marriages (we can never just coast!), a solid primer for those in the early glow, and a life-preserver for those treading water and wanting to get back to shore.

Pick up and read! Or, if you have access to Hoopla or other free library services, have a listen!

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Recent reading: from creaking stairs to the cross

Posted in Audio Resources, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), Sabbath/Religious Reading on September 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Just finished listening to this audiobook, The Creaking on the Stairs: Finding Faith in God Through Childhood Abuse. Very highly recommended. Rosaria Butterfield says in the forward, “The most disturbing book that I have ever read, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.” While I can’t say it is the most disturbing book I’ve ever read, the subject matter is beyond doubt extremely disturbing … and yet heavenly at the same time, which is why I heartily second Rosaria.

The author, Mez McConnell, was raised up in an extremely dysfunctional and highly abusive home. After coming of age, he fell into gross, reckless sin, became a criminal, and did hard time; but Christ had other plans. And so at the “time appointed,” Christ made a trophy of this sinner, plucking him as a brand from the burning and liberating his heart from anger, bitterness, and resentment.

The book is part narrative, part theology and spiritual reflection. It reminds me in many ways of Augustine’s great Confessions and Thomas Halyburton’s Memoirs, especially in its adult, post-conversion reflections on childhood, sin, and grace. (If you’ve never read those two classics, then tolle, lege! And for a taste, read Augustine’s thoughts on the ‘pear tree’ incident.) Further, Creaking is dramatic theodicy—if not directly inspired by the Book of Job, then at least resonating highly with it. If God is and is good, then why is there suffering?

This book is for those who have suffered abuse, Christian or not. It’s also for those who live with those who have or want to understand how better to love and support sufferers. Really, it’s for everyone. And I would be surprised if this doesn’t end up being something of a modern, Christian classic of autobiography, like Joni Eraekson Tada’s Joni and Rosaria Butterfield’s Secret Thoughts. Oh, and add those two to your list as well!

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Recent reading: Luther, teenagers, and robots

Posted in Audio Resources, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations) on July 29, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Some more personal reading recommendations. First, finished reading Luther in Love to the family in our Sabbath down time. We’ve read a number of his other books for younger readers—and the young at heart—all of them well-researched and well-written. I thought this one in particular really exhibited Bond’s literary excellence. Very easy to read. My only quibble is that the book’s title would lead you to think that its central theme is his relationship with his wife, Katharina von Bora. Their relationship is prominent, to be sure; but it’s really more a life of Luther. But if you really want to read some historical fiction featuring their Christian romance, I’d highly recommend, Kitty, My Rib, by E. Jane Mall.

Another book I read to the family was the non-fiction book by David Murray, Why Am I Feeling Like This? A Teen’s Guide to Freedom from Anxiety and Depression. This is the best thing I’ve come across from a Reformed perspective, addressed to adolescents. He covers the range of emotional pathologies, whether full-blown disorders or just the phases of that often tumultuous transition from childhood to adulthood. Very insightful, very appropriate, and very accessible. This is helpful also to share with others who are trying to help their teenagers weather their feelings biblically and wisely. You can read the introduction and the first chapter here, where he introduces “Circular Sarah.”

Finally, my last recommendation is a modern, secular classic, the sci-fi I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Now, this genre is not my typical go-to, but my son put me on to it, and I was not at all disappointed. Originally published in 1950 and written about a futuristic world set in the 21st century, it is quite striking how very prescient Asimov was in terms robotics and artificial intelligence. The book is a catena of short stories featuring a handful of characters and their robotic counterparts who really prove to be a foil and a looking-glass for themselves as humans, in all their fancy, fury, and folly. I was quite surprised with how Asimov combined the technical, literary, and philosophical in a compelling way. Definitely both sides of the brain were working full power! And yet so tragic to consider that the celebrated author was a Russian Jew turned atheist. Man can imagine artificial intelligence and foreshadow it with elegance; and time has shown that he can bring it into being. Yet in his hubris he cannot and will not return to the Source. “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Cor. 1:20-21). When one looks at the image above, what does he see but a dead idol, the stump of Dagon, the hollow shell of a man? Even so, the idol-maker is just “like unto them.”

And check out my growing library of devotional and theological resources from our rich and diverse Reformed heritage here.

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Recent reading: strong gods and black rednecks

Posted in Audio Resources, Culture, Postwar Consensus, Nationalism, Race, Kinism, "Race Realism", Recent Reading (Book Recommendations), Social Issues on May 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

In the last few months, I finished a couple of really insightful non-fiction titles. The first was R. R. Reno’s The Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West. This was the most helpful overview of what the “post-war consensus” (PWC) actually is and why it is on life support if not in its death pangs. Basically, the PWC was birthed in the aftermath of World War II and the horrors both on the battlefield and in the concentration camps. “Never again!” was the motto in Europe and the U.S., and the modus operandi of the elites was to tamp down on all discourse—religious, political, or social—that could elevate the blood pressure of the nations and so risk a reprise of the world wars. Liberalism in the broader sense of tolerance, acceptance, and openness, was the prevailing doctrine. But what it ended up doing was fueling the populisms and nationalisms we have witnessed in the last decade or so. In the end, we are humans who need “strong loves.” Something to be passionate about—and even die for!

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Recent reading: toxic men, alien invasions, and the ‘errand into the wilderness’

Posted in Audio Resources, Culture, New England Puritanism, Recent Reading (Book Recommendations) on September 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I thought I might share what I’ve been reading recently. In addition to my devotional and theological recordings, here are some books I’ve finished in recent days of personal interest. In our extremely digital age, we need to stay reading. Let us read good books; and if we read books that are not explicitly Christian, let us do so critically with an eye to Scripture as our absolute authority.

First, Nancy R. Pearcey’s The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes. In a similar fashion to Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Nancy Pearce frames her book of cultural commentary around a “how did we get here?” question. For Trueman, it was “how did we ever get to the place where a man thinks he is a woman?” For Pearcey, it is “how did masculinity ever become ‘toxic?'” She engages in a historical and sociological inquiry that is quite insightful, from a thoughtful, Christian perspective. I especially found her explanation of the shift of men from cottage-industry and family-integrated work patterns to working outside the home in factories, etc., at the Industrial Revolution, and its negative impact on father-son relationships and family life in general. For a kind of teaser, listen to this interview on Issues, etc.

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