Fire and Knowledge

Part of the The Reading Interviews series.

Justin Taylor is the Study Bible Project Director and Associate Publisher at Crossway Books. He has co-edited numerous books including Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ and most recently Overcoming Sin and Temptation. He blogs at Between Two Worlds.

What are your five favorite books? How have they influenced you?

Ah, what a difficult question this is! To be honest, if you asked me again next week, or from a slightly different perspective (like what would be my five desert-island books) I might give a very different list. But I’ll do my best. Oh, one final prefatory comment: I’m going to cheat and give you seven; after all, seven is much more biblical than five!

• The Bible. I know this seems like the obligatory pious answer, but it must go to the top of my list. Though my trust and obedience and thinking don’t always reflect it, the Bible is the source of life. I join the Apostle Peter in saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
• Augustine, Confessions. I’d put this in an “already” and “not yet” category, in that I’ve already been influenced by it and plan to continue studying it much more in the days ahead. I first read it in my freshman humanities class in college, and I’ve been drawn to it ever since. It’s combination of God-centered autobiography, personal prayer, psychology and theology are profoundly fascinating and insightful.
• William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith. I had a crisis of faith my freshman year of college, studying in a secular religion program. A number of introductory, popular-level works helped to answer some questions, but left me needing and wanting more. God provided Craig’s Reasonable Faith at just the right time. Though I disagree with Craig in some important ways, I thank God for his superb scholarship and passionate commitment to the gospel. It was one of the means God used to keep me from becoming an atheist. (That may sound extreme, but I have always seen the choice as being either full-blown orthodox Christianity or nihilism. Then and now I see no hope in theological liberalism.)
• John Piper, Desiring God. In some ways this is a placeholder for the entire Piper corpus. (I think I’ve read each of his books, except for his published dissertation.) This was another book I read in college. Not only did it provide a paradigm for God’s glory and my job, but it opened up the world of Reformed soteriology and pointed me to the writings of Jonathan Edwards. The Lord has used Piper’s writings throughout the years to convict, challenge, and shape me. God also used his preaching to shatter my perception of pastors as de facto anti-intellectuals.
• Frank Thielman, Paul and the Law. Studying the Apostle Paul’s theology of gospel and law has occupied a major part of my theological and exegetical studies over the ten years. I found Thielman’s treatment—which should be read in conjunction with his shorter but broader book, The Law and the New Testament—to be among the best things I read in shaping and solidifying my present position.
• Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology. Grudem’s was the first systematic theology I read. I eventually had the opportunity to teach through it in various settings. Grudem is an excellent thinker and writer, and he has a heart to communicate God’s truth to God’s people. The result is a textbook that is clear—explaining not assuming difficult concepts. It is also worshipful, with a bent toward practical application. I have learned much from this wise book.
• John Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. I first learned of Frame through Grudem. (Frame’s influence can be detected all throughout the work of Grudem, his former student.) If memory serves correctly, this book first came out in 1987 and was the substance of a class on the Christian mind developed at Westminster Seminary in California (where Frame taught for a number of years). It’s an examination of epistemology (theory of knowledge) from a Reformed, covenantal perspective. I found it to be a profound book that has shaped a lot of my thinking. I am also a fan of the second book in this Theology of Lordship series, entitled The Doctrine of God. (You can read my review of it here.)

Who are your favorite writers?

John Owen, John Piper, J. Budziszewski, D. A. Carson, David Powlison, J. I. Packer. I could go on at length about why each of these would be in my “favorites” category—and the list could be expanded quite a bit. Each of these men has a unique ability to “see” and to “say.” They can cut through the fog of confusion and see biblical truths; and then they can convey these truths in wise and winsome ways.

What is the best non-fiction and fiction book you have read recently?

Non-fiction: Communion with God by John Owen. Again, this goes in the “already” and “not yet” category. I’ve read it, but I know that I am going to be returning to it again and again, as Owen explains how we commune with each person of the Trinity. I’m currently editing a new edition of this book with Kelly Kapic, so I hope it will find a new generation of readers.

Fiction: The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor. For the most part, left on my own I don’t usually “get” Flannery. But combined with a book like Jill Baumgaertner’s A Proper Scaring, I found it very enjoyable to work through her short stories.

Why do you think reading is important? What has led you to make it a priority in your life?

When I went into kindergarten I couldn’t spell my own name and didn’t know my address. By the first grade I was a voracious reader, competing with my arch-nemesis Bing Oei for who would win the Pizza Book-It award for our class. I’m not sure what changed—perhaps it was my love for pizza that was behind my love for reading!

I really can’t imagine life without reading. It enables us to converse with both the living and the dead. This struck home to me one time working in Doug Moo’s commentary on Romans. $60 can seem like a lot to pay for one book. But how much would I be willing to pay to sit down with Dr. Moo and to have him teach me verse-by-verse through this glorious epistle for months on end? Having his commentary in hand enables me to have 24/7 access to one of our finest NT scholars. That’s a bargain!

Reading can also transport us across the ages. It is amazing to me that despite the span of 1600 years separating us, Augustine can still speak directly into my heart and mind. Reading books like his can humble us (there’s nothing new under the sun) and encourage us (in that God and human nature do not change over the centuries, and therefore works of old can still instruct us and edify us).

Are there any other books you would like to recommend?

A tempting question! If people want advice on reading, one thing I’d mention is to find certain authors you trust and read as much of them as you can. For me, people like D.A. Carson, David Wells, John Piper, John Stott, J. I. Packer, C. J. Mahaney, Jerry Bridges, and David Powlison would be in these categories. It doesn’t mean you’ll agree with everything they say (if you do, you probably aren’t reading or thinking carefully!). But these guys—among many others—are special gifts to the church who have the ability to convict, instruct, and edify us through the written word.

As far as specific books not yet mentioned, there is one series I’d recommend that I don’t think receives enough attention: Resources for Changing Lives, by the faculty at the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation. These books are a rich source of wisdom going against the grain of much counsel today on Christian living.

All of the authors you mentioned are Christian. In the past, you have also read and recommended authors like Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Henry Hazlitt. What do you think the role of non-Christian books and authors are in the life of a Christian?

This is an important question, Josh. To think rightly about how Christians should think about non-Christian books and authors, it’s helpful to first be clear on the differences between Christian and non-Christian knowledge in general. John Owen pinpoints the difference as well as anyone:

“The difference between believers and unbelievers as to knowledge is not so much in the matter of their knowledge as in the manner of knowing. Unbelievers, some of them, may know more and be able to say more of God, his perfections, and his will, than many believers; but they know nothing as they ought, nothing in a right manner, nothing spiritually and savingly, nothing with a holy, heavenly light. The excellency of a believer is, not that he has a large apprehension of things, but that what he does apprehend, which perhaps may be very little, he sees it in the light of the Spirit of God, in a saving, soul-transforming light; and this is that which gives us communion with God, and not prying thoughts or curious-raised notions.” (John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

Because all men know God (Rom. 1:21) and are the receipients of common grace (Matt. 5:45), there is much we can–and should–learn from them, even if they don’t take us all the way to the place of all true wisdom: the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So yes, on issues of race I gladly turn to writers like Shelby Steele and John McWhorter; on economics to Thomas Sowell and Henry Hazlitt; on foreign policy to Victor Davis Hanson and William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer.