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Ken Hemphill’s The Prayer of Jesus

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Although Hemphill’s book bears the same title as Hank Hanegraaff’s, it is by far the better of the two. Hemphill is the former President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and now writes on Empowering Kingdom Growth for the SBC. In this book, he offers the reader a well-balanced and informed discussion of the Lord’s Prayer.

There are many similarities between Hemphill’s work and Hanegraaff’s. They both use many illustrations from the respective authors’ families. Both are relatively brief. Both are written for laypeople. And both have a conversational tone. 

Where Hemphill’s work surpasses Hanegraaff’s is his systematic approach to the different phrases of the prayer, as opposed to Hanegraaff’s less consistent approach to the prayer itself. Both are exegetically sound. Hemphill’s approach is simply more methodical and therefore easier to follow.

There are moments in this book that are right powerful. There are portions of this book that are very convicting. In all, it will greatly aid any Christian who hopes to understand the Lord’s Prayer more fully.

C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

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In Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, C.S. Lewis enters into an imaginary correspondence with a friend on the subject of prayer. Along the way, however, he touches on a variety of subjects: worship, theology, and purgatory, to name a few. Yet his primary focus is prayer, and on this he speaks to our great benefit.

This book is characteristic of Lewis’s other works in that it employs wit, humor, penetrating insights, and an almost staggering lucidity concerning the subject at hand. The format of this book (supposedly personal letters) allows Lewis a certain freedom to ramble and to conjecture. Some of his insights will delight, others will frustrate, almost any reader.

Though a fairly small book, Letters to Malcolm can be a daunting read at times. Lewis is known for his ability to communicate simple and complex truths, and those seeking for either or both will not be disappointed. He is at once amazingly practical (i.e., the posture of the body in prayer, where to pray, what time of the day is best for prayer) and refreshingly deep (i.e., the question of prayer and the impassability of God, analogical language and God). Yet one gets the feeling that Lewis is not seeking to titillate. He is extremely serious, even is his frequent use of humor and sarcasm.

I was greatly inspired by this book to evaluate my own walk with the Lord. In particular, Lewis’s emphasis on sincerity and consistency in prayer were helpful to me. I also found the discussion of prayer and the future to be very helpful as well. As an aside, Lewis’s criticisms of some church’s approaches to worship and prayer were very moving. In all, Lewis has an extremely high view of prayer, yet this doesn’t lead him into Stoicism. One also gets, as he reads this book, a very clear picture of the beauty, mystery, adventure and danger of prayer as well.

I would encourage you to read this book. You will almost certainly be blessed, not to mentioned challenged, by what you will find here.

James Leo Garrett, Jr.’s Baptist Church Discipline

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Although written in 1962, Baptist theologian James Leo Garrett’s book, Baptist Church Discipline, remains as pertinent for the church today as it was then. The book is compromised of two parts: Garrett’s views of the history and importance of church discipline and a reproduction of the 1773 Charleston Baptist “Summary of Church Discipline.” The book is billed as “A Broadman Historical Monograph.”

One wishes that 40 years of hindsight would prove Garrett’s work prophetic. Unfortunately, it does not. After bemoaning the tragic state of affairs within Baptist churches, Garrett writes, “Nevertheless, a slowly growing awareness of the need for some kind of renewal of personal and congregational spiritual discipline among Southern Baptists is in evidence.” Perhaps that was the case in 1962. It is not the case now. In fact, the only aspect of Garrett’s work that has proven to be prophetic is the litany of mistakes within the church concerning church discipline that he initially chronicles.

For this reason, if for no other, this work deserves to be read today. Garrett does an admirable (though brief) job of discussing the prominence and subsequent decline of church discipline within the early church and, later, the Reformation churches. He then calls for a return to a carefully thought out practice of discipline within the church.

“Those who lead in the renewal of discipline must be thoroughly convinced of its terrible urgency,” Garrett writes. He is correct. Especially in this day of easy membership and low expectations, any move towards church discipline is going to generate the sort of controversy that only stalwart believers in the practice will be able to handle. But for those who sincerely believe that the health, vitality, and even the revival of the church will require a return to Biblical discipline, this controversy will be more than worth it.

Your efforts in finding and reading this book will be well rewarded. The Charleston Summary of Church Discipline is fascinating reading in and of itself and will also convict the modern reader about the unfortunate distance we have drifted from early Baptist churches. Thank you, Dr. Garrett, for you tremendous work.

Roy Fish’s When Heaven Touched Earth

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My great regret is that I allowed this book to sit on my bookshelf only partially read for over three years. In this book, Roy Fish, long time Professor of Evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, recounts the prayer revival of 1858 and, in particular, its effect on Baptists. Having now read what is certainly a thorough account of the revival of 1858, I wonder that it is not spoken of more often.

It seems that a humble layman named Jeremiah Calvin Lanphier became burdened for the people of New York and began a noon prayer meeting at the North Reformed Dutch Church in Lower Manhattan in September 1857. What happened next can only be seen as an unbelievable and unforeseen movement of God among the people of our nation. This little prayer meeting was soon bursting at the seams with thousands of people stopping in the middle of the day to call out to the Lord. What is more, prayer meetings of a similar nature began to meet, oftentimes with no knowlege of the what was happening at the North Dutch Reformed Church, all over the nation. A full-fledged revival ensued, with conversions numbering around one million people in a two year period.

There are a number of truly astonishing facts surrounding this revival. First of all, unlike earlier awakenings in our nation’s history, the 1858 revival was not “sermon led.” It was “prayer led.” People were coming to know Jesus and experiencing life-changing conversions through prayer meetings. Furthermore, as Dr. Fish aptly points out, this revival does not have any one famous preacher or pastor at its heart. One searches in vain for an Edwards or Whitfield here, though this revival certainly produced a few giants: Dwight L. Moody, to name one. Far from having an individual personality to look to, the 1858 revival was largely lay inspired. This fact had the fortunate outcome of taking the revial outside of denominational lines. People of all denominations and walks of life stopped to pray and call upon the Lord.

For those of us who yearn for a movement of God’s spirit in our midst again, WHEN HEAVEN TOUCHED EARTH will be a true source of inspiration. The stories of secular businesses closing down to participate in the noon prayer meetings, of secular newspapers having almost nothing negative to say about the revival, and of individual cases of dramatic conversions among hardened sinners will certainly stir the heart of any and all that seek the power of God.

The book is at times a tedious read. It was originally Dr. Fish’s PhD. dissertation and it occasionally reads like one. Dr. Fish’s overwhelming record of statistics, for instance, while fascinating, do not lend themselves to smooth reading. Nevertheless, these are minor qualms. The story itself is so remarkable that any dificiencies in the book itself are soon eclipsed by the soul-stirring accounts of an undeniable movement of God in our land.

In a church age in which revival machinery and manipulative attempts at conjuring awakening seem to be rendering the desired goal impossible as much as anything else, this tale of a laypeople or grass-roots led movement towards God is sorely needed. It gives one hope to realize that American society of 1858 was as hardened and as cynical as our own, yet the power of prayer prevailed. One not only hopes, but believes that this can happen again.

Ronald MacDonald’s From a Northern Window: A Personal Reminiscence of George MacDonald by His Son

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This book, subtitled “A Personal Reminiscence of George MacDonald by His Son”, was penned by George Macdonald’s seventh child (he had 11 in all) in 1911. This Sunrise publication marks its first appearance in America. It is, in all, a remarkable and moving account of the life of a man deeply loved by many Christians today.

Ever since C.S. Lewis paid homage to George MacDonald with his MacDonald anthology and oft-repeated debt of gratitude, Christians the world over have helped what must surely be called one of the great literary revival stories of the last many years. MacDonald’s works have been “updated” and widely marketed by Michael Phillips, among others, and the Christian community seems to be drinking deeply from the rich well of MacDonald’s Christian imagination. This can only be seen as a positive thing.

The appeal of MacDonald’s life and writings can be vividly seen in his son Ronald’s account. He presents his father as a man for whom Christianity was of paramount importance. He speaks movingly of his father’s integrity and personality and devotion to his calling from God. The age of this book makes it, at times, a difficult read, and his son refers to many of his father’s titles and poems that the casual reader may not know. But the reader will certainly be encouraged and inspired by the life of this truly great man. I would, by all means, encourage you to read this book.

Richard Marius’ Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death

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Richard Marius of Harvard University has given us a fascinating and infuriating biography of one of most complex figures of human history, Martin Luther. It is a fascinating biography – when Marius is telling the story of Luther. It is an infuriating biography – when Marius serves up some of the most grandiose and startlingly simplistic ideas ever to be written about the man.

I knew I was in for a treat when Marius stated on the second page of the Preface that Luther “represents a catastrophe in the history of Western civilization” and that “whatever good Luther did is not matched by the calamities that came because of him.” Over 485 pages later, Marius starts wrapping things up with this dandy: “Instead for more than a century after Luther’s death, Europe was strewn with the slaughtered corpses of people who would have lived normal lives if Luther had never lived at all…” (p.485).

Imagine that. Europe could have continued in a state of blissful normalcy if Luther had not (apparently) been the major impetus for pretty much every war that took place for the next century on European soil. Also, Marius tells us, Erasmus would possibly have been able to bring about a “benign kind of reform” if Luther had not come along and stirred things up. To this thought, Marius asks, “But who can tell?” (p.485)

Perhaps Martin Luther could tell. Perhaps Luther was correct that the risk of bloodshed was worth taking in order to free the masses from the delusions of a bankrupt church and the abusive swindling inflicted by a corrupt ecclesiastical hierarchy upon the “normal” masses.

Marius wishes that Luther could have been silenced shortly after the Leipzig debate. I wish that Marius could have been silenced shortly after the Preface.

This book does have good points (and when Marius is good, he’s brilliant), but one must wade through numerous bemoanings of Luther’s “viciousness”, more than a few backhanded shots at modern-day “fundamentalists”, and more than enough politically correct posturing and condescension to find it.

I am no Luther apologist. Marius’s concerns about Luther’s writings against the Jews, bitter and vitriolic spirit and unbending personality are certainly true. But methinks Marius protests too much. Luther cannot be held responsible for the wars that plagued Europe for more than half a century. On the other hand, along with all of his faults, it is just possible that Luther brought a reform and freedom to the otherwise “normal” people of the 16th century that many were willing to give their lives for, and that many then and now thank God for.

Alister McGrath’s What Was God Doing on the Cross?

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What Was God Doing on the Cross? was originally presented as a lecture, in a shorter form, at the Princeton Theological Seminary on October 22, 1990. Perhaps owing to this fact, what we have in this book is a highly conversational, “nuts and bolts” approach to the cross. While this keeps the book from becoming highly technical, it makes it an ideal introduction to the issues surrounding the cross of Christ.

The first two chapters of the book are presented from the perspective of an onlooker at Calvary. This is an interesting approach which allows McGrath to take the reader into the mind and possible thoughts of an original witness to the cross. These chapters serve as a foundation to the rest of the book which presents McGrath’s own perspective on the cross.

A rather refreshing aspect of this book is McGrath’s criticism of the tendency of many theologians to lose touch with the common person. McGrath (himself one of the most influential evangelical theologians in the world today) reminds us all that if our theological concepts cannot be communicated to the common man, then they are essentially worthless. He then goes on to back up what he says by presenting his discussion of the cross in terms that are highly readable and highly effective.

The book covers a wide range of topics: the act of crucifixion, the nature of Jesus, the idea of sin, the atonement, and the resurrection. McGrath does not fear to posit these traditional Christian concepts in new language, and, in fact, he seems intent on doing so. The result is that both Christians and non-Christians alike will be challenged to rethink what they know or think they know about traditional Chritian categories.

I would more than heartily recommend this book as I would more than heartily recommend anything Alister McGrath writes. There is a sincerity that comes through these pages that the reader will not miss. His aim is to have his audience grapple anew with the cross. In this, he succeeds wonderfully.

Calvin Miller’s The Singer

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It would be nearly impossible to say too many good things about The Singer. It is a truly wonderful, beautiful, and soul stirring work. It is all the more exciting, then, that InterVarsity Press has decided to publish a 25th anniversary edition this year. The new addition has just barely reached store shelves and we can hope that they fly off of them at a very rapid pace.

This new edition has a newly designed cover, newly submitted comments from a whole host of Christian writers about what The Singer has meant to them (Phil Yancey, Max Lucado, Eugene Peterson, et al.), and a new introduction by Dr. Miller explaining how he came to write the book and what it means to him. The format of the text itself does not differ from earlier editions and the original drawings are included as well.

The Singer stands as one of those truly great books that give a glimpse of the inexpressible power of the gospel. It is essentially a poetic retelling of the life of Christ, yet it is wholly unique in its presentation. Having just read through it again, I am amazed that such depths can be found in, much less written into, so short a text.

Of course, The Singer was just the first of a trilogy (the other two books being The Song and The Finale), but it is perhaps the most well known and loved of the three. The three books may still be purchased in one paperback volume and I would encourage you to read all of them.

I cannot encourage you enough to read this book. There are times (probably more than we realize) when we need to step outside of the daily grind of existence and immerse ourselves in the tremendous song of salvation that Dr. Miller reveals in this work. I challenge you to read it without feeling, at times, that lump in the back of your throat or the tingle of joy that accompanies any great experience. Buy it. Read it. You will not be sorry you have done so.

Roger Olson and Christopher Hall’s The Trinity

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I highly recommend Roger Olson and Christopher Hall’s The Trinity.  This book is part of the Eerdman’s Guides to Theology series.  It appears that there are only two contributions thus far to this series (this and one on feminist theology), so I can’t make any comment on the series as a whole.  Regardless, this volume is a very well done and thought-provoking overview of the doctrine of the Trinity throughout the ages.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the Trinity lately and trying to think through how a proper understanding of this biblical truth can impact not only our understanding of God, but also our lives together as Christians.  To this end, this book was very helpful insofar as it provides a concise but thorough look at how believers throughout the ages have understood this doctrine.  This is historical theology at its finest.  The snapshots are not so surface level as to be useless, neither are they so dense as to be cumbersome.  They provide, in my opinion, just enough information to give the reader a general but good sense of where Trinitarian thought was going in various ages of the Church’s life.

To me, this would be a good introduction to any study of the Trinity.  It sets the stage and helps us get a big-picture view of where we’ve been and where we’re going with the doctrine of the Trinity.  That’s a view I like to have when studying a particular doctrine.  It gives perspective and context.  And, as none of us arose out of a vacuum, it helps us understand our own minds.

If you’d like to begin studying Trinitarian theology, this would be a great place to begin.

Jaroslav Pelikan’s The Vindication of Tradition

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In this fascinating and provocative book, noted historian Jaroslav Pelikan distinguishes between tradition (“the living faith of the dead”) and traditionalism (“the dead faith of the living”) and argues that tradition, far from binding the soul and stifling intuition, creativity, and freedom, provides the foundation on which these things exist and operate. As such, the book seeks to vindicate tradition against its detractors. Pelikan succeeds in creating a book that will cause all who read it to think deeply about tradition, whether one agrees with all of the particulars of the work or not.

As a Baptist, I found Pelikan’s frequent treatment of the Reformation to be very interesting. He is not altogether unsympathetic to Luther. This is good seeing as though he has edited a number of volumes of Luther’s works. Yet he devotes an entire chapter to John Henry Newman (a man he has also written on) and his journey towards understanding tradition that led him to the conclusion that to be intellectually honest he must join the Roman Catholic Church.

Regardless of one’s take on this, there is rich ground for discussion here. Furthermore, in an Evangelical Protestant culture in which the altar of the new seems to have been erected in a whole host of sanctuaries, this call back to the beauty of tradition is refreshing. There seems to be a growing Protestant backlash against the constant wave of innovation and, more so, against the presumptive attitude that demands this of “successful” pastors. I, for one, will attest that this backlash is largely responsible for my own reading of this book.

However, the reader will find no quick fixes here. This book is, at times, difficult, and not all will agree with Pelikan on every point (I didn’t). However, as an alternative to the cult of innovation that has invaded the modern church, we may see this vindication as a breath of fresh air.

Pelikan is to be commended. His is a voice deserving of consideration. I would encourage you to do just that.