Top Reads: December 2017

Well, hasn’t it been an interesting year. Off the back of my November post, this will be the final ‘Top Reads’ post of 2017 – and so it includes a range of things.

1. The Best Books I Read in 2017 – Sheridan Voysey, an author and social media person I follow online, has written an interesting look back at what he read in 2017. I’ll probably take some recommendations off of this list for next year.
2. Being Disciples by Rowan Williams – I’m late to the party on this book (it came out in 2016!) but this is a great little book on discipleship.
3. No, the Bible doesn’t command we ‘stand with Israel – contentious, but presented without comment. An interesting article on one of this world’s hotspots.
4. Piper’s Best Tweets – a light hearted summary that points to some serious things. This is a collection of Tweets by John Piper, which (if, like me, you like JP and are active on the internet) is well worth mulling and giggling over.
5. Why Marriage is Increasingly for the Royals – and the Rich. This is a provocative but potentially really important Spectator article about how marriage is gradually becoming an unobtainable luxury…
6. Book Review: Sin, Grace and Free Will. This new book by Matthew Knell is a brilliant introduction to some vital topics – rooted in historical sources.
7. Spine: Mark Read & Toxic People – I love it when my colleagues do awesome stuff and get recognised for it. As well as this, this is a fascinating insight into the creative process of book cover design.
8. The Babylon Bee’s Top Ten Books of 2017 – this is a bit of Christian satire that I found very amusing.
9. Why Charismatics and Calvinists need each other. This is a great article from The Gospel Coalition recognising the importance of unity and dialogue between two tribes in the Church that I strongly identify with.
10. ‘A Spiritual Battle:’ How Roy Moore tested White evangelical allegiance to the Republican Party. This incisive piece by Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a fascinating look into the complexities of ‘evangelical’ as a label in the USA, and offers some provocative things to think about in terms of Christianity and politics. Watching a range of friends argue on the internet (And, to a lesser extent, in real life) about ‘evangelical’ as a label makes me think I’m probably going to be writing about it a lot in the next year.

At some point in January I’ll probably distill all these top tens into one post – I’ve read some interesting things!