Top Reads: July 2018

After a busy June (With a week at SVS!) and a range of events that got vaguely alluded to in my previous June selection of top reads, it’s good to be rather back to normal. So, without further ado, here are ten good things I think you should probably check out:

1. Churchgoers stick around for theology, not music or preachers… This brief article summarises an interesting piece of research – and confirms what I hoped might be true…
2. Withering on the Vine? Lee Gatiss writes for the Church Society blog about the present situation for conservative evangelicals in the Church of England.
3. Why Christians should boycott Love Island, by Graham Nicholls. After the (in my opinion) unconvincing article (Also shared by Premier) by Jules Middleton arguing that Christians should watch the show, I enjoyed Graham’s thoughtful challenge to contemporary sensibilities.
4. For all the Saints? by Tom Wright – this is a superb, and short, book about issues of Soul, Salvation and Purgatory. I’d really recommend reading it.
5. Kevin VanHoozer has written a brilliant Letter to an Aspiring Theologian over at First Things.
6. Also in the epistolary form is a fascinating message from the leader of a university, one of whom’s academics has been accused of various things.
7. I’m not sure I’ve ever linked to ‘Bustle’ before, but this post on reducing your book collection was helpful. I know my wife will appreciate me reading it!
8. Over at Living Out, Andrew Goddard has written a helpful post, ‘How can we ensure we have good discussions with those Christians who disagree with us on sexuality?‘. I try to have done this with my reviews of books on this – like Undivided by Vicky Beeching.
9. For America magazine, this is a fascinating article about ageing and the Kingdom of God. This is not a topic normally thought about, so it is always good to see things about it.
10. Over at The Gospel Coalition, Joe Carter wrote a post about being discerning and wary of ‘Broken Wolves’, in the context of Christian teaching and community. This is really helpful, in my opinion, and provides food for thought.