Note from John Starke, editor at TGC: This week we are asking church leaders, Christian thinkers, and writers about their reading habits. While it may, at first glance, be discouraging for many to see the reading lists of some, we may be able to learn from their habits. You can read Carl Trueman and Fred Sanders’s summaries of their readings habits from earlier in the week. Today we hear from Bradley Green, associate professor of Christian studies at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.
In terms of reading, I try and follow Albert Schweitzer’s advice to “do everything in the 15-minute periods of time, because the hours never come” (even if, thankfully, the hours do emerge at times). I teach theology at the college level, and I tend to read in the afternoons after I have finished teaching for the day, and in the evenings, when the children have gone to bed.
With Scripture, I am currently using the four chapter per day plan by Murray M’Cheyne (which can be found in D.A. Carson’s For the Love of God).
I find myself returning to a few key authors: C. S. Lewis (pretty much anything,); G. K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy is great, and I am presently reading his A Short History of England), Richard Weaver, whose critique of modernity is brilliant (Ideas Have Consequences is a masterpiece, and don’t miss his Visions of Order as well as the collection of his shorter essays, Defense of Tradition); Augustine (virtually anything by him—Nick Needham’s The Triumph of Grace, a collection of Augustine’s writings on salvation, is particularly good).
I generally try and have one “classic” nearby in order to (1) read those books which traditionally have been considered “great books”; and (2) in order—following C. S. Lewis in “On the Reading of Old Books”— have my mind cleared (and jarred!) by the fresh sea-breeze of wisdom from the past. Currently next to the bed is Charles Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities.
Given the group-think that tends to pervade our times, I try to read things a bit outside the mainstream, particularly in the journals and magazines I read: Touchstone, Chronicles, The American Conservative). Besides academic theology journals, I subscribe to and read/peruse World, Christianity Today, First Things, Intercollegiate Studies Review, and Modern Age.
There are certain persons whose writing I will buy/read pretty much whenever I see it: Thomas Fleming (of Chronicles), Don Livingston, Clyde Wilson, Henri Blocher, Thomas Woods, Peter Leithart, Gerald Bray, Paul Helm, Richard Muller, Robert Letham, and David Lyle Jeffrey.
I am working on my Latin by reading the fourth book of “Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine” (found in Enos and Thompson, The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo). My goal is simply to read a little bit every day.
I decided about two years ago to read my Greek New Testament every day. If even a sentence or two, I read Greek every day. I read Latin and Greek before I go to bed. I have always lamented not being able to work meaningfully with Hebrew, so I am currently working through Pratico and Van Pelt’s Basics of Biblical Hebrew.
I will also try—at least a couple of times per year—to read some science fiction. I have read the work of Philip K. Dick and Cordwainer Smith, and have recently dipped into Edgar Rice Burroughs (his John Carter of Mars series).
I currently have (or have recently had) the following books nearby: David Gibson and Daniel Strange, Engaging with Barth; Michael O’Brien, Theophilus (I recommend any and all of his novels); John Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God; Steve Fuller, Science Vs Religion? Intelligent Design and the Problem of Evolution (Steve Fuller’s chapter in Norman Nevin, Should Christians Embrace Evolution? is brilliant); James Le Fanu, Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves; Mark Thompson, A Clear and Present Word: The Clarity of Scripture; Graham A. Cole, God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom; Constantine R. Campbell, Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek.
Within the last year or two I have begun to benefit from certain online resources, including the now-online Themelios and have started using Google Reader, and I enjoy, among others, the blogs/sites of Ray Van Neste, Justin Taylor, Ray Ortlund, Michael Bird/Joel Willits, Peter Leithart, Touchstone, Paul Helm, and Lew Rockwell. I take the local paper here in Jackson, Tennessee, and consult various news sources online to keep up with national and international news.
I also keep a number of audio books and lectures on my iPod, including resources from: Reformed Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Highland Theological College, European Leadership Forum, Christian Heritage/Round Church (Cambridge, England), Unbelievable (UK radio/interview show), Steve Fuller’s web site, Discovery Institute, and Mises Institute.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
