Thinking Biblically, A Challenge to Christians, by John W. Robbins, ed. Thomas W. Juodaitis, Unicoi, TN: Trinity Foundation, 2022, 423 pp. $21.95 I started reading books from the Trinity Foundation in the year 2008. I later found this was the same year the foundation’s founder John Robbins passed away. This posthumously edited volume Thinking Biblically …
Review of Thinking Biblically by John W. Robbins Read More »
Reformed & Evangelical across Four Centuries, The Presbyterian Story in America by Nathan P. Feldmuth, S. Donald Fortson III, Garth M. Rosell, and Kenneth J. Stewart. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2022, 364 pp. This is a valuable book which holds the interest of the reader, no small feat for a book on Presbyterian history. The …
Review of Reformed & Evangelical across Four Centuries Read More »
Voddie Baucham names names in his recent book, Fault Lines, The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe. He identifies a number of theologians with evangelical or even once-conservative credentials who have bought into at least some of the errors of Wokeism. These theologians include Tim Keller, Russell Moore, David Platt, Mark Dever, J. D. …
Bavinck, A Critical Biography by James Eglinton, 2020, Baker Academic, 450 pp. This will be something short of a proper review as I intend to only make a few short comments. Try as I might I can’t find myself interested in Herman Bavinck. (I only read this book because my brother, who knows the author, …
Review of Bavinck, A Critical Biography by James Eglinton Read More »
You may know the name Elihu Carranza because of his Logic Primer and/or Logic Workbook, the latter of which was published by the Trinity Foundation. Who is Elihu Carranza? The “About the Author” section in his Epistemic Fragments tells us: Elihu Carranza, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, San Jose State University in California taught courses in Logic, …
A Tale of Two Synods, Events That Led to the Split between Wisconsin and Missouri, by Mark E. Braun, second edition, 2003, 350 pp. I had been wanting to read this book for some time, and having finally gotten around to it I can say it did not disappoint (even if the Lutheran attitudes and …
For the third year, I’ve kept track of the books I’ve read and have chosen a favorite and least favorite. I managed to read 91 books in 2019, down considerably from last year but still a substantial number. Here are links to the previous two years: https://www.douglasdouma.com/2017/12/23/books-i-read-in-2017-and-a-favorite-declared/ https://www.douglasdouma.com/2018/10/13/rating-100-books-ive-read-this-year/ In 2019 I finished re-reading the complete …
Heirs of the Reformation, A Study in Baptist Origins by James McGoldrick, Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, Original Edition 1994, Reprint Edition 2019, 181 pp. I had been looking for a reasonably priced copy of this book for some years. Before this reprint edition the book was called Baptist Successionism. That version, now twenty-five years …
Review of Heirs of the Reformation by James E. McGoldrick Read More »
Reformed Dogmatics, Abridged in One Volume, by Herman Bavinck, ed., John Bolt, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011, 847 pp. Well, that took a while to read. I generally liked Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics but can’t really give it a special place in my heart. It is at the same level of the systematic theologies of say Charles …
Herman Bavinck, Pastor, Churchman, Statesman, and Theologian, by Ron Gleason, Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2010, 511 pp. This is one of the more interesting and informative biographies out of the couple dozen or so that I’ve read on various church figures. Herman Bavinck had a central place in the Dutch Reformed churches in the late 19th …
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The First Forty Years, 1899-1939, by Iain H. Murray, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1982, 394 pp. This is the first time I’ve ever read a “biogr.” A what? A half biography, of course. I am glad to find out that Iain Murray later wrote the second “aphy” half as David Martyn …
Review of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The First Forty Years by Iain Murray Read More »
The Origin of Paul’s Religion, by J. Gresham Machen, 1925, Eerdmans 1947, 329 pp. In The Origin of Paul’s Religion J. Gresham Machen argues against various modernistic theories of the sources of the Apostle Paul’s Christianity. Machen’s contention is that the Biblical account itself provides the best explanation of the resulting history. He concludes, “Everywhere …
Review of The Origin of Paul’s Religion by J. Gresham Machen Read More »
The Incredible Scofield and His Book, by Joseph M. Canfield, Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1988, 2004, 394 pp. The Incredible Scofield and His Book is an expose of Cyrus Ingerson (C. I.) Scofield (1843-1921) and his Scofield Reference Bible. The historical research put into this volume is impressive and the reading is interesting, but …
Review of The Incredible Scofield and His Book by Joseph M. Canfield Read More »
The Word of God and the Mind of Man, The Crisis in Revealed Truth in Contemporary Theology, by Ronald H. Nash, Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1982, 132 pp. After a few comments, the following is not a review so much as a really long summary of Ronald Nash’s The Word of God and he Mind of …
Review of The Word of God and the Mind of Man by Ronald H. Nash Read More »
Problems in the Prayer Life, From a Pastor’s Question Box, by J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1928, 127 pp. This book came out in 1928, just two years into J. Oliver Buswell Jr.’s tenure as President of Wheaton College (1926 – 1940). It is, in fact, Buswell’s first book; written before he …
Confessions by St. Augustine, originally written in Latin in thirteen books from AD 397 – 400, translated by R. S. Pine-Coffin, Penguin Books, 1961, 347 pp. Surely many reviews of Augustine’s Confessions have been written which well summarize and explain the text. The purpose of this review will be merely to note some important things …
Presbyterians in the South, Volume Three: 1890 – 1972, by Ernest Trice Thompson, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1973, 636 pp. This book is the third of three volumes of Ernest Trice Thompson’s Presbyterians in the South. I found this volume to be the worst of the three. Much of the book is tedious to …
Review of Presbyterians in the South, Volume Three: 1890-1972 Read More »
Faith & Reason, Searching for a Rational Faith by Ronald H. Nash, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1988, 285 pp. This seems to be the book wherein the philosophical and apologetical views of Ronald H. Nash are most thoroughly exhibited. In other volumes of his that I’ve read (The Concept of God, The Gospel and the …
Christian Philosophy Made Easy, The Basics for Developing a Christian Worldview by W. Gary Crampton and Richard Bacon, Draper, VA: Apologetics Group Media, 2010, 106 pp. The second half of this volume reprints essays of Gordon H. Clark, John W. Robbins, and W. Gary Crampton found elsewhere. Thus it is the first half of the …
Review of Christian Philosophy Made Easy by W. Gary Crampton and Richard Bacon Read More »
The Captives of Abb’s Valley, by The Reverend James Moore Brown, D. D., Revised and Annotated by Dennis Eldon Bills, New Martinsville, WV: ReformingWV Publications, 1854, 2019, 110 pp. This is the true story of a pioneer family in southwestern Virginia who is raided by Shawnees Indians. The first raid sees the capture of a …
Review of The Captives of Abb’s Valley, Revised and Annotated Read More »
Presbyterians in the South, Volume Two: 1861 – 1890, by Ernest Trice Thompson, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1973, 490 pp. This book is the second of three volumes of Ernest Trice Thompson’s Presbyterians in the South. That which most sticks out in this volume is Thompson’s desire for mergers; particularly merger between the Southern …
Review of Presbyterians in the South, Volume 2: 1861-1890 Read More »
Presbyterians in the South, Volume One: 1607 – 1861, by Ernest Trice Thompson, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1963, 571 pp. This book is the first of three volumes of Ernest Trice Thompson’s Presbyterians in the South. Thompson (1894 – 1985) himself was a liberal who advocated in his time those terrible positions that have …
Review of Presbyterians in the South, Volume 1: 1607-1861 Read More »
Biblical Hermeneutics by Milton S. Terry, 1883, Reprint by Zondervan Publishing House, n.d., 782 pp. Though I’ve titled this post a “review” it is more accurately just some notes on Milton Terry’s rather lengthy book Biblical Hermeneutics. While Biblical Hermeneutics has been recommended to me by some Reformed persons, whether Milton Spenser Terry (1840 – …
Review of Biblical Hermeneutics by Milton S. Terry Read More »
By Scripture Alone, The Sufficiency of Scripture, by W. Gary Crampton, Unicoi, TN: The Trinity Foundation, 2002, 245 pp. Though the subtitle of By Scripture Alone is “the sufficiency of Scripture,” the book does cover quite a lot more than that. The first part of the book is framed as a commentary on chapter 1 …
Review of By Scripture Alone by W. Gary Crampton Read More »
The Lost Continent of Mu, by James Churchward, 1931, New York, Paperback Library Edition, 1959, 286 pp. The Lost Continent of Mu is an exercise in poor logic, weak citations, and the art of jumping to conclusions. Basically, James Churchward figured out the method of presentation now used by those advocates of the History Channel’s …
Review of The Lost Continent of Mu by James Churchward Read More »
