What’s on Christopher Kou’s Bookshelf? 11 Favorite Resources

1. 5 Books of St. Irenaeus in opposition to Heresies, by Irenaeus

This second-century work is a landmark of early Christian theology. Though oriented polemically in opposition to the Gnostic heresies of Irenaeus’s day, the work is an indispensable work of theology correct, demonstrating a excessive Christology and still-fresh insights into creation and anthropology that stay helpful as we speak.

2. Summa Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas

No library is full with out the Summa, which is without doubt one of the nice classics of Christian scholarship. Agree or disagree with Aquinas on any level, however you can not afford to disregard him. His thought is cautious and granular, and subsequently thought upsetting, and it pervades all of Western Christian theology and philosophy.

3. By New Eyes, by James Jordan

This ebook is a foundational and paradigm-shifting work on biblical worldview. That’s, a view of the world via biblical eyes. James Jordan takes us on a contemporary, and sometimes stunning, tour of biblical symbolism rooted in God’s creational order, and exhibits the assorted methods it informs our studying of Scripture as a complete. On this ebook, there’s a complete lot of “as soon as seen, can’t unsee.”

4. Reformed Dogmatics, by Herman Bavinck

This traditional work of systematic theology is biblically wealthy and traditionally delicate. I think about Bavinck’s work because the touchstone for each deep and expansive theological thought. It’s work that I reference continuously on each theological matter.

5. Systematic Theology, by Robert Letham

That is my go-to single-volume systematic theology. I recognize that Letham’s doctrine of God begins with the Trinity as revealed in Scripture. Though there are various glorious systematic theologies, I discover Letham essentially the most biblical to my thoughts, detailed sufficient whereas being concise, and up to date sufficient (2019) that he interacts with and references a lot of the related scholarship and viewpoints prior to now century.

6. John’s Gospel: A Uncared for Key to Revelation? by Warren A. Gage

In one other paradigm-shifting ebook, Warren Gage exhibits how the Gospel of John and the ebook of Revelation are thematically chiastic. Gage outlines the construction of each books and provides quite a few examples. With this matching construction in thoughts, exegetes are higher outfitted to learn and interpret each books. One other once-you-see-it perception. I can not learn Revelation with out pondering of John’s Gospel (and vice versa). That is conveniently accessible as a Logos useful resource.

7. For the Lifetime of the World, by Alexander Schmemann

For a liturgical worldview, there isn’t a greater place to start out. Schmemann exhibits how Christian worship fills time, area, and each human motion. He considers what this implies for humanity’s place in God’s creation, and the way it informs our liturgy and on a regular basis existence, from the best human actions to the grand cosmic order.

Dorsey’s structural commentary covers each chapter of each ebook within the Outdated Testomony from Genesis to Malachi. He examines the structural make-up of every ebook, in addition to the substructures of many pericopes. In case you like discovering chiasms and different literary structural units, you want this ebook. Dorsey additionally gives pointers for a way these constructions perform within the textual content and the way they might help us to raised perceive its which means.

9. Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, by Matityahu Clark

The etymological entries within the dictionary are drawn from the biblical commentaries of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) and a number of other of his college students. Greater than a reference work, this dictionary is a window into the exegetical methodology of probably the most revered Jewish exegetes, primarily based upon the speculation that consonants carry which means and that roots utilizing the identical or comparable consonants are thus associated. The ensuing insights are sometimes unnoticed or rejected by fashionable linguists, and lots of could be debatable. Nonetheless, they’re at all times fascinating and may typically open avenues to the Hebrew textual content that will in any other case have been neglected.

10. Deep Exegesis: The Thriller of Studying Scripture, by Peter Leithart

Deep Exegesis is based on the premise that the textual content of Scripture is greater than a container for summary reality, however that the medium is the truth is a part of the message. Contemplating the exegetical strategies of the apostles within the writings of the New Testomony, Leithart argues not solely that we will be taught to use their methodology in our exegesis, however that their instance is there particularly for us to observe. From this start line, Leithart teaches us to please in each aspect of the textual content. Utilizing John 9 as a check case, we be taught to see the textual content as historical past, hear it as music, and permit it to fill us with pleasure and laughter as God’s inside “joke” to us.

11. ESV Bible Atlas, by John D. Currid and David P. Barrett

The story of the Bible is one which takes place in time and area. It’s historical past and geography, and so a reference work to the historic and geographical context of Scripture is indispensable. The ESV Bible Atlas fills this want fantastically, as it’s lavishly illustrated with detailed maps, diagrams, and photographs of areas and artifacts. The textual content of the atlas can be useful, giving historic overviews and archaeological context for every period of the Bible.