The new year is off and running with the prospect of some really great books to add to our shelves (and minds!). Here’s a list of the ones that caught my eye—
What can I say? If theology has devotees like sci-fi does, then I am a D. A. Carson fanboy. Two books are coming our way from his keyboard. The first is called The Intolerance of Tolerance. Here is the expanded form of an addresses Carson has given several times on various university campuses where he takes to task those that silence public opinion in the name of tolerance. In fact, he shows that is the very definition of intolerance and advocates a return to our previous willingness to allow public discourse from those with whom we disagree.
Next, Carson has a shorter book on the state of evangelicalism due soon. Entitled, Evangelicalism: What Is It and Is It Worth Keeping?, this book seeks to define what in the world the Christian behemoth called, ‘evangelicalism’ is all about, while probing whether what we have in it is good for the church (thus the title!). In the end, Carson does more than analyze. He puts forth a corrective, based on the essentials of the Christian faith as laid out in 1 Corinthians 15.
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Close to Carson in my ‘must have’ list is anything by Peter T. O’Brien. So far, all of the commentaries in the Pillar Series that I have used have proved to be incredibly helpful, and I no doubt that O’Brien’s new one on Hebrews will be do no different. I heard about this being in the work several years ago and cannot wait to read it. O’Brien writes in such a way that you see why he is the making the decisions that he is in interpretation of the text, and is always seeking to draw out connections between the Old and New Testaments. Taken with this small, but helpful pastoral asides, his commentaries make for great reading.
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Another stellar author is Thomas Schreiner. Taking his mammoth New Testament Theology to the editing desk, he’s produced an introductory summary that should be great for pastors and laypeople: Magnifying God in Christ. Here are the essentials of his larger work made more accessible to a wider audience. More than that, the adverts seems to indicate that he’s done the further work of demonstrating the relevance of these doctrinal teaching for the life of the believer.
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Finally, coming from the Re:Lit series of Crossway and The Resurgence is Mark Driscoll’s and Gerry Breshears’ new book, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe. Covering 13 beliefs, Driscoll and Breshears set to lay out the essentials of the Christian faith. I have high hopes that this will serve as a great introduction to basic Christian beliefs, which be suitable for use in small groups among new and older Christians alike.
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Looks like it’s going to be a great year for reading!
MAGNIFY CHRIST 
Do you ever feel we need a kind of time-bubble where we could sit and read for an hour every day, but when we come out no time has passed so we haven’t fallen behind in our duties?
Yes! Or a moratorium on the really good books, so we can all get caught up ;-)