Given the massive transition our family has undergone this past year, 2022 has not been as productive of a year as others with respect to sheer quantity of books read. Nevertheless, it has been a full year of reading when it comes to quality. In this list, you’ll find a mix of old and new books, scholarly and popular-level books, and a few novels that made it into my top list, courtesy of the very exclusive and prestigious book club, of which I am a proud member: The Zosi and Glum Literary Society (which is simply me and two of my best friends from seminary reading a book once every other month or so and chatting about it over zoom).

10. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Truly a masterpiece. Not only is this novel beautifully written, it is a profound and moving story, with endearing characters and impressive character development. A Gentleman in Moscow is an instant classic and one of my favorite novels to date.

9. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighierri

I was pleased to participate in 100 Days of Dante this year, which is an online reading group pioneered by Baylor University in partnership with several other schools. A canto a day for a hundred days, with accompanying video commentaries by scholars around the world. I highly commend this resource; it helped me tremendously as I made my way through this masterpiece for the first time. Dante is a master, and there are depths to this work that I’m sure I will be exploring for the rest of my life.

8. Saint Thomas Aquinas by G.K. Chesterton

Chesterton’s biography of Aquinas is a triumph. One of my top two favorite Roman Catholics writing about my other favorite Roman Catholic. I cannot bring myself even to complain about those parts where he takes cheap shots at Calvinism or dumps on Luther at the end. He’s wrong, but he’s wrong in that customary, edifying Chestertonian way. He’s wrong about Luther, we might say, in a Lutheran way—which is to say, cheeky, hilarious, and brilliant. I am sure the two of them can laugh about it now. They are, after all, both Calvinists now anyway. 

But I am certain that Chesterton, if he is a Calvinist in glory, is still a Calvinist in a Chestertonian way.

My recommendation: read Chesterton’s biography of Aquinas, then read Chesterton‘s book orthodoxy (be sure to read the canon press edition so you get N.D. Wilson’s intro/defense of Chestertonian Calvinism).

7. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

“But here were thanks a man could render till the end of his days.”

A dense, real, heavy, and deeply and profoundly human (and humane) book. Of all the world’s perplexing and unanswerable questions, some are sorrowful, some are euphoric and delightful, and some that are sorrowful are “transmuted into gladness.” This I have been reminded of by Cry, the Beloved Country.

I have also been reminded of this humbling and breath-taking fact: The very best among us are un-saintly sinners who have experienced the gracious hand of God. “That is a secret.”

Seldom has a work of literature so stirred my soul with so little flourish.

6. Participation in God: A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics by Andrew Davison

I wrote an extended book review about this book here at the Journal for Classical Theology, so read more of my thoughts on this great work there. Here’s how I conclude my book review:

In sum, I highly recommend this book. The strength in Participation in God for students is that Davison offers an impressively broad curation of resources in the figures he interacts with. This book is a kind of field-consolidator for all those interested in Christian metaphysics. On this note, while Davison avoids marrying himself to any particular terminology, anyone remotely interested in conversations surrounding Classical Christian Theism, Christian Platonism, or the Great Tradition will be greatly helped by this book. Further, I would also recommend this work as a surprisingly fresh source of worshipful contemplation. While Davison does not pretend to write Participation in God as a “devotional” resource, properly speaking, it is nevertheless incredibly fruitful for Christian piety. This is the case for one simple reason: the participatory outlook Davison proposes here cannot but fill the conscientious reader with a profound sense of gratitude. We creatures are what we are by divine gift. We live and move and have our being in the triune God. Not only is this outlook true, it is also good and beautiful, and it rightly concludes with praise of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is one God, world without end. Amen.

5. The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

A masterpiece. I read this book this past Spring with my students in a class at Spurgeon College on Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy. It sparked some fruitful contemplation, some of which I share here: Boethius and the Sleeplessness of Macbeth.

Boethius was one of Lewis’s favorite philosophers and it shows. He, like Lewis, was a synthetic classicist, devoted to capturing the imagination of as many as possible while barbarians threatened to burn down civilization. As such, Boethius’s Consolation includes some of the “greatest hits.” A good rule in life is to revisit this book once a year.

One more note: those who question Boethius’s “Christian” bona fides on account of his writing a consolation of philosophy rather than theology or biblical wisdom miss something central. They miss the important parallels between Boethius’s Consolation and the book of Ecclesiastes. It doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough, but once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

4. Jesus and the God of Classical Theism: Biblical Christology in Light of the Doctrine of God by Steven J. Duby

This book was outstanding. Duby is one of the most careful and thoughtful scholars around, and it shows here. For several decades, Christology has been significant in the world of biblical studies, with very notable and illustrious scholars dictating the terms of the conversation (figures like Richard Bauckham, Larry Hurtado, Simone Gathercole and N.T. Wright). Now, in any fair assessment of the landscape, Steven J. Duby has to be included in that list. Duby enters the conversation from a dogmatic perspective, and so approaches these figures with a different set of inclinations. But Duby does not talk past them; rather, he labors to exhaustively and fairly portray his interlocutors, address their concerns on their own terms, and still manages to bring a classical and dogmatic contribution with the full weight of historical testimony behind his assessment. Jesus and the God of Classical Theism is incredibly deep and cannot be ignored. I predict virtually every major work on Christology will have to reckon with Duby in some way for the foreseeable future.

3. Trinitarian Dogmatics: Exploring the Grammar of the Christian Doctrine of God by D. Glenn Butner Jr.

Outstanding. This book is very helpful in laying out the landscape of Trinitarian dogmatics. But does a fine job at presenting the major issues, defining carefully the edges of orthodoxy (in biblical, historical, and logical-philosophical perspective), and he is refreshingly reserved on many difficult issues in which orthodox theologians have historically differed. In that sense, while Butner is clear and persuasive and convictional, he is also modest in his aims. I predict this book will become standard in the classroom for a long time. The truly curious reader will not walk away empty-handed.

2. The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind by Jason M. Baxter

Absolutely incredible.

In recent years, I have been working my way through some of the classics my reading diet has heretofore neglected (Homer, Virgil, the church fathers, Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas, Dante), and all the while, my love for Lewis has steadily increased. This book by Baxter demonstrates why.

Baxter gets Lewis; he gets Lewis’s unique greatness and, more importantly, why Lewis was so great: I.e., his medieval mind. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

1. Biblical Reasoning: Christological and Trinitarian Rules for Exegesis by R. B. Jamieson and Tyler R. Wittman

This book is a real game-changer. I don’t think there’s anything quite like it. It brings the best of biblical studies and dogmatic theology together, though not in the typical artificial way (where the biblical studies author writes his biblical studies chapters, and the dogmatic theologian writes his, and they’re simply smushed together between a front and back cover). Jamieson is a biblical scholar who things dogmatically, and Wittman is a dogmatic theologian who knows how to do exegesis, and the result is something special. Biblical Reasoning offers one of the most necessary and significant constructive contributions to evangelicalism in recent history—having the real possibility of shifting paradigms in biblical studies by strengthening exegesis with dogmatic concerns in concrete ways. What they offer is not merely a reflection on how to impose dogmatic theology onto the biblical text, but rather on how dogmatic theology can be used in service of better reading. The results are difficult to deny.

Honorable Mentions

Fruitful Theology: How the Life of the Mind Leads to the Life of the Soul by Ronni Kurtz

Let me tell you why I LOVE this book by my dear friend Dr. Ronni Kurtz.

First, it is deeply and timelessly Christian. While there are appropriate illustrations that date the book, they are not faddish. Ronni avoids the typical trade level temptation of pandering to the audience with hot takes and overly casual idioms. A Puritan could (and would) read this book, understand none of the cultural references, and still say amen.

Second, it is honest and humble. Ronni is not presumptuous in this book. His writing embodies another friend’s wonderful phrase: it communicates that he “doesn’t despise his neediness.” I can hear and agree with the theme that rings throughout (sometimes explicit sometimes implicit): an amazement that I am a Christian. That God could be gracious to me. That he would use me! 

On a personal note, Ronni renders me a great gift by writing in this way: he has given me—and others like me and Ronni and our friends—permission to not be ok. He has written in such a way that he portrays himself first and foremost as a recipient of the grace he invites others to, and “the foremost” of those who need it. He has written in such a way that he could reach out to anyone of his friends, say “I’m not ok. I’m falling apart. I need prayer, I need counsel, I need rest, I need help” and not be a hypocrite. He wouldn’t need to detract a word from this book. I can’t tell you what a gift that is to me as a friend who shares his hyperactive zeal for writing and ministry. For my own part, this zeal can often translate into a hesitancy to slow down or a hesitancy to be transparent out of a fear of forfeiting the opportunity to “do more.” This book can set a helpful precedent for young scholars and theologians.

Third, it is serious without being stuffy, profound without being belittling. Ronni avoids the temptation of making the reading easy BY making the content frivolous. It’s very serious, but seriously joyful. I’m really convinced by his arguments, and I’m happier for it. It does what it’s supposed to do: it winsomely appeals to a pop-level audience to come and drink deeply from the well of theology for joy and spiritual fruitfulness.

This is a great book for pastors who are in need of setting themselves ablaze with theology again. It can be particularly useful for pastors to put in the hands of members who may or may not see the immediate relevance theology has on their lives. It’s also a great book for theologians who need a good model of distilling the treasures of their discipline for a lay audience without losing any of its luster.

How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity by Thomas C. Oden

This book is legitimately life-changing. I’m confident the Lord providentially brought it on my map at a strategic time. Recently, I moved my family to the United Arab Emirates, where I’m serving as a site director and theology professor at Gulf Theological Seminary, the first seminary in the Arabian Peninsula. Our student body is very diverse, with many students hailing from Africa, who will eventually return there to plant and pastor churches. This puts us in a strategic spot to present the winsome and compelling vision of Oden in this book. I was so moved by this presentation—to the point of indignant tears—of Africa’s great and forgotten contribution to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I’m determined to introduce our African students to their God-ordained heritage, and to undermine wherever I find it the notion that Christianity is a “white man’s” religion imposed unnaturally upon the continent. Christianity is more African than any other formal contending religion there. It’s high time Westerners acknowledge with gratitude that the orthodox faith we cherish today, which we rightly consider an integral aspect of our culture, is indebted to an early African generosity, and its high time Africans shake off the post-enlightenment European lie that Christianity is a western imposition at odds with a true African heritage.