Dr. Haykin has written a short review of John Buchan’s classic tale of intrigue featuring his famous character, Richard Hannay. To read Dr. Haykin’s recent reflections on this work click here. For other “Book Reviews” click here.
Dr. Haykin recently wrote a book commendation for Glory in the Glen: A History of Evangelical Revivals in Scotland, 1880-1940. It is posted below:
The great need of the Church in the West is for God the Holy Spirit to come in power as he has done so often in the past—ravishing hearts, enlightening minds, inspiring purity of worship, sending out into mission, mollifying hardened souls. Contrary to the wisdom of the age, it is not new techniques or new schemes we need with pastors masquerading as CEOs. Nor is the solution to our spiritual dearth a turning to ritual or even I dare say the return of charismatic spectacle. It is what many nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Scottish Christians, whose experience of true revival is set forth in this well-documented book, knew: the awesome God of holiness himself drawing near to his people and setting mind and heart ablaze with glorious light. Read—and pray!
A new biography of Southern Seminary’s third president has just been released from Mercer University Press. Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin here provides his review of the book and his response to the startling revelations it provides about W.H. Whitsitt, the man.
A newly transcribed and published excerpt from John Newton’s diary provides a understanding of his view on the ministry. Dr. Haykin has reviewed the booklet, Ministry on my mind: John Newton on entering pastoral ministry by John Newton, transcribed by Marylynn Rouse. Dr. Haykin believes that this work deserves to go on the short list of books which every man aspiring to pastoral ministry needs to read. Read the review here. Other reviews are available here. Check back regularly as new reviews are usually added on a weekly basis.
Another literary figure for whom I have a great admiration and who recently died was Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008). His literary masterpieces from my perspective were parts of The Red Wheel–August 1914, November 1916, Lenin in Zurich–and then One Day i
n the Life of Ivan Denosovich (a difficult read emotionally). I read many of his essays when a much younger Christian and deeply appreciated his critique of the godlessness and soul-lessness of Communism, especially when I had once professed myself a Marxist.
For a recent obituary, see Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Dissident writer who exposed the moral infamy of Soviet Communism by Mark Le Fanu (The Independent, August 5, 2008). See also John Piper, “Thank You, Lord, for Solzhenitsyn.”
Art and religion have long gone hand in hand. One thinks of the base use of the arts to create idols for worship. But, on the other hand, one needs to remember Bezalel, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit “to desvise artistic designs” in gold, silver, and bronze for use in the Temple (Exodus 31). And the Spirit filled this man so that his artistic ability might be a blessing to the people of God.
It is no less true today. One thinks of Rembrandt’s work, for example. Or the twentieth-century artist Pauline Baynes, who has just died. Her marvellous drawings of figures to 
accompany the Narnia tales of C.S. Lewis will long be remembered by this writer/reader.
For a recent obituary, see Pauline Baynes: Illustrator who depicted Lewis’s Narnia and Tolkien’s Middle-earth by Brian Sibley (The Independent, August 6, 2008).
Acquaintances a while ago gave me a Victorian volume that had seen better days. One of the cheap printings that characterized that era, with poor paper and even poorer illustrations, and now with the cover quite dishevelled and the binding coming loose, they could have easily decided to toss the book. But I am glad they did not. Entitled The Four Great Preachers: A Collection of Choice Sermons by Spurgeon, Moody, Talmage and Beecher the book contains a number of sermons by each of these well-known Victorian preachers along with brief biographical sketches of the four. But what I found valuable in the book was not so much the sermons, all of which can be found elsewhere in much sturdier collections. No, what I found quite illuminating was the two-page “Preface,” which was written by an unnamed Canadian editor who lived in Toronto and is dated April 10, 1885. He may well have been J.S. Robertson, the name of the Toronto publisher on the title-page. But whoever he was, his words bear a lesson for contemporary Evangelicalism.
The “Preface” begins by noting that it has been said that ‘nobody reads sermons’ any more. The editor admits that there may be some truth in this statement, but he says, ‘there are sermons and sermons’. Few, he thinks, are interested in the older style of sermons, what he calls ‘the dry type of doctrinal discourses that was once common in the pulpit’. Such sermons have been replaced by ones that are ‘more interesting’ and that contain ‘more enlivening appeals to the human heart and conscience’. There is no doubt that the author of these lines considers himself an Evangelical as the next sentence bears witness. ‘The Church,’ the editor writes, ‘as it has dropped dogma, has in large degree returned to its first work of evangelizing the world by the spirit and power of the Gospel; and in the true missionary spirit, it is going again into the highways and byways to reclaim the world to Christ, and to bring the prodigal back to the Father’.
What should forcefully strike any reader of these lines is that ‘dogma’—Christian doctrine and theology—is set over against evangelism and missions, as if the two were mutually exclusive. That winning the lost can somehow be done without a concern for theology. To be sure, there have been individuals in the history of the church who allowed have themselves to become so wrapped up in theology and its tomes that they gave nary a thought to evangelism. But such are aberrations. More exemplary is Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), the Baptist pastor and theologian, whose wrestling with the theology of the free offer of the gospel was accompanied by a deepening zeal for evangelism. Or, more authoritatively, there is the example of the Apostle Paul. Some of the Apostle’s most powerful statements on evangelism occur in his letter to the Romans (see, e.g. Romans 9:1-3; 10:9-21; 15:18-29) in the midst of some of the richest doctrinal material—‘dogma’—in the New Testament. Theology, if rightly pursued, should issue in a life of concern for the lost.
The dislike for doctrine in this Victorian “Preface” may also help us understand how sectors of late Victorian Evangelicalism helped prepare the way for the coming of Liberalism. The author of this “Preface” is certainly not a liberal. But his easy dismissal of doctrine in favour of evangelism helps explain why certain sectors of Victorian Evangelicalism found themselves without any adequate response in the face of the liberal assault on Christian orthodoxy at the end of nineteenth century and at the start of the twentieth.
One wonders if a copy of the volume was sent to each of the four respective preachers, whose sermons were reprinted in the book. If one did reach the hands of C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), and he did happen to read the “Preface,” he would have been surely struck by the folly of trying to separate a passion for theological truth from Christian missions. As he well knew and affirmed, it is only when the coals of Christian orthodoxy are hot and blazing that a zeal for the conversion of others can be properly sustained.
A friend asked me about a list of top ten biographies that I would recommend. I came up with the following nine–I have always preferred odd numbers to even.
It is quickly done and does not have the academic bibliographical stuff, but I trust the books I am referring to are clear. These are ones that have had a profound impact on my life. There are others I know that should be here but that would lengthen it maybe to the top seventeen! These are in no particular order.
1. Iain Murray, DM Lloyd-Jones (2 vols.)
2. Faith Cook, Grimshaw of Haworth
3. Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore (Adoniram Judson)
4. Timothy George, Faithful Witness (W Carey)
5. Andrew Fuller, Memoirs of Samuel Pearce
6. A Dallimore, George Whitefield (2 vols.)
7. Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo
8. George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards
9. Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards
I am always thrilled when someone recommends the riches of our Christian past. A new book from Tyndale House, entitled 20 Things You Should Read (2006) and co-authored by four writers—David Edwards, Margaret Feinberg, Janella Griggs and Matthew Paul Turner, each of whom takes turns introducing the various works—is a good way to dip into some of the riches of our heritage. The authors/compilers rightly emphasize that these works of the past reveal how our Christian forebears struggled with many of the questions we wrestle with and how their beautifully-framed answers still convey hope and inspiration (p.vi-vii).
The Christian writers chosen are quite eclectic, ranging from Augustine to Madame Guyon, Julian of Norwich to Karl Barth. Some readers, myself included, would question the wisdom of such a wide range of authors, but I was glad to see the two key Reformers Luther and Calvin included as well as Bunyan, Charles Wesley (interesting that John is not included), Whitefield and Spurgeon. All of the writings are taken from documents available on the net, but it is great to have them in one compass like this.
The omission of John Owen and Jonathan Edwards—both masters of spirituality—is curious. But any such collection is bound to omit favourite authors of other Christians.
I also felt that at times the introductory comments were not helpful in doing justice to the historical context of the various authors. To say, for example, that Augustine “partied like a rock star before his conversion” and that up until that event, which took place when he was thirty-one, he had led “a promiscuous, unruly lifestyle” (p.1) simply is not true. After a year or so of such living when he first went to university in Carthage, Augustine actually settled down to a fairly prosaic life, seeking truth in the cult of Manichaenism and the Platonic philosophy.
But the intended audience of the book is obviously young men and women who have not been interested in the riches of Christian authors of the past. And in recommending these riches to such, the book succeeds admirably.
Have been reading “The ‘Fresh Perspective’ on Paul: A Theology of Anti-Americanism” by Denny Burk and deeply appreciate his take on NT Wright and the New Perspective. It strikes me as deeply ironic that Wright, who is so anti-Empire and critical of Constantinianism, is, by virtue of his position as an Anglican Bishop in the Church of England, deeply enmeshed in a Constantinian structure! If he were to think through the ramifications of his critique he should exit the Church of England pronto and become—say it not in Gath—a Dissenter or Nonconformist!