Book Reviews

Steve Jeffery, Mike Ovey and Andrew Sach have together written an explanation and defence of the doctrine of penal substitution under the title Pierced for our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution (IVP, March 2007). Here they explain briefly the background to the controversy, and give a few examples of the kinds of arguments […]

A review by John Brentnall of John Calvin’s Sermons on the Beatitudes: Five Sermons from the ‘Gospel Harmony’, delivered in Geneva in 1560.1 Those who read Calvin’s works for their sweet taste of sound doctrine and sharp application will welcome this new and fine translation of the Reformer’s five sermons on the Beatitudes. While the […]

Having been reading these letters in an old well-worn volume printed many years ago I was delighted to see this recently published edition by the Banner.1 It is beautifully presented and contains all the hitherto published letters as well as a biographical introduction by Andrew Bonar and a glossary that is so useful when encountering […]

A review by the Rt Revd Dr J. Barry Shucksmith of Authentic Christianity: Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles, Volume 6 (Acts 8:1-35) by Dr D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.1 This is the final volume in a set of six excellent books on the Acts of the Apostles. The first volume was issued in 1999. Those […]

Roy Saunders is an elder at Grace Baptist Church, Ottawa, and he has recently read J. I. Packer’s Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God, published by the Inter-Varsity Press. This is his response: This book has a long track record; it was first published in 1961 and is now in its 15th printing, so the […]

A review by Christine Farenhorst of Through the Bible – Through the Year, written by John Stott, and published by Baker Books of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in July 2006 (cloth $24.99, 432 pages). A resource for daily private devotion, this rather large volume strives to guide the Christian reader through the Bible in the course […]

A review by Jonathan Watson of Wayne Grudem’s Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? (Crossway), 272 pp, paperback, £5.99 / $15.99. This is an important book that every pastor and church officer ought to read! Let not Wayne Grudem’s well-known and controversial views on the prophetic gift prejudice any reader against purchasing this well-written […]

A review by John Halsey Wood, Jr of The Letters of Geerhardus Vos, edited by James T. Dennison, Jr. (P & R Publishing, 2006), 274pp, hardback, $29.99, ISBN: 978-0-87552-187-9. We owe a great debt to James Dennison for his work of excavating, publishing, and providing translations of hard-to-find Vos writings. Dennison now brings us a […]

A review by Edward Donnelly of James M. Garretson’s Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry.1 Bible colleges, seminaries, conferences and correspondence courses. Doctorates in ministry and professional advice from every point of the theological compass. Ministerial training has become, in our day, an expanding and profitable industry – of varying usefulness. Yet […]

This article is a response to a book by Marcus Honeysett, Finding Joy – a Radical Rediscovery of Grace, published by IVP in 2005. The author worked for ten years with UCCF among students in London. The book arose out of what he believed to be a lack of joy amongst Christians, which he attributed […]

We can scarcely have too many books on prayer, though sadly it is often easier to read books about prayer than to get down and pray. We all need stirring up to pray and this book helps to do that. As the title with its subtitle indicates, it is primarily about private or personal prayer, […]

Robert Oliver has served up a treat for his readers. Developed with additional chapters from his PhD. thesis, the book is very readable, containing fifteen concise chapters, which are both stimulating and fascinating. The author has divided his material into three parts: ‘The Eighteenth-Century Heritage,’ ‘When Good Men Differ,’ and ‘Re-Alignment.’ It is not a […]

A review by Kenneth J. Stewart of Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry by James M. Garretson.1 Seminarians do not often reflect upon the question of what has been the theological discipline standing behind their required courses in practical or pastoral theology. That the lecturer has a basic theological education plus accumulated […]

Getting the Gospel Right, Assessing the Reformation and New Perspectives on Paul1, is written by Cornelis P Venema, and published by the Banner of Truth Trust. For those who need to know what is happening in other parts of the religious world and, in particular, current threats to the gospel, this little book may prove […]

Rev Hugh Cartwright was once the professor of church history at the Free Church College, Edinburgh. He is now a minister in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He was asked to review the History of the English Calvinistic Baptists 1771-1892, From John Gill to C H Spurgeon,1 by Robert W. Oliver, and this is […]