I always enjoy hearing about what someone else has been reading and what they’ve learned from it. Personally, I read quite a few essays and usually juggle several books at a given time. Here are a few good works I’ve read recently that have been helpful and formative.
Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age, by Joshua D. Chatraw
This might be the best book I’ve read on living as a witness in a secular age. As the title indicates, this book outlines a vision for apologetics and evangelism that focuses on the meta-narrative of Scripture and bringing that story to bear on contemporary ideologies. Chatraw makes a compelling argument that people in today’s secular age need a new narrative. The narratives of secular humanism and Enlightenment progress have failed to deliver on their promises. Now is the time for Christians step up and offer others a more compelling story of the world and our place in it.
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, by Carl R. Trueman
In this book, Trueman traces, with incredible clarity, the cultural and ideological movements over the last few centuries that have led to a sexual revolution in the West—one that began in earnest in the mid-twentieth century and now continues through the LGBTQ+ movement. Trueman helps make sense of how American culture has arrived at this point, demonstrating how certain pathologies have, unfortunately, taken deep root in and exerted significant influence on the culture and prevailing worldview in the United States. Today’s cultural moment is very confusing for many people; this book helps make sense of it.
The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay
This novel is a coming-of-age story about a unique English boy growing up in Dutch-ruled South Africa. Among its many themes, it explores issues connected to racism, life in a multi-cultural setting, and the theme of friendship. Along the way, it takes the reader on a wild and unpredictable journey. It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking narrative, one that draws from the author’s own life story.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport
This is one of the best practical books I’ve ever read. Newport provides a powerful critique of today’s attention economy and a compelling alternative for our day-to-day lives. He argues that to truly make a difference in today’s world, we need to pursue deep work—the focused and undistracted pursuit of something meaningful. This pursuit requires us to make the hard decision to not let technology and social media encroach upon one of our most precious assets—our attention. He provides guidelines for how to pursue deep work and, by extension, how to live a meaningful life that can make significant contributions to one’s field of study or work.
Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton
A modern classic, this book calls attention to some of the ills of secular liberalism and lays out Chesterton’s case for the validity of Christianity. Chesterton was not an adherent to the Christian religion. Yet as he sought to clarify his own vision for how we should understand and live in this world, he realized that all the convictions to which he was coming had already been laid out in Christianity’s sacred Scripture—the Bible. Orthodoxy is an autobiography of Chesterton’s intellectual journey toward Christianity. It’s humorous and enlightening, entertaining and formative all at the same time.
Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash
