Barrett’s Book Notes: Evangelicalism, Book of Common Prayer, and Gospel of Matthew

James Goggin and Kyle Strobel, eds. Reading the Christian Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013.

Goggin and Strobel have pulled together an eclectic group of contributors, each writing on different (sometimes very different) traditions in regards to Christian spirituality. Fred Sanders writes on the Evangelical tradition, Greg Peters on the Medieval tradition, and Timothy George on the Reformation, among many other chapters. I was very pleased to see George’s chapter in this book as the Reformers sometimes get left out in this discussion.

Alan Jacobs. The “Book of Common Prayer”: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books). Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013.

A history of a book? Great idea! Especially when it is the Book of Common Prayer. In this little volume Alan Jacobs takes us on a trip, introducing us to the genesis, development, and reception of the BCP. Jacobs explores how the BCP impacted politics in England and how the book’s primary author, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, created it.

Jonathan M. Yeager, ed. Early Evangelicalism: A Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

I enjoy readers. It is a way to dip your toes into many waters at once and get a big picture outlook on a certain period of time. Yeager has collected numerous articles to do just this with the early Evangelical period. Some of these authors include: George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, Gilbert Tennent, Sarah Pierpont Edwards, David Brainerd, Joseph Bellamy, John Witherspoon, Jonathan Edwards, John Newton, Isaac Backus, John Ryland Jr., Andrew Fuller, William Carey, Samuel Hopkins, Timothy Dwight, William Wilberforce, and a number of others. I also appreciated that Yeager included hymns from Isaac Watts.

Douglas Sean O’Donnell. Matthew. Preaching the Word Series. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013.

O’Donnell, senior pastor of New Covenant Church in Naperville, Illinois, has written a massive (1085 pages!) commentary on the gospel of Matthew with the subtitle: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth. O’Donnell asserts that Jesus’ kingship is the central theme of this gospel, and seeks to draw out the pastoral and practical implications this has for the Christian life.

Matthew Barrett (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Christian Studies at California Baptist University, as well as the founder and executive editor of Credo Magazine. He is the author and editor of several books, including Salvation by Grace: The Case for Effectual Calling and Regeneration. You can read about Barrett’s other publications at matthewmbarrett.com.