2019 in Reading, and Next Year (Reformed Theology Study)

As 2019 comes to a close, here is a look back at my 2019 reading list, which included many books—yet with some updates (omissions and additions).  This previous post reviewed my 2018 reading and the 2019 plan.  The ending total for 2019 is 35 books, not the 37 originally listed; and that with several updates.  Still, I ended up reading 28 books on that list (one, Charles Spurgeon’s Life in Christ Vol 2: Lessons from Our Lord’s Miracles and Parables is still in progress, nearing the end).

Along the way, I discovered some great books, with interesting thoughts or facts, as well as a few disappointments, but overall good reading and studies.  Michael Horton’s Rediscovering the Holy Spirit was disappointing, as noted in this post   — the only book I did not complete.  Based on that finding I removed one additional Horton book from the list (A Book About Suffering, A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering); I may get to it in a few years, but it’s a lower priority now.

Here are posts that reference several books from this year’s reading list:

• Heaven on Earth, by Derek W.H. Thomas
• Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, by J.I. Packer
• History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, Volume 2, by J.H. Merle D’Aubigne
• The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down, by Al Mohler
• Only One Way: Christian Witness in an Age of Inclusion
• Commentary on the Psalms, volume 1, by James Montgomery Boice; and Depression: Looking Up From the Stubborn Darkness, by Ed Welch
• The Good Years: From 1900 to the First World War, by Walter Lord
• The Godly Home (Richard Baxter); Depression: Looking Up From the Stubborn Darkness (Ed Welch); and The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Godly Home, by Richard Baxter
• Our Ancient Foe: The History, Activity, and Demise of the Devil (Best of Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology)

As in previous years, I found that adding audio books, including new available selections from the Christian Audio monthly offerings, imcreased the quantity of books.  Among the Christian Audio selections added, I especially liked Fire Road Fire Road: the Napalm girl’s Journey through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace, the free monthly offer for September of this year.

Next year, my reading and study plan is a little different.  Instead of trying to follow the Challies yearly plan with a large number and variety of books, I’ll continue reading from the books already on my to-read list, along with a focus on more classic and Reformed (Reformation and Puritan era) reading.  One major addition is a calendar year schedule to read through the Westminster Standards and the other major Reformed Confessions (Three Forms of Unity, the Savoy Confession, and the 1689 Confession and the Baptist Catechism).  Alongside the Confessions and Catechisms, the following commentaries, most with online text available (some from Monergism.com), should also prove helpful:

• A.A. Hodge’s The Westminster Confession: A Commentary
• An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith, by Robert Shaw (also available here)
• A Faith Worth Teaching: The Heidelberg Catechism’s Enduring Heritage    (a previous Amazon kindle deal)
• Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism
• Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, by James Dodds

The above may take more than one year, and though the Westminster Confession reading follows a neat ‘calendar year reading’ which the related commentaries can fit to, I’m not yet sure where to fit the Three Forms of Unity reading – in some type of parallel with the Westminster Confession, or just sequentially reading through each of the documents along with the associated commentaries.

I’ve added a few other interesting Reformed works, and hope to get to at least several of these in 2020:

• Thomas Boston’s The Crook in the Lot, and Human Nature in its Fourfold State (reference this previous post)
• Stephen Charnock’s The Existence and Attributes of God
• Commentary on Romans, by Robert Haldane
• Yearly devotional (I’ve read a few selections but not straight through) Charles Spurgeon’s Faith’s Checkbook
• Also a few audio book selections from the Christian Audio free monthly offers and never read public domain classics, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, available from Librivox
• From the stack of print books I’ve won from a few online drawings, Cornelis P. Venema’s Children at the Lord’s Table

As 2019 nears the end, let us enjoy the Christmas holiday and have a Happy New Year.

A Merry Christmas quote, from Charles Spurgeon:

Celebrate your Savior’s birth. Do not be ashamed to be glad—you have a right to be happy. Solomon says, “Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts your works. Let your garments be always white and let your head lack no ointment.”—

“Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.”

Remember that your Master ate butter and honey. Go your way, rejoice tomorrow, but, in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem—let Him have a place in your hearts, give Him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived Him—but think, most of all, of the Man born, the Child given! I finish by again saying— “A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!”