A Long Way Gone begins this way:

Through the past few decades there has been a great resurgence of interest in the Puritans. This resurgence seems to have begun with Martin Lloyd-Jones who would often refer to their works in his sermons. People would then ask “Where can I get these books?” Banner of Truth began to reprint the books and soon other publishers began as well. Today there are so many available to us that few people could afford to buy or shelve even a fraction of them. This choice has led to confusion as many people, intrigued by what they have heard about the Puritans, hardly know where to begin in reading them. Into this void step Joel Beeke and Randall Pederson with their new book Meet the Puritans.

I love church history. I consider it absolutely tragic that so few contemporary Christians have any real sense of their heritage. They know a little bit of New Testament history, can list hundreds of today’s best and worst teachers, but know almost nothing of the 2000 years between.

The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World is one of a long line of books authored by Stephen Nichols, professor at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Nichols is a prolific author who seems to be releasing books with impressive regularity. To this point all of his books have centered on church history. He has written several works on Jonathan Edwards, one each on Martin Luther and Gresham Machen, and one providing a guided tour of classic Christian writing. This new title “goes behind the scenes and uncovers the human side of the larger-than-life Reformers through user-friendly narrative stories on the Reformation.”

It is easy to be skeptical about the faith claims of politicians. It is rare for a politician to claim to be anything other than a Christian and yet so few of them show any real evidence of the faith they profess. Of course there are undoubtedly some who rise to power that truly are genuine Christians. In The Faith of Condoleeza Rice, Leslie Montgomery shows Condoleeza Rice to be one of these.

The Faithful Preacher is a book full of surprises and in the Foreword John Piper says this book serves as a blow against chronological snobbery and ethnocentricity. I would tend to agree. Despite having read a fair amount of church history and many biographies I had no idea that there were many “black puritans.” I had no idea that in the 18th century a black man could marry a white woman and pastor an all-white congregation for over three decades. I had no idea that the eminent theologian Charles Hodge had taught African Americans and prepared them for a life of ministry in Presbyterian and other Reformed churches. I suppose I had little idea that the early history of the Reformed church in the United States had many significant African American leaders. This book has tackled my ethnocentric view of this period of church history.

My mother is one of several people I know who eschews all of the Christian Living type of books that dominate the Christian publishing industry. Apart from her Bible (the most beat-up, ink-covered, personalized Bible you’ll ever see) and a few commentaries, she reads only biographies. She feels that by reading about the lives of great Christians of the past, she will learn far more than what most of the Christian Living books can teach her. As much as I love reading books in a variety of genres, I can’t help but think that mom might just be right.

Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God is Noel Piper’s second solo effort that is targetted at an adult audience (she has previously authored Treasuring God in Our Traditions and has written the children’s book Most Of All, Jesus Loves You.). The book contains five short biographies of five faithful women: Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim and Helen Roseveare.

Born on a Blue Day is the memoir of Daniel Tammet, a British autistic savant. The subject of a documentary entitled The Boy With The Incredible Brain (also broadcast under the title Brainman) Tammet has gained some notoriety and worldwide attention for his incredible feats of memory and mathematics.

I never really caught on to the VeggieTales craze. I was introduced to them by friends when I was in my late teens but couldn’t bring myself to watch and enjoy a kids’ show featuring talking vegetables. I could appreciate some of the humor, but I usually opted out of the VeggieTales evenings others enjoyed. At that time I had no idea, and nor did anyone else, I suppose, what a phenomenon the Veggies would become.

As I began to review Speaking the Truth in Love, a biography of Roger Nicole, I felt uncertain how to introduce the subject. Nicole is a theologian whose impact is felt widely in the church, and yet one whose name is largely unknown. It occurred that David Bailey, the author of the biography, must have felt the same uncertainty. Here is how he chose to introduce Nicole:

Biography: An account of a person’s life written, composed, or produced by another. Hagiography: A worshipful or idealizing biography. I suppose it is not always easy to determine where biography ends and hagiography begins. But in the case of The Rise of Lakewood Church and Joel Osteen, I am quite certain Richard Young has crossed the line.