By Their Books We Shall Know Them
Dr. Mohler has a great response to an essay written by Jay Parini, a poet and professor of English at Middlebury College, entitled, “Other People’s Books.” Mohler’s comments are great – especially in light of his own collection.
Mohler notes,
How serious a Bible scholar is this preacher? The books will likely tell. Are the books all old or all new? If so, the reader is probably too contemporary or too antiquarian in focus. Are the books read? If so, the marginalia of an eager and intelligent mind adds value to the book. It becomes more a part of us.
I decided that I would give a little thought to my own library and what it says about my preaching and general reading.
I store most of my books at the study in my church office. I do most of my study at home, however, so there are two libraries of books for me to keep up with. Just behind my desk at the office are three floor to ceiling sections of books that contain nothing but commentaries. I tend to read the commentaries that are more technical in nature. I would do well to parouse other commentaries or collections of sermons and so would probably be more well rounded in my expositions and use of illustrations. It is a telling weakness in my preaching. The commentaries are all arranged according to the particular book of the Bible and then Author’s last name. I’m not big on putting all the commentaries from a set into one section – not very functional for me.
Of these three commentary shelves, two of them are filled with New Testament commentaries – quite telling of the amount of preaching I have not done in the Old Testament. I have seriously preached through Genesis 1-11, a number of selected psalms and the book of Malachi. I need to do a bit more in the area of Old Testament preaching, especially since the OT makes up about 3/4 of the Bible.
My library even tips its hand toward which NT books I have done the most serious study. These would be Romans (my current series), 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians and Revelation. These books have comprised the largest dose of my expositonal ministry over the past five years since seminary.
Another section of my library consists of a long wall of floor to ceiling shelves comprised of topical and reference books. I arrange these in various topical sections: Systematic Theologies; Reference Works; Theology Proper; Christology; Pneumatology, etc. The largest of these sections is the one I term “Christian Living” or “Sanctification.” Here are a number of books from a number of popular authors dealing with common life issues and the Bible’s perspective. The fastest growing portion of my library has been the preaching and hermeneutics section – due to my recent doctoral work in these subjects.
The glaring weakness in my library, as I look it over, is there is not enough old authors: pre-twentieth-century authors. I’m working on this.
What a fun exercise this has been. So, now I’m going to go over to my Amazon.com wishlist and begin to add some volumes to it.
Did anyone notice – today seemed to be a blogosphere day fixated on reading?
From Justin Taylor:
Read the Best Books
Christianity Today: Top 50 Books That Shaped Evangelicals
Challies Thoughts From Mohler’s Article
