book review
The greatest and hardest achievement in writing a 64,000-word thesis is that I managed to do it without using a single superlative (although, it must be said, the thesis is not an alliteration-free zone). In breaking free from such restraint I thought I might nominate the two best books I encountered in my study. Peter Leithart’s Solomon…
READ MORESuch is my life now that I can describe a book by how many boarding passes accumulate within its pages as I work my way through it. So, for example, that book on Pakistan in July was a “thirteen (international) boarding pass” book. It was long and slow and intense. Last week I read a…
READ MOREExactly one week ago the parade was making its way through Christchurch, with thousands turning out to celebrate the All Blacks’ victory in the Rugby World Cup. I’ve been thinking a lot about emotion in the intervening days. What an array of feelings surfaced during the tournament. From the opening ceremony when that lad came…
READ MOREI don’t tend to buy books according to topic – but by author. And then each year I try to expand my list of favourite authors. 2011 has been the year of Craig Bartholomew. Earlier this year I reviewed his remarkable commentary on Ecclesiastes. On a recent trip to Cambodia I read Living at the…
READ MOREAh yes, one more post to mark my appreciation for John Stott. Here I countdown the ‘top ten’ books (out of the 50+ he has written) that have shaped my life. No easy task – but here we go… at number ten‘The Bible speaks today’ not only names Stott’s deep conviction (“God still speaks through…
READ MOREThis past weekend has been in the diary for months as a family holiday. This book, John Stott: a portrait by his friends, has been targeted as my weekend reading matter for almost as long. The fact that John Stott died just the day before we left added a poignancy to the time in its…
READ MOREThis is not an easy book to read. It is complicated because its subject matter is complicated. But as I worked my way through Anatol Lieven’s Pakistan: A Hard Country (Allen Lane: 2011), I found my understanding of Pakistan developing so much. 1. Lieven writes with both empathy and objectivity. He has lived and worked…
READ MOREDenver and Dayton will never again be the same for me. Yesterday – on the two hour flight from one to the other – I read (with Barby doing the same, over my shoulder!) through Charles & Joanne Hewlett’s Hurting Hope: what parents feel when their children suffer.. Here and there we shed a tear.…
READ MOREOver the past decade, books on missional church have hardly been known for their deep engagement with the biblical story. They’ve tended to be testimonial, inspirational, and practical – but this stuff loses its lustre after awhile. Here is a book which corrects that flow by being biblical, first and foremost, and then aspirational on…
READ MOREWhen it comes to naming the biggest influences on my life, the task is easy. No human beings are more responsible for the shaping of my convictions than John Stott and DA Carson. It is a dead heat – and I am forever grateful. In my impressionable early twenties these two men helped me build…
READ MOREAbout Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.