Seven Favorite Christian Books of 2018

As we move into a new year, I thought I might share seven Christian books I really appreciated in 2018.

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible, by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien Many useful insights (and a few not-quite-as-useful) on how understanding cultural contexts can improve the way we read our Bibles.

A Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter, by Miriam Huffman Rockness. A talented artist leaves Britain and spends her life as a missionary in North Africa.  This book is full of Trotter’s watercolor paintings from the North African desert and a few devotional insights from her journal.

Descriptions and Prescriptions: A Biblical Perspective on Diagnoses and Medications, by Michael Emlet. Wise Christian guidance into how to evaluate psychiatric diagnoses and whether to use psychoactive medications.  See my short review.

Henry Martyn: Confessor of the Faith, by Constance Padwick. A brilliant linguist gives his life to translate the Bible into Urdu and Persian and dies young.   (Note that this is an older book and a little harder to get…)

Known by God: A Biblical Theology of Personal Identity, by Brian Rosner. Good, solid, biblical theology focused on the theme of God knowing his people.

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul E. Miller. One of the best books on prayer I’ve ever read.  Eminently practical.

Awakening the Evangelical Mind: An Intellectual History of the Neo-Evangelical Movement by Owen Strachan. An analysis of how evangelicals struggled to reclaim some semblance of intellectual rigor following the fundamentalist-modernist controversy (with a special focus on Harold Ockenga).