Update on my reading
Hello one and all, this is not to say i change my mind and am back, but i am sharing the ingredients in my return to Reformed Theology and then will be gone, no need hoping to get into a heated debate with me as i never was good at that, so what i'd like to attempt here is to say why, because usually this is a topic only a certain kind of Christian would invest their time and money on, and for me i see myself as definitely not a Christian, there is a teaching that it's not in one's own power to do so correctly, and if that is true, i'd agree with that.
So why am i interested in it to this degree? Well first of all i live in an environment where a person expresses their belief so poorly and verbally jumbled and incoherent, it turns my stomach to hear it put that way, and this religion does effect me on a deep level, and what amazes me is the depths and lengths it goes.
There is a lot to consider from a purely mental assent position, and i only see a problem for myself if i try to practice my own kind of warped version of it, no i do not practice a thing, reading itself is the escape and the reward, i love Reformed Theology because there is such a rich tradition there, so many figures, so many more books, and as long as your thinking of them as allowing to exist and breathe in your mind, they are in their fields experts, and i love to hear the goods from the experts, not those who constantly bad mouth those who think differently, however some of these guys even Saint Owen can go on long tangents against the Church of Rome, no one's perfect, Owen was even hording guns later on, the political climate late in his life was not kind to nonconformists, and he had anger issues with another Puritan giant Richard Baxter.
Oh geez, what am i doing, writing this? Do i think others here are interested, there's one Reformed fella here, but when he sees i'm not really serious about Christianity so as to live it out, i am sure this is all just empty clanging of cymbals and hollow sounding brass instruments.
Well without further ado, my reading mix is the following:
1. Reformed Systematic Theology -- Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, my #1 Reformed Theology source, just completed last year or so, and has all the good stuff, if you want to begin a life long paradisiacal odyssey through Reformed theology, these 4 chunky volumes can get you going big time, by giving you shopping lists to build a formidable library that soul condemning teachings if you don't surrender all, like the take up your cross and follow.
2. Theoretical-Practical Theology -- Petrus van Mastricht's 7 volume systematic is up to the 5th volume now, i had said i pre-ordered it but cancelled, i will be getting it by the end of this month, and am bumping it up as one of the more time spent ones, i like a video of the editor of these precious volumes where he said "It's a wild ride for a theologian" concerning the wide variety of topics and stuff covered from Descartes to Kabbalah.
3. Institutes of the Christian Religion -- John Calvin's classic, fun guy, i'd like to pinch his cheek as i dreamily peruse his dyno-mite prose.
4. Institutes of Elenctic Theology -- Francis Turretin turns up the heat on some red button issues, if you're in seminary and that kind of thing that is.
5. The Christian's Reasonable Service -- this is a cozy theological read written by Wilhelmus a Brakel.
6. John Owen -- this guy is the superstar of my reading program here, a superstar is where i also have some incredible secondary material, included is the Crawford Gribben volume, plus i'm still collecting those Crossway editions that will by 2029 reach 39, there'll be an index for the 40th, but why the heck would i get that??!!
7. Thomas Goodwin -- Goodwin is just as good as Owen.
8. William Perkins -- the 1st Puritan that didn't like that word Puritan, as it references a heresy.
9. Richard Sibbes
10. John Flavel -- this guy and Sibbes write like a dream, the Puritans it has to be said wrote very deeply about human nature in relation to the sacred tome, it's not something a person like me would normally relish, but that's what's weird about me, i need this stuff, not because i'm going to live out these principles and so on, i need them for base reasons, to just hear classic Christian expression from a theological tradition i've since teenage years felt drawn to, but now as i creep towards a half a century old recognize the sheer folly of even considering i could live that way, and not willing to take a leap of faith so that i start talking and acting differently, using phrases that turn my stomach.
11. The Existence and Attributes of God -- Stephen Charnock's magnum opus, if i was ranking these things, it would be in the top 5 for sure.
12. The Christian in Complete Armor -- William Gurnall's classic on spiritual warfare, which isn't the sensationalized kind you see in modern times like that Greg Larson guy.
13. Calvin's Commentaries -- he didn't live long enough to comment of all the books of the bible but his efforts fill up some 22 or so volumes.
14. Matthew Henry's Commentary -- so much fun, and is one of the few in this kind of material that's safely tucked away on my Kobo, besides a better edition on Kindle that has all those hyperlinks that make it so easy to be checking the bible citations and with that you just know you're studying like a pro, but here's the thing, if you're serious about theology, what is needed is that you need to have a practical outgrowth of your beliefs, just sayin' you know, i'm not that serious, to be sure, but if anyone reading this is gonna be taking it seriously the gist of it all is to be more and more like the one who bled and died for you.
15. William Ames' The Marrow of Theology -- a brief work that's super to the point.
16. Synopsis of a Purer Theology -- The Leiden something or other very basic and super dooper helpful in a Ames sort of way.
17. Bullinger's The Decades -- came out a little before Calvin's Institutes, and was very popular at the time, you know the phrase you had to be there? Well i don't mean to brag but i think i'm sufficiently divorced from reality 2025, that i can just imagine how it was in the 1500s when the Reformation was ablaze and every family was torn apart by how we think about things in a book that's so damn perfect, and no needing just the right kind of interpretation. It's funny i'm seeing my living Reformed heroes basically just doing their darndest just to word things the correct way, that's half the fun i bet!!
18. Vermigli's Loci Communes -- one of the originals.
19. Richard Rogers' Seven Treatises -- one of the earliest Puritan book of spirituality
20. Thomas Brooks -- just some Puritan i have a complete works in an inexpensive ebook.
21. Thomas Manton -- all of my Manton comes from Monergism, where you can get classic Puritan and Reformed ebooks for free.
22. Thomas Boston -- all in one ebook is a 12 volume set worth of goodies, i think this guy was Scottish, a few of those fellas will be a part of a next phase with this kind of material.
23. The Christian's Only Comfort in Life and Death -- A Dutch Further Reformation sermons series on the Heidelberg Catechism, almost as loved as a Brakel.
24. Nick Needham's 2,000 Years of Christ's Power -- a church history in 5 volumes, fun to read, nice tidbit recently read was how the Mystery Cults initiated new members by sacrificing an animal and letting the blood gush down and cover all the body of the initiate which they also drink too.
25. Hermann Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics -- early 20th century theological gold.
26. The Westminster Standards -- The confessions of English Puritanism.
27. The Three Forms of Unity -- The Belgic and Heidelberg Catechisms and The Canons of Dort, mostly held by the wonderful Dutch folk.
28. Richard A. Muller's Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics -- this is a deliciously academic set that dangles before my eyes exotic sounding names of theologians that might never get translated into english.
29. John Piper -- when i 1st was into Reformed teachings, Piper was a mainstay, he's got a lot of stuff out now that i never read, and i'm looking at that swanky set that Crossway published of the first 20 or so of his books and i'm thinking oh if only there'd be enough time!!
30. Matthew Barrett's The Reformation as Renewal and The Grace of Godliness which is on The Canons of Dort, this is a confessional document that responded to the Arminians who are known as Remonstrants.
31. J.I. Packer's Puritan Papers, Knowing God and The Quest for Godliness
32. R.C. Sproul was a few decades ago till 2007 thee voice for mainstream Reformed theology, he was a gifted speaker and communicator.
33. Carl R. Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self and Strange New World, i just saw a video where he announces he's working on a book on Nihilism with our dear pal Friedrich Nietzsche, and he looks so enthusiastic about working on that.
An immature person composed this post, and that is fine, this is like playing bingo and feeling like your in a gang. Have a good time with whatever catches your interests. This is just one of mine that is enjoying the sunlight of my intense focus, that will last anywhere between half a month to a decade.
So why am i interested in it to this degree? Well first of all i live in an environment where a person expresses their belief so poorly and verbally jumbled and incoherent, it turns my stomach to hear it put that way, and this religion does effect me on a deep level, and what amazes me is the depths and lengths it goes.
There is a lot to consider from a purely mental assent position, and i only see a problem for myself if i try to practice my own kind of warped version of it, no i do not practice a thing, reading itself is the escape and the reward, i love Reformed Theology because there is such a rich tradition there, so many figures, so many more books, and as long as your thinking of them as allowing to exist and breathe in your mind, they are in their fields experts, and i love to hear the goods from the experts, not those who constantly bad mouth those who think differently, however some of these guys even Saint Owen can go on long tangents against the Church of Rome, no one's perfect, Owen was even hording guns later on, the political climate late in his life was not kind to nonconformists, and he had anger issues with another Puritan giant Richard Baxter.
Oh geez, what am i doing, writing this? Do i think others here are interested, there's one Reformed fella here, but when he sees i'm not really serious about Christianity so as to live it out, i am sure this is all just empty clanging of cymbals and hollow sounding brass instruments.
Well without further ado, my reading mix is the following:
1. Reformed Systematic Theology -- Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, my #1 Reformed Theology source, just completed last year or so, and has all the good stuff, if you want to begin a life long paradisiacal odyssey through Reformed theology, these 4 chunky volumes can get you going big time, by giving you shopping lists to build a formidable library that soul condemning teachings if you don't surrender all, like the take up your cross and follow.
2. Theoretical-Practical Theology -- Petrus van Mastricht's 7 volume systematic is up to the 5th volume now, i had said i pre-ordered it but cancelled, i will be getting it by the end of this month, and am bumping it up as one of the more time spent ones, i like a video of the editor of these precious volumes where he said "It's a wild ride for a theologian" concerning the wide variety of topics and stuff covered from Descartes to Kabbalah.
3. Institutes of the Christian Religion -- John Calvin's classic, fun guy, i'd like to pinch his cheek as i dreamily peruse his dyno-mite prose.
4. Institutes of Elenctic Theology -- Francis Turretin turns up the heat on some red button issues, if you're in seminary and that kind of thing that is.
5. The Christian's Reasonable Service -- this is a cozy theological read written by Wilhelmus a Brakel.
6. John Owen -- this guy is the superstar of my reading program here, a superstar is where i also have some incredible secondary material, included is the Crawford Gribben volume, plus i'm still collecting those Crossway editions that will by 2029 reach 39, there'll be an index for the 40th, but why the heck would i get that??!!
7. Thomas Goodwin -- Goodwin is just as good as Owen.
8. William Perkins -- the 1st Puritan that didn't like that word Puritan, as it references a heresy.
9. Richard Sibbes
10. John Flavel -- this guy and Sibbes write like a dream, the Puritans it has to be said wrote very deeply about human nature in relation to the sacred tome, it's not something a person like me would normally relish, but that's what's weird about me, i need this stuff, not because i'm going to live out these principles and so on, i need them for base reasons, to just hear classic Christian expression from a theological tradition i've since teenage years felt drawn to, but now as i creep towards a half a century old recognize the sheer folly of even considering i could live that way, and not willing to take a leap of faith so that i start talking and acting differently, using phrases that turn my stomach.
11. The Existence and Attributes of God -- Stephen Charnock's magnum opus, if i was ranking these things, it would be in the top 5 for sure.
12. The Christian in Complete Armor -- William Gurnall's classic on spiritual warfare, which isn't the sensationalized kind you see in modern times like that Greg Larson guy.
13. Calvin's Commentaries -- he didn't live long enough to comment of all the books of the bible but his efforts fill up some 22 or so volumes.
14. Matthew Henry's Commentary -- so much fun, and is one of the few in this kind of material that's safely tucked away on my Kobo, besides a better edition on Kindle that has all those hyperlinks that make it so easy to be checking the bible citations and with that you just know you're studying like a pro, but here's the thing, if you're serious about theology, what is needed is that you need to have a practical outgrowth of your beliefs, just sayin' you know, i'm not that serious, to be sure, but if anyone reading this is gonna be taking it seriously the gist of it all is to be more and more like the one who bled and died for you.
15. William Ames' The Marrow of Theology -- a brief work that's super to the point.
16. Synopsis of a Purer Theology -- The Leiden something or other very basic and super dooper helpful in a Ames sort of way.
17. Bullinger's The Decades -- came out a little before Calvin's Institutes, and was very popular at the time, you know the phrase you had to be there? Well i don't mean to brag but i think i'm sufficiently divorced from reality 2025, that i can just imagine how it was in the 1500s when the Reformation was ablaze and every family was torn apart by how we think about things in a book that's so damn perfect, and no needing just the right kind of interpretation. It's funny i'm seeing my living Reformed heroes basically just doing their darndest just to word things the correct way, that's half the fun i bet!!
18. Vermigli's Loci Communes -- one of the originals.
19. Richard Rogers' Seven Treatises -- one of the earliest Puritan book of spirituality
20. Thomas Brooks -- just some Puritan i have a complete works in an inexpensive ebook.
21. Thomas Manton -- all of my Manton comes from Monergism, where you can get classic Puritan and Reformed ebooks for free.
22. Thomas Boston -- all in one ebook is a 12 volume set worth of goodies, i think this guy was Scottish, a few of those fellas will be a part of a next phase with this kind of material.
23. The Christian's Only Comfort in Life and Death -- A Dutch Further Reformation sermons series on the Heidelberg Catechism, almost as loved as a Brakel.
24. Nick Needham's 2,000 Years of Christ's Power -- a church history in 5 volumes, fun to read, nice tidbit recently read was how the Mystery Cults initiated new members by sacrificing an animal and letting the blood gush down and cover all the body of the initiate which they also drink too.
25. Hermann Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics -- early 20th century theological gold.
26. The Westminster Standards -- The confessions of English Puritanism.
27. The Three Forms of Unity -- The Belgic and Heidelberg Catechisms and The Canons of Dort, mostly held by the wonderful Dutch folk.
28. Richard A. Muller's Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics -- this is a deliciously academic set that dangles before my eyes exotic sounding names of theologians that might never get translated into english.
29. John Piper -- when i 1st was into Reformed teachings, Piper was a mainstay, he's got a lot of stuff out now that i never read, and i'm looking at that swanky set that Crossway published of the first 20 or so of his books and i'm thinking oh if only there'd be enough time!!
30. Matthew Barrett's The Reformation as Renewal and The Grace of Godliness which is on The Canons of Dort, this is a confessional document that responded to the Arminians who are known as Remonstrants.
31. J.I. Packer's Puritan Papers, Knowing God and The Quest for Godliness
32. R.C. Sproul was a few decades ago till 2007 thee voice for mainstream Reformed theology, he was a gifted speaker and communicator.
33. Carl R. Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self and Strange New World, i just saw a video where he announces he's working on a book on Nihilism with our dear pal Friedrich Nietzsche, and he looks so enthusiastic about working on that.
An immature person composed this post, and that is fine, this is like playing bingo and feeling like your in a gang. Have a good time with whatever catches your interests. This is just one of mine that is enjoying the sunlight of my intense focus, that will last anywhere between half a month to a decade.
46-50, M
