Good Books, pt2

Continuing my book list from lat week, these lists are books on apologetics (reasoning for the faith), and emotional health.  Again, these are not exhaustive lists, as I don't have the time or patience to read "everything" written on a subject.  But this is a start.  I hope this is helpful for you (especially the emotional health section for those who need help in this area).

Apologetics

-Francis Schaeffer's "How Should We Then Live?"--a classic from the Presbyterian minister who founded the L'abri Institute.  Schaeffer here follows the train of philosophical reasoning from ancient times to the somewhat-present (written several decades ago, as he's now deceased).  Schaeffer masterfully shows how the Gospel meets the needs world history shows we all have.
-Schaeffer's "Escape from Reason"--this is a somewhat abridged "version" of the title above, where he follows art, politics, and philosophy from ancient times to show how it's shaped our thinking today, and how knowing Jesus corrects the error.  I read this in one night, as it's 125 short pages.
-CS Lewis' "Mere Christianity"--arguably the best apologetic of the last several hundred years.  Lewis, a former atheist, aims to communicate the Gospel to a skeptical world starting with the moral law embedded on everyone's hearts, ending with unity to the one true God through Christ.  The middle section of the book, dealing with the Christian virtues, includes some of the best reasoning for such in print.  It's worth the price of the book.
-Tim Keller's "The Reason for God"--Keller, a pastor in Manhattan, has an exceptional gift of understanding the cultural questions (calling them 'Defeater Beliefs'--ie, "why does God allow suffering?", "why are many Christians hypocrites?", "isn't Christianity a strait-jacket?"), and answering them by dealing with the question underneath the question.  For example, the question about suffering really contains an assumption that suffering is bad and shouldn't be happening--but where did this assumption come from, if not from a God who created us for joy and peace?  Buy this book.  He's an intellectual, but being a preacher, this NYT Bestseller is accessible, and I try to give a copy to most of my friends with questions.
-Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ", "The Case for a Creator", and "The Case for the Real Jesus" --Strobel is a former atheist who, having been converted through seeing the deception in much of the post-modern skeptical viewpoint,  has given his life to bringing the deception to light.  His books are full of interviews with leading apologists such as Edwin Yamauchi and William Lane Craig, and, being a journalist, he commits these conversations to writing in an accessible way.  This is why many of his books are bestsellers.  Being convinced that the Jesus conversation (his existence, the reliability of the Biblical account of Him, His bodily resurrection, etc.) is the most important conversation of all, I found "The Case for the Real Jesus" especially helpful (especially his conversation with Messianic Jew Michael Brown).

Emotional Health

--Paul Trip and Tim Lane's "How People Change"--this is an exceptional book by former pastors-turned-counselors on what happens emotionally and psychologically when a person with baggage entrusts it to Christ.  Change takes time and grace, but it happens when Jesus is Lord, and His work is received in faith.  I give this to people who are struggling emotionally.
-Ed Welch's "Depression: a Stubborn Darkness"--I read this book in my "dark night" of depression in college.  It seemed to be the only beam of light I saw during that time, as its pages were saturated with the Word of God and the hope of the Gospel.  God lifted me through it, and while I'm still a jar of clay (and will be until Christ returns or I go to sleep), Welch helped me see that Jesus' resurrection can bring me back to life.  He grew up in a home with a dad who struggled with depression and anxiety, so he has a personal sensitivity to it.
-Peter Scazzero's "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality"--I've not read all the way through this, but a student in my church has read it and found it helpful, and from the little I have read of it, I agree.  I read Scazzero' "Emotionally Healthy Church" years ago, and "Spirituality" seems to get right to the source of the emotional health just like "Church" does in the congregational context.
-Tim Keller's "Counterfeit Gods"--this book was incredibly important in my dealing with emotional problems, as Keller aims to show that much of our emotional problems have to do with idols of the heart.  The idols are the source, and we don't kill the emotional baggage until we begin killing the source.  I can't recommend this book enough.
-Psalms, 1 Peter, John's Gospel, and Romans 8--of course, the Bible is the primary Book from which to glean wisdom from God and salvation.  But these four specific books have proven to be most helpful in my times of darkness.  That's because they all hinge on defining basic reality (which is what's threatened in anxiety and worry) and communicating the promises of God (which tell us that there is something even in this that God is doing, for our good).  It's through His promises that we "put on the divine nature" (2Peter1:4) meaning that the promises, received and believed by God's grace and the Spirit's power, connect us directly to God, and, drawing on Christ's power (John15:5), we can change. Many of our emotional problems result from lies being told us and believed on, so the solution is bringing truth into the fold, and letting it speak louder than the lies.  In this, God gets the glory and we get the joy and peace.

Next week, Ministry and Marriage.