Book Reviews
Book Review: “Versing the Mystery”
Versing the Mystery. By Christopher Villiers. Waterloo, ON: Arouca Press, 2024. 202 pp. $19.95 (paperback). Poetry has been long believed to hold mystical, even sacred powers. Up until the modern period, it has historically held more reverence and cultural sway than prose. As James Matthew Wilson asserts in The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age…
Knowing God: A Classic Rediscovered
Knowing God. By J. I. Packer. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023. 400 pp. $29.99 (hardcover). Thanks to the Colson Fellows Program, I read Knowing God by the late great Rev. Dr. J.I. Packer for the first time. I knew about Packer’s work, but never encountered it at a bookstore or had someone personally recommend it to…
Book Review: “The Great Return”
The Great Return: Why Only a Restoration of Christianity Can Save Western Civilisation. By Jamie Franklin. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2025. 272 pp. $24.99 (hardcover). Settled beliefs are, by their nature, difficult to disrupt. Indeed, a dramatic occurrence of some kind is often a necessary impetus for people to re-evaluate their deepest assumptions. For many,…
Book Review: “The Hours”
The Hours: Poems. By Matthew J. Andrews. Anaheim, CA: Solum Literary Press, 2025. 87 pp. $16.11 (paper). The Hours is a new collection of poetry by Matthew J. Andrews, one that uses dense and cryptic imagery to examine the Christian experience of our broken humanity. Structurally, as the name foreshadows, the volume is divided into…
Beyond the Salvation Wars and Discontents over Baptism
A Critical Review Matthew Bates declares victory over historical understandings of baptism, but it feels like trading steak dinner for porridge. His attempt to reframe baptism and salvation through ‘allegiance’ to Christ’s kingship oversimplifies the sacramental theology that has long been foundational to Christian tradition. While innovative, Bates’s view diminishes the richness and depth of…
Book Review: “Let’s Call It Home”
Let’s Call It Home: Poems. By Luke Harvey. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2024. xii + 98 pp. $26.00 (hardback), $11.00 (paper). Let’s Call it Home is a tidy volume of contemporary poetry by Luke Harvey, containing seventy-five poems divided into three sections: Lullabies of Ascent, Spiritus Vertiginis, and Returning Home. Together these sections trace a…
Book Review: “What Still Divides Us”
What Still Divides Us: The Differences Between Protestants and Roman Catholics. By Josh Maloney. San Diego: Sola Media, 2025. 74 pp. Free Ministry Resource (paperback). When I first started listening to podcasts about a decade ago, The White Horse Inn was already a longtime veteran in Christian digital media. As described by their website, their…
Book Review: “At the Cross”
At the Cross: Reflections on the Stations of the Cross. By Justin D. Clemente. Anglican Compass, 2024. xxiii + 148 pp. $14.95 (paper). A number of Lenten practices and observances—e.g., prayer, almsgiving, and fasting—are longstanding elements of the Christian tradition, yet may be unfamiliar for those who are newcomers to the Anglican way. One such…
Book Review: “The Toxic War on Masculinity”
The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes. By Nancy R. Pearcey. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2023. 352 pp. $26.99 (hardcover). In Nancy Pearcey’s latest offering, The Toxic War on Masculinity, she takes on a subject ripe for cultural commentary: the attack on men in contemporary society. With her characteristic wit and rhetorical…
Book Review: “The Common Service”
The Common Service: The English Liturgy of the Church of the Augsburg Confession. By James D. Heiser. Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2022. 323 pp. $39.99 (hardcover). Acknowledging that liturgical study is not the favorite subject of everyone, why would an Anglican read this book? Why should an Anglican care about the Lutheran liturgy? The answer…