Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Recent Recommended Reading

Some recent recommendations:

1. In Search of the Beginning (2010, Pleasant Word: Enumclaw, WA, 389pp) by Dean Davis.
This is book is subtitled "A seeker's journey to the origin of the universe, life, and man." The author has a background in philosophy and theology; he is the director of Come Let Us Reason, a Bible teaching ministry focusing on apologetics and the biblical worldview. This book is an excellent introduction to the issue of origins within the context of worldviews. In particular, it discusses various approaches within naturalism, pantheism, and Christianity.

2. Weet. A new bi-monthly Dutch magazine started in 2010. [Weet is Dutch for Know]. An interesting magazine with many fascinating, well-illustrated articles in many areas of science and technology, presented from a Biblical perspective. The chief editor is Jan Rein de Wit. The articles are all written in Dutch, which , alas, might be a hindrance for many readers.

3. Creation, Fall, Restoration (2009, Mentor: Glasgow, 312 pp) by Andrew S. Kulikovsky.
This book develops a biblical theology of creation, based on a detailed examination of Genesis 1-3. It stresses the cosmic scope of the fall and its redemption. This book gives good arguments for maintaining the traditional, historical reading of Genesis.

4. Should Christians Embrace Evolution? (2009, Intervarsity: Nottingham, 220pp) edited by Norman C. Nevin. This book consists of about a dozen chapters written by different authors. It shows that theistic evolution is both bad theology and bad science. It particularly interacts with Dr. Denis Alexander's book “Creation or Evolution – do we have to choose?”.



5. Creation-Evolution Headlines. An excellent internet site giving you the latest scientific news, along with critique from a Biblical perspective.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Dr. Byl,

at Redeemer, all of the students (which includes myself) received a copy of Prof. Chiang's "Rescuing Science from Preconcieved Beliefs" (2nd ed), a book in which the author (a biology prof at Redeemer) explains the religious underpinning for all origins explanations. I just finished it. It was a good read, designed for young science majors in university. He is a young earth creationist, and argues that it is as acceptable a scientific theory as any out there fairly well. Quite reminiscent of Wolterstorff and Plantinga, although in a different discipline.

For an introduction to religion and science, and the worldviews behind scientific theories, it is a good read as well.

John Byl said...

Hi Stuart

Thanks for the suggestion. I haven't seen this book yet but I shall look out for it. Good to hear that Redeemer has at least one opponent of theistic evolution in its biology department.

Henrietta said...

Thanks Dr Byl, for this new list and a special "hartelik bedankt" for the info on "Weet". As you know, many Afrikaans-speaking people in South Africa in the past learnt a bit of Dutch at school and some of us at University, because of the Dutch origins of our language. I immediately went to their website and was pleasantly surprised at the diversity of informative articles.

Gideon said...

Dear dr. Byl, please know that your unabated efforts to further the truth and authority of God's infallible Word is very much appreciated. Also the books that you recommend.

Fortunately we know (although sometimes the fight seems to be loosing) that our fight is not against the flesh, but against the principalities, powers and the rulers of darkness. Jesus Christ Himself has warned us that, what we are seeing, would come (Math.24,25). And that is our comfort and assurance - that God is in control. May God strengthen and bless you in your further endeavours.

About he bi-monthly Dutch magazine "Weet": I was wondering if they know about their South African Afrikaans counterpart "JUIG"/"JOY". It is published apart in both Afrikaans and English. Do you think that they know about each other. It would be so nice to know that they co-operate, team up and cross-pollinate each other towards strngthening each other.
God's blessings.
Rev. Gideon Aggenbag (emeritus).

John Byl said...

Dear Rev. Aggenbag

Thanks for your kind words of encouragement. Yes, it is indeed comforting to know that God is in full control of history. Thanks also to alerting me to the magazine Juig/Joy. I shall pass this on to the chief editor of Weet magazine, Jan Rein de Wit, who is a good friend of mine.