Top 10 New Non-Fiction: 2007

1 Gary Gilley Is That You Lord?: Hearing the Voice of the Lord, A Biblical Perspective [2007]. Addresses a fundamental flaw in modern evangelicalism - knowing God's will.

2 Roger Oakland Faith Undone: the emerging church...a new reformation or an end-time deception [2007]. Were D. A. Carson fears to tread. If you thought Hank Hanegraaff's The Bible Answerman was the epitome of discernment, dig a little deeper. (A, God willing, in-depth review to follow.)

3 John MacArthur The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception [2007]. A fruit of MacArthur's exegesis of Jude. Another winner!

4 Daniel Levitin This is Your Brain on Music [2006]. A fascinating look at how our brains interpret and hear music.

5 Anthony Selvaggio, ed. The Faith Once Delivered: Essays in Honor of Dr. Wayne Spear [2007]. An excellent collection of essays purportedly themed on 'systematic theology.' Trueman's piece on James Buchanan's The Doctrine of Justification nicely provided enlightening look at the milieu of controversy in which it was birthed. Richard B. Gaffin's true colours (eg. why he would endorse Norman Shepherd's The Call of Grace) were confirmed by his The Vitality of Reformed Systematic Theology [orig.1994]

6 Humberto Fontova Exposing the Real Che Guevara [2007]. With the subtitle "and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him" the contents are pretty well summarized. An historical, anecdotal expose that many evangelyfish would profit from reading.

7 Mira Kamdar Planet India [2007]. If you ever wondered why service call operators have foreign accents - here is your answer (outsourcing), and more! Should be a revelation, for many, about the rise (or attempted - don't forget the persistant caste system which seems to be taking quite a while to erode) of India into first-world nation status.

8 James K. A. Smith Whos Afraid of Post Modernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church [2006]. An excellent resource for deciding why one should beware of postmodernism! The author is unashamed of his role as a 'change agent' as is evident by his subtitle. He is part of the Radical Orthodoxy movement which is revealing itself to be another malicious abberation complimenting the Federal Vision heresy. (Perhaps, more on this topic at a later date.)

9 William Easterley The White Mans Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Save the Rest Have Done So Much Ill, and So Little Good [2006] A brilliant study exposing the top-down/throw-money-at-the-problem solutions of the liberal left (and entertainment media idols) and providing glimpses of alternate, practical, efficient methods of so-called third world aid.

10 Hank Hanegraaff The Apocalypse Code [2007]. A popular (in the older sense) treatment of the 'end times' in the guise of both an exegetical primer and a response to the modern evangelical preoccupation with eschatological fiction based on pre-tribulational premillennialism. While not agreeing with Hank on everything, but hoping this may prove a useful antidote, at the popular level, for the raging unbiblical scenarios painted by Hal Lindsey, Grant Jeffrey, Dave Hunt, Tim LaHaye, et.al. ad nauseam.

Honourable Mentions:

Pat Ammeter On a New Foundation [2007] (London: Bethel Baptist Church Print Ministry, 296pp.- but no longer on their website store - I have a few copies, and the author will have some also.) An original debut by an author in my own home town, who has struggled through the years with the many heretical practices which have entered the evangelical churches. Covers history, Roman Catholicism, Bible Versions, the Laughing Revival, Theophostics, and other topics. Suffers from lack of a firm editorial hand and a shallow understanding of both theology and history. May see a better day when (allegedly) republished by one of the links on my sidebar.

Darrell Bock The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternate Christianities [2006]. A nice course on the early Church beliefs which rebutts the current and continuing liberal, antichristian views promoting gnosticism and denigrating the authority, sufficiency, and perspicuity of God's revelation: the Bible.

David Yallop The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of John Paul II's Vatican [2007]. Another (following the best-selling In God's Name[1984]), expose of Vatican/Papist intrigue. Mostly historical, dealing with topics like the irony of the Pope's image as the man (with Ronald Reagan) who brought down the Iron Curtain.