Cardiff Christian bookshop, Wyndham Arcade

Cardiff Christian Bookshop, located in Wyndham Arcade, one of the many shopping arcades in Cardiff, is one of the Evangelical Movement of Wales bookshops. Located as it is in the capital of Wales, it is a well-stocked shop with helpful staff who usually know what they're talking about. Its location means that it is a general evangelical bookshop, so some of the stock would be less than acceptable to the presumed readers of a blog entitled 'Strict and Particular'. Nevertheless, the majority of the books stocked here are of a helpul nature.

The shop stocks a wide variety of materials, from children's books to the huge and more intellectually-challenging. On one visit I picked up Philip Comfort's huge New Testament Text and Translation Commentary. The majority of Christian bookshops, especially evangelical ones, have to maintain a delicate balance between selling what the managers like and what the public are asking for. The question of how far to go is up to management at the shop. One way to go is that of the Norwich Christian Resorce Centre, and other ecumenical shops - sell anything and everything - the other is that of the Tabernacle Bookshop - sell only what Dr. Masters wants to. Which is fair enough, since he runs it. Still other shops cater to the lowest common denominator of evangelicalism - Dance Praise and The Shack, with more CDs than books. The EMW shops seem to be closest to the balance that keeps a shop financially viable, yet without making the name 'bookshop' something of a misnomer. Cardiff Christian Bookshop also has a secondhand section, which usually contains something useful as well as books that seem to have been given to the EMW because no-one wants them any more - such as A.S. Peake's book on the true nature of Christianity. The answer, of course, is not what Prof. Peake thought it was.

Next: Pontypridd gets the In Many Bookshops treatment!

Disclaimer: This is an opinionated blog piece, and as such may safely be ignored if you disagree with it. All opinions contained in this piece are those of the author, and possibly no-one else.

'The Prodigal God' by Timothy Keller

The Prodigal God is a book that created a small controversy before it was published. To name no names, some Reformed people criticised Keller simply for the title of this book! To me, this was a total non-issue, obviously the book was an exposition of the parable usually referred to as 'The Prodigal Son'. Most agree that this name is not completely appropriate, partly because there are two sons in the parable. I know of a missionary who refers to it as 'The Parable of the Running Father', to emphasise the fact that a father in ancient near-eastern culture would never run, as it would be contrary to his dignity.

Although I had heard many good things about Pastor Keller and his work at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, I had never read or listened to Keller before I read this book. I came to it as just another book. And I like it. Keller has written a book that presents the Gospel biblically, in an exposition of the parable. The title The Prodigal God was chosen by Keller to express the reckless generosity of God to sinners. It's all about the Gospel, and Keller gets it! He knows what the Gospel is, God's free grace to sinners through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a striking title, and perhaps you find it shocking. You're meant to, the reckless freeness of the Gospel to sinners is shocking, especially to the self-righteous. Now, when a book presents the Gospel like this, it's well worth reading and passing on.

Whether this is actually the case or not, what struck me was Keller's concern for the 'elder son' sinners, self-righteous people. While most expositions of the parable tend to spend more time on the younger son, Keller seems to balance the time he spends on each. As a former liberal Anglican, I found this quite refreshing. I was one of those people, and I am so glad that Keller understands that self-righteous sinners need the Gospel too. Better yet, he understands that Christians need to hear the Gospel so that they do not get into an 'elder son' mentality of legalism! A little book, it could have done without Rick Warren, Billy Graham and Christianity Today on the back cover!

The Prodigal God is published by Dutton, and is available from your local Christian bookshop, or from Amazon.co.uk.

Banner of Truth celebrates Calvin 500

The Banner of Truth Trust has been consistently the best British publisher of Reformed reprints since its establishment in 1957. Thanks to the efforts of the Trust, many excellent gems of Reformed theology have been brought back into print over the last half-century. These books range from the era of the Reformation to the earlier part of the twentieth century, with authors from all sorts of places and backgrounds. John Calvin is well represented, as he ought to be, of course. His sermons predominate, as they ought to for a man who was first and foremost a preacher, with seven different titles listed on the Banner website. Second come Biblical commentaries, which again is as it should be, as Calvin remains one of the greatest of Biblical commentators. There are four volumes stocked, commentaries on Genesis, Jeremiah and Lamentations, Daniel and the Minor Prophets. Until this year there were only two other Calvin titles published by the Banner, Truth for all Time, Calvin's short summary of Biblical doctrine, and a selection of Letters of John Calvin. But for this Calvin 500 year the Trust has produced a real treasure, the seven-volume set of Tracts and Letters by Calvin. This set brings together what were originally two separate publications, the three-volume set of Tracts published by the Calvin Translation Society in the mid-nineteenth century (1844-51), and the four-volume set of Letters of John Calvin, first published in America by the Presbyterian Board of Publication in 1858. For this year only, the Trust is offering the set for £45, which adds up to less than £6.50 pervolume. Given that these are cloth-bound volumes, this is quite a bargain!

The first three volumes of Tracts contain shorter writings of Calvin. The first volume begins with Beza's Life of John Calvin, giving a good introduction to Calvin himself. It is chiefly concerned with the Reformation of the Church, including his Letter to Cardinal Sadoleto, and The Necessity of Reforming the Church. Volume two contains a more miscellaneous selection of writings, including the Catechism of the Church of Geneva, Calvin's Geneva liturgy, and his writings on the Sacraments, particularly on the Lord's Supper. The final volume opens with Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, with the Antidote. This particular writing is extremely important, as Trent still forms the foundation of the modern Roman Catholic Church. This work shows where the dividing line between Rome and the Reformation still lies.

The four volumes of Letters are proably the closest we can get to Calvin the man, they show him as he was. Time and again, reading biographies of Calvin, I have come across writers saying "read the letters". Now, thanks to the Banner of Truth, we can.

Books to use for non-Calvinists

The accusation has been made that I have only given references to books by Calvinists. For this reason, I give a list of books about Calvin by non-Calvinists that you can give to your Dave Hunt-influenced friends.

1. William J. Bouwsma: John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait (New York, Oxford University Press, 1988). By a historian at a secular university, namely Berkeley, and published by a secular publisher, there is no way that this can be accused of being a mere fan piece.

2. Andrew Martin Fairbairn: ‘Calvin and the Reformed Church’ Pp.342-376 in The Cambridge Modern History Vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1934). Great if you can get hold of it. Fairbairn was a dedicated Arminian who had deliberately rejected his Calvinistic upbringing in Presbyterian Scotland. His whole mental bias was against Calvin, yet he is almost laudatory of Calvin!

3. R.N. Carew Hunt, Calvin (London, the Centenary Press, 1933). Another great biography to give to Dave Hunt's followers. Hunt makes it quite clear that he is no Calvinist, but at the same time he refuses to close his eyes to Calvin's good qualities.

4. Hugh Y. Reyburn, John Calvin (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1914). Liberal Presbyterian author, very scholarly and full of quotations from the original sources.

5. Williston Walker, John Calvin: Revolutionary, Theologian, Pastor (Reprinted Fearn, Christian Focus, 2005). Yale Church historian. I trust that no-one will suspect him of Calvinism. Certainly not after reading this book!

If the Dave Hunt fan refuses to read any of these books, or says he doesn't believe them afterwards, ask him why. Point out that a refusal to examine the evidence is not a Christian virtue. I own and have read all of these books, and I like them.

An old classic that deserves to be reprinted, but hasn't been yet

R.N. Carew Hunt's Calvin (London, the Centenary Press, 1933), is probably my favourite biography of John Calvin. I find it a slightly better read than Reyburn, though it's a close call. This book is a classic, and it wasn't written by a Calvinist either! Robert Reymond writes of it:
“As a biography it is unsurpassed, but Hunt is somewhat hard on times because of his doctrine of predestination.” T.H.L. Parker writes of this book:
"whatever qualifications must be made about its interpretation of Calvin's theology, [it] is reliable and well-written history." Simply put, this is one of the classics, a book that I can recommend to everyone who wants to learn more about Calvin. It is not merely a rehash of what is found in Reyburn, and Hunt's racy English prose is a joy to read. Since Hunt is not a Calvinist, this can be a good book to use to correct a victim of Dave Hunt's silliness. The final paragraph of the book is wonderful. I give it here:

"At this point what we may think of his doctrine or his system become of no
importance. We are left in the presence of a man who followed what he believed
to be the truth, and consecrated his life to its attainment, and for this he
will be had in honour as long as courage and singleness of purpose are held as
virtues among men."

The Tabernacle Bookshop

Next in our occasional series 'In Many Bookshops with Mr. Charmley', is the Tabernacle Bookshop, London. Located behind the Metropolitan Tabernacle, famed for the preaching of C.H. Spurgeon, the Tabernacle Bookshop is a ministry of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and as such the books found in the bookshop are personally vetted by Dr. Peter Masters, the present pastor. And herein lies my only complaint about the shop. The stock is extremely limited according to Dr. Masters' preferences. Thus it gives a good idea of what Dr. Masters recommends, but this means, conversely, that any book or author with which he has certain differences will be excluded. Sadly this means that very few of Dr. Lloyd-Jones' books will be found here, and that of Tom Nettles' three-volume work The Baptists, only volume one is available. Asking the staff to order in books is a risky business, and not recommended unless you are prepared for an argument. Strangely enough, Dr. Masters stocks the commentaries of Albert Barnes, despite Barnes' semi-Pelagian Finneyesque revivalism, and his incipient four-point Calvinism. All of which goes to show that no-one can be 100% consistent. This is a good shop for what it stocks, and has had a lot of money from me over the years, but don't expect the 'full spectrum' mentioned on the website banner. I have no objection to vetting the books stocked in a shop, I just think that the criteria used in the Tabernacle bookshop are perhaps too strict. Last time I was there the shelves looked rather empty, but that was probably the after-effects of Christmas.

Next (DV): EMW shop in Cardiff.

Others in consideration are the Heath Christian Bookshop, Cardiff, and Harvest Books and Crafts, Pontypridd. As this is a blog, these are opinionated articles that do not reflect the views of anyone but the author (although others may agree with him). The fact that a bookshop is reviewed here obviously does not constitute a recommendation of either the bookshop or everything stocked in it. In fact it simply means that I have the ability and the inclination to get to the shop in question. Unless otherwise mentioned, I have bought items from the bookshops reviewed. Sometimes quite a lot of items...

On Books About Calvin: 4

In addition to the nine biographies of Calvin that I have listed, there are a number of special studies that deal with aspects of the Reformer's life that are worthy of mention.

1. Timothy George (ed.): John Calvin and the Church (Westminster/John Knox, 1990). This is a series of essays on Calvin. Despite the title, it does in fact deal with far more than just Calvin and the Church. There are essays on such diverse subjects as 'Calvin's Illnesses and Their Relation to Christian Vocation', 'The Church as the Elect in the Theology of Calvin', and 'The Place of the Academy in Calvin's Polity'. Its diversity makes it a great book to read. It is aimed at the scholar, but the intelligent Reformed non-scholar will find something here as well. Available from Amazon.

2. David W. Hall: The Legacy of John Calvin (Presbyterian and Reformed, 2008). The question of Calvin's influence on the world is one of the questions that will be asked in this year of Calvin 500. Hall tries to give an answer to this question. This book is in three parts, part one deals with 'Ten Ways Modern Culture is Different because of John Calvin', part two is a short biography of Calvin, and part three consists of quotations demonstrating Calvin's influence across the denominations. This is an excellent book, and well worth the read. Available from Amazon.

3. Richard Stauffer: The Humanness of John Calvin (Solid Ground Christian Books, 2008). Calvin is often caricatured as an ogre. Whilst the biographies that I have listed are all of a more balanced type, there are still some Arminians and free-willers out there who like to regurgitate the old lies about Calvin. This book, originally published back in 1964, was written to correct these misrepresentations. It draws on the best scholarship, and quotes Calvin himself. It is a good, short introduction for those who have been influenced by such people as Nelson Price and Dave Hunt. Available from Amazon.

4. Steven J. Lawson: The Expository Genius of John Calvin (Reformation Trust, 2007). Calvin was a preacher first and foremost. In this useful little book, Lawson examines Calvin as preacher, his abilities and his methods as a preacher and commentator. It is extremely useful for those who want to dig deeper into Calvin the preacher. Available from Amazon.

Of course there are other books about Calvin available. This list is simply those that I have first of all read, and secondly they are books that I have found helpful. The literature on Calvin is huge. That being so, there's no excuse for those who just regurgitate mere slander as if it actually described the real Calvin.

There will be other 'Calvin 500' posts here in future.