On books for 2008
By Bruce Keisling January 15, 2008
Brad has been keeping this blog afloat for a while. Now that I’ve returned from a holiday I have to respond to his post about books for 2008.
First, I have to comment on one of his recommended titles. No, it’s not the Mohler one. It’s A Severe Mercy.
I read it maybe 15-20 years ago and could hardly stand it. As a spiritual memoir it has some value. The author’s personal transformation as a result of deep suffering and loss is meaningful. But, it is introspective in the most cloying ways imaginable. Deep introspection has to be mediated in some way to produce a valuable universality of thought and feeling that can be found in something like Augustine’s Confessions. A Severe Mercy just couldn’t do it for me. I had trouble reading the book, but I had heard so many people say how good it was that I kept reading it in hopes that I’d find some really, really good part. I never did. Brad, why do you feel it’s so compelling?
Now I’ll make a couple recommendations for Brad or someone else to critique:
1. The Saints Everlasting Rest by Richard Baxter
2. Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver