“There is no end to the writing of books” says the Preacher of Ecclesiastes; the same can be said about the writing of books about preaching.

Every year countless books are published on the subject of preaching. The preacher who is in the market for fresh editions will face the exciting task of which ones to choose.

Realizing that her preaching skills need to be sharpened, the pastor wonders whether she should purchase one of the classics that she has never read or take a chance on a recently published edition.

A slim book that she should consider as she contemplates the great responsibility that she has with preaching the Word of God is Cornelius Plantinga Jr.’s Reading for Preaching, subtitled the preacher in conversation with storytellers, biographers, poets, and journalists.

Listed as one of the top ten best books for preachers for 2013 by Preaching Magazine, this a different type of a preaching book. http://www.preaching.com/resources/articles/11707451?page=10

Unlike the typical preaching text, there are no diagrams, outlines, or sermon illustrations. The reader will, however, come away with an insatiable urge to read and read some more.

Since reading is a very important part of the minister’s spiritual and intellectual growth and preachers are always looking for fresh new ideas for sermons and Bible studies, Plantinga advocates general reading to support ministry, believing that “a preacher is extremely likely to benefit from a program of general reading.”

To support his thesis, Plantinga mentions such diverse writers as Calvin, Nabokov, Orwell, Updike, and even Anne Lamott!

He also encourages a weekly visit to the website Arts and Letters Daily to “find out what the best journalists have been saying.”

Realizing the importance of wisdom needed in every area of preaching, Plantinga devotes three chapters on the subject—Whatever You Get, Get Wisdom; Wisdom on the Variousness of Life; and Wisdom on Sin and Grace.

Some notable pieces of advice from these chapters are:

“I recommend a reading program for preachers for lots of reasons, but chiefly because it will tend to make the preacher wise. It will give…substance” (73).

“God is great and God is good, but God is also elusive and unpredictable, and the preacher’s reading can help him see this.” (99).

“The wise preacher sticks with his reading program to become wise not only about the variousness of life, but also about some of the wonders within it. Naiveté is often the child of ignorance, but wonder is often the child of imagination” (102-103).

And from the interview listed above, “Reading wise writers is not recreation, it’s part of the preacher’s preparation to preach.”

This book is a page turner that reads like a novel; it leaves you hungry for more of the story. It will motive you to read and read some more. You will find yourself returning to it for motivation and inspiration.

Plantinga provides a selected reading list, which he states was chosen for “Imaginative Reading for Creative Preaching” Seminars which he hosted.

The list contains about 50 books and magazine articles of varying subjects—mostly secular—which will be appreciated by the reader. Book lovers, however, may be disappointed that the list is not longer.

Plantinga’s contribution is a welcome addition to any preacher’s library.

Reviewed by Larry Russi

Publisher’s page: http://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7077/reading-for-preaching.aspx

Preview: https://books.google.com/books/about/Reading_for_Preaching.html?id=TbC8AAAAQBAJ

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 145 pages.

This book was written to fill a need that concerned the leadership at Calvin College–wanting to keep Calvin a college that is Christian. Though presented to a wider Christian audience, Plantinga is a minister in the Reformed tradition and his writing is from that perspective. It would be good to note that the Reformed tradition places great emphasis on the main topics of the book, and that adds to the value of what Plantinga presents. My own theological perspective comes from Holiness and Pentecostal interpretations, yet I can easily read and admire Plantinga’s thoughts.

The book was commissioned to provide the basic background that Calvin College found was missing in its incoming students, students which largely had grown up in the church but nonetheless were rather clueless when it came to the great doctrines of Christianity. Plantinga deals with each of these doctrines: Longing and Hope; Creation; The Fall; Redemption and Vocation in the Kingdom of God. The book closes with an Epilogue and an appendix of talking points to enable discussion by and between the students.

Longing and hope repeats some of Plantinga’s thinking from his earlier award winning book Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Eerdmans, 1995). There he described Shalom for which we were made and hunger for and yet have trashed such that it no longer exists except as a hope. I was so impressed when I read the earlier book with this concept that it has become part and parcel of my own being and I pray that priestly blessing in Numbers 6 over my house every morning as part of the litany with which I start each day. I, too, long and hope for what Plantinga so magnificently and simply presents.

With the stage thus set, Plantinga next takes us to and through the marvel and wonder of Creation a place where we find creatures of wondrous particularity–each of them and all of them a display of God’s inventiveness and love. We learn that God revels in his creation, that lightning bolts say “here we are” to God; that the morning stars sang together as God unfolded his creation and all the angels shouted for joy. We have to do more than glance around; we have to lie on our backs and look into the night sky. We also have to study scripture which corrects our dull vision with special or particular revelation or what a prophet today might call illumination.

We learn there is a time to speak and a time to be silent; that this is the rhythm of God as is the time to work and to rest from work. We learn that marriage is good and that God gave our ancestors, that primal pair in the garden, a cultural mandate to multiply and fill the earth. Against the backdrop of all the good and the wonder in creation, Plantinga develops the horror of the fall, the onslaught of sin, culpable evil. God hates sin not just because it violates law, but because it also violates trust. Sin grieves God, offends God, betrays God, and not because God is touchy. God hates sin against himself, against neighbors, against a good creation because sin breaks the peace. Sin interferes with the way God wants things to be. That is why God has laws against sin. God is for Shalom and therefore against sin.