Top Ten Books Archives - Canon Fodder

‘Tis the season. . . to give books.

I think solid Christian books are a great gift, and books on the authority of Scripture are always relevant in our world today.

Thus, for your shopping pleasure, I have compiled an annotated list of the all-time 10 best books on this topic. It goes without saying that such a list is highly selective (and debatable). So many good books deserve to be included.

But my list is guided by these main criteria: (a) books that focus on the theological side of biblical authority and not as much on the historical evidences for the Bible’s history (though some overlap is inevitable); (b) books that are “modern,” meaning they have been written sometime between the Reformation and the present (otherwise, many patristic works would make the list); and (c) books that are rigorously orthodox (for this reason, Karl Barth’s Dogmatics is not on the list despite the fact that it has been influential on the modern church’s view of Scripture).

With these criteria in mind, let’s take a look at the top 10: [Read more…]

Over at The Gospel Coalition, they have published my article on the top ten book on the authority of Scripture. I go through what I think are the best modern (Reformation and later) treatments of this issue from a theological perspective (as opposed to just historical). I then give a paragraph description of each book.

Here is the bare list (you will have to go to TGC to get the full article):

10. D. A. Carson and John Woodbridge, eds., Scripture and Truth (Baker, 1983); idem, Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon (Zondervan, 1986).

9. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena (vol. 1): Part IV: Revelation (Baker Academic, 2003).

8. E. J. Young, Thy Word Is Truth (Banner of Truth, 1963).

7. Ned Stonehouse and Paul Woolley, eds., The Infallible Word: A Symposium by the Members of the Faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary (P&R, 1946).

6. J.I. Packer, ‘Fundamentalism’ and the Word of God (Eerdmans, 1958).

5. William Whitaker, Disputations on Holy Scripture (Soli Deo Gloria, 2000).

4. John Owen, The Divine Original: Authority, Self-Evidencing Light, and Power of the Scriptures, vol. 16 of Owen’s Collected Works (Banner of Truth, 1988).

3. Meredith Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority (1971).

2. John Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God (P&R, 2010).

1. B. B. Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, with intro by Van Til (P&R, 1948).

In my original article I included an addendum of “honorable mentions,” but this was left out of the TGC version. So, I give you that list here:

Honorable mentions: Herman Ridderbos, Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures (P&R, 1963); Cornelius Van Til, The Doctrine of Scripture (P&R, 1967); J.W. Montgomery, ed., God’s Inerrant Word (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1974); Carl F.H. Henry, God, Revelation, and Authority, 4 vols. (Word, 1979); R.L. Harris, Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978); J.W. Wenham, Christ and the Bible (Downer’s Grove, Il: InterVarsity, 1972); N. Geisler, ed., Inerrancy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980); Greg Beale, The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism (Crossway, 2008); Paul Wells, Taking the Bible at Its Word (Christian Focus, 2013).