As summer begins, we want to help you craft the perfect Summer Reading List. We asked Southeastern Seminary professors what books they would recommend, and we’ll share their recommendations in coming weeks.
This week, Drs. David W. Jones, Ivan Spencer, and Greg Welty recommend three books for your summer reading list.
The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims
By Rebecca McLaughlin (The Gospel Coalition, 2021)
David W. Jones: In this new, short book Rebecca McLaughlin unpacks a biblical perspective on five modern truth claims: Black Lives Matter, Love Is Love, Gay Rights Are Civil Rights, Women’s Rights Are Human Rights, and Transgender Women Are Women. Christians need to be able to speak biblically on these subjects, for these are the issues that our friends, co-workers, and neighbors are discussing. Being skilled at winsomely speaking truth in regard to these important topics is a great way to show the relevance of the Bible and to engage in gospel conversations.
Dr. David W. Jones is Professor of Christian Ethics, Senior Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and Associate Dean for Theological Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Talking to Strangers
By Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown & Co., 2019)
C. Ivan Spencer: An eye-opening book about relating to people all around us who differ from us vastly. The USA, long past monoculture, rushes into fragmentation at a pace beyond our ability to track. We will be talking to strangers for a long time. The applications for personal evangelism, church planting, and missions jump out of every chapter.
Dr. C. Ivan Spencer is Professor of History and Philosophy at Southeastern Seminary.
Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction
By Jennifer Nagel (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Greg Welty: Bite-size philosophy at its best. Jennifer Nagel makes the theory of knowledge interesting and even exciting, through a jet tour of the historical and topical territory that introduces readers to the careful and illuminating distinctions that compose the subject today. Skepticism, rationalism, empiricism, testimony, contextualism: it’s all here, in 150 small paperback pages. Come for the Paracelsian view of our relationship to the universe, stay for the Hermann Grid illusion!
Dr. Greg Welty is Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Seminary.
Previous Summer Reading Lists
- Ken Keathley: The Controversial First Evangelical
- Benjamin Quinn: How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
- Penny Keathley: Thriving in a Godless Culture
- Matt Mullins: From Poetry to the Trail of Tears
- Keith Whitfield: Responding to a “Dizzying” New Reality
- Karen Swallow Prior: “As Refreshing as a Summer Breeze”
- Kristin Kellen, Jeremy Bell, and Lauren Pratt: On Suffering
- Sharon Chung: Timeless Wisdom
