Christopher Kou holds a certificates in biblical, liturgical, and cultural research from Theopolis Institute. He has been printed within the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. He’s at present enrolled within the MABS program at Reformed Theological Seminary and holds a bachelor’s in historical past and theology from Elmhurst College.
Christopher lives within the northwest suburbs of Chicago along with his spouse Ellyn and their two youngsters, Stephen and Eliana. He’s a member of Christ Covenant Church of Chicago (CREC).
1. 5 Books of St. Irenaeus towards Heresies, by Irenaeus
This second-century work is a landmark of early Christian theology. Though oriented polemically towards the Gnostic heresies of Irenaeus’s day, the work is an indispensable work of theology correct, demonstrating a excessive Christology and still-fresh insights into creation and anthropology that stay helpful immediately.
2. Summa Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas
No library is full with out the Summa, which is among the nice classics of Christian scholarship. Agree or disagree with Aquinas on any level, however you can not afford to disregard him. His thought is cautious and granular, and due to this fact thought scary, and it pervades all of Western Christian theology and philosophy.
3. By means of New Eyes, by James Jordan
This e-book is a foundational and paradigm-shifting work on biblical worldview. That’s, a view of the world via biblical eyes. James Jordan takes us on a contemporary, and infrequently stunning, tour of biblical symbolism rooted in God’s creational order, and reveals the varied methods it informs our studying of Scripture as an entire. On this e-book, there’s a entire lot of “as soon as seen, can’t unsee.”
4. Reformed Dogmatics, by Herman Bavinck
This basic work of systematic theology is biblically wealthy and traditionally delicate. I take into account Bavinck’s work because the touchstone for each deep and expansive theological thought. It’s work that I reference always on each theological matter.
5. Systematic Theology, by Robert Letham
That is my go-to single-volume systematic theology. I recognize that Letham’s doctrine of God begins with the Trinity as revealed in Scripture. Though there are various wonderful systematic theologies, I discover Letham probably the most biblical to my thoughts, detailed sufficient whereas being concise, and up to date sufficient (2019) that he interacts with and references a lot of the related scholarship and viewpoints previously century.
6. John’s Gospel: A Uncared for Key to Revelation? by Warren A. Gage
In one other paradigm-shifting e-book, Warren Gage reveals how the Gospel of John and the e-book of Revelation are thematically chiastic. Gage outlines the construction of each books and provides quite a few examples. With this matching construction in thoughts, exegetes are higher geared up to learn and interpret each books. One other once-you-see-it perception. I can now not learn Revelation with out considering of John’s Gospel (and vice versa). That is conveniently obtainable as a Logos useful resource.
7. For the Lifetime of the World, by Alexander Schmemann
For a liturgical worldview, there isn’t a greater place to begin. Schmemann reveals how Christian worship fills time, house, and each human motion. He considers what this implies for humanity’s place in God’s creation, and the way it informs our liturgy and on a regular basis existence, from the best human actions to the grand cosmic order.
Dorsey’s structural commentary covers each chapter of each e-book within the Outdated Testomony from Genesis to Malachi. He examines the structural make-up of every e-book, in addition to the substructures of many pericopes. In the event you like discovering chiasms and different literary structural units, you want this e-book. Dorsey additionally affords pointers for a way these buildings perform within the textual content and the way they can assist us to raised perceive its which means.
9. Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, by Matityahu Clark
The etymological entries within the dictionary are drawn from the biblical commentaries of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) and several other of his college students. Greater than a reference work, this dictionary is a window into the exegetical methodology of one of the vital revered Jewish exegetes, based mostly upon the speculation that consonants carry which means and that roots utilizing the identical or comparable consonants are thus associated. The ensuing insights are sometimes unnoticed or rejected by fashionable linguists, and plenty of can be debatable. Nevertheless, they’re at all times attention-grabbing and may typically open avenues to the Hebrew textual content that may in any other case have been neglected.
10. Deep Exegesis: The Thriller of Studying Scripture, by Peter Leithart
Deep Exegesis is based on the premise that the textual content of Scripture is greater than a container for summary reality, however that the medium is in truth a part of the message. Contemplating the exegetical strategies of the apostles within the writings of the New Testomony, Leithart argues not solely that we are able to study to use their methodology in our exegesis, however that their instance is there particularly for us to comply with. From this start line, Leithart teaches us to please in each aspect of the textual content. Utilizing John 9 as a check case, we study to see the textual content as historical past, hear it as music, and permit it to fill us with pleasure and laughter as God’s inside “joke” to us.
11. ESV Bible Atlas, by John D. Currid and David P. Barrett
The story of the Bible is one which takes place in time and house. It’s historical past and geography, and so a reference work to the historic and geographical context of Scripture is indispensable. The ESV Bible Atlas fills this want fantastically, as it’s lavishly illustrated with detailed maps, diagrams, and pictures of places and artifacts. The textual content of the atlas can also be useful, giving historic overviews and archaeological context for every period of the Bible.
