The following is a list of the books I read in 2008. There are 51 books in all that I could remember. To be honest, I’m very shocked that I had read so many- I was thinking maybe 25 or so. That being said, I’m aiming for about 25 this year. With the upcoming wedding and everything, I don’t want to aim unnecessarily high. No particular order.

1. American Evangelical Story, The: A History of the Movement
by Douglas A. Sweeney. [Church History]
2. What Is a Healthy Church?
by Mark Dever. [Ecclesiology]
3. Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament
by Christopher J. H. Wright [Christology, Biblical Theology]
4. Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism: The Battle for Gospel Preaching
by Iain H. Murray [Church History, Theology]
5. The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness
by Jerry Bridge [Theology, Soteriology]
6. The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright
by John Piper [Theology, Soteriology]
7. New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide
by David Alan Black [Textual Criticism]
8. Infant Baptism and the Covenant of Grace: An Appraisal of the Argument That As Infants Were Once Circumcised, So They Shoud Now Be Baptized
by Paul King Jewett [Theology, Baptism]
9. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation
by Craig L. Blomberg [Preaching, Parables]
10. Life’s Ultimate Questions
by Dr. Ronald H. Nash [Philosophy]
11. Faith and Reason
by Dr. Ronald H. Nash [Philosophy]
12.Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity: A History of New Testament Times
by Paul Barnett [Church History]
13. It’s Still Greek to Me: An Easy-to-Understand Guide to Intermediate Greek
by David Alan Black [Greek]
14.Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith
by Eric O. Jacobsen [Redeemed Existence, Stewardship, Architecture, Culture, Community]
15. An Introduction to the New Testament
by D. A. Carson [NT Studies]
16. A Beginner’s Guide to New Testament Exegesis: Taking the Fear Out of Critical Method
by Richard J. Erickson [Greek]
17. A Godward Life: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life
by John Piper [Devotionals]
18. The Kingdom of God
by Martyn Lloyd-Jones [Theology, Kingdom]
19. Theology of the Reformers
by Timothy George [Church History, Theology]
20. Exegetical Fallacies
by D. A. Carson [Exegesis]
21. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
by N.T. Wright [Theology, Eschatology, Missions]
22. Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage)
by Sam Harris [New Atheism]
23. II Corinthians (The Anchor Bible, Vol. 32A)
by Victor Paul Furnish [Commentaries, 2 Corinthians]
24. 2 Corinthians (New American Commentary)
by David E. Garland [Commentaries, 2 Corinthians]
25. Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community (Re:Lit)
by Tim Chester [Ecclesiology, Missional]
26. Atheism Remix: A Christian Confronts the New Atheists
by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. [Apologetics, Atheism]
27. Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (Re:Lit)
by Mark Driscoll [Theology, Soteriology]
28. Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 44, Colossians-Philemon
by Peter T. O’Brien [Commentaries, Colossians-Philemon]
29. Second Epistle To The Corinthians (New International Greek Testament Commentary)
by Murray J. Harris [Commentaries, 2 Corinthians]
30. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians (New International Commentary on the New Testament)
by Paul Barnett [Commentaries, 2 Corinthians]
31. The Micah Mandate: Balancing the Christian Life
by George Grant [Christian Living]
32. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Abingdon Classics)
by Roland H. Bainton [Biography, Church History]
33. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity
by Philip Jenkins [Church History]
34. Fusion: Turning First-Time Guests into Fully-Engaged Members of Your Church
by Nelson Searcy [Integration, Connecting Church Guests]
35. The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)
by Colin G. Kruse [Commentaries, 2 Corinthians]
36. Finding Them, Keeping Them: Effective Strategies for Evangelism and Assimilation in the Local Church
by Gary McIntosh [Integration, Connecting Church Guests]
37. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog
by James W. Sire [Philosophy, World-View]
38. Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality
by Rob Bell [Theology, Human Relationships]
39. Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry
by John Piper [Preaching]
40. God, Freedom, and Evil
by Alvin Plantinga [Philosophy, Problem of Evil]
41. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
by Donald Miller [Christian Living]
42. God’s Lesser Glory: The Diminished God of Open Theism
by Bruce A. Ware [Theology Proper]
43. The Doctrine of God (A Theology of Lordship)
by John M. Frame [Theology Proper]
44. St. Augustine Confessions (Oxford World’s Classics)
by Saint Augustine [Biography, Christian History, Theology]
45. The Story of Christianity: Volume Two – The Reformation to the Present Day
by Justo L. Gonzalez [Church History]
46. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance
by Bruce A. Ware [Theology Proper, Trinity]
47. Journey from Texts to Translations, The: The Origin and Development of the Bible
by Paul D. Wegner [Translations, Languages]
48. The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and Philemon (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)
by N. T. Wright [Commentaries, Colossians-Philemon]
49. Warranted Christian Belief
by Alvin Plantinga [Philosophy, Belief]
50. Life Is So Good
by George Dawson [Biography]
51. Christianity and Liberalism
by J. Gresham Machen [Theology]

Here is a wrap-up of this past year and a few random thoughts of my own.
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Just wanted to update you all on some things I mentioned on the Christmas update:

1)Wisdom Tooth – well, miraculously I was able to get in yesterday for a consultation, and someone had canceled for an appointment today if I needed it to get the tooth out. Well, as it turns out I needed to get all four teeth taken out. So I went into surgery today to get them out. I kept slipping in and out of being awake, so I remember all the cool things like saws and blood. God is good. The tooth that was bothering me is gone, and two others that were close to being the same are also gone, and the fourth which would need come out eventually is gone. If you remember I was afraid of not being able to find an apointment, nor being able to pay for one. Well they split it into 3 payments and my mom is helping out with the bill. God is good.

I would write a blog post on the problem of evil, and God allowing pain for a great good, but that’s a bit trite. I’ll spare you

2) Some of you who visit the physical site (not via RSS) have probably already noticed that I keep a running list of what I’ve updated on this site by date on the right (your right) side of the screen. It looks something like this:

No longer applicable

Anytime I update a part of the site that’s unavailable through RSS feeds or emails, I will update it here so people have a better idea of what’s going on.

3) Birthday is still coming up. Tomorrow for my American readers. I know I gave the wishlist in my last update, but I’m going to give it again to see if I can milk surgery sympathy for all its worth.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I wanted to update you all on some things with the site and personally.
First the site specific updates:
I have added one more paper and two more translations. The paper is an exegesis paper on 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, and can be found here (.pdf). The translations are both for 2 Corinthians: 7:2-10 and 8:16-24.

As I’ve mentioned on the 2 Corinthians page- this will be a longer project as I only had to do selected parts of every chapter for class. I am still taking what I did for that class, and making the wooden translations more readable. There are quite a few holes, obviously, but they will be filled in with time. I’m taking my time with this however, and next semester I will be taking a class on 1 Peter, so expect incomplete translations for awhile.

On the personal front, things are going well with wedding plans. Soon we’ll be looking for an apartment, and if we find one we like before the semester starts, I’ll go ahead and move into it. That way I can go ahead and move my stuff in, and take my days off to paint or whatever we need to do. Samantha will not be moving in until after the wedding, of course

Also, if you could be praying for me I would greatly appreciate it. I have a wisdom tooth that badly needs to come out, but there are two problems: 1) I don’t have dental insurance, and 2) I don’t have anywhere to go as of yet, since I’m at home for Christmas. The pain is honestly some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt, and I’m rather accident prone, so I’ve had a lot of pain. Medicines don’t seem to phase it. I’ve been in agony since yesterday and couldn’t sleep last night. But enough of the complaining- I know you guys don’t want to hear it. Just if you think about it, please pray for me.

Books: For Christmas, I scored the UBS Greek Reader, which is so much better than the Zondervan one, though the Zondervan Reader is still good. I also got Rich Bauckham’s “Jesus and the Eyewtinessess: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony” and G. K. Beales’ “We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry.” I’m super-excited to read both of these, and since my birthday is right around the corner (January 1st) I’m thinking there’s a few more books to come my way.

I didn’t link to my wishlist for Christmas, because I knew I had a birthday coming soon after. I will link to it for my birthday though- I didn’t want people who might want to get me something feel like they should get me something for both Christmas and my birthday. So here is a modest list:

Note: All the books marked “highest” priority have already been bought. If you feel like getting me something, you can choose from any other priority.

Well, I think that’s about it. God bless you all, and I hope the rest of your Christmas is a great time of worship and being with family!

My post for the second sunday of Advent will be delayed in order to bring the following announcement:

Samantha and I are engaged!

I proposed last night, and the poor thing actually agreed. Then I took over to a friend’s house for a surprise party with the guys and gals in our community group. Here’s a picture of our community gathering around us to pray for us:

Photo Copyright Allison Bowen

Thought I would put up a little status report as I’m nearing the end of the semester. Now that I got a few tests and quizzes out of the way, as well as the “harder” chapters for Hebrew, I have been tackling my paper for Systematic Theology I. The paper is on the Problem of Evil- but considering it’s only a 9 page position paper, it’s really hard to say all that I want to say. Basically, I’m looking at the two main types of arguments atheologians bring against theism. The first argument is the deductive argument that Christian theism is logically inconsistent with the existence of evil, and therefore necessarily false. If the argument is valid, then Christianity is proven to be false, and is irrational.
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I thought I might give you all a glance at what I’ve been doing recently (obviously not blogging), so here’s a quick survey I gave to myself.
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So much of the blogging “world” revolves around critique- some justified, some not. I hope and pray that this post can be a breath of fresh air.
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Growing up in small-town West Virginia, I was very distrustful of the modern city. I had my trees, my mountains and rivers, and I liked them. I still like them. Honestly, I love them. For the longest time, however, I thought that to love the city was to forsake my first true love. After spending the past year in Louisville, Ky, which has the population of roughly one-half of my home state in its “metro area,” I’ve come to realize just how absolutely wrong I was. It’s been showing just how wrong I’ve been about a few things, actually.
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One of the hardest days out of the year for me is Father’s Day.  For those of you who don’t know my story (and if you stick around long enough, you will- I post bits and pieces amongst the theological issues), I have never met my dad. Some days are harder than others.  It’s not debilitating most of the time; weeks go by without it bringing a halt to everyday activities. Weeks turn to months. The feelings of sadness are usually always there, but its nothing that really keeps me from functioning. But then there are days where the pain gets to be soul-crushingly unbearable. One of those days hit a week or so ago.

Everything just stopped. Which, thank God, happened on a day that I had off from everything. Thoughts kept plaguing my mind- “What does it feel like to be hugged by your father?” and “Does he ever even think of me?” and “I just want to tell him I love him, even if its just once.”  Fathers, I plead with you to realize now just how far reaching the emotional effects you can leave on your son.  They need you. Read the rest of this entry