Sometimes it seems as if I will never finish the book I am currently working through.  This is definitely the case with my bedtime reading.  But in the last few days I have concluded reading three different books that I would like to note.  Do not fret.  This is not my usual practice.  But these books deserve some sort of honorable mention.  The first item I want to mention is Phil Ryken's first volume in his commentary on Luke in the Reformed Expository Commentary series.  you can find this book here.  This has been a delight to read as part of my personal devotions.  Dr. Ryken has consistently pointed me to Christ.  Whether the particular sermon (this commentary is based on sermons) was intended to encourage or convict, for me at least, he has regularly hit his target (my head and heart!).  What is true for Ryken's exposition of Luke has been true for the other volumes in the series.  Tenth Presbyterian Church is losing a capable exegete and expositor.  Tenth's loss is Wheaton's gain.

Next I would like to note Dr. James Anderson's Paradox in Christian Theology: An Analysis of Its Presence, Character, and Epistemic Status which can be found here.  We at Christ the Center over at Reformed Forum recently interviewed Dr. Anderson about this book, so be on the lookout for that within the next few weeks.  Dr. Anderson is a Van Tillian who has learned how to harvest the benefits of the work of Alvin Plantinga.  Anderson argues persuasively that merely apparent contradiction resulting from unarticulated equivocation (paradox) is part and parcel of Christian theology given the incomprehensibility of God and the finitude of human knowledge.  This was a challenging, yet most rewarding volume.

Finally, I want to commend to you all the volume The Law is Not of Faith:  Essays on Works and Grace in the Mosaic Covenant which can be obtained here.  This book is not without its detractors.  However I think the book is well worth your perusing and that it would be worth your effort wrestling with the idea of the republication thesis.  The republication thesis is the idea that the covenant of works is in some sense republished in the Mosaic administration.  As they say, the devil is in the details.  But this much should be recognized.  The idea of republication has been an element in Reformed theology from its earliest stages of development.  But my concern here is not to defend the republication idea but to commend the volume as a whole and the last two chapters in particular.  The chapter on natural law by David VanDrunen and the chapter on Christ's active and passive obedience by Mike Horton are both worth the price of the whole book.  For my part, Horton ably exposits the biblical basis of the imputation of Christ's active and passive obedience to the believer.  Especially intriguing for me in the VanDrunen essay is his recognition that an emphasis on the natural law in the covenant of works entails that the covenant of works arises with creation and is not an overlay over a neutral creation.  I do not have space to go into further detail.   But these essays and the others in this volume should be read with critical appreciation.

Now on to a new book.  For me that is F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom.  More about that when I finish reading it.