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In the Library: Books and Reading with Hefin Jones

Hefin Jones1

Hefin Jones is married with one preschooler. Until recently he was a Baptist pastor and hopes to be heading overseas soon to help educate future church leaders. 



TGCA – What books are currently on your bedside table?

Mangoes or Bananas? by Hwa Yung, a prolegomena of sorts to Asian theology, The Search For Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence, and Frank Herbert’s Dune.

TGCA – What was the last book you left unfinished?

The Book Thief

TGCA – What’s a book you feel guilty for not reading?

Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor

TGCA – Do you read commentaries straight-through or dip-in?

Strictly dip-in, preferably via some good bible software. The nearest I’ve come to reading one straight through in recent years is J. Lou Martyn’s Galatians in the Anchor Bible. A good combination of insightful and infuriating.

TGCA – What’s a book that someone needs to write?

A really substantial account and commendation of classical Evangelicalism now that we know that we’re meant to be ‘catholic’, ‘orthodox’, ‘reformed’ etc.  An account that handles the scriptures well and in depth, and isn’t just 1517 and All That.

TGCA – What books did you/do you read to your children?

We’re about to finish Kevin De Young’s The Biggest Story for the second time.

TGCA – What was the last book you gave as a present?

It might have been Tony Payne’s The Thing Is…

TGCA – What book made a big impact on you during adolescence?

Jim Packer’s God Has Spoken. It’s probably not quite up there with Fundamentalism and the Word of God but I found it really helpful at a point where I was trying to work out where I stood.

TGCA – Best biography you’ve read?

Ian Kershaw’s two volumes on Hitler, and Nemesis. However, I’ve probably re-read Handley Moule’s Charles Simeon more than any other.

TGCA – What 10 books would you take to a desert island?

Assuming the Bible and the Bard are a given:
Luther’s Galatians — a commentary that may well be worth reading straight through
Calvin’s Institutes —  let’s try Banner of Truth’s new-ish translation of the 1541 French edition
Bavink’s Reformed Dogmatics — I might make progress beyond volume 1
Packer’s Knowing God
Any book by the late John Webster — anything, since reading the obits I’ve realised I should have read him sooner and maybe gone to hear him when we were both living in the same city
One of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels
At least one or more of Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels
The last instalment of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy
Ian Kershaw’s To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 — I’ve not read it, but looks bleakly promising
The biggest Sudoku or Ken-ken puzzle book money can buy.

TGCA – What was the last book that made you angry?

Mmm – not sure about the last book, but Douglas Campbell’s Deliverance of God: an apocalyptic rereading of justification in Paul (2009) motivated me to write a thesis. I like D.G. Hart, but I found his Deconstructing Evangelicalism irritating.

TGCA – Is there a book that you wish you’d written?

‘How I lost weight, got fit, and overcame procrastination’

TGCA – Most overrated book?

Life of Pi

TGCA – What’s your favourite time and place to read?

Sunny autumn mornings in vineyards, or by the sea shore, with a strong flat white or two.

TGCA – What is your favourite poem?

I’m entirely prosaic. Psalm 103? ‘Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness’? ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’?

TGCA – What is a book in the area of New Testament studies that you’d encourage everyone to read?

Stephen Westerholm’s Justification Reconsidered – Short, witty, and to the point criticism of various Pauline revisionisms. 

TGCA – Which book, apart from the Bible, has most shaped your approach to ministry?

Hard to know, but maybe Ed Clowney’s Preaching and Biblical Theology — it was the right book at the right time for me.

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