Holiday books

Jenny Geddes and her Presbyterian stool

Enjoyed a few days away with family on holiday in Cork. Sat in and listened to an MP3 sermon on the Lord's Day morning and worshipped in the Plymouth Brethren Gospel Hall in the evening.  Picked up the following second hand books along the bookshop trail:

John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress - UK Penguin edition (p/b) I have several copies of this, but one more nice clean copy won't do me any harm. The theology of Bunyan's PP is stoutly Calvinist.

Reaching Muslim's for Christ by William Saal (Moody) Again (p/b) I really need to brush up on my knowledge of Islam. Starting to get more conversations with its adherents. Read most of this book while on holiday.

Jenny Geddes, or, Presbyterianism and its great conflict with despotism. by Rev. WP Breed (P/b) This is a reprint and does what it says it does on the tin. You can read a wee bit about the blessed Jenny here. Obviously it covers other parts of Presbyterian history as well. Never heard of Breed before. I really must look him up. He was an American Presbyterian minister. His book was published in 1869 in Philadelphia. I guess that would make him a friend of Charles Hodge and maybe RL Dabney etc. 

My main buy was a h/b copy of Basic Theology by Charles Ryrie (H/b) and for which I paid the most money (10.00 euro) Again, second hand, and marked with a highlighter in a few places (and none too neatly). I have his Survey of Biblical Doctrine but this is the fuller work. My friend #MarkWard once told us all that Ryrie had no Calvinist leanings at all. This is (with all due respect) utter rubbish. I'm sitting looking at his chapter on "The Doctrine of Election" as I type this article. Ryrie states:

"Election is unconditional and individual" (p.361)

"Clearly people are foreknown, not their faith." (Rom. 8:28-29) (p.361)

And more. Memo: Blog on this matter soon.

FTR: I reject several of Ryrie's views e.g his Dispensationalism, but still, nice to try and have a balanced library.

The only new items I bought were two booklets:

How to survive your pastor's sermons (Robert Spinney)
Why read the Puritans today (Don Kistler)  

That's it.  

* CALVINIST INDEX
* PROTESTANT INDEX
* CH SPURGEON INDEX
* EVANGELISM INDEX
* HERE AND THERE INDEX
* YOUTUBE VIDEO INDEX
* 3 MINUTE AUDIOBOO INDEX