BiblioFile - Christianity Today

What Your Counselor Never Told You

by William Backus (Bethany House, 2000)

Psychologist William Backus has been offering help in finding self-control, freedom from worry, and healing in Christ for years. His most recent work, subtitled “Seven Secrets Revealed: Conquer the Power of Sin in Your Life,” again focuses the reader away from the symptoms to the root of the struggle. Backus carefully insists that life’s troubles are often caused not by psychological illness, but by sin. He then leads the reader through a study of the Seven Deadly Sins, highlighted by a thorough, introspective test to reveal the hidden sins rooted in our lives.

Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin

by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. (Eerdmans, 1995)

Is it possible to be thoroughly theological and delightful at the same time? Readers of philosopher Cornelius Plantinga will discover it certainly is. He contends that we must stop mumbling about sin and understand its clear and destructive implications.

We cannot preach about sin saying, “Let us confess our problem with human relational adjustment dynamics, and especially our feebleness in networking.” Plantinga arrests the discussion of sin from popular, psychological, and philosophical arenas, and plants it squarely back in the realm of the theological. He does so, however, with a light and often humorous touch that is designed to renew our fading memory of integrity and to sharpen our eye for the beauty of grace.

The Sins We Love

by Randy Rowland (Doubleday, 2000)

We love to rationalize our sinful thoughts and behaviors. Pastor Randy Rowland gently but urgently calls us to recognize our excuses for what they are—sin. He explains why: Gregory the Great didn’t call a certain seven sins “deadly” for nothing. Rowland then takes a detailed look at the classic seven, pulling the covers off subtle sins we would rather he left in the dark—sins we rationalized as being “not so bad.” But this is for our own good. The first step to breaking free from these slow working poisons, Rowland contends, is discovering and admitting their power in our lives.

Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin’s Path to God

by Brennan Manning (Harper, 2000)

In his well-loved style, storyteller Brennan Manning challenges us to transform our lives through a radical, “ruthless” trust in God. It is that kind of trust, Manning says, that reminds us of God’s presence in our struggle to be faithful. “Raw honesty with Jesus about our doubts and anxieties, our lust and laziness, our shabby prayer life and stale religiosity, our mixed motives and divided hearts, is the risk we take in the certainty of being acceptable and accepted. It is the full and mature expression of invincible trust.”

Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation

by Barbara Brown Taylor (Cowley, 2000)

Stand before any audience today and offer the following outline: sin, damnation, repentance, penance, and salvation. See how many people stick around for the rest of the speech.

Barbara Brown Taylor, professor of religion and philosophy at Piedmont College, conducts a strolling study of the language of sin, walking through her varied experiences in Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, and Yale communities. She weaves other writers’ perspectives, such as Karl Menninger’s Whatever Became of Sin? (Hawthorn Books, 1973), into this thoughtful look at how we do, and how we should, speak of sin. Her conclusions urge us to recover sin as a “helpful, hopeful word” that must be understood to fathom the depths of grace.

Personal Holiness in Times of Temptation

by Bruce H. Wilkinson (Harvest House, 1999)

Wilkinson, president of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, tackles the discipline of resisting temptation practically and methodically. The book offers logical steps and exercises to give readers a concrete grasp of discovering sin, repenting of it, and moving beyond it.

NOTE: For your convenience, the following products, which were mentioned above, are available for purchase:

What Your Counselor Never Told You, by William Backus

Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.

The Sins We Love, by Randy Rowland

Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin’s Path to God, by Brennan Manning

Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation, by Barbara Brown Taylor

Personal Holiness in Times of Temptation, by Bruce H. Wilkinson