New & Noteworthy Books

Broken Planet: If There’s a God, Then Why Are There Natural Disasters and Diseases?

Sharon Dirckx (IVP)

We often refer to natural disasters as “acts of God,” a fact that helps explain why skeptics of Christian faith invoke them as stumbling blocks to belief. In Broken Planet, Sharon Dirckx of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics explores how to defend God’s goodness in light of events like tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, famines, and pandemics. The book also includes extensive firsthand testimonies from a range of believers, including rescue workers, local residents, and other eyewitnesses.

Amazing Grace: The Life of John Newton and the Surprising Story Behind His Song

Bruce Hindmarsh and Craig Borlase (Thomas Nelson)

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the writing of “Amazing Grace,” John Newton’s iconic hymn. To mark the occasion, historian Bruce Hindmarsh and writer Craig Borlase have teamed up to write what they call a “dramatized biography” of the former slave-ship captain, one “with the feel of a film or a life play.” Like the song that inspires it, Amazing Grace summons readers to consider the arc of redemption in their own lives.

Engaging the Old Testament: How to Read Biblical Narrative, Poetry, and Prophecy Well

Dominick S. Hernández (Baker Academic)

For many believers, the Old Testament seems bafflingly inconsistent with the picture of God we receive from the New Testament. This can tempt us to neglect it, downgrade it, or read it selectively. Dominick S. Hernández, a professor at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology, wants to correct these tendencies in this survey of Old Testament interpretation. “If Christians … ignore or renounce attributes of the revealed character of God (in either the Old or the New Testament),” he writes, “then we necessarily disregard parts of the plan of redemption.”

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