Year In Review: 2015 in Non-Fiction
1. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
I would earnestly commend this, not only to the grieving, but to those who seek to comfort the grieving. It struck a chord with me the way few books have, which is why I wrote about it for #LewisWeek.
2. The Presbyterian Doctrine of the Children of the Covenant by Lewis Bevens Schenck
Subtitled An Historical Study of the Significance of Infant Baptism in the Presbyterian Church, Schenck's book is robust, studied, and frankly, quite beautiful. It's now my go-to recommendation for those interested in a better grasp of paedobaptism, along with Douglas Wilson's To A Thousand Generations and Benjamin Wikner's To You and Your Children (which gets a honorable mention below).
3. A Humane Economy by Wilhelm Ropke
Essential reading. Buy a copy. Read it. Buy ten more copies and distribute them among your friends. Ropke's writing is timeless because he sees a truth which few today dare recognize: "Economics... is a moral science and as such has to do with man as a spiritual and moral being."
4. Men and Marriage by George Gilder
The Rush Limbaugh endorsement on the cover made me reluctant to pick this one up, but I'm glad I did. Despite some dated statistics (I have a revised copy from 1989), the core principles – dealing as they do with the sexes and their relation to each other and to society at large – are more relevant than ever. Not an easy read, and certainly not a comfortable one, but so damn worthwhile.
5. What’s Wrong with the World by G.K. Chesterton
Because duh. It's Chesterton.
Honorable Mentions
To You and Your Children edited by Benjamin Wikner
The Case for Covenant Communion edited by Greg Strawbridge
A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Non-Fiction by Terry Pratchett
Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen
What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
