A Pastor's Library - Bookshelf Tour

hey friends this is an example of a pastors library and there are a lot of resources here that help in being a pastor knowing your theology provoking some good thoughts to spark ministry and ideas each pastors library should be uniquely geared toward him and his ministry and his needs the things that he has encountered let me give you a little tour the first shelf here has many Bibles on it and some of them are old a replicas of older versions in English we move over get into some original languages the Septuagint there's a really thick bibliography which has the Septuagint and Vanessa Leyland text in it we have here some more Greek Bibles a Latin Bible the old Cambridge history of the Bible which is still very worthwhile even though it's decades old the new Cambridge history of the Bible which is really worthwhile many small articles in those volumes that are like we're just reading a an entire book I think books worth of knowledge some more stuff about the text of Scripture begin to the Loeb classical series here are me honest Marcellinus at the beginning bead boëthius cicero all of pliny you have to buy that in the Loeb classical library if you want to have plenty unabridged plenty of the elder so you can understand the state of science and knowledge in Rome in the first century very helpful for getting a mind the mind of a person in the first century who was during the period of the New Testament get into the Greek volumes which are green here and do Chrysostom is really helpful at understanding the Greek mind in the period soon after the origins of Christianity and epictetus the stoic slave philosopher who has a lot of stuff that's worth reading one a parallels to New Testament thought we go on here Julian the apostate and Phyllis Stratus all of Plutarch's moralia which is just like do Chrysostom and its value meaning it will just help you to think like a person living at the time of early Christianity the landmark series of histories kind of like a Study Bible version of some of these histories with maps and notes helps there are two volumes of translations and commentary on inscriptions greco-roman associations throughout the Roman Greek world get to some other classical era late Classical era volumes here and these all are very helpful for me as a pastor helps me to have a mind that thinks like a person during the biblical era there are three volumes here which are very unique I don't know if you can see them Plutarch's ethical writings and early Christian literature and Plutarch's theological writings and early Christian literature all the parallels and concepts and language and vocabulary between Plutarch and the New Testament also via Chrysostom is down there we get down here to the Codex of Justinian and then you get to the Cambridge ancient histories I don't have all of them but I just have bought them as I've needed them above that just sitting on tops and stuff I didn't have room for atlas of ancient Rome we have given decline and fall while Petra loggia grippe evolved Orange in with his book against the Kell sis in it and we move on to a couple of Oxford histories or I mean Oxford handbooks the one on Late Antiquity is very good and new Cambridge medieval history replaces varies volumes from century ago our Burien histories here quickly we move ahead to the Reformation there have my histories we have the beginnings of some Christian history reference works Schaaf there's a three-volume encyclopedia there which I go to all the time we have some Christian histories just general stuff leading up to early Christianity some there's gospel fragments this is really interesting to find old Gospels fragments from Oxyrhynchus that aren't part of the canonical Gospels some of them appear to have Gnostic origins but anyway really neat to read we also have some commentaries on Apostolic fathers ODEs of Solomon four volumes of petrology the anti NAEYC and fathers I have scattered volumes of the Nicene and post and I see in fathers we work into Late Antiquity some of the late church fathers 4th century and forward went on epifanio's of Cyprus over here really awesome up here couple of volumes laying down just random interior of the medieval church sermons on Joe by John Calvin effects simile I get into some medieval stuff here I don't have a whole lot of medieval works peter lombard standard systematic theology before thomas aquinas was made the standard theologian by the catholic church Peter Damien's letters down here interesting book by Peter Damian against sodomy by the monks committed by the monks in their monasteries and get to the works of our Asmus here I don't have all of them of course I get them when they're on sale when they're cheap very interesting to read especially the adages some of the best reading you can quickly gain some wisdom from the adages Luther's works just have what I need or what I can get only work into the time of the Reformation and the Puritans will be coming up here just a little bit several Puritan works Girton history history of the dissenters there on the very end three volumes John Bunyan are the most valuable devotional writers I think you could possibly read Richard Baxter's Christian directory one of the most worthwhile volumes that you could use as a pastor when it comes to counseling and solving just some general problems some banner of truth volumes up here Thomas Brooks and John Newton there's some others get into some Puritan paperbacks here the complete works of Augustus toplady I don't see that very often he has a history of England and they're very strange diary of Thomas Turner that's good sermons of George Whitefield and it's more stuff working into American Puritanism that biography in the very end of Cotter of increase Mather really awesome to read and of course Kenneth the Silvermans biography on Cotton Mather is really good should have lots of books on Cotton Mather he's an inspiration he wrote so many books he really founded evangelical Christianity and America whether we know it or not some more stuff getting into Jonathan Edwards this works and things about Jonathan Edwards again into some of the Yale series but those are so expensive it's hard to really get him of course you can read them online but who actually reads stuff online Robert Louis Dabney you can get the three volumes of his discussions from the banner of truth but you can get the other two to complete your set from sprinkled publications and they're really good at helping you to get to know Dabney and who the man was then how he faced challenges and his personality Stefan Hodge and the Princeton period with that evangelicals tend to pay attention to early Princeton period fire-like 1920 I guess getting up to stuff here in the corner on Emerson has in transcendentalism his impact on American thought especially American theological thought could never be underestimated got some awesome volumes of tracks here in the old days in America tracks for the most popular kind of writing kind of reading everyone read tracks they were easy to print easy to to come ahold of and you can get this six volume set from solid ground Christian books and it's the best devotional reading I think you could possibly read some more stuff here scatterings of banner of truth volumes and got a little bit of Spurgeon for a while I was reading a Spurgeon sermon each morning before I went to work and that was awesome I still remember doing that and the impact it had on me some more more contemporary things getting into the 20th century which I tend not to pay as much attention to but it's still obviously important soon when we get past all of the theology we begin to get to stuff that deals with the Bible directly few books on exegesis few of those IVP dictionaries just as I've needed them background on the Old Testament here we get into commentaries on biblical books some books I have many commentaries on some I have a few that's just as I've taught through the books or have needed commentaries that I've acquired them and see down here we get into the historical books you have very little one certain things but I enjoy what I do have a couple things up there and binders Jordan ease history of the Goths and Eusebius and drums chronicon stuff on the Psalms proverbs I love all the commentaries they have on the Proverbs proverbs my favorite book of the Bible so much wisdom there you get into the prophets I love this series here that teach the text series as a pastor bible teacher that is indispensable it's done so much work for you to gain some of the teaching points and you can really start working from there not much on the minor prophets and get into the intertestamental period Second Temple literature and really like these commentaries in the book of first Enoch fourth Ezra it's good so the anchor Bible commentaries this three volume set outside the Bible so just like a Study Bible version of a lot of Hellenistic Jewish literature and pseudepigrapha Apocrypha Josephus really awesome set highly recommended this is a highly recommended set here it's everything at the Greek and Latin authors of the Classical period wrote on Jews and Judaism from the time of Herodotus all the way up till Justinian closed the school at Athens really insightful this is a book that really did a lot for me at understanding the end of first century Judaism and of Jerusalem as it was in the temple and really highly recommended continue through the intertestamental period Jewish rabbinic literature get into the New Testament backgrounds here stuff on Jesus specifically and get to the Gospels that's that commentary on bets and the Sermon on the Mount is really awesome especially if you have an interest in the Classical period you have an interest in the greco-roman moralists and you can see a lot of parallels and thought between the Sermon on the mountain Epictetus and this the Stoics and cynics and it's just awesome get into the end of the Gospels and to the blown historical book in the New Testament the book of Acts this four volume set by Keener is really helpful I'm teaching through the book of Acts my church right now and I heavily rely on Keener and all the stuff he has in terms of his background knowledge we move along here getting into the epistles I've had a lot of other commentaries over the years but as I've lightened my library and thinned it out I've had to get rid of some currently have about aren't somewhere around twelve hundred books cataloged on library thing you can't buy books forever you have to carefully and thoughtfully select what you're gonna have here's some several books on languages this is one of the best books if you've taken your courses in Greek and you're ready to learn what it is to read Hellenistic Greek so you can feel more at home in the New Testament and that patristic Greek reader on the end is a really easy starting point to systematic theologies some of them are good for reading all the way through like Erickson was was helpful grudem I haven't finished it read 900 pages of it and never never got back to it but he's still really helpful some more practical books on theology the three-volume theocratic Kingdom is a unique book I think it was the 19th century that GNH Peters a Lutheran wrote this large defense of premillennialism against the millennialism of postmillennialism that was more popular in his time really a good worthwhile book to read spirituality at the end it's more devotional books down here and several pamphlets and booklets there for here of a replica of the 1611 King James the five volumes of Lightfoot on the Apostolic fathers a bunch of books on Mormonism minister in Utah it's helpful to know that you know a few counseling volumes those quick reference books are really helpful addressing a variety of issues there's no way that the average pastor could have time to be prepared for and so those help you get prepared very quickly and biblically at the very end of this shelf we get to philosophy which to me has been a huge help as a pastor and helping me to think properly and rightly and historically about different truths and where people are coming from and where I'm coming from get into the Cambridge histories here and those are really good shortcuts at learning the history of philosophy which I think it's more important to study the history of philosophy than it is to study philosophy itself I'm volume from the Cambridge history of late antiquities on my desk so been reading a chapter in there right now some more stuff here and then we get into the modern period and I just get what I think I'm needing to read about what's worthwhile some more stuff get to the history of science just a little bit have slight interest in that we have a bunch of atlases down here all of which I love I love looking at atlases and then just the bottom shelf here a few random things at the very end well then show you this the best atlas you can get even as a Bible Atlas is the Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world above it is the Bible projects Illustrated summaries of biblical books which is the book it's basically a bunch of posters with descriptions of each biblical book in a visual way there you have it one pastors library ranging from biblical commentaries to many works on the 4th century AD and things that helped me but I would encourage you to continue to build your library and more importantly read your library and have goals for your reading otherwise you're not gonna read anything so you make a goal I'm gonna read this book so many days a night hour days week and read 10 pages 20 pages maybe 50 pages but you do it you'll get through it you'll be a lot more thankful for it you'll think differently than you did before but you'll never do it if you don't buy books and if you say I'm gonna read them on my Kindle well your product and to do it they're either because no one actually reads long books on their Kindles you only read them in paper form so get paper books and I hope but this has been an inspiration for you and I hope to see more of your videos out there of your library so I can be inspired by your libraries have a great day

Channel: Jason Johnston

Views: 18,613

Keywords: Pastor, library, bookshelf tour, books, church, theological, office, vernal, theology, pcc, minister, ministry, print, loeb classical, bible commentary, bookcase tour

Id: CXEnPh1XwMs

Length: 18min 46sec (1126 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2018