×

On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers.

I asked Jennifer Marshall—vice president for the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity at The Heritage Foundation and author of Now and Not Yet: Making Sense of Single Life in the 21st Century—about what’s on her nightstand, books she re-reads, books that have influenced her engagement in the public square, and more.


What books are ​on your nightstand right now?

Nightstand, side table, gym bag, and so on.

Meanwhile, I’ve got bookmarks in:

I’m also listening to a couple audiobooks on the go: The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream by Tyler Cowen and Madame de Treymes and Two Novellas by Edith Wharton.

What are your favorite fiction books?

Various works by George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, and Edith Wharton.

What books have most influenced your engagement in the public square?

Gleanings from these books, roughly in order of reading since 1994, have shaped my outlook:

What’s one book you wish every evangelical pastor would read?

In this particular season, grappling with cultural questions about gender identity issues is crucial. I’d recommend my colleague Ryan Anderson’s forthcoming book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment for thinking through the basics (available for pre-order now, for release at the beginning of 2018 from Encounter Books).

Also, his just-released, co-authored book Debating Religious Liberty and Discrimination [TGC review by Albert Mohler] is a helpful resource for responding to recent arguments against religious freedom. He shows that religious liberty is essential for navigating our differences in society. This book is important for pastors who will need to help congregants encountering conscience conflicts in their own callings.

What are some books you regularly re-read and why?

A Dover thrift edition of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s poems and a collection of the metaphysical poets (John Donne, George Herbert, and so on) that I’ve carried around since Dr. Baumgaertner’s class at Wheaton College, for their delight in word and world, like in “Easter wings” and “dappled things.”

What are you learning about life and following Jesus?

That God’s providence doesn’t depend on my mental machinations to sort things out, and rest is sweet.


Also in the On My Shelf series: Todd Billings • Greg Thornbury • Greg Forster • Jen Pollock Michel • Sam Storms • Barton Swaim  John Stonestreet • George Marsden • Andrew Wilson • Sally Lloyd-Jones  Darryl Williamson • D. A. Horton • Carl Ellis • Owen Strachan  • Thomas Kidd • David Murray • Jarvis Williams • Gracy Olmstead • Matthew Hall • Drew Dyck • Louis Markos • Ray Ortlund • Brett McCracken • Mez McConnell • Erik Raymond • Sandra McCracken • Tim Challies • Sammy Rhodes • Karen Ellis • Alastair Roberts • Scott Sauls • Karen Swallow Prior • Jackie Hill Perry • Bruce Ashford • Jonathan Leeman • Megan Hill • Marvin Olasky • David Wells • John Frame • Rod Dreher • James K. A. Smith • Randy Alcorn • Tom Schreiner • Trillia Newbell • Jen Wilkin • Joe Carter • Timothy George • Tim Keller • Bryan Chapell • Lauren Chandler • Mike Cosper • Russell Moore • Jared Wilson • Kathy Keller • J. D. Greear • Kevin DeYoung • Kathleen Nielson • Thabiti Anyabwile • Elyse Fitzpatrick • Collin Hansen • Fred Sanders • Rosaria Butterfield • Nancy Guthrie • Matt Chandler

Browse dozens of book recommendations from The Gospel Coalition’s leaders and sign up your church at Hubworthy.

Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?

In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
But the Gospels are historically reliable. And the evidence for this is vast.
To learn about the evidence for the historical reliability of the four Gospels, click below to access a FREE eBook of Can We Trust the Gospels? written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams.

Podcasts

LOAD MORE
Loading