Several years ago, Carl Trueman wrote one of the most important books of our generation, ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self’. If you want to understand why the Western world is the way it is today, this is one of the books you have to read (An abridged version was released under the title ‘Strange New World’). In his new book, Trueman, who seems to me to be something of a modern day Lewis, continues to help believers better understand the world in which we live by tracing the intellectual history of “critical theory.”

It’s that time of year again. The time when websites begin filling up with top ten lists. Top ten favorite books. Top ten favorite movies. Top ten favorite podcasts. Top ten favorite chicken sandwiches. (P.S. Chick-Fil-A is at the top of that list). I haven’t written one of these in a few years, but this year is different. I actually remembered to do it before Christmas has come and gone. In the past, my top ten list has been devoted to the ten best books I read in a given year – regardless of the date of publication. This year’s list is the top ten books I’ve read (or am currently reading) that were actually published in 2024. They are listed in no particular order, however. So, without further ado:

Michael Morales – Numbers 1-19

My friend and former colleague Michael Morales worked on this commentary for at least a decade. It was well worth the wait. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, even though it embarrasses him. Morales is our generation’s Vos. He’s a brilliant biblical theologian. Anyone who has read his book on the theology of Leviticus is well aware of this fact. The Introduction to this commentary alone is worth the price, but it is in the details of the text where this volume shines. I have no doubt that the second volume (cuurently scheduled for publication in January) will be equally as good. This is and will remain the go-to commentary on Numbers for the foreseeable future. 

Harrison Perkins – Reformed Covenant Theology

There have been a number of good books on covenant theology published over the last decade. Most of these take a biblical-theological approach, tracing the developments of the covenants chronologically through Scripture. The best of these, in my opinion, is Stephen Myers’s God to Us: Covenant Theology in Scripture. Harrison Perkins’s book takes a different approach. He discusses the major elements of covenant theology from the perspective of systematic theology. This makes it somewhat easier, for example, to see the similarities and differences between Reformed covenant theology and Roman Catholic theology. For those wanting to understand Reformed covenant theology, I recommend reading both Myers and Perkins.

Harrison Perkins – Righteous By Design

I read what was to become this book at a point in its development when it was an Appendix to Perkins’s book Reformed Covenant Theology (mentioned above). This book began as a short footnote to that volume, then developed into a much longer footnote before becoming a much longer Appendix. When the publisher of Reformed Covenant Theology declined to publish the Appendix, Perkins approached the editors of the R.E.D.S. series  with the idea of expanding the Appendix into a book. Now, weighing in at around 400 pages, is the book Righteous By Deisign: Covenantal Merit and Adam’s Original Integrity. I spent years looking for a thorough scholarly Reformed discussion of these topics. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only book in that category at the present time. If you want to understand the late medieval theological context of the Reformation better; if you want to understand how Reformed covenantal theology relates to late medieval soteriology; this is a must read. Perkins digs through the primary sources of late medieval and Reformation era soteriology, explaining the nuanced similarities and differences between the medieval theologians and between the medieval and Reformed theologians. It is a dense text and may require multiple readings depending on the reader’s prior knowledge, but it is well worth the effort.  

Joel Beeke – Reformed Systematic Theology

With the publication of volume 4 in 2024, Joel Beeke’s massive systematic theology is now complete. As far as I’m concerned, this is now the best contemporary Reformed systematic theology. With each of the four volumes reaching somewhere in the neighborhood of 1300 to 1400 pages, Beeke has plenty of space to explore the exegetical foundations of Reformed doctrine. He also has the space to explore topics that sometimes receive little attention in shorter works. What I especially appreciate, however, about this work is that it puts back together things that should never have been torn asunder. The authors of the classic 16th and 17th century works of Reformed systematic theology understood that theology was not merely intellectual information.

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