Notable Books for 2019: A Brief Survey of Some of Last Year’s Best Christian Books

By amazon Wednesday, January 1, 2020 Comment Edit

It is that time of year once again to reflect on some of the noteworthy books that have been published during 2019.

Nearly one million books of all kinds were published over the past 12 months by hundreds of different publishers. Still, with all of these publications, more than 25 percent of adults in this country recently indicated that they had not read a single book during this past year.

Perhaps from the list below, a few of these good people will find an inviting title to jump-start their reading patterns in 2020.

Similar to what we have done in this survey in previous years, we will provide a broad-brush overview of some of this year’s best Christian books, representing more than two dozen different publishers.

Frankly, publishers seemed to have released more quality works in 2019 than in recent years. It would have been quite easy to make this lengthy list even longer than is already the case. I am sure that I have missed good books deserving attention.

In addition, some reading this list will have their own preferences. Still, I trust you will find the list helpful. I have now been providing this list in some form for several years. I appreciate those who continue to encourage me to publish the list each year.

Biblical Studies

Readers will be blessed by James M. Houston’s and Bruce K. Waltke’s The Psalms as Christian Praise (Eerdmans). Profound insights may be found in Christopher J. H. Wright’s Knowing God through the Old Testament (IVP). I gladly recommend The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch (IVP), by Kevin Chen. Kenneth A. Mathews has penned a careful exegetical study on Leviticus: Holy God, Holy People (Crossway).

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