Douglas Wilson

Wordsmithy is for writers of every sort, whether experienced veterans, still just hoping, or somewhere in between. This book exhorts writers to explore the world, to read incessantly, to love mechanical helps, to be fine with being lousy (for a while), to learn languages, and to keep a commonplace book. Through a series of out-of-the-ordinary lessons, each with its own takeaway points and recommended readings, Douglas Wilson provides indispensable guidance, showing how to develop the writer's craft and the kind of life from which good writing comes.

Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life

Douglas Jones

Christianity presents a glorious vision of culture, a vision overflowing with truth, beauty, and goodness. It's a vision that stands in stark conflict with the anemic modern (and postmodern) perspectives that dominate contemporary life. Medieval Christianity began telling a beautiful story about the good life, but it was silenced in mid-sentence. The Reformation rescued truth, but its modern grandchildren have often ignored the importance of a medieval grasp of the good life. This book sketches a vision of "medieval Protestantism," a personal and cultural vision that embraces the fullness of Christian truth, beauty, and goodness. "This volume is a breath of fresh air in our polluted religious environment. Hopefully many readers will breathe deeply of its contents and be energized." -The Presbyterian Witness "[A] delightful apologetic for a Protestant cultural vision. . . . before you write off these two as mere obscurantist Reformed types, take care. I found that some of my objections were, on the surface, more modern than biblical." -Gregory Alan Thornbury, Carl F. Henry Center for Christian Leadership "[T]his book cries out against the bland, purely spiritualized Christianity to which so many of us have become accustomed. . . . I highly recommend it." -David Kind, Pilgrimage, Concordia Theological Seminary

A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth

Angels in the Architecture

Public education is in crisis. At the heart of the problem is the idea that education can exist in a moral vacuum. Describes the melee in public education and calls for a return to classical teaching methods.

An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education

Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning

In this punchy and wise book, Douglas Wilson considers the theology behind technology, work, wealth, and mission and gives unforgettable advice on how to be productive-and to think about productivity-in the digital age.

A Theology of Tools as Tangible Grace

Ploductivity

Nancy Wilson

In the Garden of Eden, there was only one "No." Everything else was "Yes." In this short book on Christian childrearing, Douglas Wilson points out that we have a Father who delights in us and makes it easy for us to love and obey him. If that is the kind of Father we have, shouldn't we earthly parents do the same? Wilson explains how parents should not just try to get their kids to obey a set of rules or to make their house so fun that following the rules is always easy. Instead, he calls for parents to instill in their kids a love for God and His standards that will serve them well all their days. This book also features an appendix in which Doug and his wife Nancy answer various parents' questions about various applications of the principles discussed in this book.

Why Children Matter

Finding love is painful when you're crippled by the past. ﻿Savannah Westmoreland has come to the town of Paradise Valley to start afresh. But when her mysterious new pastor and the town's most powerful businessman both begin to compete for her affection, Savannah realizes that she will have to face her past once and for all or leave Paradise forever. But there's more to the story--and more danger lurking--than Savannah knows.

The Man in the Dark: A Romance

BEST FICTION AWARD - Christianity Today 2012 Evangellyfish is a ruthless, grimly amused, and above all honest look at one of the darkest corners in the western world. Douglas Wilson, a pastor of more than thirty years, paints a vivid and painful picture of evangelical boomchurch leadership. . . in bed. Chad Lester's kingdom is found in the Midwest. His voice crawls over the airwaves, his books are read by millions (before he reads them), and thousands ride the escalators into the sanctuary every Sunday. And Saturday. And Wednesday, too. He is the head pastor of Camel Creek--a CEO of Soul. And souls come cheap, so he has no overhead. When Lester is (falsely) accused of molesting a young male counselee, his universe begins to crumble. He is a sexual predator, yes. But strictly straight (and deeply offended that anyone would suggest otherwise). Detectives, reporters, assistant pastors, and old lovers and pay-offs all come out to play. John Mitchell is also a pastor, but he has no kingdom to speak of--only smalltime choir feuds. He is thrilled at the great man's fall, but his joy quickly fades when the imploding Lester calls him--and a lover or two--for help. How low can grace go? Whores, thieves, and junkies, sure. But pastors?

A Novel

Evangellyfish

In Five Cities that Ruled the World, theologian Douglas Wilson fuses together, in compelling detail, the critical moments birthed in history’s most influential cities —Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York. Wilson issues a challenge to our collective understanding of history with the juxtapositions of freedom and its intrinsic failures; liberty and its deep-seated liabilities. Each revelation beckoning us deeper into a city’s story, its political systems, and how it flourished and floundered. You'll discover the significance of: Jerusalem's complex history and its deep-rooted character as the city of freedom, where people found their spiritual liberty. Athens' intellectual influence as the city of reason and birthplace of democracy. Rome's evolution as the city of law and justice and the freedoms and limitations that come with liberty. London's place in the world's history as the city of literature where man's literary imagination found its wings. New York's rise to global fame as the city of commerce and how it triggered unmatched wealth, industry, and trade throughout the world. Five Cities that Ruled the World chronicles the destruction, redemption, personalities, and power structures that altered the world's political, spiritual, and moral center time and again. It's an inspiring, enlightening global perspective that encourages readers to honor our shared history, contribute to the present, and look to the future with unmistakable hope.

How Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York Shaped Global History

Five Cities that Ruled the World

Federal thinking is foreign to the modern mind. "Federal" has come to mean nothing more than centralized or big. Because your federal government has become so uncovenantal, it is not surprising that the original meaning of the word is lost. But federal thinking is the backbone of historic Protestant theology, and the Church needs to recover the covenantal understanding of federal headship. Husbands are to lead their families, taking responsibility for them as covenant heads-as federal husbands.

Federal Husband: Covenant Headship and the Christian Man

"Though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators." ~ G.K. Chesterton The book of Revelation was written to do just that: reveal. But most commentaries nowadays either engage in bizarre speculations about the future, or they keep an embarrassed distance from all the apocalyptic events that the apostle John says will “shortly take place.” In this commentary, Douglas Wilson provides a passage-by-passage walkthrough of the entire book, showing how John’s most notorious prophecies concern the Fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Explaining symbols and characters as he goes, Wilson shows from the text that not only is this book not an elaborate code, but that Revelation is not even ultimately concerned with the end of the world as we know it. Revelation is about the triumph of the Church, which always happens when the Man comes around.

When the Man Comes Around: A Commentary on the Book of Revelation

"Francis Schaeffer once said that if there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society becomes absolute. The last few decades have shown how prophetic he was. We are often warned by the media and even by Evangelical leaders that Christian nationalism and theocracy are grave dangers to our Christian witness, all while we get cancelled for explaining that boys are not girls and that we should not kill babies. In this short book, Douglas Wilson takes aim at the fundamental assumption of secularism: the idea that government can be morally and religiously neutral, extending tolerance to everyone and persecuting no one. Every nation has its religion, and the only question is whether we have a true religion that rewards the righteousness or a false one that punishes it. This book is not a call to reestablish state churches or to return to the problems of medieval Christendom. Instead, it is a call to get serious about the evils of our current secular society and it makes a scriptural case for publicly Christian governments and nations"--

Mere Christendom

In Against the Church, longtime pastor Douglas Wilson takes a hammer to some of our very favorite graven images, and (surprise, surprise) we've set up display cases for most of them in our churches: Liturgy, Tradition, Systematics, infant Baptism, and that crafty old Baal Doctrine. Alongside a critique of philosophical assumptions about human nature, dualism, and grace, Wilson stresses the unavoidable and absolute necessity of individual hearts being born again. He concludes by laying out the case for the church. This isn't contradictory, though--the only way to be effectually for the church is to master the case against it. After all, God Himself is the ultimate iconoclast.

Against the Church

The Case for Classical Christian Education

To A Thousand Generations

"It's two decades in the future, and a Christian college student named Ace Hartwick has just destroyed his neighbor's so-called "wife" -- actually a sexbot named Sally -- in a trash compactor. Soon, Ace will be on trial for murder. Unfortunately for Ace, everyone despises his kind of "radical" Christianity, and, in the fragile America of the future, all the juries are fixed." -- Amazon.com

Ride Sally Ride

As Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, Gashmu and the enemies of Israel mocked him: "It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel..." (Neh. 6:6). Too many Christians building communities today take the taunts of every modern-day Gashmu seriously. Community is a buzzword, and it turns out there's a lot of bad advice about how to build one. In Gashmu Saith It, Douglas Wilson includes forty years of experience for Christians wanting to build robust communities without retreat or compromise on the foundation of the Gospel. This book is full of wisdom: Get calluses. Be loyal. Fight sin. Build walls on the outside and a church in the middle.

Gashmu Saith It

Helping writers, bloggers, and avid readers prioritize and learn from the great works of English literature, this book introduces Christians to nine great authors whose work deserves to be read, such as Chesterton, Lewis, and Robinson.

Nine Names That Belong on Your Bookshelf

Writers to Read

John Gresham Machen

"In the twentieth century, theological liberalism was sweeping over America and taking over formerly orthodox denominations. Against liberalism and its attacks on Scripture, creation, the atonement, and the resurrection stood J. Gresham Machen. A pastor in the PCUSA and a teacher at Princeton Theological Seminary, Machen found himself at the center of controversy, and he eventually was de-frocked and lost his teaching position. He eventually helped found the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Westminster Theological Seminary. In this tiny but powerful book Machen shows that liberalism fundamentally denies the Gospel and is a completely false religion that has nothing to do with historic Christianity. The Gospel is not an exhortation for sick men to get better, but the action of God calling dead men to life. This book proclaims that Gospel with clarity in the face of unbelief"--

Christianity and Liberalism

Newspapers are filled with stories about poorly educated children, ineffective teachers, and cash-strapped school districts. In this greatly expanded treatment of a topic he first dealt with in Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Douglas Wilson proposes an alternative to government-operated school by advocating a return to classical Christian education with its discipline, hard work, and learning geared to child development stages. As an educator, Wilson is well-equipped to diagnose the cause of America's deteriorating school system and to propose remedies for those committed to their children's best interests in education. He maintains that education is essentially religious because it deals with the basic questions about life that require spiritual answers-reading and writing are simply the tools. Offering a review of classical education and the history of this movement, Wilson also reflects on his own involvement in the process of creating educational institutions that embrace that style of learning. He details elements needed in a useful curriculum, including a list of literary classics. Readers will see that classical education offers the best opportunity for academic achievement, character growth, and spiritual education, and that such quality cannot be duplicated in a religiously-neutral environment.

Christopher Hitchens

The gloves come off in this electric exchange, originally hosted by Christianity Today, as leading atheist Christopher Hitchens (author of God Is Not Great) and Christian apologist Douglas Wilson (author of Letter from a Christian Citizen) go head-to-head on this divisive question. The result is entertaining and provocative -- a glimpse into the ongoing debate.

Douglas Wilson

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