Deserted Island Top 5: Michael Reeves

Stephen Nichols (SN): On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History we are going to be revisiting our deserted island, and we have another special guest with us. This special guest actually lives on an island, of sorts. It's a rather large island, this of course is the UK. And we have with us Dr. Michael Reeves. Dr. Reeves is the director of Union, which is the ministry of Wales Evangelical School of Theology where he serves on the faculty of theology and he is our guest on this episode of 5 Minutes. Welcome Dr. Reeves to our episode and to our deserted island.

Michael Reeves (MR): Thank you. It's great to be here.

SN: Well, on our deserted Island—this is a special island—its got a rather interesting library already.

MR: Great, sounds good.

SN: You'll love it. We've got the works of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards . . . We've got Shakespeare too, we'll throw him in, DeBard, and of course, we have the Bible. And so the question then is, you get to choose five, what would be your top 5 books for your time on this deserted island?

MR: That's very hard. So I'm not allowed to choose any Luther?

SN: He is already there.

MR: He is already there. This is a good place already. Ok, I would add to it Richard Sibbes. If I can have the whole works of Richard Sibbes lets have it, but if I can't, I'd say The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes.

SN: There is number one. So we got Sibbes. I'll let you take the whole works.

MR: Thank you! Even better.

SN: So you've got Sibbes. Number two?

MR: Number two would be John Owen. And my work there would be Communion with God; that is a wonderful work pushing us to be more deliberately Trinitarian in a very day-to-day sense. So, Sibbes. Owen, Communion with God. Athanasius' On the Incarnation.

SN: Yes. Now is this going to be the edition that Lewis put out, with Lewis' introduction?

MR: Yes, I would want Lewis' introduction. I do not know if that would be a separate work or not, but that work is so good that it sort of stands alone by itself really. So Athanasius' work is a work by itself. Lewis' introduction is, yeah, well that's worth a book in itself.

SN: It's gold, isn't it?

MR: It's really, really good.

SN: So if you're not familiar with this, Athanasius; church father; On the Incarnation. His work is very influential in sort of the post-Nicene Creed moment in the 4th century of the church. And C.S. Lewis wrote this brilliant introduction to it. You can find it online so you should definitely track that down. Ok, so we've got two Puritans, and we've got a Patristic—a church father. So we are up to number 4.

MR: I think I would say Roland Bainton's, Here I Stand, which is a biography of Martin Luther, but it's also a story of the Reformation. And it was very important for me in understanding the beauty of Reformation theology, the beauty of Luther's gospel discovery. And it's just a cracking read.

SN: It's a great read. And if you've got his works—you need the biography to go along with it. Well, that brings us to our fifth book. The last choice here.

MR: Ok. If I'm allowed a fifth one, it's actually three different volumes. I'm going to go for Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

SN: That's a new one to be added to the library. So Tolkien?

MR: Yeah.

SN: Lord of the Rings. Have you made the trip to New Zealand?

MR: I haven't, but I live in the Shire myself.

SN: I should have mentioned that you live on that very large island of Great Britain, but you live in a delightful village outside of Oxford.

MR: That's right.

SN: So you have the village, you have the wonderful libraries of the colleges of Oxford University. What more could you ask for?

MR: It's a beautiful part of the world.

SN: Is this going hard for you to give that up to go to your deserted island?

Reeves: Well the island does sound pretty good. It's this beautifully stocked library. I assume it's a nice sunny island.

SN: You could have a sabbatical. Alright, one last thing and then we'll let you go. Those who visit our island who are authors—and you've written many fine books, very helpful for the church—they get to leave a book of their own behind. So of your books, which one would you like to be left?

MR: I think I would go for Delighting in the Trinity.

SN: I was hoping you would say that.

MR: It's trying to get people to love the living God who is Father, Son, and Spirit.

SN: Perfect. Well we've been spending time here on 5 Minutes and on our deserted island with Dr. Michael Reeves.