Deserted Island with Kevin DeYoung

What would you read on a deserted island? Today, Stephen Nichols is joined by Dr. Kevin DeYoung to discuss five of his most treasured books—each reflecting his love for theology, church history, and pastoral ministry.

DR. STEPHEN NICHOLS: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, I'm joined by a very special guest, Dr. Kevin DeYoung. He is the pastor at Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He teaches systematic theology for Reformed Theological Seminary. He's the author of so many books. His newest one is Daily Doctrine. It's a book of daily readings, 365 readings in systematic theology. I received one in the mail and then my son promptly took it. So I'm in the process of getting another one. Dr. DeYoung, it's great to have you on 5 Minutes.

DR. KEVIN DEYOUNG: Great to be here.

SN: Well, I'm going to do you a favor. I'm going to pull you out of all your responsibilities, and I'm going to ship you off to a deserted island. You can take five books with you. It's already got Bibles. It's already got the works of Augustine, the works of Calvin, the works of Jonathan Edwards. So it's a theologically rich island, but you can take five books with you. What would those books be?

KD: Alright, very hard but very fun. I'm thinking of multi-volume sets.

SN: Ah, that's the way to do it.

KD: Yeah, I for sure want a hymnal. You didn't say there was a hymnal on there. So that's the most important thing after a Bible. So I'll take the Trinity Hymnal. It's got the Westminster standards in the back. It's got 700 hymns. So let's take that. I want to sing even if I'm by myself. So devotionally, I need the hymnal. Second, I got to think about my upbringing and I want to find a way to get the Heidelberg Catechism. Just the Heidelberg Catechism is too small. So let's take Ursinus’ commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. Ursinus is the principle author of it. So that's going to get me a lot of theology to chew on and is also going to get me the whole catechism. So Ursinus commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism. Third, so I've read it before, but let's just take the Lord of the Rings. Let's take the Hobbit. Let's take the three volumes. Maybe you can throw in The Silmarillion, which I haven't read and just really nerd out on all The Lord of the Rings. But I think just that kind of inspiration is going to be helpful. Lord of the Rings, how many more do I have?

SN: Well, that would be three, we'll just call it the collected writings of Tolkien. So that'll be your third book. Yeah, so we've got a hymnal, we've got the Heidelberg Catechism commentary, and we've got Tolkien. You've got two more choices.

KD: This is where it gets really hard. So I definitely want some church history and I'm thinking what's the best multi-volume church history? So we'll do one of those. And then I'm a Turretin guy. Do I want to have Turretin? I got Ursinus. You already said that I have Calvin. So what am I going to sink my teeth into? So let me think if I'm going to be off this island sooner rather than later. And so I've read Turretin before and I want to feed my soul. I want to think and feel, what does it mean to be a pastor? So I'm thinking of is there a puritan that I can bring their complete works that would like a Thomas Manton or something? But I'm going to go with a wild card here, which I just read and I loved. And our friends at Log College Press down that Greenville Seminary runs are reprinting this, it's Pastoral Theology by Thomas Murphy, who was a little known, well, well known in his day, Presbyterian pastor north of Philadelphia. And I loved this book, 500 pages, Pastoral Theology. It's really rich, and if you will allow me to cheat here and let's make it the complete works of this 19th century Presbyterian because he has a history on the Presbyterian church and I want to read that. So we're going to get that and that's going to scratch my pastor Presbyterian side and hopefully get me off of this island in some time refreshed and ready to preach and lead and be a pastor and send people to Ligonier.

SN: It's my pleasure to send you off to the island with all those books, but you might have to pay for some extra luggage weight, having all those sets along. But otherwise, it's great to have you on the show. Do enjoy your reading on your island and we will rescue you soon. Well, that was Dr. Kevin DeYoung and his five multiple sets for his deserted island vacation. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.