The Friends of the Sabbath has collected a useful list [[1] Full disclosure: I’m not on it.] of various books and papers written by Church of God authors. The list itself makes for interesting reading, as it is curious just exactly what kind of materials are written by those of a Church of God background. And though there are many familiar and unexpected subjects dealt with, there are some excellent works among them, some by personal friends and acquaintances of mine, and so I thought it worthwhile to discuss the list here today.

One of my close friends has a couple of books on the list, books he co-wrote with another Church of God historian. I have read both of those works: Foundations of Corporate Empire and Birth of the Multinational: 2000 Years of Ancient Business History – From Asshur to Augustus. Both books deal with economic history (a much ignored part of history) and I highly recommend them if you are either a student of business (or the politics of business) or a student of history. They are well-written and highly informative. I am also the acquaintance of at least one more of these authors, Cogwa minister Larry Grieder (with whom I had an unfortunate feud starting over his insecurities about his large numbers of copy-editing errors in his works). His work, America At Risk, is actually a very intriguing analysis of generational patterns in the United States, and simply needs a good copyeditor to clean up the text. It’s a solid work, despite my own lengthy and sometime very heated disagreements with the author himself. Likewise, despite some minor flaws, Dr. Herman Hoeh’s Compendium of World History is a very worthy and fascinating work. I was glad I got the chance to meet Dr. Hoeh before his death, thanks to our mutual love of classical music (we chatted for a bit during intermission at a concert of Mendehlsson’s Elijah).

I know a couple of the people on this list through our mutual conversations in internet forums. One of them, Pam Dewey, wrote a book that I want to read (but have not gotten the chance to read yet), called Field Guide To The Wild World of Religion. It sounds humorous and with a suitably warped post-WCG perspective. Another few books are written by Ron Dart, a Church of God intellectual I have never met personally, but whose work I deeply respect. Law And Covenant is an especially fine work, a concise but powerful analysis of the concept of covenant within the biblical record, and an examination at many obscure and often forgotten biblical laws that touch on God’s covenants with man (and man’s covenants with each other, like marriage). I know Bob Thiel as well from internet fora, but the two of us don’t see eye to eye, and his book looks like rubbish of the prophetic speculation variety, not worth reading. Dr. Levy was a former instructor of mine at the Ambassador Bible Center, and his doctoral thesis makes the list—a very in-depth study of the symbolism of the Azazel goat from biblical and extra-biblical texts (like 1 Enoch).

I was moderately surprised just how much of this list I had already read, despite not particularly trying to read a lot of the COG body of literature. For example, Stephen Collins’ books cover fairly familiar British Israelism ground, but they are solid works nonetheless, reasonably quick reads that flesh out the details of Israel’s travels after going into exile for those so inclined to ponder on such matters. Likewise, CM White’s In Search Of…The Origin of Nations, is a very intriguing work for those interested in studying about the biblical origins of national cultures. I wish I still had my copy of that work, but it got lost/misplaced during one of my moves. Likewise, I have read Coulter’s work on the Seven General Epistles, and found it wanting [2]. By and large I have been disappointed with Fred Coulter’s works. They promise much and deliver little, are over-written, and often ignore massively important aspects of historical analysis simply because such research is off the beaten path.

As far as historical works go, I can highly recommend Alan Knight’s Primitive Christianity In Crisis, which is a masterpiece of historical analysis about the first century church and the incipient gnostic heresies that found its way into Protestantism through the works of Augustine. I look forward to reading the rest of his books if I get the chance. If they are even close to as excellent as the first they will be well worth the time and money to do so. A couple of books on the list in the field of textual analysis greatly piqued my interest as well: G. Doudna’s 4Q Pesher Nahum: A Critical Edition and CV Dorothy’s The Book of Esther: Structure, Genre, and Textual Integrity. Additionally, W. Hey’s lost work on the historical link between the Welsh Sabbatarians and the Waldenses would be a worthwhile read, if it is ever found.

Despite the large presence of books on prophetic speculation, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of books on the list of COG-related published books and papers on the list. There were a few omissions—namely the writings of Garner Ted Armtrong (like The Real Jesus) as well as a few books such as Ralph Lyman’s New Insights. Nonetheless, the record that is is still impressive. As a culture the Church of God has not tended to promote the intellectual efforts of its members, even though many would-be apostles among the Church of God or their relatives (such as Dave Pack, David Hulme, and Stephen Flurry) make the list with their own works. As is to be expected, Herbert W. Armstrong’s writings, or writings about his writings, are also well-represented. There are also a few oddball health-related books, which is again to be expected. It comes with the territory with the Church of God culture. There are quite a few books, more than I expected to be honest, that rank in the highest orders of intellectual achievement as histories, doctrinal studies, and textual analysis. The Church of God has an intellectual culture worth being proud of—even if it can always use a few more names and titles, and a lot more recognition and appreciation.

[1] http://www.friendsofsabbath.org/list_of_useful_published_books.htm

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/book-review-the-seven-general-epistles/