I fear sometimes that we have people who are only listening to Piper and Keller and others.

Rather than imitating what Keller and Piper have modeled for themselves, those guys are primary source readers.

We can go online and find Keller talking about taking an entire year of reading a little bit of Calvin's institutes every day. Piper's always going back and dipping into Edwards and Owen. I think if we

do the same, we'll be more authentic and more rich and have a better understanding than if we

just follow the secondary guys. Welcome to the Crossway podcast, a show where we sit down with authors each week for thoughtful interviews about the Bible, theology, church history, and the Christian life.

I'm Matt Tully, and today I'm talking with Justin Taylor.

Justin is the executive vice president of book publishing and book publisher at Crossway.

He's also edited numerous volumes, including Theologians on

the Christian Life series with Stephen Nichols. Today, Justin and I discuss why church history

matters for all Christians. He shares how Jay I. Packer helped to introduce him to the riches

of the past, why it's worth it to read original sources as much as possible,

even when it takes more work, and how to avoid idolizing our historical heroes without

minimizing their valuable insights into the Christian life. Let's get started.

Justin, thank you for joining us on the Crossway podcast today. My pleasure, no, thanks.

So if you could spend 10 minutes with any one person from church history,

like a prominent figure from church history who's had a lasting influence,

who would it be and what question would you want to ask that person?

I think I always have the same answer to this question as I've thought about it through

the years because, you know, it's kind of a interesting sort of parlor game if you're a theological

nerd to ask people that question or to think about that question.

And I think that I would probably choose John Newton.

Hmm. The slave ship master turned pastor in Oni and England.

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