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Brian Marr

Goodreads Author

Born

in Solano County, California, The United States

Genre

Religion, Fiction, Philosophy

Influences

C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Douglas ...more

Member Since

April 2011

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I was born in California but moved across the country to Connectictut, where I was raised as the oldest of eleven children. We were all homeschooled K-12, and there I acquired a lifelong love for theology, philosophy, and literature, especially C.S. Lewis. Because of my growing love for theology, I was drawn to Moscow, Idaho and studied at New Saint Andrews. Twice. I read more C.S. Lewis, went to the edgy end of the FV spectrum, had to be rebuked for a while, and then re-emerged shaken but Protestant. I love to write long reviews. Least favorite thing on goodreads is a one sentence review, unless the book is boring.

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Average rating: 4.36 · 359 ratings · 94 reviews · 15 distinct works

	Five Children and It by E. Nesbit, Brian Marr (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.85 avg rating — 28,571 ratings — published 1902 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Story of the Treasure Seekers (Annotated) by E. Nesbit, Brian Marr (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 3.93 avg rating — 6,955 ratings — published 1899 — 1604 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Radicalism: When Reform Becomes Revolution: The Preface to Hooker's Laws: A Modernization by Richard Hooker, W. Bradford Littlejohn (Goodreads Author) (Translator), Brad Belschner (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 4.22 avg rating — 86 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity In Modern English, Vol. 1 by Richard Hooker, W. Bradford Littlejohn (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Brad Belschner (Goodreads Author) 4.39 avg rating — 70 ratings — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Divine Law and Human Nature: Book I of Hooker's Laws: A Modernization by Richard Hooker, Brian Marr (Goodreads Author) (Translator), Brad Belschner (Goodreads Author) (Translator) 4.50 avg rating — 62 ratings — published 2017 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Word Made Flesh for Us: A Treatise on Christology and the Sacraments from Hooker's Law by Richard Hooker, W. Bradford Littlejohn (Goodreads Author) (editor), Patrick Timmis (editor) 4.59 avg rating — 51 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Defense of Reformed Catholic Worship (Book IV of Hooker's Laws: A Modernization) by Richard Hooker, W. Bradford Littlejohn (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Brian Marr (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.15 avg rating — 39 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Word of God and the Words of Man: Books II and III of Richard Hooker's Laws: A Modernization by Richard Hooker, Bradford Littlejohn (Editor), Brian Marr (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 4.36 avg rating — 28 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A House for the Word: A Treatise on Public Worship from Hooker's Laws by Richard Hooker, Patrick Timmis (Editor), Brad Littlejohn (Editor) 4.63 avg rating — 8 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Storybook Latin 1 Teacher's Edition by Heather Fluhart, Brian Marr (Goodreads Author), Forrest Dickison (Illustrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Brian Marr…

Brian is Currently Reading

Brian rated a book it was amazing

The Folger Library Edition of the Works of Richard Hooker: Volume III, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: Books VI, VII, VIII

by Richard Hooker

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Brian said: " Several years ago, I had graduated from college and I was uncertain what to do with my time, but I knew that Brad Littlejohn was really into Richard Hooker.

And so I downloaded Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity from CCEL (kudos to Calvin College for havin Several years ago, I had graduated from college and I was uncertain what to do with my time, but I knew that Brad Littlejohn was really into Richard Hooker.

And so I downloaded Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity from CCEL (kudos to Calvin College for having Hooker up there and categorizing him under the Reformed). I read through the first four books and managed to get Brad Littlejohn to lead a book group through them. I also provoked Brad Littlejohn to jealousy by doing a bastardized modernization of the preface and books 1-4, which Brad kindly agreed to fix, with our mutual friend Brad Belschner.

I remember trying to start book v, but even Brad's irrepressible love for Hooker estimated that a modernization of book v would have to be restricted to Hooker's greatest hits (though we both love how much of the Book of Common Prayer Hooker defends). I knew that political things lay within books 6-8, and I was eager to read them, but I never got around to it.

A decade passed. Covid happened. I had been initially more sympathetic to the old world, but as the meaner alt-right reared its head and America really began to feel like it was coming unglued, I met and wrestled with another friend who was a divine right monarchist/episcopalian. I could not just regurgitate the founding fathers or even the more anti-democratic Hegel. I had to go back to the classics, and who better to defend monarchy and episcopacy than the judicious non-reactive Richard Hooker to a Republican presbyterian?

In book 6, Hooker defends spiritual jurisdiction, which encompasses absolution and excommunication. In book 7, Hooker defends bishops and episcopacy against divine right presbyterians. And lastly, in book 8, Hooker defends the supremacy of the monarch of England over the Church.

However, what makes Richard Hooker special is not the medieval Protestantism, but the fact that he defended the church of England because he truly believed that it best protected the Gospel. At one point Hooker says when talking about confession of sin, the chief thing that God wants is our hearts. That is what all the ceremonies and bishoprics are really all about: it is about Christians repenting their sins and loving their neighbors because of Christ's forgiveness.

It's not more complicated than that. This is also what allows Hooker to be very flexible about church and civil government. Even though Hooker defends bishops and kings, he is very, very clear that they are only one possible arrangement, and that our forms of government are valid. He clearly prefers the Church of England and is somewhat suspicious of Calvin, but nevertheless he insists that the king and parliament have separate duties, though the king is the final authority in the realm.

When reading on bishops, die-hard presbyterians will find much to complain about. Hooker does not give you an exhaustive defense of bishop rule, and he does not touch the more common complaint that I have heard that there need to be multiple elders in a church for it to be obedient to the new testament custom. However, the church really did adopt episcopacy for several hundreds of years, and episcopacy has had different models over the years which certainly allowed for multiple voices within churches. Paul says that they were to appoint elders; he did not say how votes were to be handled, and that's very significant.

Evangelicals will also be annoyed that it does not address the issue of nominalism. But the cold hard fact remains that nominalism will continue to exist as long as we are not persecuted or a minority group. More subtly, Evangelicals will want to have a defense of establishment and I in particular did not find much to address the issue of bad actors taking over the visible church. But that was not something that Hooker was trying to address: his Presbyterian opponents wanted a single national church as much as he did.

Book 8 convinced me that it was fine for Christian magistrates to punish heresies. I thought for a long time that a magistrate interfering in such matters would be violating the separation of spheres, but I think Americans often overvalue their ability to use precedent to prevent bad things from happening. If a bad king punishes a good Bible teacher under the cloak of heresy, we think the problem is kings suppressing heresy instead of the inevitable problem of bad kings. Obviously, this is a complex issue, but suffice it to say it's hard to get around the fact that, in the Old Testament, the kings don't have any problem reforming the church and in fact throughout both the evangelization of Europe and the Reformation the kings were at their best when they did so. Hooker makes a similar defense of pastors having wealth and marriage, following the example of the Levites.

This was funny too since it came right before the PCA said magistrates suppressing heresy was disallowable according to the 1788 westminster confession of faith. No shade on them, just weird that we went in opposite directions right at the same time. I appreciate Hooker because he is a moderate defender of the medieval Protestant settlement, but he leaves space for other systems to come along and serve the same purpose. Would love to see Presbyterians and Baptists drink more deeply from his stream.

So, God willing, Davenant will translate these books, too. ...more "

Jun 09, 2026 07:55AM · see review

Brian is currently reading

Delivered from the Elements of the World: Atonement, Justification, Mission

by Peter J. Leithart

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Brian said: " This is the Leithart magnum opus. Leithart at last gives us his own distillation of the New Perspective on Paul, at last he gives us his fully matured (oh the irony) description of the entire Bible, and at long last we have his take on how the Old Te ...more "

Jan 22, 2026 11:04AM · see review

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Surprised by Hope: A Study of Christian Hope and Resurrection

by N.T. Wright

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Brian said: " This book was just grand. Should be required reading for all evangelicals. "

Dec 12, 2025 07:19AM · see review

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Brian’s Recent Updates

Brian rated a book it was amazing The Folger Library Edition of the Works of Richard Hooker: Volume III, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: Books VI, VII, VIII by Richard Hooker	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Several years ago, I had graduated from college and I was uncertain what to do with my time, but I knew that Brad Littlejohn was really into Richard Hooker. And so I downloaded Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity from CCEL (kudos to Calvin College for havin ...more
Jun 09, 2026 07:55AM · 5 likes · like · see review
Brian rated a book really liked it A House for the Word: A Treatise on Public Worship from Hooker's Laws by Richard Hooker	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It's really great that Davenant is putting sections of book V into manageable bite-sized versions, though a full modernization of books V-VIII is currently in the works. This section is fun because it's a defense of a religiously Christian political s ...more
May 21, 2026 06:45AM · 2 likes · like · see review
Brian is currently reading The Folger Library Edition of the Works of Richard Hooker: Volume III, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: Books VI, VII, VIII by Richard Hooker	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 20, 2026 08:11AM · 1 like · like
Brian rated a book it was amazing The Word Made Flesh for Us: A Treatise on Christology and the Sacraments from Hooker's Law (Library of Early English Protestantism) by Richard Hooker	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I wasn't as involved in modernizing this one, but this little booklet may be my favorite. Hooker offers basically a little overview of Christology and the sacraments in a little over a hundred pages. It is really useful because it is clearly Protestan ...more
Apr 12, 2026 09:32PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Word Made Flesh for Us by Richard Hooker. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Word Made Flesh for Us by Richard Hooker <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Brian rated a book liked it The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience: A Case Study of Thought and Theology in Nineteenth-Century America (Yale Publications in American Studies) by George M. Marsden	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Great book on 19th century Presbyterianism. Marsden makes another theological claim, but I think he's right. He says that 19th century Presbies basically too closely linked themselves with the narrative of progress and the social activism of American ...more
Mar 17, 2026 09:33PM · 3 likes · like · see review
Brian rated a book it was amazing Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism by George M. Marsden	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Great book. Another wonderful story that actually includes a detailed account of how the school eventually abandoned inerrancy. Characters like Charles and Dan Fuller, Carl Henry, Billy Graham, and others make this a dramatic story and a wonderful wi ...more
Mar 17, 2026 09:30PM · 1 like · like · see review
Brian rated a book really liked it Fundamentalism and American Culture (New Edition) by George M. Marsden	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
If I could summarize this book, the basic thesis is that Fundamentalists came from the mainstream of 19th century America with a strong revivalist heritage, and then were booted of that mainstream, with something like a traumatic reaction. This and M ...more
Mar 17, 2026 09:17PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Fundamentalism and American Culture by George M. Marsden. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Fundamentalism and American Culture by George M. Marsden <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Brian rated a book it was ok Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book is very difficult to interpret, but easy to evaluate. All I can conclude is that either Charlotte Bronte is very naive and sincere, or incredibly devious. I prefer the former interpretation. The book in my mind can be divided into three part ...more
Mar 15, 2026 09:27PM · 3 likes · like · see review
Brian rated a book really liked it Questions & Answers About the Eastern Church by Peter Escalante	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A helpful refresher on the problems with orthodox theology. In hindsight, I wish it had done more about icons, but thankfully Gavin Ortlund's work on this has proved extremely helpful. I also wish it had said more about fasting and prayers and the att ...more
Mar 04, 2026 07:58AM · 3 likes · like · see review
Brian rated a book really liked it Barchester Towers (Chronicles of Barsetshire, #2) by Anthony Trollope	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
For some reason my old review of this has been deleted. I am sad about that, because I feel as though I lost a piece of my spontaneous experience of the book. I remember working at Canon Press and getting sick for the last half of this book and liste ...more
Mar 02, 2026 09:27PM · 1 like · like · see review

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Brian’s Quotes

“A thing may be morally neutral and yet the desire for that thing may be dangerous.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

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“Theocracy has been rightly abolished not because it is bad that learned priests should govern ignorant laymen, but because priests are wicked men like the rest of us.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

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“I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion. “Emotional” is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of the most important events. It was more like when a man, after a long sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now awake.”
― C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

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“who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of man, and His compulsion is our liberation.”
― C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

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“Before we can progress in providing answers . . . we have to repent of our questions.”
― Peter Leithart

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