By Steve Weaver
Michael A.G. Haykin, director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, has released a new book. That's not news. However, this book differs from the typical historical works for which he is widely known. This new release from Borderstone Press is a collection of poetry written by Dr. Haykin over the past four decades. The collection is beautifully titled, The Sweetness of God: Poetic Reflections on the Grace and Love of the Triune God. The title reflects two specific emphases of Haykin's teaching, which I remember from my time as one of his students. First, the use of the term "sweetness" in church history is a topic that has long fascinated him. Second, the subtitle's explicit reference to "the Triune God" reflects an emphasis in Haykin's teaching on the self-disclosed nature of the God who is eternally three in one. Together, the title combines these two emphases in a way that illustrates Haykin's personal piety and affection for the Triune God revealed in Scripture.
Haykin describes the work as follows: "The poems in this collection were written over a lengthy period of more than thirty-five years, from the mid-1970s to the present day. They seek to express, in ways not accessible to an historian’s prose, my experience of the delights and paradoxes of being a believer in and follower of the Triune God."
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Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and a fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children between the ages of 3 and 15. You can read more from Steve at his personal website: Thoughts of a Pastor-Historian.