Drafting "100 Books Every Christian Should Read"

[Guest]

Johannes suggested on Water Dog's "re-education" thread that I do a thread here in Celestial on this, so here it is.

Let me start with my "definitely" list. The draft of my post explaining how I'm compiling this list is below, but in short: I'm trying to capture the wisdom, breadth, and diversity of the Christian tradition. There's a limit of one book per author (though a few authors may have both an authorship and an "edited by" or a co-authorship).

1. After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity edited and compiled by Bart D. Ehrman (100-300; 2014)
2. On the Incarnation by Athanasius (c. 318)
3. Confessions by Augustine (c. 398)
4. On Loving God by Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1128)
5. Aquinas's Shorter Summa: Saint Thomas's Own Concise Version of His Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas (1274); or, Summa Theologica (1274) if you're really ambitious
6. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1320)
7. Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich (1395)
8. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (1427)
9. The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther (1525)
10. A Little Book on the Christian Life by John Calvin (1539); or, Institutes of the Christian Religion (2 Vols.) (1536) if you're ambitious
11. Interior Castle by Teresa of Avila (1588)
12. Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667)
13. The Souls of Purgatory by Ursula de Jesús (d. 1668)
14. Pensées by Blaise Pascal (1669)
15. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678)
16. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence (1691)
17. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Writings by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (d. 1695), edited and translated by Pamela Kirk Rappaport (2005)
18. A Plain Account of Christian Perfection by John Wesley (1738)
19. The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards (also his short “Personal Narrative,” available online) (1746)
20. The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen by Richard Allen (1793)
21. Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel by Jarena Lee (1836)
22. The Way of Life by Charles Hodge (c. 1841)
23. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)
24. The Greatness of Christ and Other Sermons by Alexander Crummell (1882)
25. All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon (1886)
26. Popular Christianity by Catherine Booth (1887)
27. True Stories of the Miracles of Azusa Street and Beyond by Tommy Welchel and Michelle Griffith (1906-1909 / 2013)
28. Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton (1908)
29. This Is That: The Experiences, Sermons and Writings of Aimee Semple McPherson by Aimee Semple McPherson (1921)
30. Pandita Ramabai: The Story of Her Life by Helen S. Dyer (d. 1922 / 2004)
31. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1937)
32. The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer (1948)
33. The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton (1948)
34. Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman (1949)
35. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (1949)
36. Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (1952) (personally, I think Till We Have Faces is C. S. Lewis' best work)
37. The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee (1957)
38. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engel (1962)
39. Silence by Shusaku Endo (1966)
40. The Trumpet of Conscience by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1967)
41. Knowing God by J. I. Packer (1973)
42. Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster (1978)
43. How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart (1982)
44. The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul (1985)
45. Desiring God by John Piper (1986)
46. The Historic Reliability of the Gospels by Craig Blomberg (1987)
47. Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions, and the New Age Movement by Ruth A. Tucker (1989)
48. Boundaries: Where to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend (1992)
49. The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen (1992)
50. Giving Birth: Reclaiming the Biblical Metaphor for Pastoral Practice by Margaret L. Hammer (1994)
51. The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate by Gary Chapman (1995)
52. Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. (1996)
53. You Are Special by Max Lucado (1997)
54. Rachel’s Tears: The Spiritual Journey of Columbine Martyr Rachel Joy Scott by Darrell Scott, Beth Nimmo, & Steve Rabey (1999)
55. Discovering the Bible in the Non-Biblical World by Pui-Lan Kwok (2003)
56. Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy edited by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis, Ronald W. Pierce, & Gordon D. Fee (2004)
57. The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others by Scot McKnight
58. The Language of God by Francis Collins (2006)
59. The Shack by William Paul Young (2007)
60. Crazy Love by Francis Chan (2008)
61. The Reason for God by Tim Keller (2008)
62. Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright (2008)
63. Jesus Girls: True Stories of Growing Up Female & Evangelical edited by Hannah Faith Notess (2009)
64. When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett (2009)
65. The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister (2010)
66. Hope Abundant: Third World & Indigenous Women's Theology edited by Pui-Lan Kwok (2010)
67. Walking From East to West: God in the Shadows by Ravi Zacharias (2010)
68. The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone (2013)
69. Disunity in Christ by Christena Cleveland (2013)
70. In the Company of the Poor by Paul Farmer & Gustavo Gutierrez (2013)
71. The Story of Christianity (2. Vols) by Justo L. Gonzalez
72. The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It by Peter Enns (2015)
73. Prophetic Lament by Soong-Chan Rah (2015)
74. Rescuing the Gospel from Cowboys by Richard Twiss (2015)
75. Lessons from the East: Finding the Future of Western Christianity in the Global Church by Bob Roberts, Jr. (2016)
76. The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World by Sandra Maria Van Opstal (2016)
77. Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans (2016)

-------------

Open to suggestions on what else to add.

[_MsJack]

Maybe / Not Sure

1. The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1889)
2. Unbroken: A World War II Story by Laura Hillenbrand (1943 / 2010)
3. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (1971)
4. The Helper by Catherine Marshall (1978)
5. Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann (1978)
6. Galilean Journey: The Mexican-American Promise by Virgilio P. Elizondo (1983)
7. In Memory of Her by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza (1983)
8. The Cross of Christ by John Stott (1986)
9. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning (1990)
10. The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges (1994)
11. Stomping Out the Darkness by Neil T. Anderson & Dave Park (1994)
12. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk by Delores S. Williams (1995) [I think it's important to have something womanist on this list, haven't decided what yet though
13. The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard (1998)
14. The Spirituality of the Cross by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. (1999)
15. The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren (2002)
16. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller (2003)
17. Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey (2004)
18. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (2007)
19. Gospel Treason: Betraying the Gospel with Hidden Idols by Brad Bigney (2012)
20. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero (2014)
21. Warrior in Pink: A Story of Cancer, Community, and the God Who Comforts by Vivian Mabuni (2014)
22. Here I Am: Faith Stories of Korean American Clergywomen edited by Grace Ji-Sun Kim (2015)
23. Oneness Embraced by Tony Evans (2015)
24. Unashamed by Christine Caine (2016)
25. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers by Various (270-303)
26. Something by Lysa TerKeust
27. Lots of other possibilities among the Classics of Western Spirituality authors

Definitely No

Anything by Kevin DeYoung
Anything by Francine Rivers

[_MsJack]

***DRAFT OF POST***

The Wisdom of the Christian Tradition: 100 Books Every Christian Should Read

Background & List Criteria

I have been working my way through Joel Patrick’s “Creating the Ultimate List: 100 Books to Read Before You Die,” and enjoying the beginnings of a broader perspective on life and the world through literature. However, this got me thinking: shouldn’t we Christians have something similar for Christian literature and study? A list of books representing the wisdom of the Christian tradition, meant to deepen our faith?

I Google’d and found many lists of recommended Christian books, but most were for fewer than 100 and not really what I was looking for in terms of breadth and diversity, so I decided to create my own list.

How this list was compiled:

- By consulting other lists. These lists included the Worldview Institute Top 100 Christian Books, Jim Daly’s 10 Books Every Christian Should Read, 25 Books Every Christian Should Read (which is itself a book), 40 Books Every Christian Should Read by Stephen Altrogge at BibleStudyTools, 8 Classics Every Christian Should Read by Nicholas Davis at CCC Discover, 10 Books Every Christian Teenager Should Read by Tim Challies, 15 Books Every Christian Should Read Before Turning 30 by Frank Powell, 11 Books Every Christian Should Read Before They Turn 25 by Krish Kandiah at Christianity Today, Beliefnet’s 10 Books Every Christian Should Read This Year, Top Ten Books Every Christian Should Read by Tim Suttle, 10 Books Every Christian Should Read by Edie Wadsworth, The Best 100 Christian Books Ever Written by Frank Viola, and this response to “25 Books Every Christian Should Read” by James Emery White.

- By representing famous pastors, theologians, and denominational founders. If these people were able to start movements that converted thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions, we should probably be willing to learn about their lives and/or listen to at least some of what they had to say.

- By making an effort to include women and non-white Christians. Women make up more than 50% of the global Christian population and consistently pray more, attend church more, and say religion is more important in their lives when compared to men. Likewise, there are more non-white Christians in the world today than there are white Christians (so calling them “minorities” is becoming a misnomer). Lists consisting of books authored almost entirely by white European or white American males miss out on huge swaths of the wisdom of the Christian tradition. That said, since this is an English-speaking list, and we lack writings by women and non-white Christians for much of church history, there are still more white male voices than anything else.

- By asking for recommendations from friends.

- By exercising my own editorial discretion as a white Evangelical Covenant Church woman with a degree in church history.

Some parameters:

• No Bibles or Bible translations; it should come as a given that Christians think the Bible is great and everyone should read it, and we all have wildly different opinions about which English translation is “best.” I’m not wading into that one.
  
• No study Bibles. That’s nice that you love your ESV Study Bible so much that you use it as a pillow, but I’m only recommending self-contained works here.
  
• No Bible commentaries. See that last point about “self-contained works.”
  
• No books that have not aged well, even if they were extremely popular in their time. No Left Behind, no The Prayer of Jabez, no I Kissed Dating Good-bye, no antebellum Christian pro-slavery tracts, and so forth.
  
• I have tried not to take sides on issues that traditionally divide Christians as I think it’s good for us to hear from different points of view. I have not excluded books by Calvinists because I’m not a Calvinist or books by complementarians because I’m egalitarian, I have not excluded books by Roman Catholics because I do not believe in purgatory, etc. There are a few books that assume and/or argue for Christian egalitarianism because, hey, it’s my list.
  
• Only books from Christians in the major Christian traditions (Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Pentecostal). For example, I have a degree from Brigham Young University (long story!) and know of many excellent books by Mormon authors, but most are distinctly Mormon and lack any kind of an ecumenical character, and I feel that an in-depth study of Mormonism is beyond the scope of this list. The same goes for Christian Science, Swedenborgianism, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.
  
• Limit of one book per author. A very few authors were allowed one “edited by” and one authorship.

Finally, please know that the title of my post is a bit of a misnomer. I hate to say that every Christian should read these books. These are all great books for Christians to read, but we all have different gifts and experience God in different ways. Not every Christian is a voracious reader and not every Christian improves his or her faith through regular reading and study—and there is nothing wrong with that.

Enough said. Let there be List!

The List: 100 Books Every Christian Should Read

[_huckelberry]

"definitely no" :two people I have never heard of.
I guess there is touch of safety there.

You have a long list of good things.

You asked other possible additions.

Crime and Punishment ,Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Man in Search of Meaning, Victor Frankel

Ethics , Bonhoffer

Crucified God, Molteman

Lilith, George Mcdonald

God in Search of Man , Abraham Heschel

Contemplative Prayer, Thomas Merton.

[_Maksutov]

My goodness. There are some books there I want to read. Uh oh.

Thanks to MsJack for thoughtfully assembling such a list.

[_Philo Sofee]

My goodness. There are some books there I want to read. Uh oh.

Thanks to MsJack for thoughtfully assembling such a list.

Me too, right?! That woman does that to ya sometimes, bless her heart.......

[_Johannes]

An outstanding list, MsJack. There are many items here that I have not read, and you have given us much food for thought. Major kudos.

This should really be published somewhere other than this message board.

I don't have a great deal to add. I might perhaps quibble with a few choices (e.g. Spurgeon, Tolkein). Mostly, though, I'd want to push a few additional items that reflect my own prejudices, namely....

Patristics

I'd want the Letter to Diognetus to be in there somewhere. It is outmoded in parts, but it's one of those texts that is capable of speaking across the ages. Every educated Christian should read it at least one.

Clement of Alexandria, the Stromateis. Clement was one of those who was wrestling with the question of the relationship between pagan classical philosophy and the faith of Christ. His conclusions aren't always right, but you need to read him if you want to know how the issues played out.

St John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood. In the extremely unlikely event that anyone reading this is considering a vocation to the ministry, I'd recommend reading this. It's a classic of its kind.

The Anglican tradition

Anything by Rowan Williams, but Being Christian is a good start. Also his poems - Lord Williams was a poet as well as an archbishop. A truly saintly man.

The Book of Common Prayer. If I had one criticism of MsJack's list, it would be the absence of any liturgical texts. To know what it is to be a Christian, it is necessary to look at how Christians pray, both alone and in community. The BCP is the foundation stone of the Anglican tradition of public worship. I tend to avoid using it myself, as I have problems with the penitential theology that Thomas Cranmer put into it, but it remains a classic both of Christian prayer and of English literature.

John Henry Newman, Sermons. Most of Newman's writings were polemical. He spent half his life justifying why he was an Anglican and the other half justifying why he became a Roman Catholic. Boring. His sermons are where you want to go if you want a non-polemical distillation of his religious thought. Also, his poem The Dream of Gerontius.

Charles Kingsley, Hypatia. A novel about the church in the patristic period and its encounter with the pagan world. Kingsley was a masterful novelist, and this book was a personal favourite of Queen Victoria, for what that's worth. Kingsley had his own prejudices (the book is markedly anti-Catholic), but his skill as a writer and his sheer integrity as a Christian make this book worth reading.

John Robinson, Honest to God. This is dated now, but it made a lot of waves when I was growing up. It was the first book in which an Anglican bishop publicly grappled with the serious challenges of being a Christian in the modern world. You can't understand the modern Anglican Church, or indeed the place of religion in English culture, without reading this.

Hugh Montefiore, On Being a Jewish Christian. Montefiore was a Church of England bishop who came from an old, aristocratic Jewish family. Best known as an intellectual and a political activist (he tangled with Margaret Thatcher back in the day), he converted on the basis of a pure spiritual experience - he believed that he had a vision of Jesus. This little book is a unique take on his own vision of Christianity.

The spiritual life

The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. These are really designed for a monastic retreat, but they can be adapted to secular life. They are extremely challenging, and I'm not going to claim that I've done more than scratch the surface of them. But they're a must for anyone who wants to know what the Christian spiritual tradition is all about (and they're more accessible in that regard than the monks of the desert).

[_Maksutov]

It would be wonderful if MsJack could periodically walk us through some of these titles and explain their importance. I promise to be respectful.

[_Johannes]

Indeed. I'd be particularly interested to hear more about the entries written by women and people of colour, as my own blind spots tend to relate to the archetypal dead white males.

[_Maksutov]

Indeed. I'd be particularly interested to hear more about the entries written by women and people of colour, as my own blind spots tend to relate to the archetypal dead white males.

Me too. And then some.

With the events around the Reformation recently I've been exploring that vast and gnarly subject to the best of my ability. I need another 50 years or so, I think.