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25 Books Every Christian Should Read
A Guide to the Essential Spiritual Classics
Selected by Renovaré and edited by Julia L. Roller
Join a stellar editorial board including Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, Phyllis Tickle and Richard Rohr for a journey of spiritual reading and discipleship that will help you become more like Jesus.
About 25 Books
By Renovare
What are the 25 essential books for the Christian devotional life? Learn more about the new guide from Renovaré.
25 Books: Read An Excerpt
Read the Foreword and Chapter 3 on the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, from 25 Books Every Christian Should Read.
Renovare Website
Learn more about intentional spiritual community and practice at the Renovaré website.
Required Reading—A List For Every Christian: A Video Q&A with Chris Webb
Patheos Editors
Renovaré President Chris Webb sits down with us to share some reflections on the "25 books every Christian should read."
Visit the Book Website
For the list of 25 books, more resources, and conversation about 25 Books Every Christian Should Read, visit the book's website here.
More Mystery, Less Orthodoxy
By Phyllis Tickle
Where is spiritual reading and writing headed in the next 25-50 years?
Reading Christian: 25 Books Every Christian Should Read
By Greg Garrett
25 Books is, to paraphrase Henry David Thoreau, an attempt not to elevate the new, but to explore those things that never grow old.
Why 25 Books? An Interview with Lyle SmithGraybeal
By Patheos Editors
The Managing Editor of the new book 25 Books Every Christian Should Read shares why these books matter, now.
Book Club Roundtable
Reading for Formation, Not Information
By Kurt Willems
I highly recommend this book to you as an introduction to Spiritual Reading. I think it has the potential to greatly shape us into the image of Christ in a fresh way!
Where are all the Women?
By Jana Riess
Please axe John Calvin's Institutes from the list. For heaven's sake, get rid of Blaise Pascal. Give the more than half of people in the Christian tradition who are women something they can relate to. Give us Madeleine L'Engle and Kathleen Norris and Fae Malania's Quantity of a Hazelnut. Give us the Desert Mothers with the Desert Fathers. I think Theodora can teach us a thing or two.
An Invitation to Argument
By Fred Clark
The overall sense one gets from 25 Books is that of having an earnest, bookish friend enthusiastically pressing a stack of books into your lap and encouraging you to read them. Such enthusiasm—even from a stranger—is bound to nudge those titles higher in your mental queue of Books to Read Someday. So how much weight should we give to this stack of recommendations from Renovaré?
Merton, his "Mountain," and Me
By Greg Kandra
Merton has fallen out of favor with some Catholics these days, who see him as a little too eager to do things like converse with Buddhists and study Zen. But the fact that his landmark memoir is included in the 25 Books Every Christian Should Read gives me hope. He will endure. Thank you, Thomas Merton. Thank you, also, to the editors of "25 Books."
Only Part of the Story
By Bruce Reyes-Chow
If you are one who dreams of a day when the perception that "real" Christianity is only informed by European male theology and spirituality is shattered, you may need to hold your breath a little longer. While this collection certainly tells an important part of the Christian story, it does not tell the entire story.
The Challenge of "Should"
By Bruce Epperly
I realize that what I found problematic in this list reflects my own dynamic, relational, earth-oriented, embodied, and global approach to spirituality. I believe in the spirit of the words of the United Church of Christ that "God is Still Speaking" and that revelations and classics are being written as we speak.
Just 25?
By Fred Schmidt
This volume, like John Tyson's Invitation to Christian Spirituality, signals a recovery of spiritual reading that is both more public and more publicly catholic (read, universal). The Holy Spirit, it seems, knows better than we do, what we should be reading.
25 Books Every Christian Should Read - And I Agreee!
By Tony Jones
When I got this book in the mail, I was looking to pick a fight. There was no way I was going to agree with all 25, probably not even half. But I'm happy to report that, as well as admiring the editorial board that compiled this list, I really like their list.bio
My 25: A Slightly Different List
By Carl Gregg
On one hand, I have deep respect for many of those who selected this list (Richard Foster, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Richard Rohr, Phyllis Tickle, and Dallas Willard). On the other hand, if I were empowered with the opportunity to assign 25 books that every Christian should read, I would construct a significantly different list.
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