I have been thinking about the ten books every Christian should read. I’ve been composing the list in my head, and it’s harder than you think. You need qualifiers. Here are mine: broad subject range, deep but not obscure, non-fiction (with one exception), focused on discipleship and the Christian story, fit more in the theological realm, not biblical studies, philosophy, or spirituality. This is not my list of the all-time greatest, nor is it my ten favorites. This is the list that I would make required reading of every Christian I know, if I had that kind of power; though I clearly don’t have. However, I do have a blog, so I put this out there for any and all.
What goes on your list?
BTW: This list purposefully does not contain any really difficult reads. To help I devised a difficulty scale from one to ten – one being an easy read, ten being more difficult – and none of these scored higher than a seven. The number follows the book.
So, if I could get every single Christian I know to carefully read these ten books I would. If we would all wrestle with these concepts and begin to allow these great writers to challenge us, the impact on our lives and our communities would be transforming.
Here’s my list:
01. The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann (difficulty 06)
02. Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas & William Willimon (difficulty 06)
03. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (difficulty 03)
04. Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ronald Sider (difficulty 04)
05. The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder (difficulty 07)
06. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (difficulty 02)
07. Evil and the Justice of God by N.T. Wright (difficulty 05)
08. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (difficulty 06)
09. For the Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann (difficulty 07)
10. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton (difficulty 05)
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