What Are The Great Christian Books?

Chris Bryans suggests a worthy project and blog topic:

I read your article “The Secular Canon” in October’s Tabletalk and was fascinated by your statement “A collection of the Great Christian Books would be worth assembling.” You’ve given me an idea – As a teacher in a Christian school, I am toying with the idea of structuring an English course around this very theme. I’d be interested to know what you would include in such a canon of Great Christian Books. Perhaps this would also be an excellent blog topic (unless I’ve already missed it since this is my first visit to your blog). Thanks for your ministry!

What books would you include?

Let’s set some parameters. A classic has been defined as a book that continues to speak to readers after 50 years. So, since it will take us at least a year to set up this publishing project, let’s set 1960 as our latest date.

And let’s include the whole spectrum of Christian history: the church fathers; the middle ages; the Reformation era up through the 1600’s; the 1700’s; the 1800’s; the 20th century up to, again, 1960.

And let’s include not just theology but poetry, fiction, essays, the whole gamut of literature. We’ll define Christian book as not just a book by a Christian but a book that is somehow explicitly about Christianity.

We must continue to realize, however, that Christianity embraces all of life and that in vocation it swallows up the seemingly ordinary and secular. That means that Christian authors, such as Jane Austen, do not have to write about or even mention Christianity for their works to reflect a profoundly Christian worldview and sensibility. This is why projects like this are harder than they seem.

Still, it’s worth trying. What works should be in our collection of the Christian Great Books?