The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals

[Brad Mercer]

Christianity Today has an interesting list of what it deems to be the top 50 books published since WWII that, for better or worse, have shaped evangelical Christianity.

For better or worse, I think I've only read 13 or 14 of them, nine of those when I was a teenager (Cross & Switchblade, Christy, God's Smuggler, etc.)

I'm sorry I've read some of those I've read, sorry I haven't read some I haven't, and sorry I remember practically nothing from some I have read (Divine Conspiracy).

Of those I've read, the three that probably shaped me most were Revivalism and Social Reform, God's Smuggler and Mere Christianity. The first showed me that my own theological and denominational version of Christianity was something I didn't need to be ashamed of politically. The second showed me that Christianity could be heroic and exciting and the third showed me that my faith wasn't something that required me to check my brain at the door.

Brad

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/october/23.51.html

[Hans Deventer]

The ones that influenced me most are no doubt Bonhoeffer's 'Cost of Discipleship' and Yancey's 'What's So Amazing About Grace'. The former I read more than 20 years ago, the latter only a few years ago.

Some that also influenced me lot are not on the list.

[Barbara Moulton]

I've read 13 of them....also, many of them when I was a teen.

I didn't read Yancy's book because I had lareadyread Swindoll's Grace Awakening first. And that one had a huge impact on me.

Edited: I forgot the include The Living Bible. Also, I got half way through This Present Darkness before abandoning it for its theology.

So...acutally 14 1/2.

[Barbara Moulton]

Mere Christianity......showed me that my faith wasn't something that required me to check my brain at the door.




Yep...that was an exciting and important realization for me when I read it at 18.

[Bruce Carriker]

The one's I've read, and some thoughts:

The Late Great Planet Earth - probably did as much as any other book to make premillenial dispenasationalism the prevailing eschatological view of the Church of the Nazarene in the 1970's and 1980's.

The Cross and the Switchblade - read it a long, long time ago, when I was a teen.

The Master Plan of Evangelism - worthwhile reading, but it is not "THE" master plan of evangelism. It's "a" plan for evangelism.

The Cost of Discipleship - great, great book! Every Christian should read this book.

Divine Conspiracy - okay. Read it mostly because it was required reading for a seminary class.

Basic Christianity - John Stott writes good stuff. This is a pretty quick read, and worthwhile.

Evidence that Demands a Verdict - when I was practicing a legalistic, logical, lawyerly approach to presenting the gospel, this was a required resource. I still own it, but haven't looked at it in at least five years...maybe ten.

Celebration of Discipline - wonderful, wonderful book.

Evangelism Explosion - seem Master Plan of Evangelism comment.

Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger - as much as any other book on this list, this book has shaped me as a Christian. I find it hard to believe that it is on the Top Fifty list, as Sider's brand of Christianity is so little in evidence in the evangelical movement.

Mere Christianity - okay. I really liked the Screwtape Letters much more. The Great Divorce is also excellent reading.

Not on the list, but should be...in my opinion:

The Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer makes the list with Knowledge of the Holy, but this book should be there, too.

Economics for Prophets - Walter L. Owensby. A little dated (mid-80's) but the principles are pretty timeless.

The Imitation of Christ - Thomas a Kempis. Talk about a timeless devotional book! This is it.

[BobHunt]

Ahhh Bruce, a few things we agree on esp the writings of A W Tozer! I have enjoyed them! It is amazing how you can come across a sentence or a line and it seems to leap off the page at you, and then you began to add thoughts and it turns into something larger. For instance, I heard a Gospel group locally online, and one of the songs they sang was "He's still waitin at the well."
Some writers can make small statements that carry huge thoughts like Vance Havner, who I have heard on Moody so many times.
Last night I heard and saw a Billy Graham Crusade from Miami and it took place in 1961. Geo Beverly Shea really looked young back then as he sang and Rev Graham was really a strong preacher. It took me back to my younger years!

[Bruce Carriker]

Yes, Bob. Several passages from "The Pursuit of God" that grabbed me and have had a hold ever since:

"O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee, up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long."

AND THIS, on the love of material things:

"The Christian who is alive enough to know himself even slightly will recognize the symptoms of this possession malady, and will grieve to find them in his own heart. If the longing after God is strong enough within him, he will want to do something about the matter. Now, what should he do?

First of all, he should put away ALL DEFENSE and make no attemp to excuse himself either in his own eyes or before the Lord. Whoever defends himself will have himself for his defense, and he will have no other. But let him come defenseless before the Lord and he will have for his defender no less than God Himself. Let the inquiring Christian trample under foot every slippery trick of his deceitful heart and insist upon frank and open relations with the Lord.

Then he should remember that this is holy business. No careless or casual dealings will suffice. Let him come to God fully determined to be heard. Let him insist that God accept his all, that he take things out of his heart and Himself reign there in power. It may be that he will need to become specific, to name things and people by their names, one by one. If he will become drastic enough, he can shorten the time of his travail from years to minutes and enter the good land long before his slower brethren who coddle their feelings and insist upon caution in their dealings with God.

Let us never forget that a truth such as this cannot be learned by rote, as one would experience the facts of physical science. They must be experienced before we can really know them."

And finally, THIS, again about materialism:

"Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself will be the light of it, and there shall be no night there."

[Marsha Lynn]

The ones I've read, and some thoughts:

Ditto

48.The Hiding Place - read it long ago. It's one of those books that is good to have read, like Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Jungle.

46.Out of the Saltshaker and into the World - I'm surprised and pleased to see this on the list. It has been mentioned on NazNet a few times and I brought it home from the church library a few weeks ago for a re-read. It has indeed made a lasting impression on me.

42.The Purpose-Driven Life - obligated reading that wouldn't make even the top 100 most influential books for my life.

41.Born Again by Charles W. Colson - I think I read it. I know I've at at least started it. Can't remember anything about its contents. I would say that Colson's other book The Body has had more influence on my thinking.

37.God's Smuggler - read it long ago. Was impressed by the stories. Sort of like Nazarene missionary books impress me with their stories. Do they change me? Perhaps incrementally.

34.This Present Darkness - read it; remember it; at least a small influence, primarily in naming the demons.

33.The Late Great Planet Earth - wow! That's stretching back to those days of Wednesday night Bible studies on Revelation and the movie "The Thief in the Night" and promises that the world would not make it another decade. At this point in my life, I'm not on real good terms with Hal Lindsey. He robbed me of taking a long view of life at an early age. I guess that's influence, but certainly not positive influence.

32.The Cross and the Switchblade - another long-ago read that's still in print; I'm not aware of any specific enduring influence from it

29.Dare to Discipline - definitely influenced my parenting style. I've complained many times, however, that it duped me. Dr. Dobson promised that if I won when my kids were age 2, I wouldn't have to do battle later. It's not true.

28.The Act of Marriage - I wouldn't have thought to include it, but, yes, this would be on my list. This book filled a definite need in my life as a sheltered young person going into a marriage relationship with very little understanding of the physical aspect of that relationship. I wish now it had included just a little more information that would have been of great benefit to me.

27.Christy - another long-ago read. Good story. Not actually with so long-lasting influence as other books I've read by Catherine Marshall.

25.Boundaries - Good book that came my way at a good time. Reinforced what I might have figured out for myself but appreciated seeing in print.

21.The Master Plan of Evangelism - I agree with Bruce

20.A Wrinkle In Time - I'm pretty sure I read it. If not, I will.

19.The Cost of Discipleship - I've only read the first few chapters. Never made it through.

17.What's So Amazing About Grace? - While I count Philip Yancey's books as a major influence on my life, this one would not be the most influential of his books for me. Maybe because of timing. I think Charles Swindoll taught me about grace before I encountered Yancey.

16.Basic Christianity - own it; haven't read it

11.Celebration of Discipline - the exact right book for a precise time in my life. Love it. I'd probably include Freedom of Simplicity by the same author

7.Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger - does having in my Amazon cart count? Probably not. OK, I haven't actually read this one, but it's on my personal list of most influential books I've never read. Other entries on that list are: Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg, and Normal is Just a Setting on Your Dryer by Patsy Clairmont. If you are still chewing on the title, why add the complication of actually reading the book?

6.The Living Bible - enabled me to make it cover-to-cover for the first time, after consistently getting bogged down in Numbers or 2 Chronicles in the KJV

3.Mere Christianity - the first influence of C. S. Lewis in my life and at least in competition for the greatest single volume

Not on the list, but should be...in my opinion:

The Imitation of Christ - Thomas a Kempis. Talk about a timeless devotional book! This is it.

Ahh ... but the idea is to include only books published after WWII. That leaves out many of the most influential books available to today's reader, including a Kempis, Andrew Murray, Oswald Chambers, George MacDonald, J. Oswald Sanders, and Hannah Whitall Smith. All of those authors have had much more influence on me than any on the list except C. S. Lewis and possibly Philip Yancey. I would include at least two more Lewis books on my own list: The Great Divorce and Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. Of Yancey's books, I would rate both Soul Survivor and The Jesus I Never Knew as more personally influential than the one included on the list. Soul Survivor pointed me to other authors I needed to meet, including Annie Dillard.

Another still-alive author who has influenced me is psychologist Larry Crabb. I suppose I would rate his book Encouragement as most influential of the five titles by him on my shelf.

I'm not sure I'd give up what I know is in the classic and more recent "also-ran" books on my bookshelf for what might be in the many I've missed on CT's list. Of the 17 I've read from the list, only seven are on my personal best-books-ever list.

Marsha

Edited to say, thank you, Brad, for starting this thread. I saw the list in CT and thought it would make an interesting discussion topic.

[Bruce Carriker]

Other books I would add to my personal Top 50 (or Top 20) list are:

Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mullholland

Sabbath by Wayne Mueller

Long Wandering Prayer by David Hansen

Beyond Charity by John Perkins

Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down by Marva Dawn

A Theology of Love by Mildred Bangs Wynkoop

I'd also put A Theology of the Social Gospel by Walter Rauschenbusch on my list, but that's pre-1950. So, too, Half Hours With St. Paul by Daniel Steele.