I had this all set up to post on my book industry blog, but felt it really deserved the wider readership here also…
I found this rather awesome list at the blog James’ Mirror – Christian Discipleship Guide. I’d like to think that if I posted the link most of you would click through, but experience teaches me it’s better to reblog the item; however, I hope a few of you will give the author some traffic, and click through (click the title below) to read this at source.
Most Influential Christian Books
After a search across the internet for the most influential texts in Christian history came up empty, I decided to create my own. It is admittedly biased toward western, evangelical, Protestant books with a skew toward more recent publications. I’m sure there are a lot of gaps, so I’d love your ideas for how to improve the list. It’s ordered by date and includes texts such as creeds and Bible translations.
- Antiquities of the Jews (94) – Josephus
- The Didiche (~100)
- Against Heresies (180) – Irenaeus
- On the Incarnation (318) – Athanasius
- Nicean Creed (325)
- Life of Antony (360) – Athanasius
- Confessions (400) – Augustine
- Latin Vulgate (405) – Jerome
- City of God (413-426) – Augustine
- Creed of Chacedon (451)
- The Rule of St Benedict (530) – Benedict
- The Philokalia (400-1500) – Various
- On Loving God (1128) – Bernard
- Book of Sentences (1150) – Peter Lombard
- Summa Theoligica (1273) – Thomas Aquinas
- Revelations of Love – Julian of Norwich
- Imitation of Christ (1418-1427) – Thomas a Kempis
- Gutenberg Bible (1456)
- 95 Theses (1517) – Martin Luther
- Bondage of the Will (1525) – Martin Luther
- German Bible translation (1522, 1534) – Martin Luther
- Commentary on Galatians (1535) – Luther
- Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) – John Calvin
- The Divine Comedy (1555) – Dante Alighieri
- Acts and Monuments (aka Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) (1563) – John Fox
- Dark Night of the Soul (1584) – John of the Cross
- Spiritual Exercises (1522-1524) – Ignatius
- Book of Common Prayer (1549) – Thomas Cranmer
- Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
- King James Bible (1611)
- Westminster Confession (1646)
- Death of Death (1647) – John Owen
- Reformed Pastor (1657) – Richard Baxter
- Pensees (1669) – Blaise Pascal
- Pia Desideria (1675) – Philip Jacob Spener
- Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) – John Bunyan
- Institutes of Elenctic Theology (1679-1685) – Francis Turretin
- Attributes of God (1682) – Stephen Charnock
- New England Primer (1687)
- Body of Divinity (1692) – Thomas Watson
- Practice of the Presence of God (~1700) – Brother Lawrence/Joseph de Beaufont
- Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728) – William Law
- Religious Affections (1746) – Jonathan Edwards
- Diary of David Brainerd (1749) – Jonathan Edwards
- Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1766) – John Wesley
- Missionary Travels (1857) – David Livingstone
- Holiness (1877) – JC Ryle
- Systematic Theology (1871) – Charles Hodge
- Diary of George Muller – George Muller
- In His Steps (1897) – Charles Sheldon
- Lectures on Calvinism (1898) – Abraham Kuyper
- Orthodoxy (1908) – GK Chesterton
- The Scofield Study Bible (1909) – Cyrus Scofield
- The Fundamentals (1910-1915) – RA Torrey
- Christianity and Liberalism (1923) – J Gresham Machen
- My Utmost for His Highest (1924) – Oswald Chambers
- Church Dogmatics (1932 – 1967) – Karl Barth
- Cost of Discipleship (1937) – Dietrich Bonheoffer
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) – CS Lewis
- Christ and Culture (1951) – Richard Neibuhr
- Mere Christianity (1952) – CS Lewis
- Late Great Planet Earth (1970) – Hal Lindsey
- Knowing God (1973) – JI Packer
- The Celebration of Discipline (1978) – Richard Foster
- Desiring God (1986) – John Piper
- The Purpose Driven Life (2002) – Rick Warren
…So what did you think? Anything you would want to add? How many of these have you read?
Book of Enoch. Always bothered me why it wasn’t included as canon because Jude himself quotes from it. Also, B of E sheds light on a LOT of terminology, idioms, symbolism that the New Testament uses throughout. Admittedly, some of it’s really wacky, but the balance of it is pretty informative.
Comment by Flagrant Regard — September 6, 2013 @ 6:06 pm
You must (should) read ‘The Upside-Down Kingdom’ by Donald B. Kraybill. Read it with your wife and have a highlighter handy. On the cover it says: “This book could change your life!” Well, it has certainly made me think of following Christ (being a Christian) in a totally different (upside-down) way. Every Mormon should read this book. — Best to you.
Comment by vikingz2000 — September 10, 2013 @ 1:14 pm