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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Rockin' your readin' - influential Christian books
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Truman White
Shipmate
# 17290
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Posted
What would rate as the most influential Christian books written
a) this century;
b) last century;
c) ever.
For the purposes of this thread "Christian" would be a book that influenced the church or promoted the Christian faith.
I'm relaxed as to what you might describe as "influential." Just say how you would rate a book's influence.
Posts: 476 | Registered: Aug 2012
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
hosting/
Deemed Heavenly!
/hosting
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
Charlie and the chocolate factory by Roald Dahl.
Each of the main characters represents one of the seven deadly sins. It may not have influenced many theologians, but it has been read by many, many more people than the stuff theologians read.
Popular biography/autobiography, such as David Wilkerson's The cross and the switchblade probably counts as it has been read by so many, or C S Lewis's alegory The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Bibaculus
Shipmate
# 18528
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Posted
Well, apart fro the Bible, of course...
The question is so broad as to make an answer almost impossible. 'We Believe' by AN Gilbey certainly influenced many (well, in a narrow social and intellectual circle). de Lubac's 'Catholicisme'? I don't know really. depends where you are looking.
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A jumped up pantry boy who never knew his place
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Diomedes
Shipmate
# 13482
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Posted
I'm another for whom 'The True Wilderness' by Harry Williams was exactly the right book at the right time. 'Waters of Silence' by Thomas Merton was another. I must re-visit both of them. Thanks for a thread that reminded me TW.
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Distrust simple answers to complicated questions
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
Dorothy L. Sayers The Man Born to Be King had a tremendous impact on me, and AIUI many other people. It is the text of a series of radio plays based on the life of Jesus. They convinced me that the New Testament characters were real human beings with individual characteristics.
In addition to the text of the plays themselves, the introduction and the notes at the beginning of each play deepened my understanding. For the benefit of the actors and director, she explains where each character is coming from in each play.
After I read that book, I read the New Testament differently. I first read the book almost fifty years ago, and I still enjoy rereading it.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
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Truman White
Shipmate
# 17290
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Diomedes:
I'm another for whom 'The True Wilderness' by Harry Williams was exactly the right book at the right time. 'Waters of Silence' by Thomas Merton was another. I must re-visit both of them. Thanks for a thread that reminded me TW.
Must confess my ignorance here - I'd never heard of Harry Williams until now. I'll look into his Wilderness book.
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
Maybe up there with Williams is Gerry Hughes' God of Surprises'
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
For c - The Confessions of St Augustine.
Written in approximately the year 400 and read by many many people ever since.
I would definitely recommend it - Augustine re-telling his life story in an extended prayer to God. Moving, interesting and in places very very funny.
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I remember both True Wilderness and True Resurrection being really important to me at a difficult time in my life. I think it was because Harry Williams wrote with compassion.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
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Merchant Trader
Shipmate
# 9007
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Posted
"On being a Christian" and "The Church" by Hans Kung from the last century, I think this century's "Christianity" and "Islam" are great books (I don't yet have the 3rd on Judaism) but don't have the impact that "On being a Christian" had on me and our youth group in my late teens. Nor the influence "The Church" had as my main reference book for leading study groups in my 20s.
I should be hard put to think of a book in the succeeding 40 years that were as significant to me.
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... formerly of Muscovy, Lombardy & the Low Countries; travelling through diverse trading stations in the New and Olde Worlds
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Diomedes
Shipmate
# 13482
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Posted
As Huia says, Harry William wrote as a man who had struggled to find answers rather than as someone who thought they knew the answers! His autobiography 'Someday I'll Find You' is very moving in places.
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Distrust simple answers to complicated questions
Posts: 129 | From: Essex England | Registered: Mar 2008
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
I found "Someday I'll find You" very irritating.
Williams was such a name dropper about his connections with the Great and the Good, which would be OK, except it combined with his repeated contempt for ordinary, in-the-pew churchgoers.
He certainly was honest, but I don't think he had enough self awareness of his snobbery which is so transparent.
(To be positive, my influential book would be "The Shape of the Liturgy" by Gregory Dix. But the OP didn't ask for our personal preferences, did it?)
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
I'd put Borg's Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time on list 2. I recall a Presbytery meeting in the nineties when I sat next to a minister who'd got his copy that day, who couldn't stop reading it and paid little attention to the proceedings of the meeting.
Robinson's Honest to God made waves I haven't read it myself. Tom Wright is another widely quoted.
It is simply an indication of my journey and the friends I share it with that my top shelf started with John Spong and follows with Borg, Crossan, and Holloway, inspirational to some and contentious to others.
From another angle, an occasional lay preacher can still find a good starting point in William Barclay from the seventies, whose theology is respected by all hearers and there is quite a range in our congregations!
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
As a then card carrying member of the Sydney Uni Evangelical Union back in 1960s, I was regarded with some suspicion when I was caught reading Robinson's Honest to God . Very daring. I really don't remember much of what I read at all.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by leo:
The problem with The Shape is that scholarship has shown it to be deeply flawed.
Never read it and I have heard that its scholarship is out of date. But I think that it certainly was hugely influential, at least in certain quarters, wasn't it?
Others who will know the book might be able to answer this: are there things in it which are still of value? For instance, that passage about the Eucharist 'Was ever another command so obeyed....' is still enormously powerful.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
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venbede
Shipmate
# 16669
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Posted
Dix may well have been looking at history through rose coloured spectacles to suggest there was an inevitable trajectory from the Last Supper to the Roman (or Byzantine) Eucharist, but I think hes spot on to come up with the idea it is an action in union with Christ.
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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.
Posts: 3201 | From: An historic market town nestling in the folds of Surrey's rolling North Downs, | Registered: Sep 2011
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Ramarius
Shipmate
# 16551
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Posted
Just wonder how much impact W.L. Craig's books on apologetics will have over time. They are widely read across denominational boundaries and have put some muscle back into many people's conversations with challenging atheists.
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Hilda of Whitby
Shipmate
# 7341
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
I'd put Borg's Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time on list 2. I recall a Presbytery meeting in the nineties when I sat next to a minister who'd got his copy that day, who couldn't stop reading it and paid little attention to the proceedings of the meeting.
Robinson's Honest to God made waves I haven't read it myself. Tom Wright is another widely quoted.
It is simply an indication of my journey and the friends I share it with that my top shelf started with John Spong and follows with Borg, Crossan, and Holloway, inspirational to some and contentious to others.
From another angle, an occasional lay preacher can still find a good starting point in William Barclay from the seventies, whose theology is respected by all hearers and there is quite a range in our congregations!
GG
Marcus Borg's books brought me back to Christianity after a long, LONG sojourn in the desert. He is hugely important to me.
I was greatly saddened at his recent death. ![[Votive]](graemlins/votive.gif)
My answers to the question in the OP:
20th century: Systematic Theology by Paul Tillich
19th century: Practice in Christianity by Soren Kierkegaard
Ever: Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas; if one can choose a book from the New Testament (aside from the Gospels) I might plump for Paul's Epistle to the Romans.
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"Born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad."
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