Thread: Rockin' your readin' - influential Christian books Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Truman White (# 17290) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :
 
hosting/

Deemed Heavenly!

/hosting
 
Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by Bibaculus (# 18528) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
for b - Harry Williams True Wilderness
 
Posted by Diomedes (# 13482) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by Moo (# 107) on :
 
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
 
Posted by Truman White (# 17290) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by Patdys (# 9397) on :
 
For me,
Mr God this is Anna by Fynn.

As described in the forward by Vernon Sproxton, it's an 'Ah Book'- a book that can induce a fundamental change in the reader's consciousness.
 
Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
Maybe up there with Williams is Gerry Hughes' God of Surprises'
 
Posted by Chamois (# 16204) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :
 
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
 
Posted by Merchant Trader (# 9007) on :
 
"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.
 
Posted by Diomedes (# 13482) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
I'll second that.

It came out the same week as Mervyn Stockwood's autobiog. Stockwood gives nothing away, Williams gives it all.
 
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :
 
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?)
 
Posted by leo (# 1458) on :
 
The problem with The Shape is that scholarship has shown it to be deeply flawed.
 
Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :
 
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
 
Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by Albertus (# 13356) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :
 
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 he’s spot on to come up with the idea it is an action in union with Christ.
 
Posted by Ramarius (# 16551) on :
 
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.
 
Posted by Hilda of Whitby (# 7341) on :
 
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]

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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