5 Books For Every Christian Library
Okay, I am actually recommending 7, just bear with me...
To be honest, I could waste your whole day recommending books, but I did want to spend some time talking about what I think are five books that every Christian should have in their library. Please be aware I’m saying these are books everyone should have in their library on hand to reference or re-read, not just have read - that would be a different list.
(Note: This features Amazon Affiliate links, which I get a small kickback from.)
1. The Apocrypha: Lutheran Edition with Notes by Concordia Publishing
If you’ve read my previous article, Thesaurus (Pt. 1 and Pt. 2), you’ll know I believe the Apocrypha deserves to be widely read in our Christian traditions. Even if you can’t come around to accepting the designation I argue for, ecclesiastical, it is undoubtedly Bible-adjacent. It is part of our faith heritage and helps us understand Israel’s history better, the intertestamental period, and the New Testament. The Apocrypha is much more important that any other book to have on hand. This edition of the ESV Apocrypha comes packed full of study notes and aids from a Protestant perspective, which are very insightful if you come from a tradition that doesn’t regularly engage with it. It also features the complete Septuagint canon. If you’re not Lutheran, don’t let the “Lutheran” part scare you, this is a volume for every shade of Protestant and I haven’t found any edition of the Apocrypha as good as this one.
The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes on Amazon
2. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity is perhaps the most impactful Christian work of the 20th century. C.S. Lewis does an amazing job exploring what the essence of the Christian faith is, especially what we believe in all shades of Christianity, and why it matters. It is also a great introduction to apologetics.
Mere Christianity on Amazon
3. The Book of Common Prayer or other Daily Office guide
As Pete Scazzero says:
[The Daily Office] is not so much about turning to God to get something as it is turning to God to simple be with him. The goal of the Daily Office is to pay attention to God throughout the entire day and in the midst of our activities… The enormous pressure of the world an our own stubborn self-will make it extraordinarily difficult to sustain any consistent awareness of God’s presence. But [with the Daily Office] it is far from impossible.
At the heart of the Book of Common Prayer and other similar books that contain guides for keeping the Daily Office is rhythm. I can’t recommend enough using something, anything, to help you keep the rhythm of prayer. This ancient practice is being rediscovered all over Christendom as an anchor to our Christian faith. Some daily prayer books more accessible than the BCP are Every Moment Holy and Be Thou My Vision, I linked to them below as well. Quoting Scazzero again:
At the heart of the Daily Office and the Sabbath is stopping to surrender to God in trust. Failure to do so is the very essence of the sin in the Garden of Eden… a refusal to accept God’s rhythm for us. The essence of being in God’s image is our ability, like God, to stop. We imitate God by stopping our work and resting. If we can stop… for mini-sabbaths each day (the Daily Office), we touch something deep within us as image bearers of God. Our human brain, our bodies, our spirits, and our emotions become wired by God for the rhythm of work and rest in him.
The Book of Common Prayer, however is more than just for keeping the Daily Offices. It is a treasure trove of good theology. Reading through the liturgies gives you a good grasp of the Christian faith and why we do what we do, even if you aren’t Anglican or Methodist. Spending time with the words of the liturgy can be both incredibly devotional as the Spirit moves and offer deep, yet practical, explanations of theology.
2019 Book of Common Prayer from Anglican House Publishers:
Pew Edition | Leathersoft Edition | Premium Leather
Every Moment Holy: Volume 1 on Amazon
Hardcover | Pocket Edition | Gift Edition (Pre-Order)
Be Thou My Vision: A Liturgy for Daily Worship on Amazon
1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition on Amazon
4. The Pursuit of God (Updated Edition) by A.W. Tozer
A.W. Tozer is a master at writing practical theology in easy to understand terms in digestible chunks. For some, The Pursuit of God will be a one-day read, it is that short. Caution: it may even act as a gateway into Tozer’s accompanying works The Knowledge of the Holy and God’s Pursuit of Man, in fact I hope it does. Tozer often brings me back to reality, back to the practical side of a relationship with the living God and into practical ministry when my brain has been off in theories, papers, the Chicago Manual of Style, and the other facets of seminary-land for too long. In The Pursuit of God, Tozer taps into our human desire and need for God to inspire a true, holy faith in loving intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is one of those that you must re-read often.
The Pursuit of God (Updated Edition) by A.W. Tozer on Amazon
A. W. Tozer: Three Spiritual Classics in One Volume: The Knowledge of the Holy, The Pursuit of God, and God's Pursuit of Man on Amazon
5. Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible by Craig Keener and John Walton
I was hesitant to put a study Bible on this list, but this is a true gem. The study notes from this Bible are drawn from the exceptional IVP Bible Background Commentary, a two-volume commentary that focuses on the context of passages. If you would rather have the commentaries I highly recommend going that route (and the commentaries have more notes), but if you’d rather have much of the same content in a study Bible with extra study aids and fantastic articles, the CBSB is great. “A text without a context is just a pretext for anything you want it to say,” my NT professor, Ben Witherington, rightly drilled into my head. Context is crucial in Bible study, and this is among the best in delivering it. Unlike many Bibles, it comes in multiple translations. I recommend the NRSV, but it also comes in NIV and NKJV if that’s your flavor.
Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible on Amazon: NRSV Hardcover | NRSV Leathersoft (Tan) | NRSV Leathersoft (Burgundy) | NIV Hardcover | NIV Leathersoft (Tan) | NIV Bonded Leather (Black) | NIV Personal Size Hardcover | NKJV Hardcover
IVP Bible Background Commentary on Amazon: Old Testament | New Testament
Honorable Mentions:
Foundations of the Christian Faith: A Resource for Catechesis and Disciple-Making by Timothy C. Tennent
There are some good catechisms out there today as the church has seen a near-revival in publishing catechisms in the last decade (now we just need a revival in using them). However this volume by Dr. Tennent, president of Asbury Seminary, is not a normal catechism. This book is instead a tool that contains parts of various catechisms that allows you to build a successful discipleship system for your context, whether at home or in the church. The best part about this volume is that Dr. Tennent leaves no stone unturned, addressing all of the fundamentals of the Christian faith needed for a modern disciple, including content from his recent and desperately-needed work, For the Body: Recovering a Theology of Gender, Sexuality, and the Human Body. I believe this is crucial as most catechisms do not address issues that are fundamentally rooted in issues of our bodies in the image of God (such as human sexuality, gender dysphoria, etc.) in depth, yet they are quickly becoming the most pressing issues of our day. I envision this moving up the list in the near future.
Foundations of the Christian Faith from Amazon Kindle or Seedbed.
CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible by Holman
The Christian Standard Bible (CSB) is, in my opinion, the best translation on the market right now. I quote from it in most of my articles, read from it everyday in the Daily Office, and use it whenever I preach. As I said before, a study Bible is always something I am hesitant to recommend, but, as before this particular ones is exceptional in that it is rooted in a commentary. The study notes are drawn from the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (ACCS) a massive 29-volume commentary that focuses on Scripture commentary from the church fathers, edited by the venerable Thomas C. Oden. This study Bible is, of course, only a glimpse at that massive volume and has its own editor, but it is comparatively affordable, from $30 hardcover - $125 premium leather, depending on the cover option. Compared to $400 digital - $3000 hardcover for the complete ACCS package - this is a bargain. The Bible is also aesthetically beautiful and great design choices were made for it. The Wesleyan theological tradition values the input of the early church fathers highly and we should always see what they have to say first, and this is a great intro into their commentary.