Books for spiritual formation
Books that have left an indelible mark on my understanding of God or the Christian faith in some way. My spiritual development is unfinished, so this list is unfinished - I'm always open to suggestions
Soren Kierkegaard
The Sickness Unto Death - Explained how sin works psychologically, illustrates how it can be its own punishment
Works of Love - What it means to love, what it costs, what it gives us
Fear and Trembling - What faith means, its miraculous nature
Karl Barth
Evangelical Theology - What theology actually means, how the gospel is good news
The Epistle to the Romans - Shows the need for continual reformation of thought within the church, introduced (to me) the idea of God's freedom in communication to man
Church Dogmatics II.2 - Election is good news! It is God willing to choose humanity despite sin - universal reconciliation can and should be hoped for
The Journal of John Woolman
What undying commitment to justice means, what it looks like
Martin Luther King Jr
Letter from a Birmingham Jail - Made me understand how Romans 13:1 can be integrated into radical politics
A Gift of Love - Brought to life 1 John 4:20
A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
A narrative illustration of unwavering faith
The Imitation of Christ, Thomas Kempis
What we're saved to, salvation has a telos
Flannery O'Connor
Wise Blood - Life without Christ, the perils of sola scriptura
A Good Man is Hard to Find - Shows grace as an intrusive lived experience
Marilynne Robinson
Gilead novels (Gilead, Home, Lila) - Rich illustration of Imago Dei
When I Was a Child I Read Books - Bolstered my understanding of the 8th commandment (reading with charitable intent, in interactions with others in life and on the page)
What Are We Doing Here? - Illustrates what the glory of God means in daily experience
Garry Wills
What Paul Meant - Paul and Jesus were of a unified mind, stop reading Paul as a bible thumper, start reading him as a man who loved dearly and wrote with urgency on live issues
Religio Medici, Thomas Browne
Ecumenism is a beautiful thing and should be strived for in all Christian communities
The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
The gospel brings peace of mind and soul, searching for peace is a valid epistemology
Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt
Wickedness is not inevitable, it arises from moral and intellectual sluggardliness
The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Learn to love the church, it is the arms of Christ; great exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount; great companion to the book of James
White Evangelical Racism, Anthea Butler
Evangelicalism did not emerge from theological first principles, it is a diseased expression of the faith informed by racism at the root
Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes du Mez
Evangelicalism did not emerge from theological first principles, it is a diseased expression of the faith informed by misogyny at the root
C.S. Lewis
The Great Divorce - Eternity begins now, sin is its own punishment and grace is its own reward
Till We Have Faces - God has compassion and patience for those who wrestle with him, to summon the boldness to contend with God can be a blessed thing
The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
The dynamics of Christian faith explained in the abstract
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
The thinness of intellectual assent, the richness of faith
The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker
Explanation of the existential need faith meets in the language of continental philosophy
Confessions, St. Augustine
The most theologically and philosophically rich testimony besides that of St. Paul
An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity, Jonathan Edwards
What is the trinity, why is it important
John Milton
Areopagitica - Enforced virtue means nothing
Paradise Lost - Human beings are worth saving even if they aren't deserving of God's favor
Civilization and its Discontents, Sigmund Freud
Illustrates the necessity of grace by exploring a world through the assumption of its absence (excellent foil to A Gift of Love)
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