Recommended Books

The following are books we have read and enjoyed as opposed to books one is supposed to have read and enjoyed. Some of these books would be better introduced with warning labels than endorsements.
It is important to know your opponent.

Where is truth?

The Bible: there is no substitute for understanding our own cultural history.

Bailey, Kenneth, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes 2008

Kass, Leon, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis – Jewish intellectual – fascinating

Biographies

Augustine, The Confessions and The City of God 354-430AD

Cronin, AJ, The Keys of the Kingdom - A family favourite

Dallimore, Arnold, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of 18th Cent Revival

Elliott, Elizabeth, Through Gates of Splendor - for the challenge

Grubb, Norman, Rees Howell’s Intercessor - Almost beyond belief – prayer power in WWII

Roseveare, Helen, - For the challenge, especially Living Sacrifice

Simeon, Charles, See Hopkins, Hugh Evan, Charles Simeon of Cambridge 1709 - a neglected hero

Wesley, John, (1703-1791) The journal of John Wesley: a selection (introduced by Elisabeth Jay)

- Richard Heitzenrater, John Wesley, his own biographer 1966

- Martin Schmidt, John Wesley; a theological biography (translated by Norman Goldhawk) 1966

Novels speak clearly to hearts and minds

Berry, Wendell, Life is a Miracle: an essay against Modern Superstition 2001 - plus his novels, especially Hannah Coulter

Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov especially

Eliot, George, Adam Bede and Middlemarch especially

Greene, Graham, His novels, especially as they deal with faith

Hardy, Thomas, His novels especially Jude the Obscure

Hugo, Victor, Les Miserables 1862 Aso see the film of the performance at the Gielgud Theatre, London UK

Koestler, Arthur, The Ghost in the Machine and Darkness at Noon (translated by Daphne Hardy)

MacDonald, George, His novels for the stories and their purpose

Mackay, The Clockwork Image and Mind and Matter

Manzoni, Alessandro, The Betrothed: a tale of XVII century Milan (translated by Archibald Colquhoun)

O’Brien, Michael, Father Elijah’s Apocalpse, Island of the World, A Father’s Tale – novels that reduce one Walker Percy, Lost in the Cosmos and all his novels to prayerful tears

Robinson, Marilynne, The Death of Adam, Gilead, and Home

Solzenhitsyn Especially The Gulag and Cancer Ward

JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit

Williams, Charles, His novels, especially Descent into Hell 1949

Science - a philosophy of science and the history

Bethell, Tom, Darwin’s House of Cards 2017

Hannam, James, Genesis of Science: How the Christian MA Launched the Scientific Revolution

Lindberg, David C, The Beginning of Western Science

Medaware especially The Art of the Possible

Myer, Stephen, Signature in the Cell – brilliant

Midgley, Mary, Science as Salvation 1992 – lucidly and beautifully written

Russell, Crosscurrents: A Christian Analysis of Science

Simmons, Geoffrey, Millions of Missing Links 2006

Stark, Rodney, For the Glory of God

Stove, David, Darwinian Fairy Tales - A devastating critique of Darwin by an atheist philosopher who writes with tremendous wit

Strathern, Paul, Mendeleyev’s Dream 2000 – a miracle indeed

Medicine good and bad

John Patrick, Hippocrates – several talks on johnpatrick.ca

Ramsey, The Patient as Person; explorations in medical ethics 1970

J Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth – essential understanding

Vitz, Paul, Psychology as Religion: the cult of self-worshipping 1977

Wootton, David, Bad Medicine: Doctors doing Harm since Hippocrates 2006

The lost tools of learning

Bloom, Allan, The Closing of the American Mind - how higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today’s students 2012 First chapter

MacIntyre, Alisdair, After Virtue: a study in moral theory 1984

A disciple's life

Bloom, Anthony, Meditations on a theme - a spiritual journey, and School for Prayer 1970

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, The Cost of Discipleship, Letters and Papers from Prison, and Life Together

See also the biography by Eric Metaxas and Tim Keller, Bonhoeffer

FF Bruce, The Spreading Flame: the Rise and Progress of Christianity from its first Beginnings to the Conversion of the English, 1982 and his bible commentaries

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy 1908 especially and The Everlasting Man 1943

Colson, Chuck - books are marvelous stories, terrible style.

Donovan, Vincent J, Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from the Masai 1982

Keller, Tim, Reason for God: Belief in the Age of Skepticism 2009

Kreeft, Peter, All his books for the unique approach to apologetics, especially The Best Things in Life, Making Sense out of Suffering, A Refutation of Moral Relativism and Three Philosophies of Life

Lennox, John, Gunning for God 2011 and God’s Undertaker 2007 Against the Flow 2015 Northern Irish mathematician specialising in group theory, philosopher of science, Christian apologist, and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford – read him! See him debate C. Hitchens!

CS Lewis, CS. All his work is worth reading: the Narnia stories, the science fiction, Till We Have Faces and the apologetics especially The Abolition of Man

Lloyd-Jones, Martin, Faith on Trial, Joy Unspeakable, Spiritual Depression and The Sermon on the Mount. ‘The greatest man I’ve ever known’ said JI Packer - see Iain Murray, Life of MLJ 1899-1981

JI Packer, Knowing God 1973

Pascal, Blaise, (1623-1662) The Pensees (translated and introduced by JM Cohen)

St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul (translated, abridged, and edited by Kurt Reinhardt)

St Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (translated and introduced by Leo Sherley-Price)

Scruton, Roger, Confessions of a Heretic – Selected essays. 2016

Stott, John, Basic Christianity and The Sermon on the Mount and Same-Sex Partnerships? “The Bible Speaks for Today” is an excellent series of commentaries edited by John Stott

Webster, John, Confronted by Grace, 2011 Best collection of sermons I have read in a long while.