Earlier this week economist Tyler Cowen started a meme by asking bloggers to list the top ten books that have influenced their view of the world. (See the lists by Peter Suderman, E.D.Kain, Arnold Kling, Michael Martin, Niklas Blanchard, Bryan Caplan, Will Wilkinson, and Freddie deBoer.) Because it combines three things I love—lists, books, worldview analysis—I thought it would be interesting to encourage the Evangel bloggers and commenters to submit their own list.
Like Cowen’s, mine is a “gut list” rather than the “I’ve thought about this for a long time list.” I also chose to leave out the Bible and other classic works that are a bit too obvious in order to save room for less well-known selections.
Because I couldn’t narrow it to ten, I cheated by listing ten pairs of books:
1. How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture | He is There and He is not Silent by Francis Schaeffer — I stumbled upon HSWTL at the New Boston, Texas library at the age of fifteen. After that, my life was never the same. Schaeffer made me realize that a Bible-believing evangelical could be—should be—interested in culture, philosophy, and the life of the mind. Schaeffer used to say that he was an evangelist rather than a scholar and it often shows in his work. Many of his claims are misguided (he was completely wrong, for instance, about Thomas Aquinas) but these books—along with his collected works—have had a significant influence on my thinking for twenty-five years.
2. Discipleship of the Mind: Learning to Love God in the Ways We Think by James Sire | In, But Not Of: A Guide to Christian Ambition by Hugh Hewitt — Sire taught me how to shape my mind as a Christian while Hewitt taught me how to put it into practice. Every few years I return to Sire’s book and find new ways to “think Christianly.” It’s proven to be an invaluable vade mecum. The same is true of Hewitt’s book, which he says he wrote as “an attempt to encourage people under the age of forty-five to take seriously acquiring influence so it can be used for good purposes.” “It’s a very practical guide,” he says, “I like to describe it to people as Dale Carnegie meets Chuck Colson.” The advice ranges from the obvious but often ignored (#36 – Be slow to show your knowledge) to the practical but often ignored (#9 – Tatoos: Don’t). Because of the book I started a blog and moved to Washington, D.C., both of which changed my career trajectory. No other book—aside from the Bible—has had as much of a recognizable impact on my life as this one.
3. Modern Times by Paul Johnson | The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas — The two books that sparked my interest in intellectual history.
4. From Bauhaus to Our House | The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe — The best book on modern architecture and the best book on modern art by the best essayist in the modern world.
5. The Defense of Duffer’s Drift by E.D. Swinton | Enders Game by Orson Scott Card — I read both of these books as a young Marine (they are both on the Marine Corps Professional Reading List) and it opened my eyes to tactical thinking. Swinton’s book uses an intriguing series of dreams to teach a tactical exercise. Armchair warriors can learn a lot from this brief tome. (An online version can be found here.) Card’s book also provides lessons on tactics in one of the best science fiction books ever written. (Another I’d recommend is the U.S. Marine Corps manual on Warfighting. A premier example of that most rare genre: the literary government publication.)
6. Technopoly | Conscientious Objections by Neil Postman — Postman was not only our most astute media critic but one of the most prophetic voices of the last forty years. Essential reading for understanding how our culture is shaped by media and technology. (Amusing Ourselves to Death would be a third choice.)
7. The Mad Scientists Club by Bertrand R. Brinley | The Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobol — TMSC was the ubertext for pre-Atari Gen-X nerds. It taught me to appreciate the tinkerer/maker ethic. Encyclopedia Brown taught me—for better or worse—to be a generalist and to love a broad range of subjects. (Note: Joseph Bottum wrote an essay about TMSC for First Things in April 2006.)
8. Essential Truths of the Christian Faith by R.C. Sproul | Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem – The books that most shaped my view of Christian doctrine.
9. Flatland by Edwin Abbot | Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff – Two very different, but equally interesting, works that helped me to see math and language from a new perspective.
10. Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview by Albert Wolters | Plowing in Hope: Towards a Biblical Theology of Culture by David Bruce Hegeman – While Schaeffer laid the foundation for my becoming a Kuyperian/Neocalvinist, these two short books built upon it and helped me to understand the creation-fall-redemption theme that shapes Reformed thinking. I can’t recommend these two highly enough for all Christians (even if you’re not a Calvinist).
What books would be included on your list?
March 19th, 2010 | 2:04 pm | #1
Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey.
Your God is Too Safe by Mark Buchanan.
March 19th, 2010 | 4:21 pm | #2
The Giver by Lois Lowry
March 19th, 2010 | 4:23 pm | #3
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery
The Dark Side of Calvinism by George Bryson
Why I’m Not a Calvinist by Jerry Walls
Before I go by Peter Kreeft
March 19th, 2010 | 4:41 pm | #4
Is it too early to say Left Behind and the Late Great Planet Earth?
March 19th, 2010 | 4:57 pm | #5
Dear Matthew: How about “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Take Place in 1988″ by Edgar Whisenant?
Actually, come to think about it, that book did have a big influence in my life. Maybe not the influence the author intended. :)
March 19th, 2010 | 5:53 pm | #6
This looks like a very interesting list. I definitely want to look into the books on intellectual history as well as the Tom Wolfe.
March 19th, 2010 | 6:24 pm | #7
N.T. Wright — The Resurrection of the Son of God, and his “For Everyone” Bible commentary series. The 700+ page scholarly book was pivotal in convincing me that Jesus is indeed the Risen Son of God, and the short popular commentaries were pivotal in helping me learn how to read, understand, and apply Scripture now that I accepted it as God’s Word.
Philip Rieff – The Triumph of the Therapeutic. Part of a larger literary conversation that has helped me see the way that our modern society has become “therapeutic” in orientation: looking not for truth, but for how to feel good.
The poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins: An ongoing source of joy and insight. Reading his poetry, before I became a Christian, helped wake me up to the fact that there might just be something more to Christianity than I thought… because Hopkins had tremendous faith, but it wasn’t sugar-coated, pie-in-the-sky stuff. It was tough, strong, thrilling, and beautiful.
Athanasius: The Life of Antony. One of the first books that my pastor recommended that I read as a new Christian, to help me understand the reality of the Enemy and of spiritual warfare. An amazing book, and one that I have returned to for fresh insights about how to call on the name of Christ when under spiritual assault.
Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy and The Spirit of the Disciplines. Very helpful in helping me understand something of what it means to live the Christian life.
and of course,
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, Miracles, The Screwtape Letters, and The Four Loves.
March 19th, 2010 | 7:19 pm | #8
[...] (15)R Hampton: Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas all understood rational thought, and… What Books Have Most Influenced You? (8)Holly Ordway: N.T. Wright — The Resurrection of the Son of God, and his… The Top Ten Books [...]
March 19th, 2010 | 7:26 pm | #9
“Athanasius: The Life of Antony. One of the first books that my pastor recommended that I read as a new Christian”
Wow. What church do you go to?
March 19th, 2010 | 8:25 pm | #10
St. Michael’s by-the-Sea, a conservative Anglo-Catholic church with a pretty strong connection with / affinity to the Eastern Orthodox tradition.
I’m blessed to have such a wonderful church and a great spiritual director who was willing to spend a lot of time with me, helping me wrestle with tough concepts like prayer, spiritual growth, and so on. The Life of Antony is maybe not a typical book to recommend to new Christians (?) but it was an excellent choice for me. The Enemy is real, and quite upset about losing a soul he’d had under his thumb for many years. Knowing that I should expect spiritual attack has helped me a great deal – otherwise I might have been blindsided by it.
March 19th, 2010 | 8:53 pm | #11
Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
East of Eden, Steinbeck
Twelve Chairs, Ilf and Petrov
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov
George A. Marquart
March 19th, 2010 | 8:57 pm | #12
The Life of St. Antony also had an impact on Augustine having been translated into Latin by the 360s (I can’t remember exactly off the top of my head) so you’re in good company Holly.
One of my personal fav.’s is Athanasius _On the Incarnation_.
Thanks Craig for the tour down memory lain. I remember the 88 Reasons pamphlet. It scared the you-know-what out of some folks in my neck of the words.
I also like the Hal Lindsey honorable mention. I remember Steve Brown, who heads Key Life Ministries in FL, once say that as a Presbyterian pastor, he would give Late Great Planet Earth to people to get them converted and then disabuse them of it when they got in the church. It reminds me of the old Larry Norman song, “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music.” I’ll let the readers decide how to apply the metaphor.
March 19th, 2010 | 8:59 pm | #13
I meant woods, not words.
March 20th, 2010 | 1:04 am | #14
orthodoxdj The Giver by Lois Lowry
That was a great book.
The Dark Side of Calvinism by George Bryson. . . Why I’m Not a Calvinist by Jerry Walls
Those sound positively horrific. ; )
Matthew Lee Anderson Is it too early to say Left Behind and the Late Great Planet Earth?
You don’t want to wait too long—after the Rapture it’ll be too late.
So are you Reformed plain-and-simple (Michael Horton, R. C. Sproul), Reformed Baptist (Wayne Grudem, Mark Dever, John Piper) or Reformed Presbyterian (Philip Graham Ryken, Ligon Duncan)?
That’s a good question. I was a Baptist before I was Reformed so technically I could be considered a “Reformed Baptist.” Although I’m still Baptist-like in my ecclesiology (though I prefer elders to deacons) I’m more on the “mere Reformed” side. I would say that I admire all the men you list, I’m more in line with Sproul.
Alison I definitely want to look into the books on intellectual history as well as the Tom Wolfe.
I’m a sucker for broad-sweeping books on how ideas shaped the world, and Tarnas’ book is a good one. Johnson’s “Modern Times” is a doorstop size tome that took awhile to get through (though I need to reread it.)
Wolfe’s books are short gems. He’s a bit more dismissive of modern art and architecture than I am now, but books are great.
Holly Ordway The Resurrection of the Son of God
I need to get that one. That’s been on my to-read list for awhile.
Philip Rieff – The Triumph of the Therapeutic.
James Poulos over on the Postmodern Conservative blog is a huge fan of Rieff. That’s another one I need to catch up on.
March 20th, 2010 | 2:14 am | #15
Holly,
I have up in my classroom (I teach philosophy and Biblical Lit at a high school) pictures of Saint Michael’s. I’m Anglican, I LOVE North County, and I pray often that God will help me move to that area one day. For a while my prayer was to become a priest and be the rector of that parish.
March 20th, 2010 | 7:01 am | #16
Thanks for the response, Joe.
Here are my books:
1. Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk. It showed me as a young girl the power of fiction and the way a story can transport a person away from the present.
2. The Aenied by Vergil. Reading this in high school tied several disciplines together for me (Latin and English) and showed me how words arranged on a page (because Latin is not tied to a specific order as English is) can be create a vivid image.
3. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis because it played a pivotal role in bringing me to the faith as an adult in my early thirties. I recently read The Great Divorce and found that excellent as well. I know Lewis was heavily influenced by Chesterton, but I have found him harder to read and can’t get into his works.
4. For the Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann because it introduced me to a sacramental view of the world. I read it while I was in the process of converting to Orthodoxy over two years ago.
5. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky because of its heavy Christian themes and its portrayal of Orthodoxy. I read it when I was converting to Orthodoxy as well.
6. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton because I thought it was a wonderful story and because it re-engaged me with classical literature as an adult and convinced me to spend more of my time reading such works.
7. The Habit of Being by Flannery O’Connor because she showed me how to remain steadfastly faithful despite serious life difficulties.
8. A Sever Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken because it honestly portrays a marriage based on Christ’s love.
I truly have gotten some wonderful book ideas from this post. The older I get the more I realize that I want to read quality works rather than junk.
March 20th, 2010 | 12:12 pm | #17
Thanks Joe et al. I like the mention of Lakoff. Here is mine:
http://philosophisingplasterer.blogspot.com/2010/03/10-books-meme.html
March 20th, 2010 | 10:03 pm | #18
Orthodoxdj, you know how wonderful St Michael’s is, then! :) I was baptized there on the Feast of St Michael and All Angels; as a fencer, I find it particularly delightful that our patron saint is depicted on in the stained glass window of the big church, with a whacking great sword going through the neck of the dragon, Satan!
BTW, St Michael’s by-the-Sea has a pretty decent website, with audio from the sermons and also from the (excellent) Adult Formation lectures, if you feel so inclined. Not the same as being there, but it’s good stuff.
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