25 Books Every Christian Should Read

Normally, I run away from anyone or anything that tells me what I should or should not be doing.  ”You should read this.”  ”You should try this.”  ”You would love this.”  Sorry, but I don’t take well to any attempt to guilt me into anything.  To tell me that I should do something is a privilege.  You have to earn that right, ladies, and there are precious few who have.  So when I come across a book that tells me 25 books I should read, my first thought is to ignore it.  For whatever reason, however, I took the time to actually read through the list.  And guess what?  They were right.  I should read these books and so should you, and so should every follower of Christ.  These are books that have earned the right to use the word “should!”  The list and the corresponding book come from Renovare, a Christian formation organization based in Englewood, CA and founded by one of my favorite living authors, Richard J. Foster.  What do they actually do?

“We seek to resource, fuel, model, and advocate more intentional living and spiritual formation among Christians and those wanting a deeper connection with God. A foundational presence in the spiritual formation movement for over 20 years, Renovaré is Christian in commitment, ecumenical in breadth, and international in scope.”

Sounds good to me, but they had me at “Richard J. Foster.”  I wish his book The Celebration of Discipline was on this list.  It should be.  You should read it.  You should read it right now.  (See how annoying that can be when someone hasn’t earned the right to say that to you?!?)

As a part of their mission at Renovare, they released a book entitled 25 Books every Christian Should Read.  I don’t have the book, but it really intrigues me as a student of spiritual reading.  I downloaded a sample chapter and it is pretty good.  I confess that I was originally more interested in the list itself, than I was about the book, but I am coming around to the fact that the book is almost as spectacular as the list itself.  And the list is pretty spectacular!  Click on it below.

25 Books Every Christian Should Read.

This is a list of books that have definitely “earned”  the right to speak into my life.  Let me count the ways.

1) All of the authors are dead.  Now, you may think that a very macabre statement, but hear me out.  One of the great impairments to any ministry in the modern age is the unavoidable conflict of interest that arises.  I say unavoidable because promotion of anything that one strongly believes in is; by nature of the thing itself, by the relationship between the thing and the person promoting it, and by the disinterested view of it from the outside, a “self-ward looking” phenomenon.  This is not inherently bad.  In fact, if we had time, I think I could argue pretty well that is a very good thing.  It is only a bad thing, and unavoidable to those who disagree and perhaps cannot hear the greater things of God.  So, it is a very strong thing to promote a list of authors who have nothing but legacy of their words and the words themselves to draw us to them.  No websites, no giving campaigns.

2) It’s pretty ecumenical.  I am not sure if everyone would agree that something can be “pretty” ecumenical.  I would imagine most people to consider that something is either ecumenical or it is not.  So this list IS ecumenical.  Note the Catholics, and the desert fathers, and the mystics, and the liberals, and the Anglicans, and the Quakers, and the Lutherans, etc.  There is even a scientist on this list.  (ok – mathematician).  There is no agenda here, other than…

3)  The list almost exclusively deals with finding God through Jesus Christ and living that relationship by the power of His Spirit present with us.  Mere Christianity, indeed.  That’s a big deal to me.

4)  The book gives detailed backgrounds of the authors and their work and the major themes of each book.  It is plainly written for even the least well-read of us.  It even includes a “how-to-read this book” section for all the idiots like me who have trouble paying attention to anything longer than three senten

5)  Two words – Fyodor Dostoevsky, no wait, i mean, Thomas Merton, uh, no, I meant to say, C.S Lewis.   OK, I need more than two words.  My point is that all the authors on this list are pretty heavy hitters.  Nobody lagging behind on this list.  “Although our contemporary Western culture often seems allergic to serious reading and thought,” begins the Foreword, “anyone who seriously desires to learn what it means to follow Christ without reserve, heart and soul, must wrestle with these writings.”

Five is enough.  If you made it this far down the page then I think you have earned a break!  Well done.  Now go out and start reading these books.  I recommend Nos. 8, 14, 15, 18, 19, 21, 23, or 24 as these are books that I have already read and they were incredible.  If you are a little worried about jumping into heavy books like this, go buy the guide from Renovare.  It’s a great start and it is one that you will not regret!