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Thursday, November 02, 2006

Top 20 books that have influenced me

Christianity Today recently published an interesting list of Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals. Ben Myres over at Faith and Theology has comprised his own compilation of Top 20 books that have influenced me. Ben's alternative list is comprised almost exclusively of heavyweight theological tomes. My selection includes a broader category of books that have influenced me as a Christian and a pastor. I have included only one book per author. I hope that I have been most influenced by the Bible, but here are some of the other books that have shaped my thinking. The order is a little random.


20. Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology

19. B. B. Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible

18. J. I. Packer, Knowing God

17. John Stott, The Cross of Christ

16. Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross

15. Eifion Evans, Daniel Rowland and the Great Awakening in Wales

14. John Piper, Brothers, We are not Professionals

13. Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed

12. David Wells, God in the Wasteland

11. Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield (2 vols)

10. N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God

9. Donald Macleod, The Person of Christ

8. Philip Eveson, The Great Exchange

7. Iain H. Murray, 2 vols of Lloyd-Jones Biography

6. Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine

5. John Owen, On Communion with God

4. Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections

3. Don Carson, The Gagging of God

2. John Calvin, The Institues of the Christian Religion

1. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching & Preachers



6 comments:

Ben Myers said...

Nice list -- it's interesting how often Calvin makes it into the top 5 (but for some reason he never gets the #1 spot!).

Guy Davies said...

Yes, poor old Calvin. Someone should make him no. 1.

Iterations said...

I've got to be honest, I consider The Gagging of God to be a truly awful book. I have read other books of his which I have thought were pretty good although it has now been a while. In any case I will post off this weekend.

I presume you have the Dallimore set? The reason I ask is I have volume one which I will never read so if you don't I am happy to pop it up next time I'm in Westbury (probably xmas time).

Guy Davies said...

Hi Richard,

I don't know what's so appalling about The Gagging of God. I thought that DC got to grips with postmodern pluralism in a helpful way.

I have Dallimore on GW vol 1, but thanks for the offer & for posting the Noll book.

byron smith said...

Afraid I agree with Richard - while many of Carson's other books are great (A Call to Spiritual Reformation probably should have made it into my top 20, maybe 21...), While it might have dealt with some popular manifestations called 'postmodern', I got the impression he seriously simplified many of the key thinkers and ended up caricaturing their thought.

Guy Davies said...

Hi Byron,

Yes, Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation was certainly a contender. TGOG seems to have upset a number of people. I suppose that a certain ammount of oversimplification was inevitable in the early chapters where Carson summarises the views of the philiosophers. But he is not altogether dismissive of postmodernism and appreciates the way in which postmodern thinking has undermined the rationalism of the Enlightenment.

But I don't suppose that Carson was going to impress some people with his defence of inerrancy and eternal punishment.