1. No Place For Truth: Or, Whatever Happened To Evangelical Theology by David F. Wells
This was my favorite book I read this year. David Wells traces the causes and symptoms of Christianity's steady slip away from Biblical truth a truly God-centered ministry. This is an important and incredibly insightful book, especially for anyone interested in going into ministry. Here are a few quotes:
"[Unfortunately, these days] the evangelical pastor is now the C.E.O.; in the pulpit, the pastor is a psychologist whose task is to engineer good relations and warm feelings."
"A genuinely biblical and God-centered ministry is almost certain to collide head-on with the self-absorption and anthropological focus that are now normative in so many evangelical churches." -David F. Wells
2. Counterfeit Miracles by B.B. Warfield
Written by the great theologian B.B. Warfield, this book strongly makes the case that the primary purpose of supernatural miracles in the Bible is to confirm the authenticity of new revelation from God. Through a careful look at church history, Warfield documents that contrary to popular belief, reports of miracles did not slowly decline after the first century and then finally stop when Christianity was legalized. Instead, trustworthy reports of miracles stopped after the first century, but then less-then-trustworthy reports of miracles exploded once Christianity was legalized. Although the supernatural exists, and although God can do miracles whenever He wants, God gives miracles when he gives fresh revelation... something He is not doing today. Many people criticize this book, but I have to wonder how many of them have actually read it.
R.C. Sproul called this book "the most important theological work ever published in America." I wrote my M.A. thesis on this book, written by the great 18th century theologian. Jonathan Edwards' main purpose in this book is to argue that we do not have free will in the sense of having a will that can determine itself. This is not light reading; In fact, this is about as difficult as it gets. But it is brilliant, and--in my studied opinion--impossible to successfully refute.
By the way, I read the Yale edition while I was doing my thesis, not the version pictured to the left. The Yale edition is the standard for scholars, but it is very expensive and there are much less expensive versions out there like the Banner of Truth edition that I read through the first time.
4. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek
I read a lot of books about apologetics, that is, books that explain why it is more reasonable to believe that Christianity is true rather than any other option. This is one of the best books I have read on that topic. It is extremely well written and organized. It goes into depth, but is still easy enough for most high school teens to read and understand. Although No Place For Truth was my personal favorite book I read this year, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist is the book I would most recommend for people to read. If you are already a Christian, it will give you a foundation for what you believe, and it will help learn how to give solid answers to others. This book would also be great for anyone who honestly wants to weigh the support for Christianity vs. the flimsy support for Atheism or other worldviews.
This isn't a Christian book at all. In fact, in his worldview book The Universe Next Door, James Sire sites Hitchhiker's Guide as an example of the nihilistic worldview, the worldview that there is absolutely no purpose or meaning to anything. I decided to read it before the movie came out. I'm including it here because it was just so fun. So long and thanks for all the fish.
This main point of this book is that churches do a terrible job or reaching men for Christ. The reason for that is because Christianity seems feminine and wimpy to most men... and for good reasons. Churches talk a lot about "soft" qualities that Christians are supposed to have such as gentleness and kindness, but rarely talk about the more masculine qualities God also wants us to have such as courage, boldness, and honor. Churches lack the sense of real adventure that most men crave. Although I didn't agree with every solution the book offered, it hit the mark very often. Think about it... if an unchurched husband is dragged to church one Sunday of the year, it is probably Easter. But unfortunately, this is also the most flower and perfume saturated Sunday of the year. The book also pointed out that if the mother of a family becomes a Christian, there is only a small chance that the rest of her family will become believers. On the other hand, if the father a family becomes a Christian, there is something like a 90% chance that the rest of the family will come to Christ.
Randy Alcorn is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Heaven is an in-depth look at what the Bible teaches about the afterlife. If you think that Heaven will be boring, you probably have some of the common misconceptions about the afterlife that most people have. For one, Alcorn points out that eternity will be more physical and "real" than most people imagine. According to the Bible, we won't be disembodied spirits floating on a cloud forever. In fact, we spend eternity on New Earth, rather than some immaterial realm. The greatest thing about Heaven will be God's presence. In the end, God will return to the New Earth to dwell with believers. If Heaven is where God is, then this will truly be Heaven on Earth.
This is a thick scholarly book by a top notch evangelical theologian about pluralism in the world and in the church. Many today, even within the church, take a soft view of truth because they claim either that there is no such thing as truth, or that we can't really know what is true or not. This is a fairly advanced book, but a great one for those of you seriously interested in theology to read one day.
This is a very biblical and God-centered book about resolving personal conflict. It is very practical and easy to read, but it isn't simplistic fluff like so many other books out there.
How could I not include this book in my top ten? The upcoming release of the movie gave me the excuse to read this book again after all these years. And although these books are for kids, when you read them as an older Christian you will notice subtle but powerful Christian insights that you never saw before. Although the movie was great, it can't match the book. And, there are some things in the book that the movie missed... especially what the beavers say about Aslan in their home. Fun and powerful. I cried again at the stone table.
