The shelves of Christian bookstores are inundated with bestselling works of popular fiction, particularly Christian romance novels and end-times apocalyptic thrillers like Left Behind. But what if your tastes tend more toward the literary, the historical, the apologetic, or the devotional?  Don't despair: there do exist books that will be of keen interest to the thinking Christian, although they are not always produced for the Christian market. Here's a look at eleven elevating titles.

Books for the Literary Christian

The following three books cater to the appetites of the literary Christian by describing the lives and works of Christian writers, exploring the Christian imagination, and describing the secular struggle against religion in literature.

Literary Converts

In Literary Converts (Ignatius Press, 2000, ISBN 0-89870-790-0), Joseph Pearce explores the spiritual lives of Christian converts.  Some authors discussed in the book converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, others moved out of the world of atheism and agnosticism into the world of belief. These conversions, set against the backdrop of the 20th century (an age in which God was declared to be "dead"  and in which humankind was attempting to manufacture the superhuman), and occurring in such rapid numbers among the most elite intellectuals of the time, are fascinating. 

The book depicts great authors who, wishing to escape the overwhelming secular wasteland of their time, were drawn to Christianity. The author touches on the spiritual lives of numerous literary figures: Eliot, Tolkein, Lewis, Waugh, Knox, Sassoon, Sidwell, Chesterton, and Greene, to name but a few.  Even Oscar Wilde makes an appearance, with a death bed conversion to Catholicism. Literary Converts is at once historical, biographical, literary, and religious in subject matter, and the variety enables the book to remain fascinating. So too does the author's liberal use of quotes from the letters, conversations, and writings of the literary figures themselves, which is so much more satisfying than mere narration. 

The Christian Imagination

The Christian Imagination (edited by Leland Ryken, Shawbooks, 2002, ISBN 0-87788-123-5) contains a collection of essays and reflections exploring "the practice of faith in literature and writing."  With selections from such master Christian writers as J.R.R.Tolkien, Annie Dillard, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and Francis Schaeffer, The Christian Imagination reveals how religion can (and should) play a role in the creation of great art.

The book's essays and reflections explore numerous literary topics from a Christian perspective, including poetics, the Bible as art, the concept of beauty, hymns, fantasy, myth, and the portrayal of evil.  The Christian Imagination is not as accessible as either Literary Converts, and occasionally the included writings can be academic in tone.  But Christian readers with diverse interests in a variety of genres may all extract something of interest from this collection, which delights in exploring the intersections between faith, words, and imagination.

Dismissing God

While Literary Converts and The Christian Imagination focus on the works and lives of believers, D. Bruce Lockerbie's Dismissing God (Baker Pub Group, 1998,  ISBN 0-80105-804-X) chronicles the modern writer's struggle against religion, particularly Christianity.  The book traces the abdication of belief from "reluctant agnosticism" and "uncomfortable unbelief" (Matthew Arnold, Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville) to "the absorption of Christian doctrine into a mélange of pagan shamanism" (the Romantics), to "cold contempt for any suggestion that religion or religious concerns merit serious reflection" (The Nihilists). 

The chapters in and of themselves are quite interesting, but the author's attempt to tie them together through some overarching progression, structure, or theme falls short of clarity and consistency.  Although Dismissing God is not particularly well tied together, it is an excellent overview of the treatment of religion in the major literature of the last two centuries.  It is well written and easy to read: there is no unintelligible academic rant to be found here. Anyone with a basic knowledge of literature can approach this book without fear, and even a long-time student of literature is likely to find something new and stimulating in its pages.  

Books for the Christian History Buff

Christian history is rich and complex.  Volumes have been written on the early church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformation, and alternative forms of Christianity.  Here are three fascinating titles you may not have tackled.

The Jesus Sutras

The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity (by Martin Palmer, Wellspring/Ballantine, 2001, ISBN 0-34543-424-2) explores the discovery of a Chinese Christian monastery and a cache of writings that prove Christianity was introduced to China as early as the 5th century.  These works drew upon the vocabulary of Taoism and Buddhism and adopted cultural idioms in order to communicate the gospel to the Chinese in a way they could understand.  Some of the content of these "Jesus Sutras" is very noncontroversial; other components, such as references to reincarnation, may cause some Orthodox Christians to regard the Taoist Christianity as an heretical form of the religion. The book is fascinating not only for revealing documents produced by early Christian missionaries, but because it provides a good historical overview of the Eastern Church, which often receives very little exposure in Christian histories. The work would have been improved by a better organization of the material, which would also have avoided redundancy.  Overall, however, it is an engaging and highly readable book.

A History of Christianity

A History of Christianity (by Paul Johsnon, Touchstone, 1979, ISBN 0-68481-503-6) offers a one volume survey of Christianity from the New Testament through the 20th century.  Despite being a Catholic himself, Paul Johnson does not seem the least bit ashamed of depicting all of the dark, sinful actions of the institutional church.  He approaches Christianity as a historian, and as a Christian he pursues the truth, unafraid of where it will lead him.   His opinions infiltrate the work, but they are often interesting and entertaining, even if you don't always agree with them.  It would have been useful if the author had delved more into the historical origin of the many American sects; he focuses primarily on Catholicism (which, granted, was the history of Christianity for many centuries), but his book seems to speed up when it reaches Protestantism. Nevertheless, it is one of the most entertaining tomes to survey the whole of Christian history.

A History of the Jews

Paul Johnson also authored A History of the Jews (Perennial, 1998, ISBN 0060915331).  This almost 600 page volume covers the major events, movements, and cultural aspects of Jewish history, from Noah (the first biblical character, according to Johnson, for whom we have historical corroboration) to Israel in the 1980's. Johnson wrote this book because he wanted to learn more about the roots of his own faith, Christianity.  Johnson makes some interesting speculations that help elucidate certain aspects of the gospels. He argues, for instance, that Christ was probably closest, of all the Jewish sects, to the Pharisees, and that he was trained by Hillel. (This might help to explain why, despite His many claims to divinity, the Pharisees actually tolerated Him as long as they did.) A final note: the Christian or Jew who leans toward a literal, inerrant interpretation of the Bible may be offended by Johnson's more liberal historical approach to the text and his very occasional unsubstantiated assertions about certain characters.

Apt Apologetics

If you are seeking to read a defense of theism, you couldn't do much better than these two thoughtful, easy to read volumes by C.S. Lewis and Herman Wouk.

Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis turned a series of radio talks into the compilation Mere Christianity (Harper, 2001, ISBN 0-06065-292-6).  The book is perhaps the greatest modern case made in support of Christianity, and it addresses virtually every doubt and question either an atheist or a Christian may have. It follows an organized pattern beginning with the existence of morals, moving to the existence of a God, and eventually arguing that such a God came to earth in the form of a man, was crucified, and rose again. By using this slow build-up, Lewis avoids force-feeding Christianity to the reader.  

This is My God

The Jewish equivalent of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity is Herman Wouk's This is My God (Back Bay Books, 1992, ISBN 0-31695-514-0).  In it Wouk, like C.S. Lewis, uses a clear, conversational writing style, employing numerous analogies to make his points accessible.  He offers a compelling apology for monotheism, which will be of interest to the Christian.  The book is aimed at non-practicing Jews and gentiles who are "curious about the old Hebrew faith." The book is also very useful for the gentile who would like to know more about Judaism.  It describes how and why the Jews celebrate the major holy days: Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Purim, Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, and Hanukkah. He talks about the diet of the Jews, their marriage customs, the rite of circumcision, and the bar mitzvah, among other things. He briefly discusses Judaism's perspective on the after-life and gives an overview of the major religious works: the Torah, Bible, Talmud, and Mishnah.

Deeper Devotionals

Thoughtful Christian are occasionally dissatisfied by the devotional literature that lines the shelves of many Christian bookstores. Though heartfelt and practical, these books often lack the kind of intellectual depth many Christians crave.  Here are three devotional titles that provide meat for the mind as well as the soul.

The Quest for God 

With The Quest for God (Perennial, 1997, ISBN 0-06092-823-9), historian Paul Johnson pauses from his research to write about his own personal pilgrimage. The book is infused with Johnson's opinionated style, which keeps the work interesting and which may keep the reader arguing with the author.  As well as being a devotional work, the volume is also partly an apologetic for Catholic doctrine, which may be of interest to the Protestant who struggles to understand things like the celibacy of the priesthood, the granting of indulgences, and the practice of praying to saints.  Primarily, however, the work chronicles Johnson own spiritual journey, as he comes to understand "that moral relativism is a great evil, one of the greatest evils of all evils because it makes possible so many other evils . . . Moral relativism has been the cardinal sin of the twentieth century, the reason why it has been such a desperately unhappy and destructive epoch in human history."

Death on a Friday Afternoon

If you're looking for some Lenten devotional reading, you couldn't do much better than Richard John Neuhaus's Death on a Friday Afternoon (Basic Books, 2001, ISBN 0465049338). As its subtitle states, the work consists of Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus From the Cross.  It explores Christ’s final words, as they are recorded varyingly in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  It reveals, also, our need for a savior, and expresses the beauty of the redemption of man. 

The insights offered in this book are penetrating, and the writing style is occasionally poetic.  The author explores many serious questions, delivering, among other things, new insight into the true nature of the missionary imperative. Neuhaus possesses a wealth of information, and he draws on literature, history, and theology regularly, but these allusions are never presented in a “see how smart I am” manner; they are always natural.  His prose is not complicated, but nor is it pedantic; he does not speak to us as though we were mentally children.  Those who believe Christ died only for the elect will have much to object to in the theology of this book, but I think even they will find the writing affecting and at times convincing. 

The 10 Commandments

With the help of Rabbi Stewart Vogel, radio talk show personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger produced a devotional volume that will be of interest to thinking Christians and Jews alike: The 10 Commandments, subtitled The Significance of God's Laws in Everyday Life (Perennial Currents, 1999, ISBN 0-060929-960). The book examines in-depth the Decalogue delivered to Moses on Mt. Sinai and applies these laws to modern-day life.   Dr. Schlessinger writes from a Jewish perspective, although she is careful also to utilize quotes from Christian clergy as well as the New Testament to back up her points and to show the similarities between Jewish and Christian values.  She addresses difficult and controversial questions such as "Is killing always wrong?" and "Is it acceptable to tell a white lie?"

The book is a superb review for the practicing Jew or Christian and a useful introduction to anyone who is not well acquainted with Judeo-Christian morality.  Christians may find that much of the background explanation the author offers from Jewish tradition helps to place Christ's explications of the commandments in perspective.  The writing in The Ten Commandments is not at all academic, but neither is the text simplistic. 

Stock Your Shelves

There are a plethora of titles that will appeal to the thinking Christian, but these eleven will make a good starter library.  So begin stocking your shelves, and keep reading! 

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