Divinity United

I just had a question from a student about recommended books and authors that I think most believers should read. It got me thinking about summer reading and just the joy of learning for the sake of learning and for the sake of reading. I have plenty of reading that I need to do this summer for course preparation for next year and for research, but I have just been daydreaming about other books I would like to have stashed away on this table or in that corner just to pick up and read in those small instances that I have opportunity. In the course of my response, I was reminded of Christianity Today's list of the top 100 books of the 20th century. Thankfully, they have posted it online because I am not sure where I have placed my copy of that list, especially considering that list came out 13 years ago now! Here is their list. Agree or disagree, it is a great starting point. Happy reading!

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas 'a Kempis is a Christian classic. In the preface to "The Christian Classics" series published in 1940 (reprinted as the Preface of the 2005 Ignatius Press edition), R.A. Knox noted that few books in the history of the world are known by one name as is the Imitation . Knox also states: "The whole work was meant to be, surely, what it is--a sustained irritant which will preserve us, if it is read faithfully, from sinking back into relaxation: from self-conceit, self-pity, self-love." I have begun rereading the Imitation in this beautiful edition, and I didn't get very far before I needed to pause. Here is one brief quote of 'a Kempis from 1.1.5: "There is one proverb of which we cannot remind ourselves too often, Eye looks on unsatisfied; ear listens, ill content . Make up your mind to detach your thoughts from the love of things seen, and let them find their centre in things invisible."

I have been making my way slowly through Eugene Peterson's, Eat this Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading . I say slowly because I often find myself rereading sections and taking to heart his comments about the need to gnaw on words. Peterson is talking specifically about reading Scripture, but there is a depth to his writing and experience that requires his words to be read over. Here is a quote from the end of his first chapter entitled "The Forbidding Discipline of Spiritual Reading" (p. 11).  "Reading is an immense gift, but only if the words are assimilated, taken into the soul--eaten, chewed, gnawed, received in unhurried delight. Words of men and women long dead, or separated by miles and/or years, come off the page and enter our lives freshly and precisely, conveying truth and beauty and goodness, words that God's Spirit has used and uses to breathe life into our souls. Our access to reality deepens into past centuries, spreads across co...