![\"book-pilgrim\"](\"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/book-pilgrim.jpg\")
<\/a>1. Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/h3>\nWho wrote it<\/strong> Bunyan\u2019s spiritual journey (described in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners) led him to many deep insights regarding faith and fellowship. As a result, he wrote dozens of tracts, pamphlets, sermons, and books.<\/p>\n What it\u2019s about<\/strong> The story revolves around a man named Christian. His problem is the huge burden on his back (allegorically, the weight of sin). Bunyan reads in a book that he should flee his city, The City of Destruction, and seek another one, the Celestial City. Christian embarks on a dangerous journey to seek relief from his burden and to find the Celestial City.<\/p>\n Why it\u2019s important<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> Why it\u2019s important<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> Why it\u2019s important<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> Why it\u2019s important<\/strong> “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God: God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hopes of seeing friends, returning to my dear acquaintance, and enjoying worldly comforts.\u201d<\/p>\n Why it\u2019s important<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> Why it\u2019s important<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> Why it\u2019s important<\/strong> <\/p>\n Who wrote it<\/strong> What it\u2019s about<\/strong> Why it\u2019s important<\/strong>
\nJohn Bunyan (1628-1688) was a Christian pastor. During his lifetime, Anglican England persecuted anyone who was not in agreement with their church policies. John Bunyan, a nonconformist, believed that obedience to God and his conscience was more important than obedience to man\u2019s rules. As a result of his convictions, he was imprisoned for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\nThe Pilgrim\u2019s Progress is an allegory, meaning that it is a story with a deep layer of spiritual meaning. Rather than hide this meaning, Bunyan carefully explains the interpretation of each of the allegorical events.<\/p>\n
\nSince its publication in 1678, Pilgrim\u2019s Progress has never gone out of print. To this day, Pilgrim\u2019s Progress is viewed as one of the greatest works of religious English literature. English preacher C.H. Spurgeon read the book more than 100 times, and C.S. Lewis wrote a significant sequel. Pilgrim\u2019s Progress has been translated into more than 200 languages and read by millions of Christians.<\/p>\n2. Mere Christianity<\/h3>\n
\nC.S. Lewis (1898-1963) was a Christian writer and apologist, best known for his series The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis is one of the most influential Christian thinkers of modern times.<\/p>\n
\nLewis\u2019s short book, Mere Christianity, describes the basics of the Christian faith. Lewis first explains the situation of the entire universe, then explains doctrine-by-doctrine what Christians belief. He doesn\u2019t shy away from explaining and defending Christian behavior, and even going deep on several of the most perplexing doctrines such as the Trinity.<\/p>\n
\nMere Christianity spells out the basics of the Christian life in plain language and with powerful argument. In Christianity Today\u2019s \u201cMost Influential Books\u201d survey (2000), Mere Christianity Christianity was nominated more times than any other book. God used the book to bring many people, including Charles Colson, to faith. Phrases and passages from the book have had a massive impact in Christian music (Sixpence None the Richer, Living Sacrifice) and writings.<\/p>\n3. Confessions<\/h3>\n
\nAugustine of Hippo (354-430). Augustine was one of the earliest and most influential Christian writers and thinkers.<\/p>\n
\nAugustine\u2019s Confessions is his spiritual autobiography. It describes his journey from rebellious youth to devout pastor. The Confessions is deeply devotional and meditative.
\nWhy it\u2019s important<\/strong>
\nAlthough it was written nearly two millennia ago, Confessions is brimming with relevance. Augustine battled sexual immorality, dabbled in false religions, and faced heresy, just as contemporary believers do.<\/p>\n4. Knowing God<\/h3>\n
\nJ. I. Packer (1926-present). Packer is a Canadian evangelical writer and teacher in the Anglican tradition.<\/p>\n
\nKnowing God is an extended study on the character of God. The chapters explore various facets of His identity, including his wisdom, wrath, love, and grace.<\/p>\n
\nKnowing God is one of the most readable and powerful books on God\u2019s character. Far from being dry and factual, Knowing God is soul-searching and worshipful. The book has sold millions of copies, and is one of the books on Christianity Today\u2019s \u201cTop 50 Books\u201d list.<\/p>\n5. The Cost of Discipleship<\/h3>\n
\nDietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor whose career was shaped by his resistance to Germany\u2019s Nazi regime. Bonhoeffer was martyred by hanging at the Nazi concentration camp at Flossenb\u00fcrg.<\/p>\n
\nThroughout his life, Bonhoeffer could not escape the Christian\u2019s need to engage in the world. In his context of Nazi Germany, to follow Christ meant to resist the forces of evil and to preach Christ by living and speaking. Discipleship explains these Scriptural truths, using Jesus\u2019 Sermon on the Mount as the framework for the book.<\/p>\n
\nIn today\u2019s culture of \u201ccheap grace\u201d and entertainment-driven Christianity, Bonhoeffer calls Christians to the level of radical discipleship that Jesus preached:<\/p>\n6. Life and Diary of David Brainerd<\/h3>\n
\nJonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was the editor. Edwards was an American theologian. He collected and edited the diary of David Brainerd.
\nThe diary is by David Brainerd (1718-1747) a missionary to the Native Americans.
\nWhat it\u2019s about<\/strong>
\nThe book is a biography and journal that records Brainerd\u2019s all-consuming passion to preach Christ. In spite of the extreme difficulties, Brainerd pressed on to bring the gospel to the unreached.<\/p>\n
\nBrainerd\u2019s life served as the inspiration for the first missionary movement. Brainerd was willing to risk all to obey and follow Christ. The evangelist John Wesley encouraged every preacher to read it. Future missionaries such as Henry Martyn, Adoniram Judson, William Carey,and Jim Elliot all cited Brainerd\u2019s diary as an influence in their own lives.<\/p>\n7. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God<\/h3>\n
\nJonathan Edwards (1703-1758), a Puritan in tradition, wrote widely during his pastoral and missionary career in New England. His works fill many volumes, but this one short sermon is his most well-known work.<\/p>\n
\nJonathan Edwards wrote \u201cSinners in the Hands of an Angry God\u201d as a sermon, which he preached in his Northampton, Massachusetts church. The sermon explained that hell is real, that God\u2019s wrath is active towards sin, and that Christ is the only source of salvation.
\nWhy it\u2019s important
\nThe sermon is one of the most influential in the history of Christianity. God used the sermon to spark the Great Awakening in North American.<\/p>\n8. Orthodoxy<\/h3>\n
\nG. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English Catholic writer and apologist. His prolific output included 80 books, hundreds of poems and short stories, over 4,000 essays, and even numerous plays.<\/p>\n
\nChesterton uses the word \u201corthodoxy\u201d to sum up the Apostle\u2019s Creed, perhaps the most widely-accepted historic confession. Chesterton does not attempt to end any denominational quibbles, but instead drives directly to the heart of the issue \u2014 how do we make sense of this world, and what should we do about it? The book is richly autobiographical and intellectually rigorous.<\/p>\n
\nOrthodoxy is a thinking person\u2019s search for meaning. Today\u2019s modern culture encourages curiosity and truth-seeking, but often sidesteps the monumental significance of Christianity. Chesterton presents the modern reader with his own journey from intellectual curiosity to convinced Christian.<\/p>\n9. Divine Comedy<\/h3>\n
\nDante Alighieri was an Italian poet of the late Middle Ages. Dante is widely regarded as \u201cthe Father of the Italian language\u201d and his Comedy is considered one of the most influential works in the history of world literature.<\/p>\n
\nDespite the term \u201ccomedy\u201d, the Divine Comedy is not intended to be funny. (The word \u201ccomedy\u201d describes the Greek classical style, which describes a work written in the vernacular. Comedies usually end in a triumphant way.) The poem describes a fictional journey through hell and to heaven, in which Dante observes various characters experience different levels of punishment and reward (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso).<\/p>\n
\nDivine Comedy was never intended to be an accurate description of the afterlife. It was, however, intended to describe a person\u2019s spiritual journey from sin and to God. As such, it explains to us God\u2019s justice, our own depravity, and the only source of salvation in Him.<\/p>\n10. Paradise Lost<\/h3>\n
\nJohn Milton (1608-1674) was an English poet who served during the regime of Oliver Cromwell. Milton\u2019s life was shaped by personal challenge and national crises. Milton was completely blind when he wrote Paradise Lost, and battled political controversy.<\/p>\n
\nParadise describes the Fall of Man (Genesis 3) and all the events that preceded and followed this epochal event. Much of the content such as sub themes and conversation is fictionalized in order to convey the overarching themes of the story.<\/p>\n
\nMilton is very clear about the purpose of Paradise Lost. It is to “justify the ways of God to men.\u201d Nearly everyone has had the experience of asking why? in the face of life\u2019s confusion, evil, and pain. Paradise Lost faces these questions, and places man in his proper place before God.<\/p>\n