Top Ten Christian Books of the Twentieth Century

If you want to be changed, read a good book. Or so said A. W. Tozer: "The things you read will fashion you by slowly conditioning your mind." Of the millions of books published this century, only a few hundred have shaped people in extraordinary ways. Here are some of those—100 books that had a significant effect on Christians this century.
Christianity Today asked more than 100 of its contributors and church leaders to nominate the ten best religious books of the twentieth century. By best books, we meant those that not only were important when first published, but also have enduring significance for the Christian faith and church. We have included books which do not always prompt agreement, but which are important for evangelical Christians to read and contend with. A few "period" pieces also made the list of 90.

By far, C. S. Lewis was the most popular author and Mere Christianity the book nominated most often. Indeed, we could have included even more Lewis works, but finally we had to say: "Enough is enough; give some other authors a chance." Readers are welcome to send us their own nominations of the top ten religious books of the twentieth century, with comments.

THE TOP 10 (for the other 90 see Christianity Today.com)

1. C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
The best case for the essentials of orthodox Christianity in print.

2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Cost of Discipleship
Leaves you wondering why you ever thought complacency or compromise in the Christian life was an option.

3. Karl Barth
Church Dogmatics
Opened a new era in theology in which the Bible, Christ, and saving grace were taken seriously once more.

4. J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
A classic for children from 9 to 90. Bears constant re-reading.

5. John Howard Yoder
The Politics of Jesus
Some 30 years after this book was published, the church has found itself culturally in a more marginal position, and this book is making wider and wider sense.

6. G.K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy
A rhetorically inventive exposition of the coherence of Christian truth.

7. Thomas Merton
The Seven Storey Mountain
A painfully candid story of one Christian soul's walk with grace and struggle, it has become the mark against which all other spiritual autobiographies must be measured.

8. Richard Foster
Celebration of Discipline
After Foster finishes each spiritual discipline, you not only know what it is, why it's important, and how to do it—you want to do it.

9. Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
A treasury of daily devotional readings that has fed the souls of millions of Christians in the twentieth century. Future generations of Christians must continue to draw from this treasury.

10. Reinhold Niebuhr
Moral Man and Immoral Society
Introduced a breathtakingly insightful, shrewd, and cunning realism about human sin, especially in its social expressions, rooted in biblical theology and a penetrating appraisal of the dark era into which the Western world had entered.

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

The Shock Doctrine is Naomi Klein's (of "No Logo" infamy) new book. I have not read it, but many feel it will add alot to the present conversation about globalization, free-market capitalism and what Klein calls "corporatization." Here is a description of the book:

"Only a crisis, actual or perceived produces real change." --Milton Friedman

In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.


At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater…. After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts.... New Orleans’s residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened…. These events are examples of “the shock doctrine”: using the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks – wars, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters -- to achieve control by imposing economic shock therapy. Sometimes, when the first two shocks don’t succeed in wiping out resistance, a third shock is employed: the electrode in the prison cell or the Taser gun on the streets.

Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster zones, The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism – the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies still reeling from shock – did not begin with September 11, 2001. The book traces its origins back fifty years, to the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman, which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today. New, surprising connections are drawn between economic policy, “shock and awe” warfare and covert CIA-funded experiments in electroshock and sensory deprivation in the 1950s, research that helped write the torture manuals used today in Guantanamo Bay.

The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas though our contemporary history, showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973, the Falklands War in 1982, the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

(Personal News) A Confession: I am now a Mac user

I am glad to announce that I am writing this on my new Macbook Laptop. I am now at the point where I am writing my thesis and the old "Acer" laptop was breaking down every few days--so I figured it was time to actualy invest in something like a good computer that would be mobile, and this really is the best laptop going. Many of you might say "How can you afford that?" The truth is I can't, that is why I am paying for it over the course of two years. Seventy dollars a month for two years. I am excited about it and now look forward to working on this very important work (my thesis).

It is amazing how much of a thing in our culture this Mac-people vs. PC people has become. Mac people are like these weird people and PC people hate them and Mac people hate PC people--its odd, adn I don't intend to become one of those Mac-people who are always like "You gotta get one" however this is only my first day and I am very impressed. Watch the commercials above to see some of the pros. Today I was at a wedding and I was introduced by one Mac-guy to another by saying "Mark got a Mac today." The guys face lit up and he physically held out his hand and shook it! As if to say "Welcome you have arrived." Weird. BUt maybe something I can only understand in a few months...

Obviously the brilliant marketing of Mac/Apple recently is helping Mac to become the one of the fastest growing companies in the world.Their commercials personify computers in two types of people: PC as up tight and Mac as cool and hip and young. Beyond brilliant and expensive marketing Mac relies on innovative products and the quality of products. Single-handedly they put earphones back into peoples ears which had pretty much been removed because of skipping CD that people had to lug around with the invention of the iPod the best selling MP3 player in the world (I don't have actual numbers on that but I am assuming it is--if anyone knows different please let me know I would be interested)...Apple also popularized (i hesitate t say invented because who knows where some of this stuff actually comes from!) Podcasting which in itself is changing the landscape of audio information...and so much of it free. For instance I, as a pastor/preacher, find it very helpful to download sermons for free from preachers like John Piper, Mark Driscoll, and Erwin McManus--all for free. At the encouragment of some people involved in my ministry I created (my friend Steve Harris technically created I just preach he does everything else ) a Podcast of the teaching/preaching that I do at deep.spirited.friends (DSF--our churches Sunday evening service)--(To subscribe see right side of this Blog).

Thomas Friedman has cited Podcasting as one of the thigns that has "Flattened the world"-- in his stellar book "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century." And I think he is right. I used to listen to Christian radio and every week the preachers would say that a person could order a tape for three or four dollars plus shipping--now tose same sermons are free because of Podcasting. I don't know how this plays into costs/payments for radio time for those preachers but it is certainly great to have such free services at my disposal.

I would love to hear your stories about how Podcasting or recent technologies have changed your life.

Blessings.

Today (Sept. 3) 68 years ago: Blitzkrieg

I am very emotional when it comes to war. We are supposed to be. I cry while watching war movies. I hate war. I know all of us do. I recently bought an acclaimed "Golden Globe" winning HBO series called "Band of Brothers". It is brilliant. It goes through the war starting on D-Day from the perspective of Easy Company a company of paratroopers. It forces me to never forget the cost. By the time all was said and done the war cost the lives of over 60 million Allied peoples; 14 millions soldiers and 36 million civilians, including the 6 million killed in the Holocaust. The Axis lost 12 million; 8 million soldiers, 4 million civilians. That is almost 100 million people. One war. Not to mention World War one where over 10 million died. I can't imagine a million--its impossible to capture the tragedy in all of this by citing numbers--it becomes too much for the heart to bear. Too impersonal to conceive--so we push it out and move on. But we shouldn't. And, even as someone who has more of a pacifict bent because I do not believe Jesus wants anyone to fight wars, I can do nothing but stand in awe of those who fought; they were indeed the "Bravest Generation".

Why do I mention this today? Other than the fact that we should speak about these things more regularly than just "important dates", well this is why:

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, using the false pretext of a faked "Polish attack" on a German border post. On September 3 (today), the United Kingdom issued an ultimatum to Germany. No reply was received, and Britain, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany, followed later that day by France. Soon afterwards, South Africa, Canada and Nepal also declared war on Germany.

I am thankful we serve a God that holds this hope out in the prophets:
"[One day] They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" (Isaiah 2).

In this context the words that close off the entire Bible make so much sense don't they?
"Come Lord Jesus Come"