This listing of twenty-five “choice” books among those written by evangelicals last year is intended to reflect a diversity of issues and views. Some of the titles would make any list of choice religious books; others are included because the subject matter is especially pertinent to an understanding of evangelicalism and some of its principal concerns. These twenty-five books should be in every theological and major-university library; most of them should be in most college, public, and congregational libraries.
None of the books is highly technical, and only five (Brown, Craigie, Henry’s two-volume work, Gundry-Johnson, and Rienecker) are primarily on a seminary level. Books by CHRISTIANITY TODAY’S editor, senior editor, former editor, and former co-editor are included without apology; they meet the criteria for this list.
This is not a list of “best-sellers,” nor is it meant to suggest that only evangelicals write worthwhile books on religion. The survey articles in this issue highlight many other significant books from differing theological perspectives.
Here are the choices, arranged in alphabetical order by author or editor.
The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology: Volume 1: A-F (Zondervan) edited by Colin Brown. The first of three volumes of what is certain to be a standard reference tool.
Papers of the Continental Congress on the Family (Word) edited by Gary Collins. Five separately titled volumes (Facing the Future, It’s O.K. to Be Single, Living and Growing Together, Make More of Your Marriage, and The Secrets of Our Sexuality) contain the presentations by dozens of leading evangelicals to a congress of thousands in late 1975. A wide range of views and suggestions is offered.
Born Again (Chosen/Revell) by Charles Colson. The former Nixon aide gives far and away the best written testimony of the year to the power of God to transform lives.
Politics, Americanism, and Christianity (Baker) by Perry Cotham. The Bicentennial year naturally brought more books in this area than usual. This one edged out some others for inclusion in our list.
The Book of Deuteronomy (Eerdmans) by Peter Craigie. The New International Commentary series, of which this is a distinguished part, is almost complete for the New Testament but just getting going for the Old, where the need for good commentaries is great.
Discovering an Evangelical Heritage (Harper & Row) by Donald Dayton. The mere fact that evangelicals used to do certain things doesn’t make them right. But the Bible itself sets the example for the people of God to remember their past. Dayton reports on nineteenth-century evangelical social concern, showing that similar concerns in our time are rooted in the tradition itself and do not need to be mere imitations of non-evangelical alternatives. (Another study by C. Allyn Russell, a graduate of Houghton College and Eastern Baptist Seminary, portrays seven early twentieth-century evangelical leaders whose concern was more for doctrinal preservation than social reform; the book is entitled Voices of American Fundamentalism [Westminster].)
What the Bible Says (Abingdon) edited by Lewis Drummond. This is an introductory, systematic, non-denominational presentation of the teaching of the Scriptures. What evangelicals aspire to teach is essentially set forth.
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Volume 10: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians (Zondervan) edited by Frank Gaebelein et al. This is the first volume to appear in a projected twelve-volume series, and it sets a high standard for the rest.
In Two Minds (InterVarsity) by Os Guinness. The author of the highly regarded The Dust of Death now treats, in the words of the subtitle, “the dilemma of doubt and how to resolve it.”
Tensions in Contemporary Theology (Moody) edited by Stanley Gundry and Alan Johnson. The writers offer critiques of several alternatives to evangelical theology, such as the theologies of process, hope, secularity, and Roman Catholicism.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Word) by Mark Hatfield. The well-known U.S. senator gives his latest reflections on society and his role in it as a Christian politician.
Evangelicals in Search of Identity (Word) by Carl Henry. In what was originally a series in this magazine, the person whom Time recently labeled evangelicalism’s “leading theologian” reflects briefly on the tensions within the movement.
God, Revelation, and Authority: Volumes 1 and 2 (Word) by Carl Henry. In the first two parts of a projected four-volume work, Henry attacks the subjectivism of more prestigious theologies and defends the use of reason as well as faith.
The Man From Plains: The Mind and Spirit of Jimmy Carter (Harper & Row) by David Kucharsky. This magazine’s senior editor wrote on a then not widely known Christian politician not only to report on him but also to introduce evangelicalism to a suddenly interested general public.
The Act of Marriage (Zondervan) by Tim and Beverly LaHaye. With a title that might appropriately be pronounced “active marriage,” this manual of technique breaks away from an unbiblical skittishness while stopping far short of the perversion of non-Christian best-sellers.
Battle For the Bible (Zondervan) by Harold Lindsell. The editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY seeks to alert laypersons to unacceptable things some seminary professors and others are teaching about the Bible. The book has predictably sparked opposition and cries of “unfair!”
I Believe in Revelation (Eerdmans) by Leon Morris. An excellent presentation of the Christian doctrine of revelation, especially with reference to the Bible, by a leading Australian theologian.
The New Face of Evangelicalism (InterVarsity) edited by C. René Padilla. Fifteen essays, one on each clause of the Lausanne Covenant, by theologians from six continents.
God’s Ideal Woman (InterVarsity) by Dorothy Pape. This is a study of the biblical teaching about the role of women and its contemporary application, a subject that is likely to be of keen interest throughout Christendom for many years to come.
The New Charismatics (Doubleday) by Richard Quebedeaux. The fastest-growing movement within Christianity needs more studies of the quality of this one.
A Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament: Volume 1: Matthew-Acts (Zondervan) by Fritz Rienecker, translated and edited by Cleon Rogers, Jr. Seminarians and pastors will find this a very useful reference tool.
How Should We Then Live? (Revell) by Francis Schaeffer. This illustrated volume, which accompanies a major film series, exhibits, in the words of the subtitle, “the rise and decline of Western thought and culture.”
The Universe Next Door (InterVarsity) by James Sire. An introduction to various world views besides Christian theism, including deism, humanism, nihilism, existentialism, and Eastern monism.
The Jesus Hope (InterVarsity) by Stephen Travis. Eschatology is the subject of numerous books by evangelicals, a few of which are best-sellers. The author of this brief work does not give the last word, but he does take the biblical data seriously while being much less sensational than is customary.
Reason Within the Bounds of Religion (Eerdmans) by Nicholas Wolterstorff. A brief but fully packed basis for theologizing, particularly in the area of relating the Christian world view to various academic disciplines.
Special mention should also be made of the Good News Bible (American Bible Society), which adds a contemporary translation of the Old Testament to a very popular New Testament translation, and of the Ryrie Study Bible: New Testament (Moody), available in either the King James or the New American Standard version, to each page of which Dallas Seminary professor Charles Ryrie has added helpful annotations.
