If I were to choose the most influential books in my intellectual and spiritual pilgrimage, after the Bible, my list would look like this:
Blaise Pascal, Pensees. Here is the sheer thrill of a mind alive to the relevance of Jesus Christ.
John Calvin, Institutes. His impressive grasp of the large outline of the gospel’s meaning makes Calvin exciting.
Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans. As fresh and electric today as in the sixteenth century.
Karl Barth. Begin with Dogmatics in Outline. I deeply appreciate his boldness and serious intention to hear and obey the biblical text. He is the theologian’s theologian.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Begin with Cost of Discipleship. He called out to me to decide once and for all about what matters most in my life.
C. S. Lewis. Begin with The Chronicles of Narnia. I owe so much to C. S. Lewis, especially the wonderful mixture of the surprise and goodness of God.
G. K. Chesterton. Begin with The Everlasting Man and Orthodoxy. I love his humor and ability to stir up my imagination.
J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. How can anyone miss out on the adventures of Frodo and Sam Gamgee?
Helmut Thielicke. Begin with How the World Began. I learned about clearness in preaching from Thielicke.
Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. These Russian writers have stirred me emotionally and spiritually more than all other novelists.
T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Robert Frost. These poets have given me a deep respect for words.
Mark Twain and Robert Benchley for their rich humor and insight into personality.
Paul Tournier for his psychological wisdom and evenhandedness. Try to find his book Secrets.
The greatest novel I ever read is either Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov, both by Dostoyevsky. The most impressive recent novels are Herman Wouk’s Winds of War and War and Remembrance.
The most helpful book about the Christian faith has been Karl Barth’s Dogmatics in Outline.
The most persuasive case for the Christian life was C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters.
The most impressive biographies have been Karl Barth, by Eberhard Busch, and William Borden, by Mrs. Howard Taylor.
-Earl Palmer
Copyright © 1988 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
