What about Billy Graham?

What did you think about our list of the top 50 books that have shaped evangelicals? Let us know.

I have been reading for more than six decades and discovered only a dozen books from this list that I have read. [I would have included in the list] Dr. Paul Brand’s books, especially Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. I have given this book to college graduates, read it several times, and also read Philip Yancey’s book about this fine man and his life.

Also not included was Joni Eareckson Tada—her first book especially, about her accident—and Billy Graham. Not even one of Graham’s books made the list?

I’m glad to see some of my favorites, though—Christy, The Hiding Place, God’s Smuggler, and This Present Darkness.

V. L. WilsonMillville, NJ

One interesting thing about this list is that the number 3 book, C. S. Lewis’s excellent Mere Christianity, was not written by an evangelical. If Lewis were alive today, it’s safe to conclude that he would find little in common with the typical evangelical in the pew. Lewis endorsed (or at least positively explored) theological concepts such as universalism, purgatory, and a second chance to believe in Christ after death, concepts which might result in expulsion from some of the evangelical churches that now claim him as their own.

This reveals an irony of the evangelical movement. Most evangelicals are fed a constant diet of works by popularizers such as Tim LaHaye, Hal Lindsey, James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, Bruce Wilkerson, Frank Peretti, Rick Warren, etc. It saddens me to find the excellent works of people such as F. F. Bruce and Mark Noll toward the end of the list, indicating their relative lack of influence, while finding the works of popularizers like McDowell near the head of the list.

If nothing else, this list should be a wake-up call for a movement that has increasingly become more concerned about gay marriage, evolution, and The Da Vinci Code than figuring out how to better love their neighbors, care for widows and orphans, and announce the reconciling work of Christ. Is it any wonder that evangelicalism’s most pressing concern often seems to be creating a comfortable subculture replete with a smorgasbord of entertainment alternatives, all designed to accommodate the movement’s wholesale embrace of consumer culture?

Robert Eugene DiPaolo

I can’t argue with your top 50 list, but I would be interested to know where Wild At Heart fits in. Would it be in the top 100? In time, I think we will look back and see that Eldredge started something in the evangelical world that had significant impact. I have read many of the books on the list, but none of them had as much impact on my personal life as Wild At Heart.

Dean J. CallisonVice President of Development, Avant Ministries Kansas City, Missouri

In such a limited list there are sure to be countless titles that readers believe should have been included. But there seems to be one particularly glaring omission, given the historical significance and influence of the title. Harold Lindsell’s The Battle for the Bible (1976) was hugely influential in shaping and codifying for a new generation of evangelicals a serious commitment to biblical inerrancy. It altered the way evangelicals evaluated theological institutions, particularly Fuller Theological Seminary, the darling of the neo-evangelical movement. Furthermore, it is hard to conceive of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention or of the drafting of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) apart from Lindsell’s book. Surely this title merits a position in the top ten.

Matt HallLouisville, Kentucky

One huge oversight: The most influential book in Christianity during the past 50 years has to be the NIV Bible. Despite the well-entrenched NASB, RSV, and KJV translations, as well as paraphrases such as the Living Bible, it rapidly become the favored version of evangelicals.

Randy Fowler

What about The Universe Next Door by James Sire? It deserves to be on the list more than Christy does.

Scott Stocking

Putting Rosalind Rinker’s book in the number 1 position is as bizarre as the reason given for it. Carl Henry’s Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism probably belongs there. And where is Lindsell’s Battle for the Bible? It should be in the top ten.

S. M. Hutchens

As a young convert from Catholicism in the early ’70s, I read a good portion of many of these books, and they aided me in my growth as a new believer. Fast-forward thirty years. I have now returned to Catholicism after 30 years as an evangelical, and I have been struck by the beauty and truth behind this church that I dismissed for so long. Sadly, Christianity Today’s list reveals a focus on an American concept of Christianity—on feeling good, enjoying God, and improving your sex life—and only a few titles speak to self denial and taking up your Cross. I don’t mean to snipe at evangelicalism, but I can’t get over what I was missing by ignoring the writings of the Catholic church. I hope the list in 50 years will include some writings by Catholics that have influenced evangelicals, perhaps John Paul II’s writings. I hope and pray that American evangelicalism will someday be able to better appreciate the truths in Catholicism and the historic church.

Russ Rentler

I think there is an omission in your list: John Stott’s The Cross of Christ, which is probably the best Christian book in print since it was written.

Roger Malstead

Your list of influential books is compelling. For me, however, one book was conspicuous by its absence: The Ragamuffin Gospel. It broadened my understanding of grace in practical ways. It brought God back into the mix in everyday life. And it possessed a good social conscience as well. Like a puzzle or a poem that so challenges my preconceived thinking that I settle back, slightly awestruck, in wonderment—that’s what Ragamuffin did for me.

Dianne Davidson

In terms of discipleship, which should be a longer-lasting process for evangelicals than conversion or conviction, two classics have been overlooked: Roy Hession, The Calvary Road, and John White, The Fight. Both books take the disciple down a discomforting route towards self-denial. Since crucicentrism [a focus on the Cross] is one of David Bebbington’s four marks of evangelicalism and the only way to holiness, it should be much better represented in this list. Or are evangelicals avoiding the Cross more now?

Ben KnightonOxford Centre for Mission Studies Oxford, United Kingdom