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. Wilson
Millville, 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 ...

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