Books of the Century

Leaders and thinkers weigh in on classics that have shaped contemporary religious thought

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
1. C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
The best case for the essentials of orthodox Christianity in print.
David S. Dockery
2. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Cost of Discipleship
Leaves you wondering why you ever thought complacency or compromise in the Christian life was an
option.
Mark Buchanan
3. Karl Barth
Church Dogmatics
Opened a new era in theology in which the Bible, Christ, and saving grace were taken seriously once
more.
J. I. Packer
4. J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
A classic for children from 9 to 90. Bears constant re-reading.
J. I. Packer
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.
Rodney Clapp
6. G.K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy
A rhetorically inventive exposition of the coherence of Christian truth.
David Neff
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.
Phyllis Tickle
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.
Mark Buchanan
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.
Richard J. Mouw
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.
David P. Gushee
THE OTHER 90
in alphabetical order by author
Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart
Alcoholics Anonymous
(The Big Book of A.A.)
Roland Bainton
Here I Stand
Karl Barth
The Epistle to the Romans
Ernest Becker
The Denial of Death
Robert N. Bellah, ET AL.
Habits of the Heart
Georges Bernanos
The Diary of a Country Priest
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Letters and Papers from Prison
David Bosch
Transforming Mission
Walter Brueggemann
The Prophetic Imagination
Emil Brunner
Truth as Encounter
Albert Camus
The Plague
Edward John Carnell
The Case for Orthodox Christianity
Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Dorothy Day
The Long Loneliness
Annie Dillard
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Documents of Vatican II
W. E. B. Dubois
The Souls of Black Folk
T. S. Eliot
Four Quartets
Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man
Jacques Ellul
The Technological Society
Shusaku Endo
Silence
Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank
Victor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning
Sigmund Freud
Civilization and Its Discontents
The Fundamentals
Langdon Gilkey
Shantung Compound
Carol Gilligan
In a Different Voice
Graham Greene
The Power and the Glory
John Howard Griffin
Black Like Me
Gustavo Gutiérrez
A Theology of Liberation
Philip Paul Hallie
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed
Stanley Hauerwas
A Community of Character
Václav Havel
Living in Truth
Richard Hays
The Moral Vision of the New Testament
Carl F. H. Henry
God, Revelation, and Authority (six volumes)
John R. Hersey
Hiroshima
Abraham Heschel
The Prophets
Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
William James
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Franz Kafka
The Trial
Martin Luther King, Jr.
A Testament of Hope
Thomas S. Kuhn
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird
Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac
C. S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia
(especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and The Screwtape Letters
J. Gresham Machen
Christianity and Liberalism
Alasdair C. MacIntyre
After Virtue
Malcolm X and Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
George M. Marsden
Fundamentalism and American Culture
François Mauriac
Viper's Tangle
Jürgen Moltmann
The Crucified God
Richard John Neuhaus
The Naked Public Square
Lesslie Newbigin
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
Reinhold Niebuhr
The Nature and Destiny of Man (two volumes)
H. Richard Niebuhr
Christ and Culture
Kathleen Norris
The Cloister Walk
Henri J. M. Nouwen
The Wounded Healer
Anders Nygren
Agape and Eros
Elizabeth O'Connor
Journey Inward, Journey Outward
Flannery O'Connor
A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories
Rudolf Otto
The Idea of the Holy
J. I. Packer
Knowing God
Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country
Jaroslav Pelikan
Jesus Through the Centuries
Josef Pieper
The Four Cardinal Virtues
Michael Polanyi
Personal Knowledge
Chaim Potok
The Chosen
Walter Rauschenbusch
Christianity and the Social Crisis
Dorothy L. Sayers
The Mind of the Maker
Albert Schweitzer
The Quest of the Historical Jesus
Nevil Shute
On the Beach
Ronald J. Sider
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
John R. W. Stott
Basic Christianity
Paul Tournier
The Meaning of Persons
A. W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God
Barbara Tuchman
The Guns of August
Evelyn Underhill
Mysticism
Miroslav Volf
Exclusion and Embrace
Gerhard von Rad
Old Testament Theology
Andrew F. Walls
The Missionary Movement in Christian History
Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Simone Weil
Waiting for God
Elie Wiesel
Night
Charles Williams
Descent into Hell
Walter Wink
Engaging the Powers
Philip Yancey
The Jesus I Never Knew
Christianity Today Book Awards 2000
CT picks the top ten books of the past year

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed," said philosopher Francis Bacon
(d. 1626), "and some few to be chewed and digested." Here is Christianity Today's list of
1999 books most worth chewing on.
A couple of things were different in this year's selection process. First, we returned to a
system in which books competed in categories. (How do we weigh a commentary against
a work of fiction?)
We asked dozens of publishers to nominate books for one or more categories (as a result,
some significant books were simply not nominated—a flaw we'll fix next year). We then
polled about 160 pastors, scholars, and general readers, asking them to vote for the books
they believed were "the most significant books of the year," meaning books that "have
brought, or will eventually bring, insight to an issue or prompt a significant segment of
the Christian world to believe or act differently."
Second, we asked voters to mark the nominated books they had also read. When we
added the votes, the "read" votes weighed more heavily. (It is one thing to vote for a book
based on reviews, a writer's reputation, or a colleague's judgment; it is something
altogether different to support a book actually read.)
This system has its disadvantages. For one, it weighs fiction (which received the fewest
number of votes) equally with books on Christianity and culture (which garnered the
most votes). Thus the Awards of Merit, our wild-card winners: books (listed by category
in order of votes received) that amassed a significant number of votes but not enough to
win their respective divisions.
Every system has a bias. Ours bias tilts toward the concrete: these awards favor books
that made a difference and that people actually read. Yet to evangelicals like us—who
long to make an impact on the world—that is not a bad bias. So, taste, chew, and digest.
Apologetics/Evangelism
IS THE BIBLE TRUE? How Modern Debates and Discoveries Affirm the Essence of the Scriptures
Jeffrey L. Sheler
ZONDERVAN

Biblical Studies
A COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW
Craig S. Keener
EERDMANS

Christianity and Culture

INTELLIGENT DESIGN: The Bridge Between Science and Theology
William A. Dembski
INTERVARSITY

Christian Living
THE BIBLE JESUS READ
Philip Yancey
ZONDERVAN

The Church/Pastoral Leadership

LEADERSHIP THAT WORKS: Help and Hope for Church and Parachurch Leaders in Today's
Complex World
Leith Anderson
BETHANY

Fiction
A NEW SONG
Jan Karon
VIKING

History/Biography
SAINT AUGUSTINE
Garry Wills
VIKING

Missions/Global Affairs
THE DESECULARIZATION OF THE WORLD: Resurgent Religion and World Politics
Edited by Peter L. Berger
EERDMANS

Theology/Ethics
THE STORY OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform
Roger Olson
INTERVARSITY

Spirituality
THE UNKNOWN GOD: Searching for Spiritual Fulfillment
Alister McGrath
EERDMANS

Awards of Merit
Christianity and Culture
JUST GENEROSITY: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America
Ronald J. Sider
BAKER

HOW NOW SHALL WE LIVE?

Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey
TYNDALE

BLINDED BY MIGHT: Can the Religious Right Save America?

Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson
ZONDERVAN

History/Biography
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Redeemer President
Allen C. Guelzo
EERDMANS

Theology/Ethics
EVANGELICAL TRUTH: A Personal Plea for Unity, Integrity, and Faithfulness
John Stott
INTERVARSITY
CT 1999 BOOK
99 of the YEAR
B
O
O AN EXCERPT
K THE DIVINE
aw CONSPRIACY
ar
ds When Jesus directs
The Bible is not only a book of us to pray,
incomparable stories and
poems; it is also a book of "Thy kingdom come,"
divinely inspired lists. I he does not mean
suspect that my lifelong love
of lists was sparked when I we should pray
was a small boy, listening only
half-comprehending to the for it to come
Bible being read aloud. (I'm
into existence.
sure I was not the only child
spellbound by the recitation of Rather, we pray
clean and unclean animals in
Leviticus: "And the stork, the for it to take
heron after her kind, and the
lapwing, and the bat. All fowls over at all
that creep, going upon all four, points in the
shall be an abomination unto
you.") personal, social,
If you are also a lover of lists, and political order
and a lover of books, this issue
of CT is for you. Here is our where it is now
list of the best books published
in 1998. More than 200 titles excluded:
were nominated. Ballots were "On earth as
sent to a large panel of pastors,
scholars, writers, and other it is in heaven."
church leaders, who chose the
titles for our "Top 25" list. With this prayer
(Because of ties, the list
we are invoking
includes a total of 26 titles.)
it, as in faith
CT'sBook of the Year is The
Divine Conspiracy: we are acting
Rediscovering Our Hidden
Life in God, by Dallas Willard, it, into the
published by
HarperSanFrancisco (the real world of
copublisher of last year's Book
of the Year, Billy Graham's our everyday
Just As I Am). Eerdmans led existence….
all publishers with a total of
six titles. The reality of
As always, the books play off God's rule,
each other, as if in
conversation. Poet Kathleen and all of the
Norris's Amazing Grace shares
a spot on the list with Roger instrumentalities
Lundin's Emily Dickinson and it involves, is
the Art of Belief; many of the
words in Norris's "vocabulary present in action
of faith" were central to
Dickinson as well. I'd read and available
both of these books, but I
with and through
never thought about them at
the same time; now I will. the person of
In After Heaven, Robert Jesus. That is
Wuthnow reports on America's
spiritual "seekers." In The Jesus' gospel.
Divine Conspiracy, Dallas
Willard observes that it is quite
possible to be a Christian
today without being a disciple
of Jesus. Maybe we should
read Wuthnow and Willard
together, in the same Sunday-
school class or small group or
seminar.
And certainly, if we pay
attention to Richard Foster's
Streams of Living Water:
Celebrating the Great
Traditions of Christian Faith,
we will celebrate the
appearance of the first two
volumes of a projected 27 in
InterVarsity Press's Ancient
Christian Commentary on
Scripture. (Why not get
together with a few friends in
your church and commit to
buying the series for your
pastor as the volumes appear?)
Of the five scholars featured in
Tim Stafford's February 1999
CT cover story, "The New
Theologians," three are
represented among the award
winners: Ellen Charry (By the
Renewing of Your Minds: The
Pastoral Function of Christian
Doctrine), Miroslav Volf
(After Our Likeness: The
Church As the Image of the
Trinity), and Kevin Vanhoozer
(Is There a Meaning in This
Text? The Bible, the Reader,
and the Morality of Literary
Knowledge). All attest to the
truth that there need be no
conflict between rigorous
scholarship and Christian faith
grounded in Scripture and
directed by the Spirit.
By John Wilson, Book
Review Editor.

W INNERS
THE DIVINE CONSPIRACY: REDISCOVERING OUR HIDDEN
1 LIFE IN GOD, by Dallas Willard; HarperSanFrancisco.

AFTER HEAVEN: SPIRITUALITY IN AMERICA SINCE THE

2 1950s, by Robert Wuthnow; University of California
Press.
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT: THE DISENGAGEMENT OF
3 COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES FROM THEIR CHRISTIAN
CHURCHES, by James Tunstead Burtchaell; Eerdmans
 Publishing Co.
BELIEF IN GOD IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE, by John
4
Polkinghorne; Yale University Press
BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MINDS: THE PASTORAL
4 FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, by Ellen Charry;
Oxford University Press.
AFTER OUR LIKENESS: THE CHURCH AS THE IMAGE OF
5 THE TRINITY, by Miroslav Volf; Eerdmans Publishing Co.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE:

6 NEW TESTAMENT II, MARK, edited by Thomas C. Oden &
Christopher A. Hall; InterVarsity Press.
AMAZING GRACE: A VOCABULARY OF FAITH, by
7
Kathleen Norris; Riverhead Books/Penguin Putnam.

EMILY DICKINSON AND THE ART OF BELIEF, by Roger

7
Lundin; Eerdmans Publishing Co.
THE PAUL QUEST: THE RENEWED SEARCH FOR THE JEW
8 OF TARSUS, by Ben Witherington III; InterVarsity Press.

LOSING OUR VIRTUE: WHY THE CHURCH MUST

8 RECOVER, by David F. Wells; Eerdmans Publishing Co.
DICTIONARY OF BIBLICAL IMAGERY: AN ENCYCLOPEDIC
9 EXPLORATION OF THE IMAGES, SYMBOLS, MOTIFS,
METAPHORS, FIGURES OF SPEECH AND LITERARY
PATTERNS OF THE BIBLE, edited by Leland Ryken, James
C. Wilhoit, Tremper Longman III; InterVarsity Press.
THE INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE DEBATE: A PLEA FOR
9 REALISM, by D. A. Carson; Baker Book House.

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE:

9 NEW TESTAMENT VI, ROMANS, edited by Gerald Bray;
InterVarsity Press.
THE CALL: FINDING AND FULFILLING THE CENTRAL
10 PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE, by Os Guinness; Word
Publishing.
THE THEOLOGY OF PAUL THE APOSTLE, by James D. G.
10
Dunn; Eerdmans Publishing Co.
AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM: EMBATTLED AND
11 THRIVING, by Christian Smith, University of Chicago
Press.
 CAN GOD BE TRUSTED? FAITH AND THE CHALLENGE OF
11 EVIL, by John G. Stackhouse; Oxford University Press.

INVITATION TO THE CLASSICS: A GUIDE TO BOOKS

11 YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO READ, edited by Louise
Cowan and Os Guinness; Baker Book House.
J. I. PACKER: A BIOGRAPHY, by Alister McGrath; Baker
11
Book House.

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY: VOLUME 3, by Wolfhart

11
Pannenberg; Eerdmans Publishing Co.
WELCOMING BUT NOT AFFIRMING: AN EVANGELICAL
11 RESPONSE TO HOMOSEXUALITY, by Stanley J. Grenz;
Westminster John Knox Press.
ENCOUNTERING THE NEW TESTAMENT: A HISTORICAL
12 AND THEOLOGICAL SURVEY, by Walter A. Elwell &
Robert W. Yarbrough; Baker Book House.
IS THERE A MEANING IN THIS TEXT? THE BIBLE, THE
12 READER, AND THE MORALITY OF LITERARY
KNOWLEDGE, by Kevin J. Vanhoozer; Zondervan
Publishing House.
STREAMS OF LIVING WATER: CELEBRATING THE GREAT
13 TRADITIONS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH, by Richard J. Foster;
HarperSanFrancisco.
TRUE WORSHIP: RECLAIMING THE WONDER AND
13 MAJESTY, by Donald P. Hustad; Harold Shaw Publishers.

Home > Christianity Today Magazine

Christianity Today, April 27, 1998

CT 98 Book Awards 1998 BOOK of

Once again we attempt the momentous the YEAR
task of discerning the year's best books.
Here is how we did it. More than 200 An excerpt
books published in 1997 were nominated In the Bible,
by publishers. Ballots were then sent to an evangelist
about 150 pastors, scholars, writers, and is a person
other church leaders, whose votes
determined our "Top 25" list.
sent by God to
announce the
Billy Graham's long-awaited Gospel, the
autobiography, Just As I Am, is a fitting
Good News;
choice for ct's Book of the Year. Graham
emphasized the impact of books—and he or she has
book reviews—in his vision statement for a spiritual gift
a new magazine that he presented to that has never
evangelical leaders in 1955. A year later, been
CHRISTIANITY TODAY was launched. withdrawn
Indeed, anyone who wants to understand
from the
the history and current challenges of Church.
evangelicalism, its strengths and its Methods
weaknesses, would do well to work differ, but the
through the books listed here, beginning central truth
with Graham's account of more than 50 remains: an
years of ministry. evangelist is a
Strengths? First, a continuing emphasis on person who
evangelism and an unwavering has been
commitment to the centrality of Jesus called and
Christ. Second, a rich harvest of mature especially
Christian scholarship in history (George equipped by
Marsden, Joel Carpenter, and Mark Noll God to declare
constitute quite a triumvirate) and New
the Good
Testament studies. Third, a productive
reckoning with evangelicalism's News to those
fundamentalist strain, evident both in who have not
Carpenter's Revive Us Again and in Philip yet accepted
Yancey's What's So Amazing About it, with the
Grace?, a book that was prominently goal of
displayed—and bought—not only in challenging
Christian venues but in the secular them to turn
superstores, reaching a new audience.
to Christ in
Fourth, an ecumenism rooted in
orthodoxy, variously attested by Donald repentance
Bloesch's work, the Ancient Christian and faith and
Commentary Series, edited by Tom Oden to follow Him
(the first volume, on Mark, is just about to in obedience
appear), the ongoing ECT conversation, to His will.
and, on a smaller scale, by the presence on The evangelist
this list of William F. Buckley's is not called to
"autobiography of faith," steeped in
do everything
Catholic piety.
in the church
Weaknesses? There is not much notice or in the
here of the work being done by Ron Sider world that
and others who preach the holistic gospel,
including the parts about the poor and the God wants
widows and the prisoners. And where is
done. On the
the Old Testament? With the notable
exception of Leap Over a Wall, Eugene contrary, the
Peterson's meditation on the life of David, calling of the
this list reflects the evangelical tendency to evangelist is
ignore a huge chunk of the Scriptures. very specific.
Some of the most important work being
done in theology today is beginning to
redress this imbalance. (In the process,
many scholars are taking up the question
of "Jewish-Christian relations" in a new
way.) As the book review editor, I don't
get to vote, but I hope that among the
books recognized in the 1999 CT Book
Awards will be Christopher Seitz's Word
Without End: The Old Testament As
Abiding Theological Witness (Eerdmans).
What do they say about the Cubs? Wait 'til
next year.
By John Wilson, Book Review Editor.

WINNERS
1. JUST AS I AM, by Billy Graham; HarperSanFrancisco/Zondervan
2. THE OUTRAGEOUS IDEA OF CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP, by George M.
Marsden;
Oxford University Press

3. REVIVE US AGAIN: THE REAWAKENING OF AMERICAN

FUNDAMENTALISM,
by Joel A. Carpenter; Oxford University Press

4. WHAT'S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE? by Philip Yancey; Zondervan

5. DEFEATING DARWINISM BY OPENING MINDS, by Phillip E. Johnson;
InterVarsity
 6. DICTIONARY OF THE LATER NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS
DEVELOPMENTS,
edited by Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids; InterVarsity

6. JESUS CHRIST, by Donald G. Bloesch; InterVarsity

7. NEARER, MY GOD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FAITH, by William F.
Buckley, Jr.;
Doubleday

8. TURNING POINTS: DECISIVE MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF

CHRISTIANITY,
by Mark A. Noll; Baker

9. THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 3RD ED.,

edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone; Oxford University Press

9. THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT, by Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert; Word
10. A HISTORY OF HEAVEN, by Jeffrey Burton Russell; Princeton University
Press

10. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT, by Raymond E. Brown;

Doubleday

11. THE COMPLETE BOOK OF EVERYDAY CHRISTIANITY, edited by

Robert Banks
and R. Paul Stevens; InterVarsity

11. THE GOSPEL OF LUKE, by Joel B. Green; Eerdmans

11. THE MORAL QUEST: FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS, by
Stanley J. Grenz;
InterVarsity

12. MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE, by Gregory Wolfe; Eerdmans

12. THE UNIVERSE NEXT DOOR: A BASIC WORLDVIEW CATALOG, by
James W. Sire;
InterVarsity

12. WRITTEN ON THE HEART: THE CASE FOR NATURAL LAW, by J.

Budziszewski;
InterVarsity

13. THE FABRIC OF FAITHFULNESS, by Steven Garber; InterVarsity

13. LEAP OVER A WALL: EARTHY SPIRITUALITY FOR EVERYDAY
 CHRISTIANS,
by Eugene H. Peterson; HarperSanFrancisco

14. HOW WIDE THE DIVIDE? A MORMON AND AN EVANGELICAL IN

CONVERSATION, by Craig L. Blomberg and Stephen E. Robinson; InterVarsity

14. SUBVERSIVE SPIRITUALITY, by Eugene H. Peterson; Eerdmans

15. THE HOLINESS-PENTECOSTAL TRADITION, by Vinson Synan; Eerdmans
15. THE ONE AND THE MANY: AMERICA'S STRUGGLE FOR THE
COMMON GOOD,
by Martin E. Marty; Harvard University Press

CT 97 Book Awards
Christianity Today is proud to announce the results of the 1997 CT Book Awards. More
than 200 books published in 1996 were nominated. Ballots were sent to a large panel of
scholars, pastors, writers, and other church leaders, who chose the titles for our "Top 25"
list. (Because of ties, the list includes a total of 26 titles.) These outstanding books, it is
important to add, are but a few among a much larger number that merit recognition. The
diversity of publishers represented here—18 in all—is also worthy of note. InterVarsity
Press, for the third year in a row, led all publishers, with six titles.
Twenty-five years ago, in the issue for February 2, 1962, CT honored the "Choice
Evangelical Books" of 1961. Among the 25 books so honored (chosen, at that time, by
CT's editorial staff, and listed alphabetically by author rather than in ranked order) are
several that many of our readers will still have on their shelves, including Elisabeth
Elliot's classic The Savage, My Kinsman (which has just been reissued, with a new
epilogue, by Servant Books, 152 pp.; $10.99, paper) and the first edition of F. F. Bruce's
superb survey, The English Bible. Also on that lightly annotated list is The Genesis
Flood, by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb, Jr., described as a "new system for
unifying and correlating scientific data bearing on the earth's early history."
Evolution is still a live issue for evangelicals, as attested by the selection of Michael
Behe's Darwin's Black Box as CT's Book of the Year and the strong showing of Del
Ratzsch's The Battle of Beginnings. (Nancey Murphy's Beyond Liberalism and
Fundamentalism also touches on this debate.) But in the quarter-century since The
Genesis Flood was hailed by evangelical gatekeepers, the action has shifted. Indeed,
Behe (who is profiled in this issue, p. 14), Phillip Johnson, and other proponents of
"intelligent design" distance themselves from young-earth creationists like Morris.
Many of the award-winning books have been reviewed—or will be—in CT and its sister
publication BOOKS & CULTURE. In this issue, in addition to the profile of Behe, you'll
find reviews of Miroslav Volf's Exclusion and Embrace (p. 29) and William Martin's
With God on Our Side (p. 22), also featuring an interview with Martin. Look for reviews
of Richard Hays's The Moral Vision of the New Testament and Rodney Clapp's A
Peculiar People coming soon in CT and, down the road, Tom Wright's Jesus and the
Victory of God and Gerald Bray's Biblical Interpretation.
In the May/June issue of BOOKS & CULTURE, you will find reviews of Jaroslav Pelikan's
Mary Through the Centuries and Jean Bethke Elshtain's Augustine and the Limits of
Politics. Future issues of B&C will feature reviews of the books by Volf and Clapp, as
well as Clark Pinnock's Flame of Love and Jürgen Moltmann's The Coming of God. (If
you missed Mark Noll's magisterial review of Andrew Walls's The Missionary Movement
in Modern History in the Nov./Dec. 1996 issue of B&C [print only], let me know and I
will send you a copy.) So please stay tuned to these channels.
Thanks to the honored authors, editors, and publishers and all who participated for their
good work. We are already looking forward to the 1998 Book Awards.
By John Wilson, Book Review Editor.

1997 Book of the year

Darwin's Black Box, The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, by Michael J. Behe
An excerpt
This book is about an idea—Darwinian evolution—that is being pushed to its limits by
discoveries in biochemistry…. The astonishing progress made by biochemistry since the
mid-1950s is a monumental tribute to science's power to understand the world…. We
may have to pay a price, though, for our knowledge. When foundations are unearthed, the
structures that rest on them are shaken; sometimes they collapse. When sciences such as
physics finally uncovered their foundations, old ways of understanding the world had to
be tossed out, extensively revised, or restricted to a limited part of nature. Will this
happen to the theory of evolution by natural selection?
WINNERS
1. Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, by Michael Behe,
Free Press
2. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New
Testament Ethics, by Richard Hays, HarperSanFrancisco
3. Jesus and the Victory of God, by N. Thomas Wright, Fortress Press
3. A Passion for Truth: The Intellectual Coherence of Evangelicalism, by Alister
McGrath, InterVarsity Press
4. Augustine and the Limits of Politics, by Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Notre
Dame Press
5. The Book of God: The Bible as a Novel, by Walter Wangerin, Jr., Zondervan
6. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and
Reconciliation, by Miroslav Volf, Abingdon
6. Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit, by Clark H. Pinnock, InterVarsity
Press
6. Integrity, by Stephen Carter, Basic
6. The Missionary Movement in Modern History: Studies in the Transmission of
Faith, by Andrew F. Walls, Orbis
6. A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society, by Rodney
Clapp, InterVarsity Press
6. Who Speaks for God? The New Spiritual Politics Beyond the Religious Right, by
Jim Wallis, Delacorte
7. The Battle of Beginnings: Why Neither Side Is Winning the Creation-Evolution
Debate, by Del Ratzsch, InterVarsity Press
7. Biblical Interpretation: Past & Present, by Gerald Bray, InterVarsity Press
7. The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris, Riverhead
7. People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture, by David Lyle
Jeffrey, Eerdmans
8. Beyond Liberalism & Fundamentalism: How Modern and Postmodern
Philosophy Set the Theological Agenda, by Nancey Murphy, Trinity Press
International
8. Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture, by Jaroslav
Pelikan, Yale University Press
9. The Epistle to the Romans: The New International Commentary on the New
Testament, by Douglas Moo, Eerdmans
9. The Nature of Confession: Evangelicals & Postliberals in Conversation, edited by
Timothy R. Phillips & Dennis L. Okholm, InterVarsity Press
10. The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, by Jürgen Moltmann, Fortress Press
10. Genesis: A Living Conversation, by Bill Moyers, Doubleday
10. Luke, Vol. 2: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, by Darrell L.
Bock, Baker
10. Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, by Gordon D. Fee, Hendrickson
10. Why Believe? Reason and Mystery as Pointers to God, by C. Stephen Evans,
Eerdmans
10. With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, by William
Martin, Broadway
Jena Glasscock’s Top Books List

Anderson Neil Victory Over the Darkness

The Bondage Breaker
Living Free in Christ
Billheimer Paul Destined for the Throne
Broadbent E.H. The Pilgrim Church
Bridges Jerry Transforming Grace
Bubeck Mark The Adversary
Colson Chuck Kingdoms in Conflict
Loving God
The Body
Dunn Ronald When Heaven is Silent
Don’t Just Stand There Pray Something
Fenelon Francois Spiritual Letters to Women
George Bob Classic Christianity
Growing in Grace
Gillham Bill Lifetime Guarantee
Gillquist Love is Now
Gire The Reflective Life
Gordon S.D. Quiet Thoughts on Prayer
Hocking David Pleasing God
Howard Trauma of Transparency
Hybels Bill Honest to God?
Kuhn Isobel By Searching
In the Arena
Green Leaf in Drought
Stones of Fire
Ascent to the Tribes
Nest Above the Abyss
Lawrence Brother Practice of the Presence of God
McGee Robert Search for Significance
McVey Steven Grace Walk
Grace Rules
Myers Ruth The Satisfied Heart
Narramore Bruce Freedom from Guilt
Needham David Birthright
Newman Deborah Then God created Woman
Nouwen Henri In the Name of Jesus
The Way of the Heart
Senter Ruth Longing for Love
Smith Hannah W. The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life
The God of all Comfort
God is Enough!
Sproul RC One Holy Passion
Thatcher Margaret The Freedom of Obedience
Thomas Gary Seeking the Face of God
Underhill Evelyn Concerning the Inner life w/The House of the Soul
VanVonderen Jeff Families Where Grace is in Place
Wells Sidetracked in the Wilderness
Willard Dallas The Spirit of the Disciplines