Kingdom Living and Spiritual Formation

  1. Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ. Apart from the Bible itself, this is undoubtedly the more republished work in Christian history. Absolutely indispensable.
  2. William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life. Try to get a complete edition of it.
  3. The Autobiography of Charles Finney and his Systematic Theology.
  4. J. Gilchrist Lauson, Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians. Anderson, IN: Warner, 1970. "This book opened the reality of Christians through the ages to me, and caused me to see that a life of holiness and power in the kingdom of Christ was possible." - DW
  5. Frank C. Laubach, Man of Prayer, from "The Heritage Collection" (Within that especially Letters by a "Modern Mystic" and "Game With Minutes") ISBN 0-88336-580
  6. William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity
  7. Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender
  8. Baxter, Richard. The Practical Works of Richard Baxter. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981. Practical advice on applying Scripture to all areas of life.
  9. Finney, Charles, Revival Lectures. Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, n.d.

Spiritual Disciplines/Discipleship

  1. Bonar, Horatius. God's Way of Holiness. Chicago: Moody, n.d.
  2. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from Prison. London: Fontana, 1953.
  3. Bouyer, Louis. A History of Christian Spirituality. 3 vols. New York: Seabury, 1982.
  4. Brightman, Edgar S. The Spiritual Life. New York: Abingdon Cokesbury, 1942.
  5. Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Training of the Twelve. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1928.
  6. Chambers, Oswald. The Psychology of Redemption. London: Simpkin Marshall, 1947.
  7. Christenson, Evelyn. Lord, Change Me! Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1979.
  8. Foster, Richard. Celebration of Discipline. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.
  9. Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast. New York: Macmillan, 1962.
  10. Lives of the Saints. Translated with an Introduction by J. F. Webb. Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1973.
  11. Lowen, Alexander. The Betrayal of the Body. New York: Collier, 1971.
  12. Magnus, Albertus. Of Cleaving Unto God. Translated by Elizabeth Stopp. London: Mowbray, 1954
  13. Marshall, Walter. The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. 1692. Reprint. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1954.
  14. Ortberg, John. The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People. Zondervan, 2002.
  15. Robinson, John A. T. The Body: A Study in Pauline Theology. London: SCM, 1952.
  16. Schaeffer, Francis A. True Spirituality. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1971.
  17. Suso, Henry. The Life of the Servant. Translated by James M. Clarke. Cambridge: Clarke, 1982. Taylor, Jeremy. Holy Living and Dying. London: Bohn, 1858.
  18. Taylor, J. (1992). Holy Living and Holy Dying, "Classics of Western Spirituality" series. New York: Paulist. Many other editions. Practical directions on the use of the body for spiritual growth by a great Christian of the sixteenth century.
  19. Trueblood, Elton. Alternative to Futility. Waco, TX: Word, 1972.
  20. Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism. New York: New American Library, 1974.

Introduction to Philosophy

Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, J.P. Moreland & William Lane Craig
Intervarsity Press, 2003.

This is an excellent discussion by the finest of scholars and philosophers, who are also Christians. Good as an introduction to Philosophy and Theology for those with limited background and a desire to dig deeper. (Winner of a 2004 Gold Medallion award in the Reference category from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.)

"Simple" Logic
We have frequent requests for a logic book "for dummies". Dr. Willard recommends getting an older edition of Irving M. Copi's Introduction to Logic.

Moral Development
John C. Gibbs, Moral Development and Reality: Beyond the Theories of Kohlberg and Hoffman, and C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man.

 

 

For more recommended reading, see Indelible Ink.

Dr. Willard joins 21 other Christian authors in writing about books that have deeply influenced their lives. A chapter from each of these authors is followed by an Appendix with other resources recommended by over 100 additional Christian leaders. This book is now out of print.

  

A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life
by William Law.
Reviewed by Richard J. Foster in the Renovare Perspective newsletter, October 1995 - Vol. 5, No. 4. Copyright Renovare, Englewood, CO, 80112-5624 USA. Used by permission.

In 1728 William Law penned one of the truly great devotional books of all time . . . and one that is especially needed in our time. Such diverse leaders as John Wesley, Samuel Johnson, and John Henry Newman have expressed their indebtedness to Law and his book. Three things make this book stand out.

First, more profoundly than most, Law understood the place of "intention" in the spiritual life. He forces us to search our hearts to see if we have "the intention to please God in all (our) actions" (p. 56). Are we intending— that is, are we making specific, measurable, personal plans—to stop sinning? If not, then we are intending to sin. So runs the logic of Law, and it is a logic with a sting in it. He rightly understands that intention intently pursued will produce "holy habits" and, in time, transformed persons. He writes, "Christianity supposes, intends, desires, and aims at nothing else but the raising (of) fallen man to a divine life, to such habits of holiness, such degrees of devotion as may fit him to enter amongst the holy inhabitants of the Kingdom of Heaven" (p. 208).

Second, Law presses us again and again to bring this eternal kind of life into our daily experience. "Thus it is in all the virtues and holy tempers of Christianity; they are not ours unless they be the virtues and tempers of our ordinary life" (p. 52). "Devotion," says Law, "is a life given or devoted to God" (p. 47).

Third, for an eighteenth-century writing, Law is amazingly contemporary in his use of story and illustration. In this book we meet a vast array of people: Flavia and Miranda, Eugenius and Cognatus, Mundanus and Classicus, and many more. Law is a good story teller for each time as we are engaged with the character, we find ourselves. This edition by Paulist Press is the best one on the market today. Its more than five hundred pages contain a superb introduction and a second work by Law entitled The Spirit of Love which is an excellent essay on the spiritual life in its own right. A Serious Call is not a quick read. I have been slowly working through it since last May and will probably continue with it until Christmas. The good news is that if you will stay with this book, it will do more for your spiritual development than twenty contemporary "devotional" books.

Devotional Classics

  1. Francis de Sales. Introduction to the Devout Life. Translated by John K. Ryan. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Image Books, 1957.
  2. Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God, many editions.
  3. Meisel, Anthony C. The Rule of St. Benedict. and M. L. del Mastro, eds. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975.
  4. Penn, William. No Cross, No Crown. London: Philips and Fardon, 1806.
  5. Thomas a Kempis. The Imitation of Christ. Many editions.

The Four Gospels
Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah is an excellent help in understanding the four Gospels.

Contemplative Prayer

  1. Foster, Richard. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. New York, NY: HarperCollins,1992.
  2. Nouwen, Henri. The Way of the Heart. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981.
  3. Johnson, Jan. When The Soul Listens. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1999.
  4. Ignatius. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Image Books, 1964.

Sanctification
Dr. Willard has called John Wesley's book, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, the best explanation of sanctification he has ever read.

Spiritual Healing
E. Stanley Jones' Is The Kingdom of God Realism. Then Agnes Sanford's The Healing Light. The former you will have to get from a library or order over the web, it's long out of print. The latter is an inexpensive paperback, still printing.

Biographies/Autobiographies - Examples to Follow

  1. Athanasius. The Life of St. Antony. New York: Newman, 1978.
  2. The Confessions of St. Augustine. Many editions.
  3. Fox, George. Journal of George Fox. Edited by Norman Penney. London: Dent, 1948. Also in various other editions.
  4. Madame Jeanne Guyon: Her Autobiography, by Jan Johnson. 2008.
  5. Laubach, Frank C. Letters by a Modern Mystic. Foreword by Alden H. Clark. Edited and compiled by Constance E. Padwick. Syracuse, N.Y.: New Readers Press, 1955. First published in 1937. See Dr. Willard's review from Christian Spirituality.
  6. Teresa of Avila. Interior Castle. Translated and edited by E. Allison Peers. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961.