Books are great. As people of the Book, we should also be people of books. In the past few years, I’ve been trying to read at least a book a week through the year. In 2023 I hit my goal, and Lord willing, in 2024 I’ll do the same. I wanted to give you my top 10 most influential books for me last year. Hopefully you’ll be able to add some of these to your reading list in 2024.
Escape from Reason – Francis Schaeffer
Francis Schaeffer is a prophet. Escape from Reason is a wonderful little book essentially describing the slow decline of the west as guided by various popular thinkers through the years. He charts various systems of thought that characterized time periods and shows how we got to where we are, having entirely abandoned reason as a culture.
Popes and Feminists – Elise Crapuchettes
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. The main value I got out of this book is a huge list of different atrocities the Catholic church committed through it’s life, and how their worldview has more similarities to modern angry blue-haired feminism than I ever thought. The Catholic-feminism comparison was eye opening, and the apologetic against Catholicism was powerful.
The Divine Right of Resistance – Phillip Kayser
Resistance Theory has a very long history and loads of material written on it, but modern evangelicalism has all but forgotten it. The Divine Right of Resistance is a powerful and succinct argument with all kinds of simple and clear Scriptural support for opposing tyranny, and a great place to start studying Resistance Theory. If churches read this book, the lockdowns never would have been allowed to happen.
Darwin’s Sandcastle – Gordon Wilson
I got this book after listening to Gordon Wilson’s talk at the 2023 Fight Laugh Feast conference. Darwin’s Sandcastle tears down all of the most popular arguments for evolution from a scientific perspective. A lot of the book is unsurprisingly dense, but Wilson does an awesome job at simplifying the material enough without sacrificing content that a non-biologist like myself can understand the arguments. He covers things like the fossil record, dating methods, evidence for and against the flood, and more. I wish I had this book and understood the arguments in it when I was younger dealing with these issues. Because naturalism is one of the strongest opponents of Christianity in our world today, it’s super important to have at least a cursory knowledge of arguments against it.
Peace Like A River – Leif Enger
This book is the only fiction book on this list, and it was a fantastic read. The book is slice-of-life-esque and down to earth, but it was surprisingly engaging and hard to put down. The characters are incredibly well-written, and the scenes are memorable. If you’re looking for a new fiction book from a Christian perspective, pick it up.
The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels – Alex Epstein
This book was another eye-opener. I’ve never heard the argument in this book before, but it convinced me. Basically, not only are using fossil fuels not actually harmful to the planet like the Left argues, but using even more fossil fuels is the solution to improving our lives and the lives of future generations, and more quickly developing efficient energy alternatives. One of the most fantastic facts in the book is that in the entire history of humanity, we’ve not even used a small fraction of the oil and other fossil fuels that Earth has to offer. The book is easy to read, and has evidence, sources, and scientific evidence supporting the author’s points. Great book.
The Boniface Option – Andrew Isker
The Boniface Option was written as an alternative to Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option. Dreher basically argues that in times of great societal strife, Christians ought to flee from the trouble and passively refortify their culture for when things cool down. Boniface was also a Benedictine monk, but was known for not fleeing from trouble, but strategically going to where the trouble was and tearing down their idols for the glory of God. Isker realizes that fleeing is sometimes the most strategic option, but in America, there’s nowhere we can go. So our only alternative is to actively build our culture and tear down idols right where we are.
The Boniface Option has also rightfully gained a reputation for using pretty spicy language. Isker depicts many awful aspects of our culture with language that doesn’t hide how disgusting it all really is. So for me, this was actually kind of refreshing. We really should find certain things off-putting and despicable. And if we have more trouble with language describing how gay and disgusting our culture is over the disgusting culture itself, we’re the ones with the problem. Not the language.
The Failure of Natural Theology – Jeffrey D. Johnson
There’s been a huge dust-up in recent years in the reformed Christian academic sphere over Thomas Aquinas. Jeffrey Johnson does a great job in this book describing the issues with Thomism (the teachings of Thomas Aquinas) and shockingly to me, the approach to natural theology itself. I always assumed that natural theology and natural revelation were close to synonymous. Natural revelation is Biblical and good, but Johnson makes a solid argument for being skeptical of a certain popular definition of natural theology that has bled into popular Christianity that was entirely influenced by the dangerous and Roman Catholic theology of Thomas Aquinas.
Calvinism: The Stone Lectures – Abraham Kuyper
All of Christ for All of Life is the theme of these lectures. Abraham Kuyper was the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901-1905 and a strong believer in Christ. Kuyper gave these lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898, arguing how Biblical Christianity should impact every aspect of our lives including religion, politics, science, art, and the future
Mere Christendom – Douglas Wilson
This book created quite a bit of stir this year due to the Christian Nationalism controversy. Even more than the book Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe, I think this book should be considered the quintessential book on the topic. If you’re on board with Christian Nationalism or not, if you have any opinion on it whatsoever, you should read this book. It offers a powerful and Biblical argument for actually believing that Christ should influence the world and not just our personal lives (you know, like the Bible actually teaches).
