I don’t think I overlook them. I just don’t think Calvin is as difficult as CS Lewis. All I’m saying is, why pick on Calvin?

Come to think of it, most of the books suggested so far would be about the same level as Calvin (in the Battles translation, mind!) plus or minus a bit.

And we are talking about reading books, so even there we have excluded more than 90% of Christians throughout church history. The very question pushes in the direction of elitism.

Well, this was just meant to be a bit of fun, and a bit of stimulation too.

One problem with Calvin is that it is so looong. The first edition was, I believe, only 1/6th the length of the final edition. Correct me if I’m wrong Gordo.

And having been written in latin, I find some of the sentences are needlessly convoluted and long. But I guess that is subjective.

Anyway, let’s quote section 1.1.1 and people can decide for themselves -

1. Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stript of the divine attire our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God. Thus, our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want, weakness, in short, depravity and corruption, reminds us, that in the Lord, and none but He, dwell the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant goodness. We are accordingly urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God; and, indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves. For what man is not disposed to rest in himself? Who, in fact, does not thus rest, so long as he is unknown to himself; that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments, and unconscious or unmindful of his misery? Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him.

Great stuff! Although as I say, you need the Battles translation.

And a few paragraph breaks wouldn’t have hurt, either.

But let’s take a bit of CS Lewis from the link on the previous page:

Here, from Bultmann’s Theology of the New Testament is another: ‘Observe in what unassimilated fashion the prediction of the parousia (Mark 8:38) follows upon the prediction of the passion (8:31). What can he mean? Unassimilated? Bultmann believes that predictions of the parousia are older than those of the passion. He therefore wants to believe - and no doubt does believe - that when they occur in the same passage some discrepancy or ‘unassimilation’ must be perceptible between them. But surely he foists this on the text with shocking lack of perception. Peter has confessed Jesus to be the Anointed One. That flash of glory is hardly over before the dark prophecy begins - that the Son of Man must suffer and die. Then this contrast is repeated. Peter, raised for a moment by his confession, makes his false step: the crushing rebuff ‘Get thee behind me’ follows. Then, across that momentary ruin which Peter (as so often) becomes, the voice of the Master, turning to the crowd, generalizes the moral. All his followers must take up the cross. This avoidance of suffering, this self-preservation, is not what life is really about. Then, more definitely still, the summons to martyrdom. You must stand to your tackling. If you disown Christ here and now, he will disown you later. Logically, emotionally, imaginatively, the sequence is perfect. Only a Bultmann could think otherwise.

That’s not likely to set the world on fire on poetry reading night at the South Sydney Leagues Club, now is it?

Let’s face it, most Christians don’t read. So a question asking about what books every Christian should read isn’t really going to withstand close scrutiny.

But of the Christians who are motivated enough to pick up a book and put a bit of work into it, sure, Calvin ahead of Lewis every day. And certainly ahead of Yancey.

The lack of paragraph breaks in Calvin is a crime against literacy

Yes, it is. But a good editor would of fixed it. We can’t blame Calvin for that one.

This comment was offensive

Just read slowly! Move your lips if you have to!

I think you should be a good editor and remove it.

Tongue in cheek, John, but I apologize for any offence. I wasn’t having a go at anyone. It was really just a way of saying that the ideas Calvin explains from Scripture are profound, but they are not actually difficult. No more difficult, at least, than the educated literary sensitivity of Lewis in response to Bultmannian liberalism. If people can read Lewis, or Jim Packer for that matter, then Calvin is not beyond them.

Anyway, here’s a bit of Luther, and it really is pretty straightforward compared to some of this other stuff we’ve been talking about:

From these considerations any one may clearly see how a Christian man is free from all things; so that he needs no works in order to be justified and saved, but receives these gifts in abundance
from faith alone. Nay, were he so foolish as to pretend to be justified, set free, saved, and made a Christian, by means of any good work, he would immediately lose faith, with all its benefits.

Such folly is prettily represented in the fable where a dog, running along in the water and carrying in his mouth a real piece of meat, is deceived by the reflection of the meat in the water, and, in trying with open mouth to seize it, loses the meat and its image at the same time.

Marvellous!

Accepted. So let me add my five books. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. Brief.  Great Stories. And probably the most read by christians. Guaranteed to change lives.

Certainly John. Still, I did say in the OP “apart from the Bible"…

So sue me. (You can’t ban me here young Craig)

I don’t think every Christian should read Puritans, or even Calvin. Something terrible happened to me when I read Calvin. I had this 2 year burnout thing because I read Calvin at the wrong age, and pretty much had as bad a nervous breakdown thing as I did when Harry had cancer. It messed up my HSC as well. I thought I was not “predestined” and boy, life was tough for a few years there.

However, I’ll back Mere Christianity and Desiring God… I’ll have to think hard about the others.

What about “DMWOG”.... Decision Making and the Will of God?

Hi Dave
I am pleased to have read Decision-making and the will of God, but it was a tedious task reading it. I think Payne and Jensen said the same thing much better in Guidance and the Voice of God and with a lot less words.

Dave Lankshear - 02 May 2008 01:22 AM

I don’t think every Christian should read Puritans, or even Calvin. Something terrible happened to me when I read Calvin.

I wouldn’t lay the blame for this at the feet of poor old Calvin! (not saying you are to blame either) Predestination is not the major part of his theological system anyway, although it is the one that many people wrongly fasten onto for some reason.

My story: I was compelled to read Calvin while I was in hospital getting tests for who knows what (the doctor certainly didn’t, and having checked me out for AIDS and TB was now putting me in for exploratory surgery for cancer). Reading Calvin’s words on providence were a great comfort to me, reminding me that no disaster or tragedy that we go through is ever out of the hand of God.

I will grant that some of the puritans are hard reading. Not Richard Baxter though! Check out his The Reformed Pastor for some great encouragement to personal ministry. Bible study leaders his words of exhortation about the ministry they are involved in.

Re-reading Calvin with a friend recently has been a great joy! Especially if you keep in mind his emphasis on the loving Fatherhood of God, and our Union with Christ. These are great, great themes.