Great Books From Different Traditions: Christian

by

Henry L. Carrigan, Jr.

This is the first in an occasional series in which Mr. Carrigan, throughout the year, will be making lists of ten Great Books of different traditions, cultures and countries and explaining his reasoning behind his choices.

To paraphrase the Preacher from the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, of the making of many lists there is no end. Of course, the Preacher’s declaration arises out of pessimism and frustration with the way of the world, in which it seems that the evil flourish and the good suffer. I suppose those of us who read books and make lists of books that we must read, or want to read when we have time, or feel that we must read in order to be conversant with friends and colleagues about the political or literary trends of the day, often feel like the making of lists is folly. We keep the lists on our desks, in our notebooks, on our bedside tables, or as bookmarks in our books, and they silently seduce us into the illusion that one day we will read every book that we have so diligently set down on that paper. Or, the list silently stares at us accusingly as if to say, “Read me or feel inadequate.” 

I’m in the midst of making such a list of books as part of a book project that is part of a series that examines one hundred great books of a variety of traditions. For example, there will be a book on 100 great Jewish books, one on 100 great Buddhist books, 100 great French books, and so on. I’m working on the volume that discusses 100 great Christian books.

I face a few challenges with a book like this, of course. First, how do I narrow my list down to one hundred? When I first started talking to the publisher about this book, I jotted down one hundred titles quickly and easily. The problem hasn’t been making the list; the problem has been narrowing the list. Second, how do I define Christianity? Should I choose books that represent the orthodox Christianity that developed in the first few centuries of the Common Era? Should I find books that represent the impetus of the Protestant Reformation and the ecclesiastical and theological directions it fostered? Can I adequately balance  books that express liberal Christian views and books that express conservative Christian views (and those labels are always problematic and don’t reflect the rich history that lies behind their pejorative nature)? How do I choose Christian books when there’s already a book in the series called 100 Great Catholic Books? Can’t I choose Augustine’s Confessions, which is infinitely richer and more accessible than his City of God? What about Dante’s Commedia? Third, can the books be novels and poetry rather than simply a collection of books that are explicitly “Christian”? For example, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure and George Eliot’s Middlemarch express themes that call into question the nature of virtue, the role of compassion, and the character of religion. Should I include them? Fourth, what constitutes a “great” book? Finally, how accessible should the books be? That is, once folks read about the books, will they be able to find a copy easily at their local bookstore or library?

While I work on answering those questions—and of course I know the answers to many of them already—I want to share a portion of the 100 great Christian books. This list of 10 great Christian books follows no chronological order, and it is not a list of the 10 “greatest” Christian books. The list offers a starting point for readers interested in exploring the history, character, and nature of Christianity as those elements are expressed in literature that examines, affirms, and challenges the nature of Christianity.

• Augustine, Confessions. The ultimate memoir, juicier than any modern memoir. In his reflections about his childhood and his religious journey, Augustine gave the Christian religion its notion of original sin. The episode with the pears is alone worth the price of the book.

• Dante, The Divine Comedy. Dante is the architect of the Christian representations of heaven and hell. There is no explicit description of either in the Bible, but Dante provides a quite spectacular vision of these “places” in his poem. The Commedia perfectly blends the classical vision and the Christian vision. Dante writes the poem in the vernacular, not in the Latin of the Church, thus challenging the authority of the Church and freeing people to think for themselves about the nature of sin and grace.

• John Milton, Paradise Lost. Milton gives Christianity its story of a rebellious god, Satan, who is cast out of heaven for his misdeeds. The story of the struggle between Satan and God is pure Milton and cannot be found in the Bible. Thanks to Milton, though, Christianity has forever become known as a dualistic religion that pits absolute good versus absolute evil.

• John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress. Written while Bunyan was in jail, this allegory follows the journey of Pilgrim to the Celestial City through all the obstacles he must face on his journey. It’s the best example of Christian version of the ubiquitous quest myth found in world literatures.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne challenges what he thinks are the psychologically damaging and spiritually deadening doctrines of Puritan Christianity. It’s a simple allegory, to be sure, but the architectonic style offers great drama and the scene of the little Pearl tossing the green “A” at her mother, Hester’s, scarlet “A” is one of the most powerful scenes in American literature.

• Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood. O’Connor’s parable of Hazel Motes and his preaching of the Church of Christ without Christ is a memorable and hilarious tale of the function of grace in the world.

• Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky’s novel contains one of the greatest scenes in all of world literature, “The Grand Inquisitor.” Ivan asks the simple question that underlies all theodicies: “How can you believe in a good God when the world is filled with the suffering of children?”

• Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek. Dillard’s simple and elegant reflections on the natural world open into meditations on the nature of grace found in the unexpected beauty and ferocity of nature. Who can forget her meditation on the meaning of life as she watches a water bug suck the juices out of a unwitting frog?

• Doris Betts, Souls Raised from the Dead. The poignant and touching story of the illness and death of thirteen-year-old Mary Grace Thompson and her father’s ability to deal with it raises questions about suffering, grace, compassion, and life after death.

• Paul Tillich, Theology of Culture. Difficult as Tillich sometimes can be, this book offers a definition of religion that helps understand the pervasive nature of religion: Religion is the substance of culture, culture the form of religion.

Each one of these books poses significant and thoughtful questions about the nature of humanity, the nature of the cosmos, and the nature of God. One thing is sure, reading these books will challenge you and in some small way change you forever, which is what every good book should do anyway.


Henry Carrigan dreamed of being a rock ‘n roll star with a life of coast-to-coast tours and wild parties with Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell among others. But books intervened, and instead he went to Emory University to major in Religion and Literature. Later, teaching humanities in college, he took up writing about books—this time to avoid reading students’ papers. Henry soon became Library Journal's religion columnist, then religion book editor for Publishers Weekly. While working as editor-in-chief for Northwestern University Press and editing classic books for Paraclete Press, he still continues to write for LJ and PW, as well as the Washington Post Book World, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Charlotte Observer, ForeWord magazine—and now, BiblioBuffet. And he still enjoys playing his guitar. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it