Books which have helped me think, test, and persevere.

The Pilgrim's Progress

by John Bunyan · first published 1678

Christian's journey from the City of Destruction towards the Celestial City turns the trials, companions, temptations, and hopes of the Christian life into an unforgettable pilgrimage.

Why I recommend it

I recommend The Pilgrim's Progress because it gives memorable form to truths Christians often know only as abstractions. Bunyan makes conviction, temptation, discouragement, fellowship, perseverance, and hope into places and people that stay in the mind. It rewards rereading because different stages of Christian's journey become more recognisable as our own pilgrimage continues.

The New Creation Model

by Michael J. Vlach · first published 2023

A wide-ranging study of God's purposes from creation to new creation, presenting Christian hope as bodily resurrection and life in a restored world under Christ rather than escape from the physical creation.

Why I recommend it

I recommend The New Creation Model because it gave me a clear, sustained account of the resurrection body and the renewed creation as parts of one coherent purpose. Vlach is especially helpful in resisting the idea that Christian hope means escape from the physical world. He traces God's work from creation to restoration and shows why bodily resurrection, the renewal of the earth, Christ's reign, and life in God's presence belong together.

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The Hope of the Early Church

by Brian E. Daley · first published 1991

A broad survey of Christian teaching about the last things across the first seven centuries, tracing the many ideas which developed around death, resurrection, judgment, the intermediate state, the millennium, and the final destiny of creation.

Why I recommend it

I recommend The Hope of the Early Church because it showed me how varied early Christian thinking about death and the world to come really was. Daley traces the development of the intermediate state, apokatastasis, resurrection, judgment, and the principal eschatological expectations without pretending that the early Church spoke with one settled voice on every question. His great strength is his balance: he explains the evidence and its historical setting without quietly pushing the reader towards a preferred conclusion.

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A Handbook of Church History

by Samuel G. Green · first published 1904

A comprehensive history from the apostolic age to the eve of the Reformation, covering the Church's expansion, persecution, doctrinal conflicts, councils, writers, divisions, monastic movements, missions, the papacy, the Crusades, and movements for reform.

Why I recommend it

Of the several church histories I have read, A Handbook of Church History remains one of the best. Green handles an enormous sweep of people, events, doctrines, and institutions with unusual clarity, yet does not flatten the story into heroes on one side and villains on the other. He writes from a Protestant background but is consistently measured and fair, helping the reader understand why developments occurred before asking for a verdict upon them.

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What Love Is This?

by Dave Hunt · first published 2002

A sustained challenge to Calvinism which asks whether its account of sovereignty, election, grace, and the atonement is consistent with the Bible's revelation of God's character—particularly His love, mercy, justice, and genuine call to the world.

Why I recommend it

What Love Is This? is certainly a polemic against Calvinism, but I value it for more than its rebuttal of a theological system. Read carefully, it also functions as an extensive study of the nature and character of God, and especially of His love. Hunt repeatedly brings the argument back to the biblical text. Follow the references, open the passages, read their contexts, and the book becomes a Scripture study rather than merely one side of a theological dispute.

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An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith

by Dave Hunt · first published 2000

A wide-ranging call to recover the seriousness of the gospel, wholehearted love for God, biblical discipleship, the necessity of the cross, fidelity to Christian doctrine, and a life shaped by Christ's return.

Why I recommend it

I recommend An Urgent Call to a Serious Faith because it refuses to separate Christian belief from Christian living. Hunt ranges across the gospel, faith, love for God, discipleship, doctrine, the Church, and the believer's heavenly hope, but the recurring appeal is intensely practical: take God at His word and let that truth govern the whole life. The book's breadth makes it especially useful for readers who need to recover the weight, wonder, and urgency of ordinary Christian faithfulness.

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Refuting Rabbinic Objections to Christianity & Messianic Prophecies

by Eitan Bar · first published 2019

A Jewish believer's response to common rabbinic objections to Jesus and Christianity, examining messianic prophecy, the New Testament's use of Israel's Scriptures, the identity of Messiah, and the historical barriers which have kept many Jewish readers from considering Yeshua.

Why I recommend it

I recommend this book because Bar engages objections that Christians often answer without sufficient knowledge of their Jewish setting. His command of Hebrew, familiarity with Israeli life, and experience discussing Yeshua with Jewish people bring valuable context to questions about messianic prophecy, the New Testament, and rabbinic interpretation. The book is most useful when it sends the reader back to the Hebrew Scriptures to ask whether the traditional objection really accounts for the text in its own context.

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Reading Moses, Seeing Jesus

by Seth D. Postell, Eitan Bar & Erez Soref · first published 2017

A study of how the Torah reaches its goal in Yeshua, addressing how Moses points to Messiah, the purpose of the Law, the place of rabbinic tradition, and the relationship of Jewish and Gentile believers to the Torah's commandments.

Why I recommend it

I recommend Reading Moses, Seeing Jesus because it treats the Torah neither as an embarrassing relic nor as a covenant code which the Church must simply re-enact. The authors read its narratives, patterns, promises, and commandments as a coherent witness whose goal is found in Yeshua. Their Jewish and Israeli setting makes the discussion especially valuable, while the book's clarity opens questions about law, grace, Messiah, and Christian obedience to readers without specialist training.

Read ONE FOR ISRAEL's introduction ↗

The New Life in Christ Jesus

by C. I. Scofield · first published 1915

Nine connected studies of the Christian life, moving through the inner and imparted life, deliverance, the Spirit-controlled and joyous life, true consecration, and the believer's continuing need for cleansing.

Why I recommend it

I value The New Life in Christ Jesus because Scofield combines genuine theological depth with direct, unpretentious language. The chapters build upon one another, adding layer after layer of biblical truth while speaking to both the mind and the heart. His treatment of true consecration is especially memorable: its use of biblical patterns and personal application deepened my understanding of Christ in us. The final study of defilement and cleansing brings the whole book to a searching and satisfying conclusion.

Read the public-domain edition ↗

The Apocalypse; or, ‘The Day of the Lord’

by E. W. Bullinger · first published 1902

An extensive journey through Revelation which examines its language, literary structures, Old Testament connections, recurring themes, sequence of visions, and place within the wider prophetic testimony of Scripture.

Why I recommend it

In my view, this is a must-read commentary on Revelation—not because every conclusion should be accepted, but because Bullinger makes the journey through the text so absorbing and so deep. He notices structures, verbal connections, and details which many readers will never have considered. The work is very long, yet I found it difficult to put down because page after page opened another line of enquiry and sent me back into the biblical text.

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The Inquisition: The Hammer of Heresy

by Edward Burman · first published 1984

A panoramic history of the Inquisition from its medieval establishment through its later European expressions, examining its institutions, personnel, procedures, treatment of alleged heresy, political uses, regional variations, and enduring legacy.

Why I recommend it

I recommend The Inquisition because it gives the general reader a coherent account of a subject which is often reduced either to a few notorious names or to the Spanish Inquisition alone. Burman shows how the institution developed, how it operated in different places and periods, and how religious conviction, political authority, fear, and coercion became entangled. It is disturbing history, but necessary history for understanding what can happen when a church claims the power to compel belief.

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The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts

by Marvin W. Meyer · first published 1987

A wide-ranging collection of ancient texts which opens a window onto the mystery religions of the Mediterranean world—their gods, initiations, sacrifices, prayers, festivals, secret rites, and hopes for blessing or life beyond death.

Why I recommend it

I recommend The Ancient Mysteries because it gives an excellent view of the Gentile religious world in which Paul preached. Rather than leaving the mystery cults as vague names in a textbook, Meyer lets their surviving texts show what their adherents practised, sought, feared, and hoped for. For the Christian reader, that background makes the setting of Acts and Paul's letters more tangible and helps us appreciate the world into which the gospel came. It is a genuinely worthwhile educational journey through the ancient evidence.

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The Writings of Irenaeus

by Irenaeus of Lyons · first published c. 180–190

The surviving works and fragments of a second-century Christian writer, above all Against Heresies, defending the apostolic faith against Gnostic systems through sustained appeals to Scripture, creation, incarnation, resurrection, and the unity of God's purpose.

Why I recommend it

I value Irenaeus for his remarkably high view of Scripture and for the patience with which he first explains his opponents and then answers them. His rebuttal of Gnosticism contains powerful discussions of the true humanity and deity of Christ, bodily resurrection, the goodness of creation, and the unity of the Old and New Testaments. He is also an important early witness to a future earthly kingdom: his premillennial passages show that this expectation cannot simply be dismissed as a recent invention.

Read Against Heresies ↗

The Writings of Tertullian

by Tertullian · first published c. 197–220

A large and varied body of early Latin Christian writing which defends believers before Roman society, answers pagan and doctrinal opponents, develops arguments about God and Christ, and presses Christians towards serious holy living.

Why I recommend it

Tertullian is forceful, memorable, and often wonderfully compelling. His Apology and related appeals confront Roman governors with the injustice of condemning Christians without hearing their case, while his doctrinal works answer opponents with close argument and a profound regard for Scripture. He can also be searching on the practical demands of Christian discipleship. Read across the range and you encounter apologetics, prophecy, doctrine, courage under persecution, and an uncompromising emphasis on holy living.

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The Writings of Hippolytus

by Hippolytus · first published early third century

Surviving treatises and fragments associated with an early third-century Christian teacher, including extensive rebuttals of rival systems and some of the earliest substantial Christian exposition of Daniel, Antichrist, Christ's return, and the coming kingdom.

Why I recommend it

Hippolytus is especially valuable for readers interested in prophecy. On Christ and Antichrist draws repeatedly from the biblical text and preserves a compelling early discussion of Daniel, the Antichrist, Christ's return, and the future kingdom. His Refutation of All Heresies also records and challenges many competing teachings. Together the writings offer a high view of Scripture, vigorous rebuttal, a clear premillennial witness, and repeated concern that Christian belief should issue in faithful and holy living.

Read On Christ and Antichrist ↗

The Other Side of Death

by Tal Brooke · first published 1979

An examination of claims about death and what lies beyond it, engaging near-death experiences, spiritualism, reincarnation, Eastern religion, occult testimony, and popular attempts to interpret experiences of another world.

Why I recommend it

I recommend The Other Side of Death because it refuses to treat every extraordinary experience as self-authenticating. Brooke places popular claims about death, consciousness, spirit guides, reincarnation, and the afterlife alongside the Christian revelation and asks what these experiences actually prove. It is useful apologetic and discernment reading for a subject on which personal testimony is often allowed to outrun careful biblical judgment.

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Ten Sermons on the Second Advent

by E. W. Bullinger · first published 1892

Ten connected sermons tracing the Bible's testimony to the personal return of Jesus Christ, the prophetic hope woven through Scripture, and the events and purposes gathered around His appearing.

Why I recommend it

I recommend these sermons because Bullinger treats the Second Advent as a great biblical theme rather than an isolated prophetic curiosity. He ranges across the Law, Prophets, Psalms, Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation, drawing attention to the sheer weight of Scripture devoted to Christ's return. The sermons combine expectation, careful textual observation, and practical urgency: prophecy is meant to shape hope, watchfulness, and faithful living.

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Confessions

by Augustine of Hippo · first published c. 397–400

Augustine's searching account of restless desire, intellectual wandering, entrenched sin, conversion, memory, prayer, and the grace of God, written not merely as autobiography but as an extended confession addressed to God.

Why I recommend it

Confessions remains compelling because Augustine examines his own heart with unusual honesty. He traces the loves, ambitions, excuses, habits, relationships, and ideas through which he ran from God, while recognising the patient providence that pursued him. The result is both deeply personal and intellectually rich: a study of sin and desire, but still more a testimony to the God in whom the restless heart finds its true home.

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Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

by John Bunyan · first published 1666

Bunyan's account of conviction, temptation, fear, doubt, conversion, preaching, imprisonment, and the mercy of God in Christ, opening the personal world from which much of The Pilgrim's Progress later emerged.

Why I recommend it

Grace Abounding is valuable because Bunyan does not make the path to assurance look neat or effortless. He records the biblical words that awakened, wounded, corrected, and eventually comforted him, together with the fierce inward battles through which he learned to look away from himself to Christ. It gives an unusually honest picture of spiritual struggle and makes The Pilgrim's Progress more intelligible by revealing the experience behind its landscapes.

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The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

by The Venerable Bede · first published 731

Bede's foundational account of Britain and the growth of Christianity among the English, bringing together rulers and missionaries, monasteries and bishops, councils and controversies, conversions, conflicts, remembered miracles, and the formation of a Christian people.

Why I recommend it

I recommend Bede because he brings the early English Church out of abstraction and fills it with people, places, journeys, decisions, failures, and acts of courage. His history shows how the gospel crossed cultures and kingdoms, how political and ecclesiastical interests became entangled, and how fragile the planting of churches could be. It is both a major historical source and a vivid encounter with the Christian memory of early England.

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The Silence of God

by Sir Robert Anderson · first published 1897

An attempt to understand why God may appear silent amid suffering, unbelief, and unanswered prayer, relating the question to the close of the apostolic era, the present administration of grace, and the future public intervention of God.

Why I recommend it

The Silence of God addresses a question that is both theological and painfully human: why does God not openly intervene when evil flourishes and His people cry to Him? Anderson refuses the easy answer that every unanswered prayer is caused by defective faith. He places the apparent silence of heaven within his reading of the biblical programme and argues that God's patience is not absence, weakness, or indifference. Even where readers question his framework, the book forces serious thought about providence, prayer, suffering, and the character of the present age.

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An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists

by Simon Greenleaf · first published 1846

A nineteenth-century legal scholar's examination of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as witnesses, asking how their credibility, consistency, knowledge, conduct, and accounts would fare under principles used to assess evidence in courts of justice.

Why I recommend it

Greenleaf's work is worthwhile because it asks readers to take the four Gospel witnesses seriously as testimony rather than dismissing them by prejudice or accepting them without examination. His legal approach draws attention to the difference between contradiction and the ordinary variation found among independent witnesses, and to questions of character, opportunity, motive, corroboration, and the cost of maintaining their testimony. It remains a stimulating contribution to the cumulative case for the trustworthiness of the Gospels.

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Eustathius of Antioch and His Place in the Early History of Christian Doctrine

by R. V. Sellers · first published 1928

A reconstruction of the life, conflicts, surviving writings, and Christology of Eustathius of Antioch, a prominent opponent of Arianism whose career illuminates both the Council of Nicaea and the unsettled theological and political struggles which followed it.

Why I recommend it

I recommend this study because it takes the reader beyond the familiar catchphrases about Nicaea and into the far less tidy world in which Christian language about Christ was still being argued, tested, and refined. Sellers shows that councils, bishops, imperial favour, personal conflict, and genuine theological conviction were closely entangled. Eustathius himself emerges as a man of heart and zeal, determined to defend Christ's true divinity while also taking His real humanity seriously. Particularly interesting is his insistence that the divine Word was not confined or circumscribed by the body He assumed: the incarnate life was truly local and human, yet the Word continued to act with the unrestricted power of God.

Read the digitised 1928 edition ↗

Knots Untied

by J. C. Ryle · first published 1874

Nineteen clear statements from an evangelical Anglican standpoint addressing salvation, Scripture and private judgment, baptism and regeneration, the Lord's Supper and real presence, the Church and ministry, confession, worship, the Sabbath, doctrinal novelty, ministerial fallibility, and idolatry.

Why I recommend it

I recommend Knots Untied because Ryle's excellent Bible teaching and practical approach shine through even when he is handling controversy. He states the question plainly, identifies what is really at stake, and repeatedly brings the reader back to Scripture, the simplicity of the gospel, and the spiritual welfare of ordinary people. The subjects are disputed, but the writing is rarely obscure. Ryle's directness, pastoral seriousness, and ability to make doctrine intelligible turn the collection into far more than a record of nineteenth-century Church of England debates.

View the contents and publisher's description ↗