Customer Reviews

100 Christian Books That Changed the Century

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I love books of lists, especially when the lists are evaluated as these 100 books are.

Everyone will disagree with the Petersens over inclusions and exclusions, but I think that most people would be happy with at least 75% of what they find here.

The authors have included:
reference books such as The New Bible Commentary and the New Bible Dictionary
fiction, such as Sheldon's In His Steps and C.S.Lewis' Screwtape Letters and Chronicles of Narnia
apologetic such as Morrison's Who Moved the Stone? and Lewis' Mere Christianity
Bible translations, or part thereof, such as Ken Taylor's Living Letters
theological works, such as Barth's Church Dogmatics, Berkouwer's Man:The Image of God and Packer's Knowing God
personal testimony, such as Eareckson's Joni and Chuck Colson's Born Again
popular How-to books such as Peales' The Power of Positive Thinking and Warren's The Purpose-Driven Church
books written to provoke evangelicals to action, such as Henry's The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism and Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger

It is a little strange that Living Letters is the only Bible translation included. I would have thought that several others had had as great an impact as Taylor's paraphrase.

The articles about each book chosen are short and to the point. Sometimes there could have been a little more detail, particularly about lesser-known works.

This book should get people talking about Christian books that have made an impact on them. Warmly recommended.

In many ways, it is like Bill Petersen and Randy Petersen have looked over my shoulder at the books I've read and loved. This book will educate you about some of the significant Christian books which changed this century--and you will encounter some new titles and recall some old ones.

If you love books, you will enjoy this title. I recommend it.

Any "booklist" type book is, by nature, highly subjective. And this does not puport to be a "best of" list, but a list of Christian books that have had the greatest impact in their time and even beyond. Indeed, the earliest book on this list, "In His Steps", has enjoyed renewed popularity in the past few years with the "WWJD" phenomenon. As an avid reader of Christian books, and a follower of the Christian publishing industry over the past 25 or so years, I was somewhat surprised to see some recent books included that I have never heard of until I saw them in this book, which makes me question those choices. I mean, if a book such as "Man in the Mirror" made such an impact in the late 1980's I think I would have at least known about it. Of course, there are many books reviewed that I'd never heard of, and that's part of the educational process one goes through in a work such as this, but some are just books for their time rather than timeless classics. For example, "Who Moved the Stone?" might have caused a stir in 1930, but that book was superceded on the evangelical scene years later with the publication of "Evidence That Demands a Verdict", also included. And Bishop Fulton J. Sheen may have been a popular religious figure in the 1950's, but his writings would have only historical interest today. Nevertheless, each reader has his or her own interests, and the summaries of these 20th century works provide a good starting point for delving into Christian literature that has made a difference over the past 100 years.