Customer Reviews

Great Books of the Christian Tradition

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I have used this book heavily to build my library of classics. It is an annotated book list divided into Christian, non-Christian, and Children's literature and by historical periods: The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, The Early Modern World (The Reformation, Renaissance), The Eighteenth Century, The Nineteenth Century, The Twentieth Century, and Contemporary Candidates for Greatness. Parents, such as myself, will greatly appreciate the separate chapter and list dedicated solely to Children's literature. I have used this chapter to collect quality books for my children.

Glaspey gives you a short commentary on each book (and excerpts from some authors), and tells you how best to make use of the reading lists he provides. He also gives good reasons why Christians should read non-Christian books. Also provided is a list of ten books which he feels every Christian ought to know. Included are books by C.S. Lewis, Dostoevsky, Augustine and Tozer among others.

This is a book for Christian biblioholics to savor. It was through this book that I discovered some of my favorites such as "A Testament of Devotion" by Thomas Kelly, and Christian authors such as Walker Percy, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Flannery O'Connor. Many books he names, Christian and non-Christian, I already knew and read and others, such as books by Norman Geisler, I was disappointed to find missing. But overall, this is an excellent resource and one that is unique. Highly recommended.

This book provides an excellent curriculum, if you will, of books every Christian should read in his or her lifetime. Although the focus is on Christian literature throughout the centuries, there is also a list of non-Christian works that have shaped our world which the author rightly advocates reading. There is even a separate list of books for children (although adults could benefit from reading some of these as well). The descriptions of each work are very concise, with excerpts from some works scattered throughout. One can read through this book in a couple of hours; that way, one has plenty of time to start digging into the books themselves, which is the whole point!

I was happy with this purchase; the condition of the book was what i expected.