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Indelible Ink: 22 Prominent Christian Leaders Discuss the Books That Shape Their Faith

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General editor Scott Larsen and publisher WaterBrook have hit a grand slam home run with this highly readable, repeatedly rewarding volume. Larsen's Introduction is a brilliant essay on the importance of books. In turn, each of the 22 contributors invites the reader into his or her private study, then one by one talks about the two or three books that have made the most profound impact on their lives through the years. Several times, upon finishing a chapter, I found myself thinking, "That essay alone was worth the price of this book." Note to Larsen and WaterBrook: More volumes like this, please! Highly recommended.

People who read books about reading share an obsession so compelling that they can't help but judge another person's "favorite books" list against their own. Or in this case, "faith-shaping books," which I assume also qualifies them for favorite status. In any event, INDELIBLE INK provides enough fodder to keep compulsive readers engaged in arguments in their heads for some time to come.

The 22 featured essayists range from the venerable J.I. Packer (whose name appears as an author of influence in more than one essay) to relative newcomer Liz Curtis Higgs. Supplementing the main essays is an appendix listing the two or three favorite books of some 130 other Christian leaders.

Both sections are filled with surprises, not the least of which is essayist Gary R. Collins's choice of a book about a caterpillar named Stripe titled HOPE FOR THE FLOWERS by Trina Paulus. (I can relate; a children's book titled LITTLE THINGS by Anne Laurin describes my marriage better than any psychologist ever could.) Another surprise is the frequency with which the names of novelists, poets and dramatists appear. The likes of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Dumas, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Dante and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (whose GULAG ARCHIPELAGO and ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH, I'm convinced, paved the way for my own conversion to Christ in the 1970s) share ink with some of the greatest theologians ever --- St. Augustine, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Søren Kierkegaard and others.

My favorite essay is "My Three Best Friends ... Maybe" by Calvin Miller --- a fellow "narcolibric," a term Miller coined to describe the "print-addicted" among us. Except for his fondness for Emily Dickinson, whose poems I once deemed worthy of Good Housekeeping (seriously offending my high school literature teacher), Miller's essay, especially his observations on what I call bookaholism, mirrors my own approach to reading and integrating into my life the things I've read.

In the appendix, Elisabeth Elliot cited Amy Carmichael as her single choice --- which seems unusual, except that Carmichael wrote 40-plus books. Who knew? I doubt that even those Christians who are familiar with her and her work are aware that she was such a prolific writer. Another surprise: Fernando Ortega's choice of THE HABIT OF BEING: Letters of Flannery O'Connor. O'Connor as an author is not such a curious choice --- it's the collection of her letters that is surprising. His description forced me to add yet another title to my ever-growing list of must-reads. (An aside: A current bestselling book on heaven suggests that we'll be able to customize our afterlife experience. If so, I'm putting in a bid for a library of all the books I wanted to read before my untimely demise. I'm guessing it won't include a copy of Hubert P. Yockey's INFORMATION THEORY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, one of Hugh Ross's favorites.)

About three chapters into the book, I decided it would be a great idea to start keeping track of the authors to see how many times my favorites showed up in the results. I came to my senses soon enough and settled on a less formal method of accounting, something between a guess and a hunch. By the end of the book, I had decided that the front-running authors were C.S. Lewis, which was pretty much a no-brainer, and, much to my surprise and delight, Dostoyevsky. That's when I found the link to the INDELIBLE INK web site, www.indelink.com, and the page of "Top Tens": authors, titles, authors with the most titles, and contemporary authors.

My beloved Mr. Lewis topped three of the lists: number one book, with 20 mentions for MERE CHRISTIANITY; number one author, with 39 mentions; and author with the most titles, 12. What was even more telling were the runners-up in those categories. Second-place book was Oswald Chambers's MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, cited 12 times; second place in the author category was a three-way tie between Dostoyevsky (yes!), Packer and Chambers, with 12 mentions each; and runner-up for author with the most titles was Francis Schaeffer with seven titles mentioned. Lewis's substantial lead over the runners-up lent further support to my oft-vocalized opinion that Lewis was far and away the best Christian writer of the 20th century.

What all of this has done for me, and likely will do for other hopelessly narcolibric readers, is add yet more names and titles to an ever-expanding "To Read" list. But I'm fine with that; the high quality of INDELIBLE INK's essays assures me that the books I've added to my list are well worth reading.

This is a book of writers' readings. Twenty-two names familiar on the Christian speaking and writing circuit tip their hats to the authors that shaped their faith, including essays from Chuck Colson, Dallas Willard, J.I. Packer, Luis Palau, John Stott, Josh McDowell and Phil Johnson.

The strength of the book was in its inception: what a creative idea! Larsen has tickled the bibliomania of chronic readers who pause at every turn-of-phrase to muse about its origin. If you're one who says, "Hmm, I wonder if he's getting this from Mere Christianity," here's your chance to find out (and yes, in fact, nearly everyone has apparently been influenced by C.S. Lewis). We find out that the poetic Calvin Miller reads Shakespeare (and 100 books a year), that Michael Card liked the manly Monte Cristo, and that J.I. Packer was comfortable enough with Calvin to write the long-gone theologian personal letters. It also feeds our natural obsession with the fairly accessible world of Christian stardom. For those who keep a working biography of significant, public mentors, this is a tour of their own self-reflections. Furthermore, there's a catalogue of another 130 Christian authors', speakers', and ministers' paragraph-long reviews in the back.

The only nuisance of the book is that Larsen has requested reviews of non-professional reviewers. It's less than compelling to hear that Colson gives "high marks" to Tolstoy. But if we embrace this collection of essays as a profile of influences rather than a thoroughly informative critique of the sources, the book fulfills its purpose. Once you've done that, the few letters within are truly well-crafted writings which stand out as fun surprises in an already interesting book.

Perhaps the best review comes from Jill Briscoes' recommendation at the close of her contribution which can appropriately serve as a description of the whole of Indelible Ink; "Happy reading."

This is a book for the intellectual crowd in my opinion. Also, many of the important thinkers who submitted essays were unknown to me. Short bios would have increased my interest level. Read them one at a time and really savor the content.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book...and for different reasons than I expected. I ordered it because the foreword is by one of my favorite Christian authors, Philip Yancey, and because the title and premise (ask several well known Christian writers what books have most influenced them other than the Bible) were appealing. I expected to mostly get some ideas for a few more spiritual books to read.

When I actually opened and perused the book, I was concerned. The authors tended to be more of the fundamentalist persuasion than I usually prefer, so I was afraid that their recommendations might not be as meaningful or helpful to me. Two big surprises:

1) With a couple of exceptions, their writing about reading (all kinds of reading) was delightful and compelling to someone like me who is an avid reader and who enjoys reading about others who also appreciate the value of a rich reading life. Some of the authors wrote so beautifully and eloquently about the books they were sharing that I felt I had extracted enough value out of their descriptions that I didn't need to go and read the book they were discussing.

2) Many of the books that impacted these authors were not what I would call Christian or even spiritual. These included works of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Shusaku Endo, Alexander Dumas, and Annie Dillard. Calvin Miller's essay was particularly delightful in expressing his joy of reading: "Why am I so narcolibric (a word of my contriving, meaning 'print addicted')? Because every book I see says to me 'come hither and I will make you wise.'" Don't you just know exactly what he means? I do. Walter Wangerin, Jr. also spoke about the importance of choosing books wisely: "Books open our eyes to the complex truths that simple, mindless stories simply have no name for. So why not pick the best?...That's the influence of great books; they teach us how to see the world that is." "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." (Franz Kafka)

Not surprisingly, the works of C.S. Lewis figured prominently in several selections.

It's very important to remember in a book like this -- as was noted by Michael Card in his essay -- "For almost as important as the content of the book itself is the timing of the moment when it first comes into your life." In spite of this, I added quite a few books to my "check it out" list.

I made lots of notes and highlighted many passage:

The editor commented, in his introduction, on the importance of the books we choose to read (much like the importance of the people with whom we choose to associate). Any one book might have a negligible influence, but taken together, they can shape us. "One drop of red paint in a bucket of white will make no perceptible difference; one drop every day for fifty years will result in a bucket of red paint...books shape us, dynamically molding our minds and souls."

One of the authors who was inspired by Calvin's teaching, found it helpful to remember the verse from Psalm 119:105: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" found that this image (as of a flashlight in the dark) is helpful to think about how we shouldn't expect to see much ahead of us, but trusting in God's light will be sufficient for the next step. The dark is the mystery.

Donald G. Bloesch says, "[Kierkegaard, Nygren, and Heiler] have all expanded my spiritual and intellectual horizons and have helped me recognize the way to reach outsiders for the faith is not by apologetic argument, but by sharing the gospel and demonstrating its truth in daily life."

Donald G. Bloesch again: "I have found in my own theological reflection that the truth of God is not accessible to me unless I am in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. But paradoxically I cannot be rightly related to Christ unless I see myself as a sinner saved only by grace..." "A faith that will renew the church is one that respects mystery even while trying to find meaning within mystery."

Gary R. Collins reflecting on the book HOPE FOR THE FLOWERS by Trina Paulus about a caterpillar named Stripe who was told by a butterfly that he could fly too, "but only if he would stop striving and become what he was meant to be...Looking back, however, I wonder if I have spent too much of my life climbing and encouraging others to do the same. Climbing won't accomplish our goal. To get to the top in this world, to have the greatest impact, we need to fly. And according to Stripe, 'you must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.'"

A lovely description of the Anglican Church by Luci N. Shaw : "...where mystery is sanctioned and celebrated, where the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, that pointer to the unseen real, brought me into Christ's real presence, and where incarnational reality--the recognition of God's fingerprints in human lives and Scripture and the created universe -- supplied me, not with watertight proofs, but with a willingness to wait and listen for God, and to leave ultimate answers to him in that realm of mystery." She says later, "...and what is faith, if not belief that persists in the face of paradox and mystery?"

John R. W. Stott, writing about books by Bishop J. C. Ryle, said, "Bishop Ryle clarified for me the differences between justification and sanctification. One of them is that, although we are justified by faith alone WITHOUT works, we are sanctified by faith AND works. And he showed that whereas justification is a crisis, sanctification is a process, in which there may be many deeper experiences."

Walter Wangerin, Jr.: "When goodness confronts evil and does not pay evil back with evil, suddenly evil is made so apparent that even the evil one must recognize it."

Ravi Zacharias: "Modern-day evangelicalism particularly has sacrificed language at the altar of ecstasy."

Josh McDowell on what he learned from CHANGES THAT HEAL by Dr. Henry Cloud: "It is biblical and honoring to God to set limits on your life -- to set boundaries on what you do, how much you help, what you get involved in...I began to give myself permission to say no and still be a loving person."

Larry Crab: "So often our relationship with God is not abut knowing Him, but using Him. As a psychologist, I have felt for years that most of us in American Christianity use God to solve our problems. In contrast, John of the Cross used his problems to find God...there is much more to the life of a Christian than making life work." Elsewhere he says, "Sin is not just rule breaking; it is wrongly-directed passion. It's as if you looked at God and said, 'Big Deal, I want something else!'"

There were a few places where I put question marks or "No, no, no!" but this book was a treasure of thought-provoking essays from interesting writers, and I'm sure many of the recommended books are treasures too.

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Scott Larsen provides a great treasury of information and inspiration in his classic titled Indelible Ink. While perusing my copy of Indelible Ink, I read with great interest the books that influenced many Christian leaders. The accounts of the late Stephen F. Olford and the legendary Major W. Ian Thomas are well worth the price of the book. This book encourages me as a writer to press on into print.
Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor, teacher, mentor, writer, author of Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice