Recommended Reading

Under construction

Weighty Books for the Formation of a Christian Mind

(With Special Emphasis on Understanding America TODAY)

I.  General Works on Culture, the Christian Mind, & Worldviews

Blamires, Harry.  The Christian Mind.  New York:  Seabury, 1963.

Guinness, Os. Fit Bodies, Fat Minds. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994.

________. The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your
Life. Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998.

Hoekema, David A., and Bobby Fong.  Christianity and Culture in the
Crossfire.  Grand Rapids: Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship, 1997.

Moreland, J. P.  Love Your God With All Your Mind:  The Role of Reason in
the Life of the Soul.Colorado Springs:  NavPress, 1997.

Moreland, J. P. Scaling the Secular City. Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Book
House, 1987.

Neuhaus, Richard John. The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy In
America. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984.

Newbigin, Leslie. Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western
Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986.

________.  The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
1989.

________.  Truth to Tell: The Gospel and Public Truth. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1991.
 

Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture.  New York:  Harper and Row, 1983.

Ryken, Leland. Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work and
Leisure.  Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995.

Sire, James.  Discipleship of the Mind:  Learning to Love God in the Ways
We Think.  Downers Grove:  Intervarsity Press, 1990.

Sire, James.  The Universe Next Door:  A Basic World View Catalog.  Downers
Grove:  Intervarsity Press, 1988.

Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Reason Within the Bounds of Religion. 2nd ed. Grand
Rapids, MI.:  Eerdmans, 1984.
 
 

II.  * * * Specialized Studies in More Specific Disciplines

A.  Theology, History, and the American Church, (i.e. Origins):

Bloch, Ruth.  Visionary Republic:  Millennial Themes in American Thought,
1756-1800.  New York:  Cambridge UP, 1985.

Boyer, Paul. When Time Shall Be No More:  Prophecy Belief in Contemporary
America. Cambridge:  Harvard UP, 1993.

Butler, Jonathan.  Awash in a Sea of Faith:  Christianizing the American
People.  Cambridge:Harvard UP, 1990.

Franchot, Jenny.  "Invisible Domains:  Religion and American Literary
Studies."         American Literature 67 (Dec. 1995):  833-842.

_____________.  Roads to Rome:  The Antebellum Protestant Encounter with
Catholicism.Berkeley:  University of California Press, 1994.

Frey, Sylvia R.,  and Betty Wood.  Come Shouting to Zion:  African American
Protestantism in the  American South and British Caribbean to 1830.  Chapel
Hill:  University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

Hatch, Nathan O.  The Democratization of American Christianity.  New Haven:
 Yale UP, 1989.

Hunter, James Davison.  American Evangelicalism:  Conservative Religion and
the Quandary of Modernity.  New Brunswick, NJ:  Rutgers UP, 1983.

Keillor, Steven J. This Rebellious House: American History & the Truth of
Christianity. Downers Grove, Ill.:  InterVarsity Press, 1996.

Kuklick, Bruce, and D. G. Hart, eds. Religious Advocacy and American
History. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,  1997.

Marsden, George M.  Fundamentalism and American Culture:  The Shaping of
Twentieth CenturyEvangelicalism, 1870-1925.  New York:  Oxford UP, 1980.

____________. Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.  Grand
Rapids:                   Eerdmans, 1991.

McClymond, Michael James.  Encounters with God:  An Approach to the
Theology of Jonathan  Edwards.  New York:  Oxford UP, 1998.

McDannell, Colleen.  The Christian Home in Victorian America, 1840-1900.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986.

_______________.  Material Christianity:  Religion and Popular Culture in
America.  New  Haven;  Yale UP, 1996.
 

McLoughlin, William G.  Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform:  An Essay on
Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977.  Chicago:  U of Chicago
P,  1978.

Morgan, John.  Godly Learning:  Puritan Attitudes towards Reason, Learning,
and Education, 1560-1640.  New York:  Cambridge UP, 1986.

Noll, Mark A. Between Faith and Criticism: Evangelicals, Scholarship, and
the Bible in America. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.

Noll, Mark.  The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.  Grand Rapids:
Eerdman's, 1994.

Smith, Timothy L.  Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth Century
America.  New  York:  Abingdon, 1957.

Tuveson, Ernest Lee.  Redeemer Nation:  The Idea of America's Millenial
Role.  Chicago:  Univ. of Chicago Press, 1968.

Wells, David.  God in the Wasteland:  The Reality of Truth in a World of
Fading Dreams.   Grand  Rapids:  Eerdman's, 1994.

Wells, David.  No Place for Truth;  or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical
Theology?   Grand Rapids:  Eerdman's, 1993.

Wojcik, Daniel.  The End of the World as We Know it:  Faith, Fatalism, and
Apocalypse in America.  New York:  New York University Press, 1997.
 
 

B.  Christianity & Higher Education:

Colson, Charles and Richard John Neuhaus, eds.  Evangelicals and Catholics
Together:  Toward a Common Mission.  Dallas:  Word Pub., 1995.
        (important yet controversial attempt to bridge the gap:  includes
materials on education)

De Jong, Arthur J.  Reclaiming a Mission :  New Direction for the
Church-Related College.  Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1990.

Garber, Steven.  The Fabric of Faithfulness:  Weaving Together Belief and
Behavior During the   University Years.  Downers Grove:  Intervarsity
Press, 1997.
        (excellent "incarnational" approach to teaching and college life)

Geisler, Norman and Ralph E. MacKenzie.  Roman Catholics and Evangelicals:
Agreements and Differences.  Grand Rapids:  Baker, 1995.
        (conservative response to controversy surrounding Colson and
Neuhaus volume, above)

Gill., David W., ed.  Should God Get Tenure?:  Essays on Religion and
Higher Education.  Grand  Rapids, Mich. : William B. Eerdmans, 1997.

Hassel, David J.  City of Wisdom : A Christian Vision of the American
University.  Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1983.

Handy, Robert.   A Christian America:  Protestant Hopes and Historical
Realities.  London: Oxford UP, 1971.

Hill, Brian V.  Faith at the Blackboard : Issues Facing the Christian
Teacher.  Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 1982.

Holmes, Arthur.  The Idea of a Christian College.  Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans,
1987.

Malik, Charles Habib.  A Christian Critique of the University.  Downers
Grove:  Intervarsity  Press, 1982.  (brief but extremely influential
manifesto from a leading spokesperson)

Marsden, George.  The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship.  New York:
Oxford UP, 1997. (Christian research in every discipline; from a famous
historian)

Marsden, George.   The Soul of the American University:  From Protestant
Establishment to  Established Nonbelief.  New York:  Oxford UP, 1994.

Newman, John Henry.  The Idea of a University.  1899.  Frank Turner, ed.
New Haven:  Yale  UP, 1996.

Plantinga, Alvin. "On Christian Scholarship" in The Challenge and Promise
of a Catholic  University.  Ed. Theodore Hesburgh.  Notre Dame and London:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1994.

Plantinga, Alvin. The Twin Pillars of Christian Scholarship. (The Stob
Lectures) Grand Rapids, MI: Calvin College and Seminary, 1990.

Schwehn, Mark.  Exiles from Eden.  New York:  Oxford UP, 1993.
        (Critique of Higher education from a famous Christian spokesperson)

Springsted, Eric O. Who Will Make Us Wise? : How the Churches are Failing
Higher
Education.  Cambridge, Mass.: Cowley Publications, 1988.
 

C.  Sociology & the American Public Sphere Today:

Bellah, Robert, et al.  Habits of the Heart:  Individualism and Commitment
in American Life. Berkeley:  Univ. of California Press, 1985.

Carter, Stephen.  The Culture of Disbelief:  How American Law and Politics
Trivialize Religious Devotion.  New York:  Anchor, 1994.

Hunter, James Davison.  Culture Wars:  The Struggle to Define America.  New
York:  Basic Books, 1991.

Rieff, Philip.  The Triumph of the Therapeutic:  Uses of Faith after Freud.
 New York:  Harper & Row, 1966.

Sine, Tom.  Cease Fire:  Searching for Sanity in America's Culture Wars.
Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 1995.

Thompson, Damian.  The End of Time:  Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the
Millennium.  Hanover:  University Press of New England, 1996.
 
 

D.  Literature, the Arts, and Christianity:

Bercovitch, Sacvan.  The American Jeremiad.  Madison:  U of Wisconsin P,
1979.

_____________.  The Puritan Origins of the American Self.  New Haven:  Yale
UP, 1975.

Buell, Lawrence.  Literary Transcendentalism:  Style and Vision in the
American Renaissance. Ithaca:  Cornell UP, 1973.

_____________.  New England Literary Culture, From Revolution Through
Renaissance.  Cambridge:  Cambridge UP, 1986.

Bush, Harold K.  American Declarations:  Rebellion and Repentance in
American Cultural History.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Eliade, Mircea.  The Myth of the Eternal Return;  or, Cosmos and History.
Trans. Willard R. Trask.  Princeton:  Princeton UP, 1954.

Frye, Northrop.  The Critical Path:  An Essay on the Social Context of
Literary Criticism. Bloomington, IN:  Indiana UP, 1971.

_____________.  The Great Code:  The Bible and Literature.  New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.

_____________.  The Secular Scripture:  A Study of the Structure of
Romance.  Cambridge:  Harvard UP, 1976.

Gallager, Susan and Roger Lundin. Literature Through the Eyes of Faith. San
Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989.

Gatta, John.  American Madonna:  Images of the Divine Woman in Literary
Culture.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Hawley, John C., ed.  Through a Glass Darkly : Essays in the Religious
Imagination. New York : Fordham University Press, 1996.

Jeffrey, David Lyle. People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary
Culture. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans with the Institute for Advanced Christian
Studies, 1996.

Jenkins, Thomas E.  The Character of God:  Recovering the Lost Literary
Power of American  Protestantism.  New York:  Oxford UP, 1997.

Kazin, Alfred.  God and the American Writer.  New York:  Random House,
1997.

Lewis, R. W. B.  The American Adam:  Innocence, Tragedy and Tradition in
the Nineteenth  Century.  Chicago:  Univ. of Chicago Press, 1955.

Lockerbie, D. Bruce.  Dismissing God: Modern Writers' Struggle Against
Religion.   Grand Rapids:  Baker, 1998.
 

Lundin, Roger.  The Culture of Interpretation:  Christian Faith and the
Postmodern World.  Grand  Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans, 1993.
        (literary theory & deconstruction)

Munk, Linda.  The Devil's Mousetrap:  Redemption and Colonial American
Literature.  New York:   Oxford University Press, 1997.

Ong, Walter J., S.J.  The Presence of the Word:  Some Prolegomena for
Cultural and Religious History.  New Haven, Yale University Press, 1967.

Rookmaaker, H.R.  Modern Art and the Death of a Culture.  Wheaton, Ill.:
Crossway, 1994.
 

Ryken, Leland. The Liberated Imagination : Thinking Christianly About the
Arts.  Chicago:  Shaw,1989.

Scott, Nathan A., Jr.  The New Orpheus:  Essays toward a Christian Poetic.
New York: Sheed and Ward, 1964.

Scott, Nathan A., Jr.  Visions of Presence in Modern American Poetry.
Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins UP, 1993.

Steiner, George.  Real Presences.  Chicago:  U of Chicago P, 1991.

Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Art in Action: A Christian Aesthetic. Grand Rapids,
MI.: Eerdmans, 1980.
 
 

E.  Postmodernism & Christianity

        1.  General Studies of Postmodernism:

Alston, William. A Realist Conception of Truth. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press, 1996.

Anderson, Walter Truett.  Reality Isn't What It Used To Be:  Theatrical
Politics, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern
World.  San Francisco:  Harper and  Row, 1990.
        (postmodernism, the "social construction of reality," &
contemporary culture)

Borgman, Albert.  Crossing the Postmodern Divide.  Chicago:  U of Chicago
Press,1992.
        (postmodernism & modern technologies:  not for the faint of heart!)

Connor, Stephen.  Postmodernist Culture.  Oxford:  Basil Blackwell, 1989.

Grenz, Stanley.  A Primer on Postmodernism.   Grand Rapids:  Eerdman's,
1995.
        (as the title suggests:  basic introduction to postmodernism by
leading Chrstian critic)

Groothuis, Douglas.  Truth Decay : Defending Christianity Against the
Challenges of Postmodernism. Downers Grove:  Intervarsity Press, 2000.

Norris, Christopher.  What's Wrong with Postmodernism:  Critical Theory and
the Ends of Philosophy.  Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins UP, 1990.
 

Veith, Gene Edward, Jr.  Postmodern Times : A Christian Guide to
Contemporary Thought and  Culture.  Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1994.

Walsh, Brian and J. Richard Middleton.  The Transforming Vision:  Shaping a
Christian  Worldview.  Downers Grove:  Intervarsity Press, 1984.

Walsh, Brian and J. Richard Middleton.  Truth is Stranger than It Used To
Be.  Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1995.

        2.  Postmodernism & Theology

Allen, Diogenes.  Christian Belief in a Postmodern World:  The Full Wealth
of Conviction. Louisville:  Westminster, 1989.

Dockery, David S., ed.  The Challenge of Postmodernism: An Evangelical
Engagement.  Grand  Rapids:  Baker, 1995.

Erickson, Millard J.  Postmodernizing the Faith : Evangelical Responses to
the Challenge of Postmodernism.   Grand Rapids:  Baker, 1998.

Ingraffia, Brian D.  Postmodern Theory and Biblical Theology:  Vanquishing
God's Shadow. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Knight,  Henry H., III.  A Future for Truth : Evangelical Theology in a
Postmodern World. Nashville:  Abingdon,  1997.

Oden, Thomas C.  After Modernity-- What?:  Agenda for Theology.  Grand
Rapids:   Academie Books, 1990.

Phillips, Timothy R. and Dennis L. Okholm, eds.   Christian Apologetics in
the Postmodern World. Downers Grove:  Intervarsity Press, 1995.
 
 

        3.  Evangelism;  or, How to Reach the Postmodern Generation X of Today:

Garber, Steven.  The Fabric of Faithfulness:  Weaving Together Belief and
Behavior During the University Years.  Downers Grove:  Intervarsity Press,
1997.

Keyes, Dick.   Chameleon Christianity : Moving Beyond Safety and
Conformity.  Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999.

Long, Jimmy.  Generating Hope:  A Strategy for Reaching the Postmodern
Generation.  Downers Grove:  Intervarsity    Press, 1997.
 
 

F.  Postmodernism, Mass Media, Pop Culture, the Arts, & other Stuff Today:

Groothuis, Douglas.  The Soul in Cyber-Space.   Grand Rapids:  Baker, 1997.

        (computers & the Internet)

Hibbs, Thomas S.  Shows About Nothing : Nihilism in Popular Culture from
the Exorcist to Seinfeld.  Dallas:  Spence, 1999.

Myers, Kenneth A.  All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes : Christians &
Popular Culture.  Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1989.

Postman, Neil.  Amusing Ourselves to Death.  New York:  Penguin, 1986.

        (television and its effects on worldview)

Postman, Neil.  Technopoly:  The Surrender of Culture to Technology.  New
York:  Knopf, 1992. (the ideology of technology & science)

Schaeffer, Franky.  Sham Pearls for Real Swine:  Beyond the Cultural Dark
Ages--A Quest for  Renaissance.  Brentwood:  Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1990.
        (general critique of Evangelical "Christian Culture"--and its
ignorance of art)

Schultze, Quentin et al.  Dancing in the Dark: Youth, Popular Culture, and
the Electronic Media. Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdman's,1993
        (rock music, MTV, television, youth films, and lots more)

Stone, Ronald H. Telling the Truth: How to Revitalize Christian Journalism.
Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1996.

Vitz, Paul. Psychology As Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1994.

Appendix.  Useful Bibliographies Containing Many other Resources:
 

Gill, David W. "Study List: The Christian Mind Curriculum." Chapter in The
Opening of the Christian Mind.  Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press,
1989.

        This chapter in Gill's book (sadly out-of-print) sketches a broad
scheme of study -- not specific titles -- to provide a solid base for
Christian intellectuals. See also the regular bibliography for the whole
book, which includes some out-of-the-way recommendations.

Marsden, George M. "Getting Specific: A Readable Appendix." In The
Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997.

        At the end of his whole book explaining the ideal of Christian
scholarship, Marsden mentions some of the salient names and publications
that stand as exemplars of what he's talking about.

Walsh, Brian J. and J. Richard Middleton. "A Bibliography We Can't Live
Without." In Discipleship of the Mind, by James W. Sire, 219-43. Downers
Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity  Press, 1990.

        Middleton and Walsh revised and updated the bibliography from their
book, The Transforming Vision, and Jim Sire appended it here in his own
excellent book. This bibliography is organized by topics and by academic
discipline.

**=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=**

Harold K. Bush, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor
Dept. of English
Saint Louis University
221 N. Grand Blvd.
Saint Louis, MO  63103

314-977-3616;   fax  314-977-1514;  home 636-861-3929
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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