Christian Literature

Flannery O’Connor originally published the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” in the 1953 anthology The Avon Book of Modern Writing. It subsequently appeared in several other collections and is today one of O’Connor’s most famous works. It is also one of the best-known examples of the Southern Gothic genre, which O’Connor explored in most of her writing. This genre is characterized by its emphasis on the interplay between grace and the... Read A Good Man is Hard to Find Summary

Clive Staples Lewis (1888-1963), known as C.S. Lewis, was a British writer and academic renowned for his works on Christianity and best remembered today as the author of the children’s book series The Chronicles of Narnia, which famously includes the novels The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) and Prince Caspian (1951), among others. He graduated from Oxford University and taught there until 1954 when he became Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at... Read A Grief Observed Summary

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Sheldon Vanauken’s celebrated memoir A Severe Mercy is a moving portrait of deep love confronted with suffering and death. Published in 1977, A Severe Mercy was written by Vanauken from the compilation of many years’ worth of journal entries, hand-written letters, and firsthand accounts of the people and events that the narrative relates. As a Yale- and Oxford-trained scholar and professor of English and an accomplished poet and author, Vanauken brings his literary expertise to... Read A Severe Mercy Summary

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A Voice in the Wind (originally published in 1993) by American author Francine Rivers is an amalgam of history, Christian allegory, and romance novel. Set in ancient Rome, the novel uses the decadence and cruelty of the Roman Empire as a backdrop for a tale of religious persecution, forbidden love, and the triumph of faith. Rivers has written extensively in the Christian fiction genre, producing four multi-book series and several stand-alone novels, including Redeeming Love... Read A Voice in the Wind Summary

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One of the most influential Christian novels of the 19th century, Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ is a classic historical fiction story of redemption and forgiveness, reimagining the stories of peripheral biblical figures, from Roman tax collectors and charioteers, to people with leprosy, fishermen, Pharisees, shepherds, John the Baptist, and Pontius Pilate. The story traces the life of the fictional main character Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish nobleman from Jerusalem whose future is... Read Ben-Hur Summary

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Bruchko is a 1978 memoir by American author Bruce Olson about his time working as a Christian missionary in Venezuela and Colombia with an Indigenous tribe, the Barí. Olson depicts his missionary work as based on a divine mission that followed a spiritual experience he had as a youth. At 19, he moved from the United States to South America, where he went to the jungles in the Colombian-Venezuelan border to convert the infamously violent... Read Bruchko Summary

English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy wrote “Channel Firing” in May of 1914, only three months before the beginning of WWI. Eerily prophetic, the poem depicts the global chaos and destruction that soon followed. Overlaid by tones of satire and irony, the poem details the violence of war and humanity’s age-old proclivity toward it through a conversation between God and the dead. Hardy, although best known for his earlier novels, received positive reception concerning war... Read Channel Firing Summary

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The Chronicle of the Narváez Expedition by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was originally written in 1542, with a reprint in 1555. The chronicle follows Cabeza de Vaca’s memories of his survival after the expedition (led by Pánfilo de Narváez) failed and broke apart, and his subsequent peregrinations through the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. His chronicle stands as an important primary document of the age of the conquistadores. Of particular importance are Cabeza... Read Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition Summary

Confessions, or Confessiones in the original Latin, is a book of spiritual reflection, philosophical commentary, and Biblical interpretation produced in the last century of the Western Roman Empire. Written around the year 400 CE by Saint Augustine of Hippo, a prominent Catholic bishop in the Roman province of Africa, the book is sometimes called the world’s first autobiography. Although this claim is inaccurate, Confessions has nevertheless born enormous influence on personal narrative writing in the... Read Confessions Summary

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The Inferno is the first book of Dante Alighieri’s great medieval epic, The Divine Comedy: a monument of world literature. Written between 1308 and 1320, the three-part poem charts Dante’s transformative journey through Hell and Purgatory to Heaven itself. The poem’s form—terza rima, an endlessly circling pattern of interweaving triple rhymes—reflects its major theme: the wisdom, power, and love of the trinitarian Christian God. Like every book of the Comedy, Inferno ends with the word... Read Dante's Inferno Summary

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Published in 2004, Gilead is Marilynne Robinson’s second novel and the first in the Gilead trilogy, which includes Home (2008) and Lila (2014). The story is written as a letter from dying Congregationalist minister John Ames to his young son. The letter is a bittersweet account of John’s life. With a slow, thoughtful pace and intimate tone, John shares past family memories and resolves an old personal grievance with his best friend’s son. As John... Read Gilead Summary

The Gospel of John is the last of the four biblical gospels in the New Testament, each offering a biography of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is traditionally attributed to John, one of Jesus’s 12 disciples and a major leader in the early church, though some scholars dispute that attribution. The Gospel of John, most likely written in the latter decades of the first century CE, is part of the Johannine corpus... Read Gospel of John Summary

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Hannah Hurnard’s 1955 novel Hinds’ Feet on High Places is an allegorical portrayal of purgation, progress, and ascent within the spiritual life. Born to Quaker parents, Hurnard struggled with her faith in her youth but experienced a powerful conversion at the age of 19. Inspired, she gained theological training in England and went on to author almost two dozen books over the course of her life, including a sequel to Hinds’ Feet entitled Mountain of... Read Hinds’ Feet on High Places Summary

In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do by American Minister Charles Monroe Sheldon is a Christian novel that encourages readers to lead their lives according to the compassionate teachings of Jesus Christ. Published in 1896, it was an instant bestseller in the UK and the US. With more than 30 million copies sold, it was one of the best selling American novels of all time.The work is based on Sheldon’s lectures to his congregation in... Read In His Steps Summary

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Kisses From Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption, published in 2009, is a Christian memoir that follows the life of Katie Davis as she moves from the suburbs of Nashville to Uganda after high school to care for abandoned and orphaned children. This study guide refers to the 2011 First Howard Books hardcover edition.  Kisses From Katie is broken into 21 chapters that linearly tell the story of how Katie moved from Tennessee... Read Kisses from Katie Summary

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Left Behind (1995) is the first book in the series of the same name. It was co-authored by Tim LaHaye, a minister and prophecy scholar, and Jerry B. Jenkins, an author of mystery novels, biographies, and Christian fiction. The series is a work of speculative Christian fiction based on biblical prophecies related to the so-called “end times.” Its plot opens with “the Rapture,” a cataclysmic event discussed in biblical prophecy in which Jesus returns to... Read Left Behind Summary

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Mere Christianity by Clive Staples Lewis (more commonly known as C. S. Lewis) was first published in 1952 as an expansion of some radio talks Lewis gave during World War II. Though Lewis is best known for his children’s fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia (particularly The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Mere Christianity is likely Lewis’s most famous work of Christian apologetics—a genre dedicated to addressing various critiques of Christian theology.  Lewis was... Read Mere Christianity Summary

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Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T.S. Eliot that portrays the final days of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was assassinated and martyred in 1170. Written in 1935 for the Canterbury Festival, the play explores themes of faith, power, martyrdom, and the conflict between church and state. Many stage performances of the play have been produced, and Murder in the Cathedral has also been adapted for television, film, and opera... Read Murder in the Cathedral Summary

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St. Augustine of Hippo’s On Christian Doctrine is a theological work offering guidance to the interpretation of biblical scripture, as well as Augustine’s precepts for effective rhetorical practice and Christian teaching. The work first appeared in 397 AD. Augustine’s expertise on these topics is twofold. As Bishop of Hippo, Augustine brings ecclesiastical authority and an extensive knowledge of the scriptures to his theology; as a former teacher of rhetoric, he speaks as an expert when... Read On Christian Doctrine Summary

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G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy was published in 1908 as an awaited follow-up to his acclaimed essay collection entitled Heretics, which was published three years earlier. A short and pithy volume, Orthodoxy lays out the author’s philosophical convictions aligning with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and the Christian religion. Chesterton questions the resonance and popularity of Christianity, and he attempts to answer this question by saying that it is the perfect blend of the... Read Orthodoxy Summary

Published in 1938, Out of the Silent Planet is a science fiction novel by author C. S. Lewis, best known for his bestselling fantasy children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia. It is the first book in Lewis’s Space Trilogy, followed by Perelandra (1943) and That Hideous Strength (1945). With Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis sought to write a narrative that differed from contemporary popular science fiction, which he believed promoted harmful ideas like human... Read Out of the Silent Planet Summary

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Perelandra is the second installment in author C.S. Lewis's science fiction Space Trilogy series. The 1943 novel is preceded by Out of the Silent Planet (1938) and succeeded by That Hideous Strength (1945). Plot SummaryLewis is summoned by philologist Elwin Ransom to his home in the English country. There, Lewis recounts the events of Ransom’s journey to Malacandra and becomes fearful of this visit. Along the way, he realizes he forgot his bag on the train. As he approaches... Read Perelandra Summary

Phantastes: a Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858) by George MacDonald is an extended fairy tale in which Anodos, a youth just coming of age, enters a hauntingly beautiful fairy wood. Ever pursuing his ideal of beauty, he meets many of the inhabitants of the enchanted world, overcoming obstacles as he learns what it means to become not just a man but a good man, eventually achieving union with the divine.George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a... Read Phantastes Summary

Prince Caspian is a young adult fantasy adventure novel by British author C. S. Lewis. Published in 1951, the novel was Lewis’s second addition to the popular Chronicles of Narnia series. In this story, the Pevensie children suddenly return to Narnia, where hundreds of years have passed since they defeated the evil White Witch and reigned as kings and queens at Cair Paravel. The children now confront the new challenge of helping their ally Prince... Read Prince Caspian Summary

Purgatorio is the second of three poems that make up The Divine Comedy by Florentine statesman, poet, and philosopher Dante. In The Divine Comedy, Dante travels first through Hell (the poem Inferno), then through Purgatory (the poem Purgatorio), and finally through Heaven (the poem Paradiso). Purgatorio follows Dante on his journey from the shores of Purgatory, through the seven levels where penitents atone for the seven deadly sins, and into the Garden of Eden. The... Read Purgatorio Summary

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Redeeming Love is a 1991 historical romance novel written by Francine Rivers. It is set in California in the 1850s, during the Gold Rush. Taking its inspiration from the Biblical Book of Hosea, it is built upon the foundation of the author's newfound Christian beliefs.The Prologue opens the novel in New England, 1835. Sarah, a 6-year-old girl, meets her father for the first time and learns that she is the product of an adulterous affair... Read Redeeming Love Summary

Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 to after 1416), is a classic work of Christian spirituality from the late Middle Ages, as well as the first book written in English by a woman. Originally in Middle English, Julian's text has been translated numerous times into more modern forms of English, and its spiritual insights have attracted such admirers as T.S. Eliot and Pope Benedict XVI. Few details are known about the author's... Read Revelations of Divine Love Summary

Shaken is a 2018 book by NFL quarterback Tim Tebow. In his book, Tebow shares personal experiences, inspirational stories, and biblical scriptures and parables to encourage readers to develop a strong Christian faith. Tebow reveals how his faith has helped him develop a strong identity, find his life’s purpose, and remain hopeful throughout life’s challenges. He coaches the reader to remain open to God’s influence in their life by maintaining strong friendships and asking for... Read Shaken Summary

Setting himself the task of authoring a modern-day apologetic, N. T. Wright offers Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense (2006) as a contemporary treatment of the same ground covered by C. S. Lewis in his classic Mere Christianity, published in 1952. Simply Christian attempts to lay out as clearly and simply as possible the fundamental manner in which Christianity makes sense, and why it is capable of answering the most important questions that the human... Read Simply Christian Summary

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a sermon written by Jonathan Edwards, pastor of the Congregational church of Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1741, during the period of the First Great Awakening. Edwards delivered the sermon to remarkable effect on July 8, 1741, in Enfield, Connecticut, during a revival tour, and it was published shortly thereafter in Boston. Though its hellfire-and-brimstone style is not typical of Edwards’s work, it quickly became his best-known publication... Read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Summary

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Summa Theologica (originally Summa Theologiae) is the principal work of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), an Italian friar, philosopher, and theologian and one of the central figures in medieval Christian thought. Aquinas wrote the Summa between 1265 and 1273, intending it to serve as a summation of all known theological learning for seminarians. He never finished the massive Latin work, but what he completed has influenced Roman Catholic theology and Western thought in general. Aquinas’ central... Read Summa Theologica Summary

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Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s spiritual autobiography, tracing the steps that led up to his conversion to Christianity. This guide refers to the 1955 Harcourt Brace & Company/Harvest Books edition. Lewis was born in 1898 in Ireland and begins his story with his childhood in Belfast, where he and his family lived in a maze-like house full of empty attics and heaps of books. He was close with his older brother, and together they... Read Surprised by Joy Summary

Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (2010) is a memoir written by Catholic priest Gregory (Greg) Boyle. The memoir relays Boyle’s experiences serving as the leader of the Dolores Mission Church in the gang capital of the world, Los Angeles. Boyle, a Jesuit, performed his earliest missionary work in an impoverished Bolivian village. There, Boyle gained two lifelong attributes: an unyielding desire to help the poor and the ability to speak Spanish... Read Tattoos on the Heart Summary

That Hideous Strength (1945) is a science-fiction novel by writer C.S. Lewis. Lewis subtitled the book “a Modern Fairy-tale for Grown-ups.” The book is the third installment in the renowned Space Trilogy, which also includes Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Though characters and plot devices from the two previous books appear in That Hideous Strength, it’s written so that it can be read as a standalone book. Like Lewis’s other work, the novel... Read That Hideous Strength Summary

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The Abolition of Man is a short book about education and moral values by C.S. Lewis. Its full title is The Abolition of Man; or, Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools. The book originated as a series of three lectures that Lewis, a noted literature scholar and popular Christian writer, delivered at the University of Durham in England in 1943.Lewis begins by critiquing a... Read The Abolition of Man Summary

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is a sacred text in the Latter Day Saint tradition, commonly called Mormonism. It was first published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr., an American religious leader from upstate New York. The book presents itself as a collection of ancient documents attributed to various authors, spanning several centuries of composition. These documents tell the story of an offshoot group of ancient Israelites who traveled by ship... Read The Book of Mormon Summary

Elizabeth George Speare’s The Bronze Bow was originally published in 1961 and won the Newberry Medal for excellence in children’s literature in 1962. Told in the third-person limited perspective of the young Jewish protagonist, Daniel, this work of historical fiction takes place in Galilee during the time of Jesus. The Jews search earnestly for a leader to liberate Israel from Roman occupation, and Daniel dedicates his life to avenge his father’s murder at the hands... Read The Bronze Bow Summary

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The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel, originally published in 1998, follows Strobel’s nonfiction, journalistic investigation into the claims of Christianity. Strobel is both a journalist and a lawyer—he earned an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Yale before joining the Chicago Tribune as a legal affairs editor. But when his wife, Leslie, becomes a Christian, Strobel launches into an “all-out investigation into the facts surrounding the... Read The Case For Christ Summary

The Christmas Box (1993) is a holiday-themed, loosely autobiographical novel by American author Richard Paul Evans. It tells the story of Richard, a workaholic who learns important lessons about the meaning of Christmas and the importance of family. He makes these discoveries with the help of an elderly widow and an angelic entity who visits Richard in his dreams. Evans was a 31-year-old advertising executive and had no formal writing experience when he self-published The... Read The Christmas Box Summary

This guide refers to the 2003 Penguin Classics edition, translated by Henry Bettenson and edited by G.R. Evans. Your page numbers may vary. Please note that this guide covers only Part 1 (Books 1-10) of the 22 books of City of God. Begun in 413 AD, only a few years after the Sack of Rome, City of God is Augustine’s rejoinder to pagan misconceptions of Christianity. In the aftermath of a disastrous and unprecedented attack... Read The City of God Summary

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The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) is a fictional novella by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). The story raises questions about what is important in life through Tolstoy’s observation of social interaction and individual priorities.Tolstoy was born into aristocracy and was popular at a time when Russia was under the autocratic rule of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor of the Romanov Dynasty. Tolstoy, whose best-known works are War and Peace (1867) and... Read The Death of Ivan Ilyich Summary

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IntroductionThe Everlasting Man is a work of philosophical history, written by G. K. Chesterton in 1925. In The Everlasting Man, Chesterton seeks to demonstrate the providential ordering of history and the uniqueness of human beings in general and of the person of Jesus Christ in particular. Ever since its publication, the book has been widely influential, even contributing to the intellectual conversion of C. S. Lewis, who called it the best popular apologetic he knew.A... Read The Everlasting Man Summary

The Four Loves, written by C.S. Lewis and originally published in 1960, presents the author’s philosophical and theological differentiation of four types of love: Friendship, Affection, Eros, and Charity. Affection, Friendship, and Eros are classified as “natural” (116) loves, while Charity receives a higher distinction in that it is closest to the type of love that is defined by the maxim “God is love” (1), the premise that underlies all of his arguments. Charity is... Read The Four Loves Summary

C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, first published in serial form in 1945 and as a novel the following year, explores an unnamed narrator’s experiences in Heaven and Hell. Although Lewis is best known for his contribution to children’s literature in The Chronicles of Narnia series, he also wrote many works of adult fiction and nonfiction. Almost all of his published work is either explicitly or implicitly religious in nature; many of his nonfiction works are... Read The Great Divorce Summary

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The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jewish rabbi and author, is Cahn’s debut novel. The Harbinger is described as a Christian novel; it uses and relies on themes, concepts, and scripture that are prevalent in the Old Testament. It was initially published in September 2011 by FrontLine, an imprint of Charisma House, which is a religious publishing group dedicated to spreading religious messages. FrontLine is the imprint of Charisma House used for discussing cultural... Read The Harbinger Summary

Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter was published in 1948 and is one of his most famous Catholic-themed novels. These novels comprise the majority of his literary oeuvre and underscore a recurring theme in Greene’s works: moral crisis and true faith. Greene’s iconoclastic views of Catholicism are explored through complex protagonists like Henry Scobie, the flawed hero of The Heart of the Matter, who are torn between passion and faith.The Heart of the Matter... Read The Heart of the Matter Summary

The Hiding Place, published in 1971, is written by Corrie ten Boom and co-authors John and Elizabeth Sherrill. Ten Boom’s autobiographical account centers on her family’s work with the Dutch underground during World War II. The authors consistently center the way the family's Christian faith shaped their experiences and inspired them to persevere. The Hiding Place was adapted into a 1975 movie and another film, Return to the Hiding Place (2013), expands on the story... Read The Hiding Place Summary

The Horse and His Boy, published in 1954, is the fifth of the seven books that comprise C. S. Lewis’s young readers series The Chronicles of Narnia. The first of the books, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, was published in 1950. Lewis published an additional book in the series each year through 1956. The Horse and His Boy was published in 1954. Lewis later requested the reading order of the books be changed... Read The Horse And His Boy Summary

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The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life by Father James Martin was published in 2010. The book is an accessible introduction to Ignatian spirituality, a famous Catholic devotional practice developed in the 16th century by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Father Martin, who left a career in corporate finance to become a Jesuit priest, is a prolific and popular writer on Catholic topics. He is an editor-at-large... Read The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything Summary

The Last Battle, first published in England in 1956, is the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of fantasy novels by celebrated British writer and literary scholar C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), is considered a classic of children’s literature. The Last Battle represents the culmination of the series’ themes and characters and won the Carnegie Medal, which annually recognizes an outstanding book for children. Although The Last... Read The Last Battle Summary

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the best-known work of author and literary critic Clive Staples (C. S.) Lewis. Published in 1951, the novel presents complex moral conundrums through the genre of children’s fantasy. Lewis later noted that his inspiration for the novel came from a recollection of images that he found particularly striking, such as a picture of a faun holding an umbrella in a snow-covered wood. The Lion, the Witch and... Read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Summary

The Long Loneliness, by Dorothy Day, is a memoir about Day’s lifelong relationship with Christianity, and how it pulled her away from communism and socialism toward a movement that combined political theory with Christian love and community. The memoir also tells the story about how her devotion to Catholicism allowed her to meet Peter Maurin, another devoted Catholic and liberal who created part of the theoretical basis of the Catholic Worker Movement.Day begins her book... Read The Long Loneliness Summary

The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis is the sixth book published in The Chronicles of Narnia series but the first in terms of the series’ chronology. Published in 1955, the middle-grade fantasy novel is the prequel to the famous The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It deals with themes of Temptation and Its Consequences, Creative Selflessness Versus Destructive Pride, and the Loss of Innocence. Lewis was a famous British author and lay theologian... Read The Magician's Nephew Summary

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The Pilgrim’s Progress was written by John Bunyan and published in 1678. The work is a religious allegory that is among the most famous works of English literature; many critics also consider it the first English example of the novel genre. Like Christian, the main character in Part 1, Bunyan’s path to Christianity was a journey. After rejecting religion early in his life, Bunyan devoted himself to God and became a Puritan. He believed the... Read The Pilgrim's Progress Summary

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Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory (originally published in 1940) recounts the tragic story of the whisky priest. His religion has been outlawed, his faith shattered, and his history—like his name—all but erased. He’s relentlessly pursued by the lieutenant, whose secular beliefs are as passionate as others’ spiritual beliefs. The priest’s mere presence endangers those he once served, and he constantly struggles to fulfill his duty to bring comfort and absolution to others at... Read The Power and the Glory Summary

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The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren, an American evangelical Christian pastor and author, is a work of Christian literature that offers guidance by means of a 40-day personal, spiritual journey. Warren brings his experience in spiritual leadership to this text, exploring what he identifies as God’s five purposes for human life on Earth. This framework seeks to serve as a blueprint for Christian living in the modern... Read The Purpose Driven Life Summary

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is a 2008 book by Timothy Keller that seeks to provide a rational defense of the Christian faith. As such, it is a book on religion and society that falls within the subgenre of Christian apologetics. Keller (1950-2023) was the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and is the author of many notable works of popular Christian theology, with a particular focus... Read The Reason for God Summary

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The Screwtape Letters, first serialized in The Guardian and then published as a single volume in 1942, is an epistolary novel by British author CS Lewis. The epilogue, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” was published in 1959. Like much of Lewis’s work—which includes the beloved Chronicles of Narnia children’s series—the novel is a work of Christian apologetics that uses letters penned by a senior devil named Screwtape to expound on different elements of Christian theology and... Read The Screwtape Letters Summary

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In The Secret Chord (2015), Geraldine Brooks, a former journalist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of historical fiction, turns to the story of the biblical King David. She uses this figure from religion and history to study human nature. Her David is far from a saint. He is a complex character: “a man who dwelt in the searing glance of the divine, but who sweated and stank, rutted without restraint, butchered the innocent, betrayed those... Read The Secret Chord Summary

The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith (1948) is Thomas Merton’s account of his early life and spiritual journey toward becoming a monk at the age of 26. Merton wrote the book in two-hour daily stints of personal time in a monastery, and it was published when he was in his early thirties. Although the book focuses on Merton’s spiritual life and includes long passages of religious reflection, the book is conceived as an... Read The Seven Storey Mountain Summary

The Shack is a novel by Canadian author William P. Young and his first published work. Young is the son of Christian missionaries who worked in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and he grew up alternately amid the Dani ethnic group and in missionary boarding schools before the family moved back to Canada. Having settled in the United States as an adult, Young began writing stories for his children and friends. The earliest version... Read The Shack Summary

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The Silmarillion is a collection of works by J. R. R. Tolkien, published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien, in 1977. The form the novel takes is mythopoeic, meaning that Tolkien creates his own mythology for the fictionalized world he’s created. Tolkien describes the universe of Eä, which contains the lands of Valinor, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle-earth. Both of Tolkien’s more famous works—The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—also take place in this universe.The... Read The Silmarillion Summary

The Silver Chair is a novel for children written by British author C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) and is part of his world-famous fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. Originally published in 1953 as the fourth installment of the series, The Silver Chair is also referred to as the sixth book, since newer editions often publish them in chronological order by storyline rather than by publication date. This guide is based on the 2009 Kindle edition.Through its... Read The Silver Chair Summary

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The Violent Bear It Away is a fiction novel published in 1960 by the American author Flannery O’Connor. Written in O’Connor’s trademark Southern Gothic style, the book chronicles the inner turmoil of a 14-year-old boy from rural Tennessee as he struggles against his destiny of becoming a prophet. It is an expansion of O’Connor’s 1955 short story, “You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead,” which is presented here as the book’s first chapter.This study guide... Read The Violent Bear It Away Summary

C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a fantasy novel for children originally published in 1952 as the third installment of The Chronicles of Narnia series. However, because recent editions of the series tend to number the books in chronological order of storytelling rather than the original order of publication, it is most often counted as the fifth volume in modern printings. The Chronicles of Narnia includes seven novels: The Lion, the... Read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Summary

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C.S. Lewis’s final novel, Till We Have Faces, is a retelling of the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. The novel is narrated by Orual, the Queen of Glome, and is framed as a complaint against the gods. Orual is the eldest of three sisters; her siblings are Redival and Istra—whom Orual calls Psyche. Orual is an ugly child who resents Redival’s beauty and whose only friend is her tutor, a Greek slave called the... Read Till We Have Faces Summary

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Winner of the 2007 Christian Book Award, Charles Martin’s 2006 novel, When Crickets Cry: a Novel of the Heart, is a work of Christian fiction set in rural Georgia. It tells the story of Reese, a former heart surgeon who’s hiding from his past and his relationship with Annie, a hopeful little girl with a failing heart. When these two characters unexpectedly cross paths, their stories become intertwined, bringing healing to Reese’s past and hope... Read When Crickets Cry Summary

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Wise Blood is Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, and it is concerned with the journey of a young man named Hazel Motes. At the beginning of the narrative, Motes is traveling to Taulkinham, Tennessee, after fighting for four years in World War II. Before his military service, Motes had always intended to become a preacher like his grandfather before him, but his war experiences cause Motes to become an anti-religious nihilist.After arriving in Taulkinham, Motes encounters a young... Read Wise Blood Summary

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