Dec 15, 2015

There aren't just the top 25; there are many, many more writings worth your time

By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

It’s been about a year since Christian History Institute polled past authors to select the most influential Christian writings of all time. Over 70 of those authors helped form our list of 25, which we covered extensively in the latest Christian History magazine

Since its release, we’ve enjoyed some hearty discussions about what did and didn’t make the cut: here from the Pietist Schoolman, here and here from the blog Cranach, and here from Ligonier Ministries. I’ve written a response, which you can read here.

Today we’ll take a look at the rest of the list from #27 through #100. But first #26, the runner up that really almost made the cut: the Apostles’ Creed. Many folks have asked why they didn’t see it on the list, and I want to assure you that it was in fact featured in the magazine: you can read about it here.

#27–50 tied in terms of number of votes, so the fairest thing to do is to just list them alphabetically by title of writing. I’ve included links to the four which we pulled out of this portion of the list to feature in the magazine.

Drumroll please....

John Foxe, Book of Martyrs [Actes and Monuments]

H. R. Niebuhr, Christ and Culture

Frederich Schleirmacher, The Christian Faith and On Religion: Speech to its Cultured Despisers

Eusebius, Church History

Karl Barth, Commentary on Romans [which was mentioned in our article on Barth’s Church Dogmatics]

Council of Trent, Decrees

Second Vatican Council, Decrees

Constantine, Edict of Milan

Charles Wesley’s hymns

Teresa of Ávila,Interior Castle

John Wesley, Journal and Standard Sermons

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From Birmingham Jail”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Origen, On First Principles

G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The Philokalia

Philip Jakob Spener, Pia Desideria

Ignatius Loyola, Religious Exercises

Peter Lombard, Sentences

Thérèse of Liseux, The Story of a Soul

Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy


From #51–100, we additionally picked as short features for the magazine The Apostolic Tradition, Athanasius’ Life of Antony, Cyril of Alexandria’s On the Unity of Christ, Bernard of Clairvaux’ Homilies on the Song of Songs, Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, Julian of Norwich’s ShowingsJohn of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain, and Catherine Marshall’s Beyond OurselvesAnd we could have picked many, many more!


Get the magazine here and explore the stories behind ALL of our top writings!

Tags history • History of Christianity • historyof theology

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