This past week I had the privilege of teaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary a course on Christian Classics. I was asked at one point for a list of key works that I consider every Christian should read. Such lists are always eclectic to some degree. The following is no exception: I doubt many others would list Samuel Pearce’s memoirs by Fuller or Ann Griffiths. But here is my current list of Christian classics arranged chronologically.
- The Odes of Solomon
- Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit
- Augustine, Confessions
- Augustine, On the Trinity
- Macarius, Spiritual Homilies
- Ailred of Rievaulx, On Spiritual Friendship
- Thomas Cranmer, The Book of Common Prayer
- John Calvin, The Institutes
- John Owen, On the Mortification of Sin in Believers
- Jonathan Edwards, On Religious Affections
- The Hymns of Charles Wesley
- John Newton and William Cowper, The Olney Hymns
- The Hymns and Letters of Ann Griffiths
- Andrew Fuller, The Memoirs of Samuel Pearce
- Adolphe Monod, Les Adieux
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
- C. S Lewis, The Weight of Glory
- John Piper, Desiring God