Trebuie să ştii să plăteşti: dacă vrei să fii liber se impune să nu-ţi fie frică de moarte.Brice Parain Reply
Un crestin.
If you want to be changed, read a good book. Or so said A. W. Tozer: "The things you read will fashion you by slowly conditioning your mind." Of the millions of books published this century, only a few hundred have shaped people in extraordinary ways. Here are some of those—100 books that had a significant effect on Christians this century.
Christianity Today asked more than 100 of its contributors and church leaders to nominate the ten best religious books of the twentieth century. By best books, we meant those that not only were important when first published, but also have enduring significance for the Christian faith and church. We have included books which do not always prompt agreement, but which are important for evangelical Christians to read and contend with. A few "period" pieces also made the list of 90.
By far, C. S. Lewis was the most popular author and Mere Christianity the book nominated most often. Indeed, we could have included even more Lewis works, but finally we had to say: "Enough is enough; give some other authors a chance."
Readers are welcome to send us their own nominations of the top ten religious books of the twentieth century, with comments.
THE TOP 10Mere Christianity
The best case for the essentials of orthodox Christianity in print.
David S. Dockery
2. Dietrich BonhoefferThe Cost of Discipleship
Leaves you wondering why you ever thought complacency or compromise in the Christian life was an option.
Mark Buchanan
3. Karl BarthChurch Dogmatics
Opened a new era in theology in which the Bible, Christ, and saving grace were taken seriously once more.
J. I. Packer
4. J. R. R. TolkienThe Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
A classic for children from 9 to 90. Bears constant re-reading.
J. I. Packer
5. John Howard YoderThe Politics of Jesus
Some 30 years after this book was published, the church has found itself culturally in a more marginal position, and this book is making wider and wider sense.
Rodney Clapp
6. G.K. ChestertonOrthodoxy
A rhetorically inventive exposition of the coherence of Christian truth.
David Neff
7. Thomas MertonThe Seven Storey Mountain
A painfully candid story of one Christian soul's walk with grace and struggle, it has become the mark against which all other spiritual autobiographies must be measured.
Phyllis Tickle
8. Richard FosterCelebration of Discipline
After Foster finishes each spiritual discipline, you not only know what it is, why it's important, and how to do it—you want to do it.
Mark Buchanan
9. Oswald ChambersMy Utmost for His Highest
A treasury of daily devotional readings that has fed the souls of millions of Christians in the twentieth century. Future generations of Christians must continue to draw from this treasury.
Richard J. Mouw
10. Reinhold NiebuhrMoral Man and Immoral Society
Introduced a breathtakingly insightful, shrewd, and cunning realism about human sin, especially in its social expressions,
rooted in biblical theology and a penetrating appraisal of the dark era into which the Western world had entered.
David P. Gushee
THE OTHER 90in alphabetical order by author
Chinua AchebeThings Fall Apart
Alcoholics Anonymous(The Big Book of A.A.)
Roland BaintonHere I Stand
Karl BarthThe Epistle to the Romans
Ernest BeckerThe Denial of Death
Robert N. Bellah, ET AL.Habits of the Heart
Georges BernanosThe Diary of a Country Priest
Dietrich BonhoefferLetters and Papers from Prison
David BoschTransforming Mission
Walter BrueggemannThe Prophetic Imagination
Emil BrunnerTruth as Encounter
Albert CamusThe Plague
Edward John CarnellThe Case for Orthodox Theology
Willa CatherDeath Comes for the Archbishop
Dorothy DayThe Long Loneliness
Annie DillardPilgrim at Tinker Creek
Documents of Vatican IIThe Souls of Black Folk
T. S. EliotFour Quartets
Ralph EllisonInvisible Man
Jacques EllulThe Technological Society
Shusaku EndoSilence
Anne FrankThe Diary of Anne Frank
Victor FranklMan's Search for Meaning
Sigmund FreudCivilization and Its Discontents
The FundamentalsShantung Compound
Carol GilliganIn a Different Voice
Graham GreeneThe Power and the Glory
John Howard GriffinBlack Like Me
Gustavo GutiérrezA Theology of Liberation
Philip Paul HallieLest Innocent Blood Be Shed
Stanley HauerwasA Community of Character
Václav HavelLiving in Truth
Richard HaysThe Moral Vision of the New Testament
Carl F. H. HenryGod, Revelation, and Authority (six volumes)
John R. HerseyHiroshima
Abraham HeschelThe Prophets
Aldous HuxleyBrave New World
William JamesThe Varieties of Religious Experience
Franz KafkaThe Trial
Martin Luther King, Jr.A Testament of Hope
Thomas S. KuhnThe Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Harper LeeTo Kill a Mockingbird
Aldo LeopoldA Sand County Almanac
C. S. LewisThe Chronicles of Narnia
(especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and The Screwtape Letters
Christianity and Liberalism
Alasdair C. MacIntyreAfter Virtue
Malcolm X and Alex HaleyThe Autobiography of Malcolm X
George M. MarsdenFundamentalism and American Culture
FranÇois MauriacViper's Tangle
Jürgen MoltmannThe Crucified God
Richard John NeuhausThe Naked Public Square
Lesslie NewbiginThe Gospel in a Pluralist Society
Reinhold NiebuhrThe Nature and Destiny of Man (two volumes)
H. Richard NiebuhrChrist and Culture
Kathleen NorrisThe Cloister Walk
Henri J. M. NouwenThe Wounded Healer
Anders NygrenAgape and Eros
Elizabeth O'ConnorJourney Inward, Journey Outward
Flannery O'ConnorA Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories
Rudolf OttoThe Idea of the Holy
J. I. PackerKnowing God
Alan PatonCry, the Beloved Country
Jaroslav PelikanJesus Through the Centuries
Josef PieperThe Four Cardinal Virtues
Michael PolanyiPersonal Knowledge
Chaim PotokThe Chosen
Walter RauschenbuschChristianity and the Social Crisis
Dorothy L. SayersThe Mind of the Maker
Albert SchweitzerThe Quest of the Historical Jesus
Nevil ShuteOn the Beach
Ronald J. SiderRich Christians in an Age of Hunger
Alexander SolzhenitsynThe Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
John R. W. StottBasic Christianity
Paul TournierThe Meaning of Persons
A. W. TozerThe Pursuit of God
Barbara TuchmanThe Guns of August
Evelyn UnderhillMysticism
Miroslav VolfExclusion and Embrace
Gerhard von RadOld Testament Theology
Andrew F. WallsThe Missionary Movement in Christian History
Max WeberThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Simone WeilWaiting for God
Elie WieselNight
Charles WilliamsDescent into Hell
Walter WinkEngaging the Powers
Philip YanceyThe Jesus I Never Knew
Related ElsewhereMost of these books are still in print and can be purchased at the Christianity Online bookstore and other book retailers.
Near the end of 1999, HarperCollins published a list of The 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century. John Wilson, Editor at Large of Christianity Today and Editor of Books & Culture, was on the nominating committee.
Iosif Ţon: Credinţa adevărată
Warren W. Wiersbe:Criza integrităţiiGene Edwards: Istoria celor trei regi
John Foxe:Istoria martirilor
In Fapte 21 Pavel este salvat si capturat dintr-o ambuscada a evreilor care urmarea linsarea lui. Capitolul 22 ne rezuma o tentativa esuata de convingere a evreilor privitoare la buna credinta a lui Pavel ca patriot. Incepand din capitolul 23 avem in cronica timpului o serie de procese in care Pavel este invinuitul. Rand pe rand, Pavel compare in fata Sinedriului, in fata guvernatorului Felix(cap. 24), a lui Festus(cap. 25), a regelui Irod Agrippa II si „sotiei” acestuia(cap. 25 & 26), pentru ca in final sa apara chiar in fata Cezarului de la Roma.
As vrea sa ma opresc putin asupra starii de spirit a lui Pavel. In toate aceste procese, Pavel este chemat sa se apare. Dar el nici gand sa fie defensiv, desi la prima vedere asta ar face. Pavel nu este deloc intimidat, nici blazat, nu are nici pe departe „tonusul” infrantului, al incoltitului. Pentru el lanturile nu par sa fie decat niste accesorii nitel incomode insa utile pentru a putea avea acces la amvoane cu audienta ilustra. Pavel pare sa se apere, dar el de fapt ataca. Aparenta sa neimpunatoare la prima vedere, pielea tabacita de bataile iudeilor si bataia soarelui in atatea calatorii, lanturile, sunt total insignifiante, ca si cand n-ar exista, neglijabile. Pavel transforma orice contact uman intr-o ocazie de a predica pe Rastignitul pe care candva Il persecutase.
Tonusul psihic al omuletului in lanturi, nu este al unui inlantuit ci al unui vultur liber. Pavel emana o libertate a spiritului care sfideaza lanturile, temnita , parasii din nesfarsitele procese. Nici cea mai vaga urma de timorare, de intimidare. In fata lui Agrippa Pavel indrazneste ca un leu, pana acolo ca putin ar mai fi lipsit ca „ispita” crestinarii sa devina irezistibila pana si pentru rege.
Pavel nu stie de trecerea anilor, de tabacirea pielii, de caderea parului si a dintilor, nu-i pasa de pierderea elasticitatii muschilor. Pavel are alura psihica a unui spartan in fata caruia orice obstacol pare sa se spulbere. Fostul rabin devenit apostol al lumii are o singura „obsesie” in fata careia orice altceva are dreptul sa taca si sa se dea la o parte. Pavel vorbeste regilor si guvernatorilor cu amabilitate, dar si cu un curaj feroce. Nu iarta nici o fata, oricat de luminata, din raza „sagetilor” Evangheliei lui, evanghelia lui Pavel. Pavel este un Cupidon neobosit, fara concediu, care vizeaza orice inima de om cu sagetile iubirii lui Hristos.
Cu cat „tupeu” nonsalant taifasuieste Pavel cu Agrippa.Proces? Lanturi? S-au evaporat ... :
FA 26:2 – Rege Agrippa, mă consider fericit că urmează să mă apăr astăzi înaintea ta, cu privire la toate lucrurile de care sunt acuzat de iudei, 3 mai ales pentru că tu eşti cunoscător al tuturor obiceiurilor şi controverselor iudeilor. De aceea, te rog să mă asculţi cu răbdare. 19 De aceea, rege Agrippa, n-am fost neascultător faţă de viziunea cerească, 20 ci le-am proclamat mai întâi celor din Damasc, apoi celor din Ierusalim şi din întreaga regiune a Iudeii, iar apoi neamurilor că trebuie să se pocăiască şi să se întoarcă la Dumnezeu făcând fapte vrednice de pocăinţă.
25 Însă Pavel i-a răspuns: – Nu mi-am ieşit din minţi, prea alesule Festus, ci cuvintele pe care le rostesc ţin de adevăr şi de o judecată sănătoasă! 26 Pentru că regele ştie despre aceste lucruri, eu pot să-i vorbesc deschis, întrucât sunt convins că nu i-a scăpat nimic din acestea, deoarece nu s-au întâmplat într-un colţ! 27 Crezi tu în Profeţi, rege Agrippa? Ştiu că tu crezi!
28 Însă Agrippa i-a zis lui Pavel: – Curând mai vrei tu să mă convingi să mă fac creştin!
29 Pavel i-a răspuns: – Fie curând, fie târziu, mă rog lui Dumnezeu ca nu numai tu, ci toţi cei ce mă ascultă astăzi să devină aşa cum sunt eu, în afară de lanţurile acestea!
„Toţi cei ce mă ascultă astăzi să devină aşa cum sunt eu” – iata obsesia lui Pavel! Cum era Pavel si voia ca toti sa fie ca el? Un indragostit lulea de Dumnezeu. Un indragostit care nu se putea abtine, striga in gura mare: ce pacatos nenorocit am fost, si ce incredibila iubire mi-a aratat Dumnezeu!
Asa deci,indragostiti lulea de Dumnezeu, ii voia Pavel pe toti cu care se intalnea. Ce pui de Leu ... !