The right book at the right time in your life can be like activating a railroad switch that changes your trajectory. Here are five books that did that for me.
1. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
As a teenager with aspirations of being a 1960s radical, I was of course influenced by memoirs of the men I hoped to emulate. Memoirs like Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman’s Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture and Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale’s Seize the Time. However, one of these memoirs left a truly lasting impression that has followed me into my thirties: The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
On paper, it’s a strange book to be so significant for me. After all, most of Malcolm’s time in the public spotlight was spent as a spokesperson for a racist anti-white group (I’m white) that was hostile to the Christian beliefs that would eventually become central to my identity.
But what stands out in this book are not the beliefs that Malcolm held at any given time, but his willingness to undergo painful transformation in search of truth. In the process of writing this autobiography, Malcolm went from unquestioning loyalty to the cultic Nation of Islam to being number one on their hit list–all because he had too much integrity to stick up for what he knew was false. This willingness to follow the truth wherever it lead, even to his eventual death, left a lasting impression on me. To this day, Malcolm is an unlikely hero of mine and I recommend this book whenever I have the opportunity to do so.
Click here to get The Autobiography of Malcolm X on Amazon.
2. Brave New World
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is like the lesser known cousin to George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel 1984. Whereas Orwell’s book (which came almost 20 years after Huxley’s) fictionalized an authoritarian Soviet Union that openly lied to and oppressed its people, Huxley’s vision was of a populace conditioned from conception to want only what the state saw as fit for the maintenance of a perfect social order, which ended up being mindless entertainment and superficial sexuality. Huxley’s approach to dystopia was far more subtle, but it was also more reflective of the benign western authoritarianism that was developing across Europe and the United States wherein the state worked its way into every area of private life, supposedly for the good of the people.
Brave New World taught me to ask questions and think critically–to not simply trust that those in authority knew best but to take control of my own destiny. It also taught me, in the words of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, to be “very glad when something affects [me] deeply, and regard the accompanying pains as an enrichment.”
Click here to get Brave New World on Amazon.
3. The Fire That Consumes
While I was baptized at a young age at my grandmother’s church, I also fell away from her faith at a young age. One of the reasons for my pre-pubescent apostasy was my difficulty with the traditional view of hell as eternal conscious torment. It wasn’t until years later that I became acquainted with the Seventh Day Adventist denomination and learned of the annihilationist view of hell wherein the damned are ultimately destroyed instead of being kept alive to be tormented for all eternity.
Edward Fudge’s book The Fire That Consumes provided a thorough study of the biblical data which not only made me more open to the Christian faith but also taught me to love biblical research, a love which continues to this day. I remember wishing that I, like Fudge, might be able to provide a thorough and convincing analysis on such an important theological topic. I hope that my own research and analysis skills are better for having read Fudge in my formative years.
Click here to get The Fire That Consumes on Amazon.
4. Mere Christianity
Not long into my acceptance of Christian faith, I discovered and read C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Well, technically, I listened to it. I found a reading of it online and listened to it on numerous occasions at work.
Lewis disabused me of any false notions I had that Christianity was for idiots. He made me want to be an apologist, a philosopher, and an intellectual for Christ. He had a cogent way of making arguments, but he also wielded the English language the way a great artist wields a paintbrush–and sometimes the way a master swordfighter wields a deadly blade. Lewis taught me that Christian should be intelligent and beautiful.
Click here to get Mere Christianity on Amazon.
5. On the Incarnation
C.S. Lewis’ introduction to a popular English translation of Athanasius’ On the Incarnation exhorts us to read more old books than new, perceiving that, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.”
Cicero put it another way, noting that the purpose of education is to free ourselves from “the tyranny of the present” by giving us historical context and teaching us that there have been other ways of thinking and being in the world than just the ones we’re accustomed to.
I don’t think Athanasius was the first church father I read. That honor probably belongs to Justin Martyr. However, he is the first church father I read for the pure joy of it. His On the Incarnation is brilliant, evocative, and free from the modern evangelical biases which I had been taught to think simply were Christianity. He challenged me to think of the church as a global and ancient body and not merely the local or national faith community I was familiar with. He freed me from the tyranny of the present and made me want to read great books that were much older than I was. He also showed me why Jesus is so central to my faith and why both a divine and human Jesus must be defended if we are to have Christianity at all. Finally, Athanasius made me want to be a theologian of an ancient faith that was worthy of defending even in a modern era, and I’ll never be the same after reading him.
Click here to get On the Incarnation at Amazon.