Book List #1 - Christian Texts



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I am going to blog on several book lists... yes... I know I am dancing around all over the place and owe you, the reader, several other promised entries. I desire to read now more than ever. On these book lists are texts I have read and ones that I have not. Some in part, some fully read.

This list will be concerning the ones I want on my desk at home, at my finger tips concerning the Christian faith. Some I have read and read again. Others of these I have used as reference or have read or studied certain sections.

So here are some I wish to have as essentials, as real books, not electronic editions, sitting right on my desk:

• The Lutheran Essentials Library

  

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• The Lutheran Study Bible
• The Lutheran Service Book
• Luther's Catechism
• Treasury of Daily Prayer
• The Lutheran Book of Prayer
• Reading the Psalms with Luther
• Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions
• Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible
• The Lutheran Difference
• The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition
• Broken - by Jonathan Fisk (his weekly videos at www.worldvieweverlasting.com have been essential to my continued learning and growth. This book is a must read)
• The Canon of Scripture - by F. F. Bruce (the complete history of how our current text of scripture came to be covering many of the church forefathers)
• Lutheranism 101 (all about why we worship and believe the way we do)
• The Church from Age to Age: A History from Galilee to Global Christianity - by Edward Engelbrecht
• Take Eat, Take Drink - by Ernest Bartels (by far my favorite Christian book read yet. Thoroughly covers the history of the Sacrament of the Altar)
• The Didache - an early Christian church handbook of liturgical worship. One of the earliest records of how worship was conducted in the earliest Christian congregations
• Add to this list a copy of both the old blue and old red LCMS hymnals

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This is the short list. There are others, but these are the ones I want to get sooner than later. I would not mind having them as eBooks either, but I still prefer the heft and feel of a good text and the ability to right notes in the margins.

I have the Lutheran Service Book listed above (actually on loan from my 15 year old son). I also have an 1899 Lutheran Pocket hymnal from Concordia Publishing found for me by a good old LCMS Lutheran, John Davis. It is now a prized, protected addition to my library.

Why do I desire these? In the pages of all are the depth and insight I need to grow as a Christian. These do not save me or "enhance" my salvation in any way. They will enhance my studies, my ability to understand and my lay attempts at apologetics.

At the core is scripture... Sola Scriptura. Let scripture interpret scripture.

These books will help me understand the Word... the son incarnate, crucified, buried and risen again. That is my desire.

Soli Deo Gloria