Foundational History Books for Christians

I feel like I still don’t have much insight into the books I’m reading. Maybe the problem is, in part, not having an adequate grounding in history itself.

So, I went back into my library and found a book whose bibliography I used to count on when I was a young Christian. It’s called, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian World View, by Walsh and Middleton. It breaks down foundational Christian books into disciplines. It’s a wonderful Christian booklist, the best I’ve ever come across. I’ve even read some of the books! (I used to focus on art and literature, because I was an English major at the time.) The book was printed in 1984, so all the books in the bibliography are older than that.

Here are two of its lists — on history and politics:

History
Bebbington. Patterns in History. (IVP, 1980)
Butterfield. Man on His Past: The Study of the History of Historical Scholarship. (Cambridge, 1969)
Butterfield. Writings on Christianity and History, ed. McIntire. (Oxford, 1979)
Gilkey. Reaping the Whirlwind: A Christian Interpretation of History. (Seabury, 1977)
*Marsden & Roberts. A Christian View of History?. (Eerdmans, 1975)
McIntire. The Focus of Historical Study: A Christian View. (Inst. for Christian Studies, n.d.) Hard to find.
McIntire. God, History and Historians. (Oxford, 1977)
Niebuhr. Faith and History: A Comparison of Christian and Modern Views of History. (Scribner’s, 1949)

Politics
Dooyeweerd. The Christian Idea of the State. (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1967)
Ellul. The Politics of God and the Politics of Man. (Eerdmans, 1972)
Goudzwaard. A Christian Political Option. (Wedge, 1972)
Lyon. Karl Marx: A Christian Assessment of His Life and Thought. (IVP, 1979)
Malloch & Harper. Where Are We Now?: The State of Christian Political Reflection. (Univ. Pr. Of Am., 1981)
Marshall, Paul. Thine Is the Kingdom: A Biblical Perspective on Government and Politics Today. (M.M.& S., 1984)
Mott. Biblical Ethics and Social Change. (Oxford, 1982)
Mouw. Politics and the Biblical Drama. (Baker, 1983)
Nash. Social Justice and the Christian Church. (Mott Media, 1983)
Wolterstorff. Until Justice and Peace Embrace. (Eerdmans, 1984)
Yoder. The Politics of Jesus. (Eerdmans, 1972)

If some of you are looking for a political foundation without regard to our current troubles, partisan conflicts, etc., maybe look at some of these. Most should be available in the U.S. if your library does Inter-Library Loans, though not all states will have them.

If others wish to read some of these titles, we could read them together.

On this list, I started Reaping the Whirlwind: A Christian Interpretation of History by Langdon Gilkey and did not like it at all. I read about 50 pages of it and decided not to continue. I don’t often give up on a book I’ve started, but this book was endless.

Mostly what I disliked about it was that it just seemed to be a rehash of many of the books and ideas that were popular in the mid-70’s when it was written. Why not read Marshall McLuhan or The Organization Man, or other books of that time period yourself, instead of this rehash? He even talks quite a bit about Marxism. Why not skip the rehash and read Marx yourself?

Also, it just seemed like much of the material was outdated.

Here’s another list from October 2020 off the internet. Hearts and Minds is a Christian bookseller in Dallastown, PA. Long but worth browsing.

https://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/2020/10/recent-books-on-faith-and-politics-a...