Christian Literature

[Amanda Grace]

I was wondering if anyone has any amazing (or not so amazing) books they've read concerning Christianity lately?

I've recently made my way through most of Rob Bell's stuff, The Five Love Languages and Captivating.  Each and every one  blew my mind.

[Michael Kirk]

If you're interested in Christian-themed fiction, I would recommend the Space Trilogy by C.S.Lewis: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

[Mollybee]

yes, yes, and yes! :) I just got done reading Perelandra. it is one of those books that makes you want to stop and chew on it paragraph by paragraph.

[Danielle]

YES YES YES. Like The Chronicles of Narnia but on a higher lever. Kinda. But SO GOOD.

[Aravis the Tarkheena]

LOVE THAT TRILOGY!!!!!!!

[Amanda Grace]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I'll definitely check those out as soon as I find some free reading time, they sound awesome.

[E_Lewis]

Anything but amish romance novels. UGH. Karen Kingsbury, how you sicken me.

 

Anything by C.S. Lewis. My dad has been trying to get me to read The Screwtape Letters for years.

 It's about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In it a demon is writing letters to his nephew, giving him advice on how to trick people into damnation.

 

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature.

It's about a freshman girl who is struggling to understand her own world view and the will of God. She's been recently kicked out of her church and youth group, bullied and ignored by all her old church friends, and her parents are barely speaking to her for a reason that isn't really understood until a little way into the book. She meets a new friend in her science class and she bonds with him. The major issue in the story revolves around the fact that they're learning evolution in biology, something her super religious classmates heavily protest, but she actually likes. The main character isn't perfect and just plain wrong sometimes, but she's still only 14, so she's still figuring out how she feels about everything. There's a major plot hole, depending on which translation of the Bible you've read, and a couple smaller issues the author never resolves but it's still an interesting story.

 

If I Perish, by Esther Ahn Kim.

I haven't even finished it yet and I already love it. I'm not sure if it's really "literature", because that's usually fiction and this is an autobiography. It's about a Korean woman who lived during the Japanese occupation of Korea in WW2. In that time, they persecuted Christians and forced them to bow down to Shinto shrines, and placed a shrine in every chuch. Many complied, but Ahn, the author, refused to bow and started hiding from the police. In it she describes hpw scared she is of the kinds of torture christians went through in their prisons, her struggles with faith, her love of The Lord, and how his love constantly gives her strength. throughout all the book, whenever she thinks she's about to die, she is happy. She says she is so overjoyed that she has the honor of dying for the Lord. The way she is so hopeful, even in the face of tyranical Nazi's that give you the choice: sin or die, she loves God so strongly, you can feel it through the pages.

 

[E_Lewis]

My mistake. It is not Karen Kingsbury who sickens me. Perhaps Beverly Lewis, but I can't wuite recall who it was right now.

[Cori]

Ugh... Both of them. *puke*

[Aravis the Tarkheena]

Screwtape Letters was SO AWSOME AND INSIGHTFUL!!!! That book was what made Lewis popular in the first place.

[Carrie Woodward]

Definitely read The Screwtape Letters! It is worth your time (and not even terribly long in the first place), and has helped me gain so much insight!

[Kiri]

Stay away from the Jan Karen's "Mitford Series", it's so dull.

If you're looking for a good inspirational biography I would try and find "Bruchko" by Bruce E. Olsen. It's about a young man that leaves everything behind to go be a missionary in the jungles of Venezuela and reach out to the indigenous natives.

Other good authors are Max Lucado and C.S. Lewis. 

[Em Johnson]

I really like Ted Dekker. Anything by Ted Dekker. And Frank Peretti.