The Church
CT Book List

Have you seen the Christianity Today book list of the most influential evangelical books of the last 50 years www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/october/23.51.html ?
The article says: “These are the books that have shaped evangelicalism as we see it today—not evangelicalism we wish or hope for.” How true. There is a lack of theological books on the list. Absent are books that challenge your ideas of Christianity, that shape your beliefs or lead you to a depth of understanding that is demanded by Scripture. Instead, there are “practical” how-to books that emphasize experience instead of belief. This feeds the individualistic Christianity of the age perfectly. We want application…how does this Christianity help or facilitate my life? No matter what Christianity really stands for or what it means, forget Who God is or who I am, just cut to the chase and make my life “better”.
So, I think the article is right…what we see is what we got. A shallow Christianity that is individualistic and devoid of theological substance. And, what beliefs we do have are those we choose or decide are good for us, which fits into our lifestyle. My wife likes to say about modern evangelicalism: a mile wide and an inch deep. What results is a pharisaical set of principles that are adopted to insulate you and you family from the evil world or an “easy believism” that anything goes. Neither alternative is Scriptural.
Theological probing that questions what you believe and how you act so that you “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” [Eph. 4: 13, 14] is largely missing on the CT book list. There is no longer unity of faith and belief as determined by the Sovereign God of Scripture but many faiths and beliefs as determined by individual Christians. Could it be that modern American evangelicals really have become “little popes”?