Reading List

Editor's note: To mark the end of Dr. Rob Rayburn’s “My Life in Great Books” series, we thought it fitting to compile a comprehensive list of his recommendations—all 152 of them. Dr. Rayburn is arguably the most well-read minister in our presbytery, and anyone who has had the privilege of hearing him preach or lecture can attest to his vast knowledge. If he recommends a book, you can be sure it’s worth your time. Why not print out this list and start working your way through it?

Church History

• Life of John Knox, by Thomas McCrie

• History of the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, by J.H. Merle D’Aubigné

• Sketches from Church History, by S.M. Houghton

• Church History, by Eusebius (translated by Paul Maier)

• The Spreading Flame, by F.F. Bruce

• From Christ to Constantine, by M.A. Smith

• Pelican History of the Church, Vol. 3, by Owen Chadwick

• The Reformation: A History, by Diarmaid MacCulloch

• The Story of the Scottish Reformation, by A.M. Renwick

• Light in the North, by J.D. Douglas

• A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, by Mark Noll

• History Behind the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, by George Hutchinson

• Evangelicalism Divided, by Iain Murray

• Princeton Seminary, by David Calhoun

• The Presbyterian Controversy, by Bradley Longfield

• The Soul of the American University, by George Marsden

• Reforming Fundamentalism, by George Marsden

Autobiography

• Confessions by St. Augustine (translated by Henry Chadwick)

• Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

• Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan

• The Holy War by John Bunyan

• An Account of the Life of David Brainerd by David Brainerd

• The Journals of Jim Elliot by Jim Elliot

• Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

• Memoir by Thomas Boston

• The Tapestry by Edith Schaeffer

• My Spirit Rejoices by Elisabeth Leseur

• Diary by Andrew Bonar

• Memoirs by James Fraser of Brea

• A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

Biography

• Life of Anthony by Athanasius

• A Memoir of Henry Martyn by John Sargent

• Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot

• Jerome by J.N.D. Kelly

• Golden Mouth by J.N.D. Kelly

• George Müller of Bristol by A.T. Pierson

• Jonathan Edwards by Iain H. Murray

• Jonathan Edwards by George M. Marsden

• George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore

• The Divine Dramatist by Harry S. Stout

• The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Iain H. Murray

• The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi by St. Bonaventure

• Francis of Assisi by Lawrence S. Cunningham

• Memoir and Remains of Robert McCheyne by Andrew A. Bonar

• Saint Patrick of Ireland by Philip Freeman

• Here I Stand by Roland H. Bainton

• Charles Simeon of Cambridge by Hugh S. Hopkins

• Charles Simeon by H.C.G. Moule

• The Life of Alexander Whyte by G.F. Barbour

• John Wesley by Stephen Tomkins

• J.I. Packer by Alistair McGrath

• John Stott by Timothy Dudley-Smith

• G.K. Chesterton by Michael Ffinch

• Jack by George Sayer

• A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot

• William Ewart Gladstone by David W. Bebbington

• William Wilberforce by Kevin Belmonte

Apologetics

• Justin Martyr’s Apology

• C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity

• Augustine’s The City of God

• Phillip Johnson’s Darwin on Trial

• J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism

• Josh McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict

• Clement of Alexandria’s The Exhortation to the Heathen

• Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who is There

• Peter Jones’s The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back

• Augustine’s Confessions

• C.S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy

• Charles Colson’s Born Again

• Don Stephens’s War and Grace

• Philosophers Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of Eleven Leading Thinkers

• John Stott’s Why I Am a Christian

• Armand Nicholi Jr., The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life

• G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man

• Cornelius Van Til’s The Defense of the Faith

• Colin Brown’s Philosophy and the Christian Faith and Reason for the Hope Within

• John Polkinghorne’s The Faith of a Physicist

• Richard Pratt’s Every Thought Captive

• Tim Keller’s The Reason for God

• Lee Strobel’s The Case for… series

• N.T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God

• Michael Denton’s Evolution: A Theory in Crisis

• Phillip Johnson’s Darwin on Trial

• Peter Kreeft’s Between Heaven and Hell

• Bruce Lockerbie’s Dismissing God: Modern Writers’ Struggle Against Religion

• Stuart Jackman’s The Davidson Affair

Spiritual Life

• Thomas Boston’s Memoir

• Augustine’s Confessions

• Thomas á Kempis’s Imitation of Christ

• John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

• Henry Scougal’s The Life of God in the Soul of Man

• Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Living and Holy Dying

• Thomas Watson’s Heaven Taken by Storm

• William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armor

• Philip Doddgridge’s The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul

• John Newton’s Cardiphonia

• The works of John Piper and Sinclair Ferguson

• John Donne’s Devotions

• Walter Marshall’s The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

• Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost for His Highest

• John Owen’s On the Mortification of Sin, On Temptation, and On Indwelling Sin in Believers

• Jerry Bridges’s The Pursuit of Holiness

• Kelly Kapic’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation

• J. C. Ryle’s Holiness

•  J. I. Packer’s Knowing God

• Samuel Rutherford’s Letters

Sermons

• J.N.D. Kelly’s Golden Mouth: The Life of John Chrysostom

• Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in its Fourfold State

• William Bridge’s A Lifting Up for the Downcast

• Jonathan Edwards’s Charity and its Fruits

• John Piper’s Desiring God

• Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s Exposition on Ephesians and Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

• Alexander Whyte’s The Walk, Character, and Conversation of Jesus Christ our Lord and Lord Teach Us to Pray

• Klaas Schilder’s Christ in his Sufferings, Christ on Trial, and Christ Crucified

Prayer

• Martin Luther’s A Simple Way to Pray

• Book of Common Prayer

• Sheldon Vanauken’s A Severe Mercy

• The Prayers of Peter Marshall

• The Private Devotions of Lancelot Andrewes

• The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

• C.S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms

• E.M. Bounds’s Power in Prayer and The Necessity of Prayer

• Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer

• Alexander Whyte’s Lord Teach us to Pray

• P.T. Forsyth’s The Soul of Prayer

• C.S. Lewis’s Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer

• Thomas Goodwin’s The Return of Prayers

Poetry

• William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads

• Anna Waring’s “Father I Know That All My Life”

• John Betjemen’s “Christmas”

• G. K. Chesterton’s poems

• Amy Carmichael’s poems

• Dante’s Divine Comedy

• Milton’s Paradise Lost

• John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”

• George Herbert’s poems

• Lord Byron’s “The Destruction of Sennacherib”

• Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias”

• Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday Night”

• Charles Kingsley’s poems

Books likely to be unfamiliar with Presbyterians

• Bartolomé de las Casas’s The Only Way to Draw All People to a Living Faith

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together

• Elisabeth Leseur’s My Spirit Rejoices

• Simone Weil’s Waiting for God

Books to die with

• Pilgrim’s Progress (Parts I and II) by John Bunyan

• Memoirs by Thomas Boston

• The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge

• The Saints’ Everlasting Rest by Richard Baxter

• Dying Thoughts by Richard Baxter

• Rutherford’s Letters by Samuel Rutherford (Nos. CCXLVII, XCII, and CXXVII in the Bonar edition)

• With Mercy and with Judgment by Alexander Whyte (specifically “The Swelling of the Jordan”)

• Thomas Shepard by Alexander Whyte (specifically “The Thought of My Fast-Coming Death”)

• Thomas Goodwin on the Spiritual Life by Alexander Whyte (specifically “Practice the Presence of God”)

• The Cardiphonia by John Newton (specifically “Christ All-Sufficient”)

• Farewell by Adolphe Monod

• Paradiso by Dante Alighieri (specifically the last canto)

• The Sands of Time by Anna Cousin (based on the words of Samuel Rutherford)