Christian Literature

The Pilgrim’s Progress was written by John Bunyan and published in 1678. The work is a religious allegory that is among the most famous works of English literature; many critics also consider it the first English example of the novel genre. Like Christian, the main character in Part 1, Bunyan’s path to Christianity was a journey. After rejecting religion early in his life, Bunyan devoted himself to God and became a Puritan. He believed the... Read The Pilgrim's Progress Summary

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Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory (originally published in 1940) recounts the tragic story of the whisky priest. His religion has been outlawed, his faith shattered, and his history—like his name—all but erased. He’s relentlessly pursued by the lieutenant, whose secular beliefs are as passionate as others’ spiritual beliefs. The priest’s mere presence endangers those he once served, and he constantly struggles to fulfill his duty to bring comfort and absolution to others at... Read The Power and the Glory Summary

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The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren, an American evangelical Christian pastor and author, is a work of Christian literature that offers guidance by means of a 40-day personal, spiritual journey. Warren brings his experience in spiritual leadership to this text, exploring what he identifies as God’s five purposes for human life on Earth. This framework seeks to serve as a blueprint for Christian living in the modern... Read The Purpose Driven Life Summary

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is a 2008 book by Timothy Keller that seeks to provide a rational defense of the Christian faith. As such, it is a book on religion and society that falls within the subgenre of Christian apologetics. Keller (1950-2023) was the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and is the author of many notable works of popular Christian theology, with a particular focus... Read The Reason for God Summary

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The Screwtape Letters, first published in serial format in The Guardian and then as a single volume in 1942, is an epistolary novel by British author C. S. Lewis; its epilogue, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” was published in 1959. Like much of Lewis’s work, the novel is a work of Christian apologetics, using letters penned by a senior devil named Screwtape to expound on different elements of Christian theology and morality, exploring themes of Human... Read The Screwtape Letters Summary

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In The Secret Chord (2015), Geraldine Brooks, a former journalist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of historical fiction, turns to the story of the biblical King David. She uses this figure from religion and history to study human nature. Her David is far from a saint. He is a complex character: “a man who dwelt in the searing glance of the divine, but who sweated and stank, rutted without restraint, butchered the innocent, betrayed those... Read The Secret Chord Summary

The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith (1948) is Thomas Merton’s account of his early life and spiritual journey toward becoming a monk at the age of 26. Merton wrote the book in two-hour daily stints of personal time in a monastery, and it was published when he was in his early thirties. Although the book focuses on Merton’s spiritual life and includes long passages of religious reflection, the book is conceived as an... Read The Seven Storey Mountain Summary

The Shack is a novel by Canadian author William P. Young and his first published work. Young is the son of Christian missionaries who worked in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and he grew up alternately amid the Dani ethnic group and in missionary boarding schools before the family moved back to Canada. Having settled in the United States as an adult, Young began writing stories for his children and friends. The earliest version... Read The Shack Summary

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The Silmarillion is a collection of works by J. R. R. Tolkien, published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien, in 1977. The form the novel takes is mythopoeic, meaning that Tolkien creates his own mythology for the fictionalized world he’s created. Tolkien describes the universe of Eä, which contains the lands of Valinor, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle-earth. Both of Tolkien’s more famous works—The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings—also take place in this universe.The... Read The Silmarillion Summary

The Silver Chair is a novel for children written by British author C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) and is part of his world-famous fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. Originally published in 1953 as the fourth installment of the series, The Silver Chair is also referred to as the sixth book, since newer editions often publish them in chronological order by storyline rather than by publication date.This guide is based on the 2009 Kindle edition.Through its enduring... Read The Silver Chair Summary

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The Violent Bear It Away is a fiction novel published in 1960 by the American author Flannery O’Connor. Written in O’Connor’s trademark Southern Gothic style, the book chronicles the inner turmoil of a 14-year-old boy from rural Tennessee as he struggles against his destiny of becoming a prophet. It is an expansion of O’Connor’s 1955 short story, “You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead,” which is presented here as the book’s first chapter.This study guide... Read The Violent Bear It Away Summary