Most Influential Books: Here’s My List, What’s Yours?

from Patrick Morley

Volume 291
August 4, 2008

I love books. Not long ago someone asked, “What books have most influenced your life?” Great question! So I got to work and made my list.

I own a lot of books, but these are the books that have owned me....

• The Bible (of course)
• The Practice of the Presence of God (passion for God), Brother Lawrence
• The Master Plan of Evangelism (how Jesus raised up men), Robert Coleman
• The Problem of Pain (best explanation of suffering), C.S. Lewis
• God in the Dock (collection of short articles), C.S. Lewis
• Mere Christianity (faith explained), C.S. Lewis
• Dwight Moody (biography), by D.R. Moody
• My Utmost for His Highest (daily devotional), Oswald Chambers
• Pensees (axiomatic sayings), Pascal
• Orthodoxy (tied with Pensees for most Post-It notes), G. K. Chesterton
• The Screwtape Letters (the final word on creativity), C.S. Lewis
• Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, Soren Kierkegaard
• True Spirituality (my first book of theology), Francis Schaeffer
• Escape from Reason (wisdom on modern thought), Francis Schaeffer
• Letters of Francis Schaeffer (shows pastor’s heart, practical wisdom), Francis Schaeffer
• Man’s Search for Meaning (insight into human nature), Viktor E. Frankl
• Your God Is Too Small (misconceptions about God), J.B. Phillips
• The Idea of the Holy (just for the mysterium tremendum prose), Rudolf Otto

What is the ultimate test of a book? For me, it’s that I repeatedly find myself picking it back up to review an idea—or at least thinking about an insight or concept from it’s pages.

Do you have a list? If so, would you please send it to me?

If not, you may want to go through the same exercise I did and put one together. I’m sure I missed a few, but it was fun!

Yours for changed lives,

Patrick Morley, Ph.D.