A Basic Reading List (from Tim)

We don’t have a standard reading list, for the very good reason that we can’t. The mentor tailors the reading to the student. But I can give you an idea of the menu I’m picking from, and the sort of things I might have someone read. So here’s a start, anyway.

The Bible. First, last, and in between. Big chunks of it. You’re going to pay particular attention to applying it. You’re going to learn to read well by paying attention to how the biblical authors read other portions of the Bible; the book teaches you how to read it as you go.

If we’re working on reading well, you’ll probably also encounter Through New Eyes by James Jordan and Deep Exegesis by Peter Leithart. If you need an easy start, Living by the Book by Hendricks is great. You’re going to read the appendix on BAR outlining from my Dead Man’s Faith.

I place a high value on re-wilding your worldview (which will also make you a better reader of the Bible), and to that end I’ll probably have you read N. D. Wilson’s Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl and/or Death by Living, Leithart’s Traces of the Trinity, C. S. Lewis’ excellent essays “The Weight of Glory” and “The Inner Ring,” and Heidler’s Set Yourself Free.

If you’re up to it, you may tackle meatier reads like Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine, Athanasius On the Incarnation, and St. Patrick’s Confession. I also value good fiction as a way of waking us up to certain realities, and in that vein, Wisdom Hunter by Randall Arthur and No Graven Image by Elizabeth Eliot are both valuable, and My Name is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok are simply unparalleled, especially taken together.

You’re probably going to read Brother Lawrence, Practicing the Presence of God.

In terms of prayer, you’re going to spend time with the Book of Common Prayer, and possibly some other resources for historical prayer. You’re going to read the Psalms repeatedly, and if I need to pound the lesson in, maybe The Case for Psalms by N. T. Wright and The Prayer of Protection by Joseph Prince. Depending on where you’re at with listening, Hearing God by Dallas Willard or The Art of Listening Prayer by Seth Barnes might also be helpful. If you really need to dial it down to basics, I’m not above resorting to Children, Can You Hear Me? by Brad Jersak.

As you start to dig into the story of our people, you’re going to need to read the story of the Bible in chronological order, which means Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, Luke, Acts, and Revelation. We’ll probably tack on Leo Donald Davis, The First Seven Ecumenical Councils, and perhaps some works by Jaroslav Pelikan and Justo Gonzalez to go deeper. Francis MacNutt’s The Nearly Perfect Crime will fill in some of the things other writers leave out. Along the way, you’re certainly going to read the great creeds: Apostles’ Creed, Nicea/Constantinople, Definition of Chalcedon, The Westminster Confession, The Decrees of the Council of Trent, the 39 Articles, and so on.

I regard an understanding of the sacraments as central to the kind of life we live as Christians. You’ll probably read (at least selections from) Schmemann’s For the Life of the World, Ralph Smith,The Baptism of Jesus the Christ, Leithart, The Baptized Body (or Priesthood of the Plebs, if you want to do the scholarly heavy lifting) and Nevin, The Mystical Presence.

If I’m training you in teaching, I will also have you read widely in a particular modern controversy. It might be the Federal Vision controversy, Van Til versus the evidentialists, the biblical counselors versus the evangelical psychotherapists, the content of saving faith controversy in the Free Grace movement, or something comparable. My main requirements are that there be a good bit written about it on both sides, and that you don’t care about the content of the controversy. As long as you don’t have a dog in the fight, pick whichever one you want. This is important, because we’re going to study the dos and don’ts of how we conduct ourselves in controversy, and you’ll see more clearly if you don’t have a dog in the fight. (Then, when you go back to a controversy that matters to you, you’ll be amazed at the scurrilous, unloving conduct that was invisible to you before.)

If I’m training you in teaching, you’re probably going to read Tongues Aflame: Learning to Preach from the Apostles by Roger Wagner and Audience Adaptation in the Sermons and Speeches of St. Paul by Jay Adams.

If I’m training you in healing, you’ll probably encounter the writings of Francis MacNutt, Hinsdale’s Suffering and the Nature of Healing, Larchet’s Theology of the Body, New Flesh, New Earth  by Andrew Sandlin, the works of Hierotheos Vlachos, as well as some of the secular classics on trauma by writers like Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, and Babette Rothschild.

Of course, we’re responsive to situation. If you’re married, I’ll probably have you read Bloch & Bloch’s excellent translation of the Song of Songs every day for a month. If you need to focus on fellowship, I might have you read 1 John every day, and work your way through Sigrist’s A Life Together. Bringing that out to a contemplation of how to live in cities, I might have you read Rich Bledsoe’s Metropolitan Manifesto. If you’re having trouble slowing down and thinking logically, I’m going to send you through a couple of Plato’s dialogues or part of Euclid’s Elements. If you’re interested in apologetics, you could do worse than engage the example of Metropolitan Damascene in Christ the Eternal Tao, which showcases an older and more winsome approach to apologetics without compromise. A Meaningful World by Wiker and Witt is useful, and you may also spend time with authors like Bahnsen, Rushdoony, Budziszewski, William Dembski, and Scott Oliphint. If you need to learn to communicate sharply, I’ll have you read James, Jude, and St. Patrick’s Letter to Coroticus; If you need to learn to back it off, I’ll have you read Paul Tripp’s War of Words. If you’re interested in culture-making, we might start with Christianity and Culture by T. S. Eliot or Hegeman’s Plowing in Hope, and then see where that takes us. But we could do this all day.

Of course, all these are only possibilities. There’s a lot more where these came from, we tailor our curriculum for each individual student, and another mentor would have an entirely different list. But this will give you an idea of the kinds of things I might draw on for someone I’m training.