I am often asked for a few fairly-easy to read books that would give a traditional Christian insight into how to do cultural analysis or “cultural apologetics” of the sort pioneered by Francis Schaeffer.
Since some of Schaeffer’s heirs are coy about their support for both the traditional Christianity and the culture of life he defended, it falls on the rest of us to give what help we can.
Here is a list that is distinctly “middle brow.” Books that made the list do not require much expertise on the part of the reader before he or she can plunge into learning. In some cases I passed on well known books for more obscure works that a reader might have missed, though some works like Abolition of Man are too important not to include.
I have included thirteen books, either one for each apostle including Paul, or a list of ten that outgrew self-imposed limits. You may decide which is the case. It might be amusing to associate each book with the appropriate apostle or it might waste time better spent reading the books.
One book is a trilogy actually composed of three works and another “book” is really a short essay, but I make no excuses for it!
My list intentionally does not include classics or “great books” and is not limited to Christian authors. My goal was to avoid “overview” books which are valuable (Everything About Art! Everything About Movies!) in favor of books that were more general, but utilized or discussed several aspects of culture.
I favored books that I have felt compelled to read more than once, cited in the last year, and that contained at least something that irritates my sinful self into pursuing the argument further.
The List:
“Abolition of Man” (Lewis)
“Descent into Hell” (Williams)
“On Fairy Stories” (Tolkien)
“Closing of the American Mind” (Bloom)
“Christianity and the Nature of Science” (Moreland)
“How Now Should We Live” (Pearcey and Colson)
“Liberty or Equality” (von Kuehnelt-Leddihn)
“The City and Man” (Strauss)
“Heaven the Hearts Deepest Longing” (Kreeft)
“Reason in the Balance” (Johnson)
“For the Life of the World” (Schmemann)
“The Birth of the Modern World” (Johnson)
“A Francis A. Schaeffer Trilogy” (Schaeffer)
Needless to say, I don’t agree with everything in these books, which do not all agree with each other! The authors include non-Christians, Orthodox Christians, Catholic, Reformed, and Anglicans. What mattered to me in making this list is that the writers are all (fairly) contemporary authors who used old ideas well to reflect on the times in which they were (or are) living.
They all model an attempt at cross-disciplinary engagement from a perspective friendly to traditional “Touchstone” Christianity.