Three Books that Shaped the Way I Think

I was raised in the church, a well-behaved young man, and had the reputation of being a religiously serious teenager. However, I was living a double life throughout junior high and high school. I was a Southern Baptist kid who sang in the youth choir, spoke on youth Sunday, and talked about potentially going into the ministry. But secretly I was a religious pluralist, convinced that all religions were different perspectives on the same spiritual reality—Christianity just happened to be my path to that ultimate reality.

I became a real Christian right after I graduated from high school, so by the time I started college I had been a believer for about three months. During that time, I sensed an authentic call to the ministry of the gospel. I was consistent in my daily quiet time. I wanted to reach the spiritually lost. I longed to help others grow in their love for the Lord. But I was also basically anti-intellectual—ignorance on fire. In fact, I thought that too much deep thinking was incompatible with godly zeal. During my freshman and sophomore years of college, I read three books that rocked my world. I have not been the same since.

Early in college, I read C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. As best as I can remember, it was one of the first of a half dozen Christian books I read other than the Bible, a devotional, or a biography. I read Screwtape Letters first, then took the plunge with Mere Christianity. I was impressed by the way Lewis moved seamlessly between doctrine, ethics, and apologetics, though I did not have all those categories quite figured out at the time. I was also impressed with his erudition as a writer, which was a step up from all the Frank Peretti novels I was also reading at the time.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did not get as much out of Mere Christianity on that first reading as I have during subsequent readings. Frankly, I love the book far more now, almost 30 years later, than I did then. As an 18-year-old, I think the person of C. S. Lewis is what was most compelling to me. Lewis convinced me you could be an intellectual and a devout Christian. He persuaded me that I could read more serious Christian books that engaged with big ideas. Perhaps most important in the long run, Mere Christianity—along with Screwtape—was my gateway into the wider world of C. S. Lewis. No other Christian thinker has had a deeper impact on me than Lewis.

Midway through my sophomore year, I attended the second ever Passion Conference in Dallas, Texas. One of the speakers was John Piper. I was totally blown away by his preaching. During a break, I went to the bookstore and purchased three of Piper’s books. One of them was The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God. While this book is not as well-known as Piper’s classic Desiring God—which I also purchased that day—at the time it was The Pleasures of God that affected me the most.

Up to that point, my theology had been quite man-centered. I was more or less a semi-Pelagian who also affirmed eternal security. I believed that we get ourselves into the kingdom with our faith. After that, no matter what our lives may look like, even if we stop believing, God is obligated to keep us in the kingdom. Piper’s book, which is all about the character of God, led to a total paradigm shift in my spiritual journey. Frankly, it was unsettling at the time because so many of my doctrinal beliefs were being corrected in light of Scripture. Though my views have continued to develop over the years, today I remain fundamentally committed to a vision of the Christian life that is rooted in the core biblical truths recovered during the Reformation. It all started when I read The Pleasures of God.

I came across the third book during the summer between my sophomore and junior years. I wrote a reflective essay about this particular book a few months ago for the Land Center for Cultural Engagement. I’ve reproduced a key paragraph from that essay below.

Around the time I finished junior college, I signed up for a subscription Christian book club. I selected as one of my introductory volumes [Chuck] Colson’s How Now Shall We Live? That book, which Colson co-authored with Nancy Pearcey, helped alter the trajectory of my spiritual life. The authors introduced me to the idea of a Christian worldview. I learned for the first time the now-familiar categories of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Colson and Pearcey critiqued ideas and movements that were shaped by rival worldviews. They pointed to role models from the past and present who exemplified faithful Christian thinking and living.

In Colson, I found a writer who helped me to connect the dots between my theology and its implications for cultural engagement. I began to feel drawn toward Christian higher education. Of course, I eventually became a professor, and I have now served on the full-time faculty of three wonderful Christian institutions. When people have asked over the years how I came to discern that calling, I tell them about how much Colson’s writings shaped that journey, beginning with How Now Shall We Live?

I thank God for these three books—and many others—from C. S. Lewis, John Piper, and Charles Colson. In God’s kind providence, he brought them into my life during my early years of college. Other authors have also shaped me profoundly, including J. I. Packer, John Stott, Lesslie Newbigin, Herman Bavinck, Tim Keller, Carl Henry, N. T. Wright, Timothy George, and David Dockery—among many others. But I am the man I am today as a direct result of the foundational influence of Lewis, Piper, and Colson.

To God be the glory!

Photo retrieved from Unsplash.