Several of my friends are currently reading the book  “The Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America”.  It’s an okay read. Interesting wording. Not the  twenty-five  best books or twenty-five most memorable books. Twenty five books that shaped  the U.S.’s culture – not someone else’s. Our way of thinking. Our beliefs. Our shared experiences.The list includes some obvious choices like “To Kill A Mockingbird”, leaves off other obvious choices like “The Catcher in the Rye” and also lists a few books a geek like me hadn’t  heard of.

So this book has set me to thinking. What books do I think have shaped American faith in the last 100  years?  ( It’s a whole other list to go back in time and look at Christian classics by St Augustine and so many others) Not just books about Christian faith, but all faith. And not just books that shaped that faith in a good way. ( There is a book  entitled “Besides the Bible” that also created a list similar to this but with slightly different criteria.)

Here are  a few postmodern titles from the last  two or three decades that I feel have shaped the dialogue about faith in this country. I will work my way back in time to other selections in future posts. But I would also love to hear what you have to say . What books have shaped your faith 0ver the years?

Simply Christian: N.T. Wright has become the modern day C.S. Lewis, making  Christian apologetics more easilyunderstandable to the masses.

Blue Like Jazz: Donald Miller’s memoir jumpstarted interest in Christian memoir and also quickly became known as the Christian book you didn’t have to be embarrassed to share with a non -Christian, “seeking” friend.

Traveling Mercies: Anne Lamott was too raw, too powerful in her prose to have her memoir make it in the Christian publishing market, but her unflinching retelling of her journey of faith has inspired many of religious backgrounds since her Jesus is not so easily contained in her box.

Night: Yes, a third memoir, so you can tell what I tend to read a lot of. But no one can dispute that Elie Wiesel’s  hauning account of the Holocaust has been most people’s touchstone in connection to the  persecution and slaughter of millions.

The Left Behind Series: Like I said earlier, I am not saying I am listing the best books about faith. Still, for better or worse, the series has had an influence in  CHristian circles, Hollywood and beyond.

The Kite Runner: It is the favorite book my students read in their senior year. It is for most of them an eye-opener into Afghanistan culture and Islamic faith.  Millions of Americans can say the same.