I love to pass along the names of great authors, so when I was going through old emails and saw this one again, I figured I’d pass it along. This is a note in response to a friend who emailed me asking for author recommendations. You’ll be joining an email that is already “in progress.”
“…Got your message and I’d love to pass along the names of some great authors. Obviously these writers have different sorts of writing applications so some may have sweeter flare and others a more technical ability to dissect theological issues, etc. You seem to be somewhat familiar with the dead guys so I’ll leave off Calvin, Luther, Owen, Edwards, Augustine, Watson, Bunyan, Charnock and others.
- John Stott – great with biblical exposition and leadership issues
- Os Guiness – masterful writer/cultural-historical analysis (probably the best writer in terms of the craft itself in this list)
- Kris Lundgaard – a modern day John Owen (great with word pictures)
- J.I. Packer – Knowing God, need I say more?
- R.C. Sproul – very helpful on Reformation and Protestant/Roman Catholic issues
- D.A. Carson – perhaps the foremost American New Testament scholar; anything by him is convincing
- John Frame – great in systematic theology as well as ethics, apologetics, and issues of modern worship
- Wayne Grudem – great teaching gifts; especially helpful in systematics, spiritual gifts, and issues of biblical manhood and womanhood.
- Ravi Zacharias – brilliant apologist; effectively draws out the ‘wonder impulse’ in Christian thinking; see his works Recapture the Wonder and Can Man Live Without God
- Thomas Schreiner – has edited two great works on Reformed distinctives (Still Sovereign and Race Set Before Us); also has a very good Romans commentary
- Bruce Ware – Open theism’s worst nightmare. Ware is a leading defender of God’s sovereignty as well as one of the best living writers on the doctrine of the Trinity
- Raymond Ortlund Jr. – an Old Testament scholar who has a prophetic edge in his work. His piece on revival, When God Comes to Church, is on a short list of my favorites
- David Powlison – CJ Mahaney calls him, I think, a ‘physician of the soul’. Powlison is excellent in counseling and relational aspects of how we walk, grow and heal as Christians
- Sinclair Ferguson – a living man who writes like a dead man. If I could have another grandpa, I’d want it to be this guy. Extremely wise, caring, winsome and is fluent in Scripture.
- Kent Hughes – practical, down to earth, readable coverage of many issues from violence and porn in American culture to theological issues and daily growth in Christ. His book Set Apart is fantastic.
- John Piper (goes without saying) – Jack of all trades and master of all trades: poet, exegete, apologist, pastor, missionary, prophet, biblical manhood and parenting guru, disturber of the peace, historian. If he can shoot a rifle, he may well be the most roundly gifted man on planet earth.
Hope this helps you get started. If Os Guinness wrote “How To Make a Killer Hamburger” I’d rush out to buy it. I haven’t read as much from Zacharias and I’d have a couple of little reservations about Stott on certain issues, but very seriously, if any of these guys write something it is almost certainly worth buying and reading. I’m sure I’m leaving out some great names, but these are I think some major movers and shakers in the ‘live guy’ category.
So, who are your favorites?
