Category: Discipleship

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe, 1719.

A voluminous writer who has been hailed alternately as English’s first novelist and the language’s greatest hack, Daniel Defoe wrote this wildly popular tale of isolation in 1719, just before he turned 60. Defoe adapted the true account of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who had lived alone on a remote island for four-and-a-half years and whose exploits had been recorded in “true histories” prior to the novel’s publication. In this the 300 anniversary of the novel, it’s worth noting that Defoe’s book remains staggeringly popular, with too many cultural adaptations (think of Swiss Family Robinson or the film Castaway) to count. The book has given many an economist a fictional representative to help explain a host of basic principles like consumer goods or capital goods in the pursuit of capital accumulation. In it, you can find the very roots of the novel, the dominant literary form of the past 300 years. You can also read the book as a story of redemption and resurrection, one that foregrounds physical isolation and the desire for physical rescue as a way of getting at the human need for spiritual deliverance. I recommend the novel as a seminal volume of English literature, one that shows how close the roots of the English novel are to spiritual autobiography.

Piper, John. Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, 2010.

A pastor of over 30 years with a fervor for solid, Biblical exposition, John Piper adds to the pile of evangelical books calling for the renewal of the evangelical mind. Piper’s ministerial thesis has been something he calls Christian hedonism, which claims that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. In this book, Piper explains the role thinking provides in glorifying God and allowing us to be truly satisfied in Him. The book will work best if you approach the chapters as devotional sermons. This is not a work of scholarship so much as an exemplary book of Bible study. If you want to know the answer to the question, “What does the Bible say about the life of the mind?” you’ll get answers. If you’re on board with Piper’s general theology and specific thesis about God’s glory and our satisfaction, you’ll find his discussion even more illuminating. I recommend the book as a great starting place to consider with prayer and humility how the Bible directs us to love God with “all our minds.”

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment, 1864.

A deeply philosophical and religious novelist dedicated to understanding human nature, Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote this massive tale of sin and its consequences in 1864. Dostoevsky sets the story of poor student who commits murder in the crowded, dissolute streets of St. Petersburg but folds into the novel the social, political and economic issues of 19th Century western culture. Even 150 years after its publication date, this is still a gripping read. The book is the starting point for an imaginative account of what happens when humanity tries to conceive of ethics apart from God. Or, you can combine it with philosophy of Charles Taylor for insight into the disenchantment that accompanies the secular age. Conversely, you can read it as a story of redemption and resurrection, a backstory for a criminal like the thief on the cross who asked Christ to remember him. I recommend the novel as a seminal volume for understanding the internal and external consequences of sin.