A few years ago, I read an article that outlined 25 classic Christian books. Bad news: most of the books are expensive. Good news: many of the books are ridiculously cheap on Kindle. What do you do?
For you e-readers
10 Classic Christian Books That Are Ridiculously Cheap on Kindle
1. Augustine, Confessions 
“Augustine tells of his wrestlings to master his sexual drive, his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of high power at the imperial court of Milan, and his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage as he recovered the faith that his mother had taught him. It was in a Milan garden that Augustine finally achieved the act of will to Christian conversion, which he compared to a lazy man in bed finally deciding it is time to get up and face the day.”
2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
“John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530. After religious tensions provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where he published the first edition of his seminal work Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536.”
3. Martin Luther, 95 Theses
“Did Martin Luther wield his hammer on the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517? Did he even post the Ninety-five Theses at all? This collection of documents sheds light on the debate surrounding Luther’s actions and the timing of his writing and his request for a disputation on the indulgence issue. The primary documents in this book include the theses, their companion sermon (“A Sermon on Indulgence and Grace”, 1518), a chronoloical arrangement of letters pertinent to the theses, and selections from Luther’s Table Talk that address the Ninety-five Theses. A final section contains Luther’s recollections, which offer today’s reader the reformer’s own views of the Reformation and the Ninety-five Theses.”
4. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress 
“Often rated as important as the Bible as a Christian document, this famous story of man’s progress through life in search of salvation remains one of the most entertaining allegories of faith ever written. Set against realistic backdrops of town and country, the powerful drama of the pilgrim’s trials and temptations follows him in his harrowing journey to the Celestial City.”
5. Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
“The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis is a classic Catholic devotional book. Essential reading for all Christians, The Imitation of Christ encourages Christians to remain faithful to God and cultivate inward peace, purity of heart and a good conscience while being thankful for every gift from God.”
6. J.C. Ryle, Holiness
“He that wishes to attain right views about Christian holiness must begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. The plain truth is that a right knowledge of sin lies at the root of all saving Christianity. The characters of God’s most eminent saints, as drawn and described in the Bible, form a most useful part of Holy Scripture.”
7. Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections
“Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is best known as the theologian of revival. In this, his major study on the theme, he analyses the nature of a genuine work of the Holy Spirit. He was one of the few truly great theologians of the English speaking world, an intellectual and spiritual giant. Of his several treatises in this field, The Religious Affections ranks as ëmagnum opusí. The author’s object in this book is to distinguish between true and false religion by showing the marks of a saving work of the Holy Spirit in men.”
8. Irenaeus, Against Heresies
“Inasmuch as certain men have set the truth aside, and bring in lying words and vain genealogies, which, as the apostle says, “minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith,” and by means of their craftily-constructed plausibilities draw away the minds of the inexperienced and take them captive, [I have felt constrained, my dear friend, to compose the following treatise in order to expose and counteract their machinations.] These men falsify the oracles of God, and prove themselves evil interpreters of the good word of revelation. They also overthrow the faith of many, by drawing them away, under a pretence of [superior] knowledge, from Him who rounded and adorned the universe; as if, forsooth, they had something more excellent and sublime to reveal, than that God who created the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein. By means of specious and plausible words, they cunningly allure the simple-minded to inquire into their system; but they nevertheless clumsily destroy them, while they initiate them into their blasphemous and impious opinions respecting the Demiurge; and these simple ones are unable, even in such a matter, to distinguish falsehood from truth.”
9. Anselm, Why God Became Man
“Cur Deus Homo, translated ‘Why God-Man?’, refers to the question of the nature of Christ’s incarnation. In this fictional philosophical dialog between Anselm and Boso, a monk in Normandy, this question is handled masterfully and is arguably the first complete exposition of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.”
10. The Complete Works of Saint Augustine
“Augustine, the man with upturned eye, with pen in the left hand, and a burning heart in the right (as he is usually represented), is a philosophical and theological genius of the first order, towering like a pyramid above his age, and looking down commandingly upon succeeding centuries. He had a mind uncommonly fertile and deep, bold and soaring; and with it, what is better, a heart full of Christian love and humility. He stands of right by the side of the greatest philosophers of antiquity and of modern times.”
Don’t just read fluffy Christians books. Read books by dead guys. Read classic Christian books. There’s are reason why many of them are still being read. The best books always stand the test of time.
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