It’s National Author’s Day!

As an author, I’ve been shaped by the books I’ve read and the authors that have penned them. I’d like to share a handful of my favorite authors.

A relatively new addition to my favorite author list is Andrew Peterson, the author of the Wingfeather Saga books. This adventurous series comprises four volumes and is appropriate for eight-year-old readers and older. The saga follows pre-teens Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli, their mother Nia, and their ex-pirate grandfather Podo as they encounter strange, and sometimes dangerous, creatures as they evade the evil forces that pursue them. It’s an excellent read for parents and children and you can read my full review here.

As a student of discipleship, I resonate with Dallas Willard – especially his book “The Great Omission.” This Christian philosopher calls us back to the only task given to the church of making disciples who make disciples. One quote from his book “The Divine Conspiracy” is appropriate as we approach a national election on this day after Halloween.

“Gospels of Sin Management” presume a Christ with no serious work other than redeeming humankind. On the right, they foster “vampire Christians,” who only want a little blood for their sins but nothing more to do with Jesus until heaven, when they have to associate with him. On the left, they foster the Phariseeism of a more or less brutal social self-righteousness.[1]

Over the last few years, I discovered N.T. Wright, former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England. In his book, “Surprised By Hope,” he highlights the astounding nature of the resurrection event.

The resurrection of Jesus offers itself … not as an odd event within the world as it is but as the utterly characteristic, prototypical, and foundational event within the world as it has begun to be. It is not an absurd event within the old world but the symbol and starting point of the new world.[2]

We now come to the author who impacted my life and ministry the most over the last 10 years – Dr. Michale S. Heiser. The way he approached the study of Scripture within its context opened my eyes to things I had never seen before. It’s as if I crested a hill and looked down onto a vibrant new landscape of truth. In his book, “The Unseen Realm,” he shares a similar moment he had when studying scripture.

My conscience wouldn’t let me ignore my own Bible in order to retain the theology with which I was comfortable. Was my loyalty to the text or to Christian tradition? Did I really have to choose between the two? I wasn’t sure, but I knew that what I was reading in Psalm 82, taken at face value, simply didn’t fit the theological patterns I had always been taught.[3]

I’m sure I am not alone in selecting C.S. Lewis as the author with the greatest impact on my life. His books from the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Space Trilogy, to The Screwtape Letters, and The Weight of Glory were all impactful, but none so much as Mere Christianity.

One quote from Mere Christianity is probably the most appropriate on this Friday before the 2024 election.

This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects – education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects – military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden-that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.[4]

So there are five of the authors that have impacted my life. What about you? Which authors have had the most impact on your life? What about them resonated with you? Let me know in the comments below.

And if you are looking for new material to read, let me suggest “The Way to Discipleship.” It might just change the way you understand the purpose of humanity and the urgent need for discipleship in the lives of those who follow Christ.

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[1] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God, 1st edition (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1998), 403.

[2] N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, Reprint edition (New York: HarperOne, 2018), 67.

[3] Dr. Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, First Edition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 12.

[4] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan Pub Co, 1984), 199.