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Recommended Reading List

For Those Preparing for Theological Study

The faculty of Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education suggest the following as preparatory reading for theological study at the graduate level. The list is not exhaustive, nor does it substitute for a solid undergraduate background.

It does offer a place to begin as you think about your vocation and the possibility of service in the church of Jesus Christ. You may find it interesting to see works of fiction listed. The message is that theological education should engage the world, and students do well to have exposure to a broad range of human experience. By the way, the faculty do not assume that new students have read these works.

Richmond Degree Programs:

CORE DEGREES

ADVANCED DEGREES

OTHER PROGRAMS

Limited Enrollment

Charlotte Degree Programs

Extended Campus Program (ECP)

Master of Arts in Christian Education

Bible

The Bible
Cousar, Charles B. The Letters of Paul. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996. 212 pp.
Rhodes, Arnold Black. The Mighty Acts of God. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1964. 443 pp.
Spivey, Robert A. Anatomy of the New Testament: A Guide to its Structure and Meaning. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995. 513 pp.
Stanton, Graham. The Gospels and Jesus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. 296 pp.

Fiction

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. London: Macmillan, 1953. 62 pp.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. 120 pp.
Craven, Margaret. I Heard the Owl Call my Name. Toronto: Clarke and Irwin, 1967. 138 pp.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. New York: Bantam Books, 1978. 936 pp.
Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. 502 pp.
Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom. New York: Modern Library, 1936. 378 pp.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, 1988. 288 pp.
Michener, James A. The Source. New York: Random House, 1965. 1088 pp.
O'Connor, Flannery.
Three: Wise Blood, A Good Man is Hard to Find, The Violent Bear it Away. New York: New American Library, 1960. 447 pp.
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969. 237 pp.
Oz, Amos. Unto Death. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, 1971. 167 pp.
Tolkien, J. R. R.
The Fellowship of the Ring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. 423 pp.
The Hobbit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966. 317 pp.
The Return of the King. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. 440 pp.
The Two Towers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965. 352 pp.

History

Comby, Jean. How to Read Church History. New York: Crossroad, 1985. Vol 1.
McNeill, John Thomas. T he History and Character of Calvinism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1954. 466 pp.
Thompson, Ernest Trice. Through the Ages: A History of the Christian Church. Richmond: CLC Press, 1965. 447 pp.
Tuchman, Barbara Wertheim. The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. New York: Knopf, 1984. 447 pp.

Practical Theology

Harris, Maria. Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989. 204 pp.
Johnson, Susanne. Christian Spiritual Formation in the Church and Classroom. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989. 173 pp.
Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People. Edited by Dorothy C. Bass. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997. 232 pp.
Seymour, Jack L. Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education. Nashville: Abingdon, 1982. 175 pp.
Taylor, Barbara Brown. The Preaching Life. Cambridge, Mass.: Cowley Publications, 1993. 174 pp.
Tye, Karen. Basics in Christian Education. St. Louis, Mo.: Chalice Press, 2000. 142 pp.

Theology and Ethics

Guthrie, Shirley C. Christian Doctrine. Louisville,: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994. 434 pp.
Harvey, Van Austin. A Handbook of Theological Terms. New York: Macmillan, 1964. 253 pp.
Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper, 1951. 259 pp.
Trible, Phyllis. God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978. 206 pp.

For Students Discerning God’s Call

Bass, Dorothy C., ed. Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1998.
Breyer, Chloe. The Close: A Young Woman’s 1st Year at Seminary. New York: Basic Books, 2000
Charles, Gary W. The Bold Alternative: Staying in the Church in the 21st Century. Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2001.
Chatham, James O. Is It I, Lord? Discerning God’s Call To Be a Pastor. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.
Holderness, Ginny Ward (with Forrest C. Palmer, Jr.) Career and Calling: A Guide for Counselors, Youth, and Young Adults. Louisville: Geneva Press, 2001.
Johnson, Ben Campbell. Hearing God’s Call: Ways of Discernment for Laity and Clergy. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002
Mahan, Brian. Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2002
Norris, Kathleen. Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999.
Schuurman, Douglas J. Vocation: Discerning Callings in Life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

*Also see the web site of Explore Ministry Suggested Reading List