#STRask - Can You Recommend Good Books with More In-Depth Information and Ideas?

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Questions about good books on Christian apologetics, philosophy, and theology with more in-depth information and ideas, and resources to help an intellectually-inclined person with spiritual formation and developing the non-cerebral side of living a Christian life.   As a high school student, I have read many baseline books on Christian apologetics, theology, and philosophy, so could you recommend good books with more in-depth information and ideas? As someone with a passion for intellectual pursuits such as apologetics, theology, and philosophy, what resources might be helpful for spiritual formation and developing the non-cerebral side of living a Christian life?

All right, Greg, ready to get started? All right. Hi, Amy. Okay, here's a great question, and we do get questions like this every once in a while. So we come back to this kind of thing. This one comes from Teague. For going into a career on apologetics, I have been reading lots of books on Christian philosophy, theology, and apologetics while still in high school. I've read many baseline books on apologetics. So could you two recommend good books with more in-depth information and ideas?

Wow. The difficult – this is a great question. I'm glad this being asked. We get this on occasion. And I at one point put together a list of books that like a basic list of being in your beginning library as an apologist slash theologically informed Christian. I don't know where that list is or maybe it's online somewhere, but my suspicion is that T has already read those books because they're kind of foundational. And the difficulty of recommending more books is not knowing what he's already read or she. I don't know who T is.

Cheek. I'm not sure if it's... Okay. So I'm just going to say he. Okay. Tee he. But, I mean, I always have mere Christianity at the top of the list. because it's so foundational.

But because it's foundational, he's probably already read it. If you want to go a level deeper, I think the philosophical stuff is really important because when I got my master's apologetics, I followed it up immediately working on a master's in philosophy and it added such, it made my apologetics more three-dimensional than two-dimensional. I don't know if that makes any sense to people.

It just added more depth and breadth and breadth to an understanding and richness to see how ideas work. And so I would suggest something like, if you want to go deeper, this is philosophical foundations of the Christian worldview. This is William Lane Craig and J.P. Morland. A lot of philosophy in there. But if you work at it, if you've already got a start tea, this will help you. If you want to start in the philosophy stuff and you haven't done that yet, I recommend and Greg Gansel's book, Thinking About God. Yeah, thank you.

Thinking about God. And very, very accessible. It's like an introduction to philosophy of religion, thinking about God. And that might be the place to start if you haven't already read that. Mere Christianity, thinking about God. I'm kind of presuming you've already read story of reality if you've got the baseline books. But this is just another, in a certain sense, another take on the mere Christianity type of material.

It's more foundational and fundamental as not as deeply profound in its presentation or how it analyzes certain things, nor in the depth that Lewis goes into in mere Christianity. But I think it is a really useful companion to that book. Frank Turrick has got a general book that you may have already read that I think is great. I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Jay Warner Wallace's works, particularly the first two. and that is the cold case Christianity and that God's crime scene, they both, they focus on different elements, the first one on the integrity and reliability of the New Testament documents as eyewitness documents, and his work is always so accessible and very well researched.

And then the next one, the range of arguments that are in favor of God's existence, In other words, things that can't be explained accounted for inside the room, as the way he'd put it, given it a crime scene motif, and the room is the natural realm. There's a whole bunch of things that we experience in the room, as it were, that can't be explained by the room itself. And he does a great job with his crime motif there. But the concept, I think that's one of the best books to survey a whole range of issues that, have to do with arguments for God's existence, not just the cosmological argument, the moral argument, the teleological argument for design, argument regarding free will, the argument regarding, well, morality, problem of evil. So there's a lot of stuff he touches in on there. So I would

recommend that. Now I'm, there are so many books out there that are great, and it seems like, T, you are following the advice that we frequently give here and stand a reason for people in your circumstance that want to grow, and that is be a student of your craft, and you're well on your way. Sometimes, one thing that's important here is that sometimes sometimes apologists are not adequately grounded in theology. They get a lot of apologetics. And philosophy might be, turn out to be driving some of their theological views, and that's kind of the tail wagging the dog here, right? So you want to make sure you have a solid foundation theologically. So when it comes to things like the cross, John Stott, the Cross of Christ, for example.

I read this book a while back. It's just a deep dive into atonement and the cross and the work of the cross. there are many other works too, but you want to make sure you're doing theological reading because if you are defending the faith, you want to make sure you understand the faith that you're defending. And the more you – the deeper you go in your apologetics – let me back up and put it through it. The depth that you go in your apologetics has to be matched by the depth you go in your theology. And that means you're going to have to get some books that are essentially systematics that will go through major issues.

And there's lots of different ones, and people who are writing have different points of view, theologically. Some are reform, some are not. But nevertheless, you can get a tome that does a great job. I have recommended, and I think this is on that list that I mentioned, Amy. It's called Christian Theology by Erickson. And he gives you a good survey of all kinds of different baseline views in theology and develops them well, I think. And it's going to help you understand the breadth of theology in a better way.

It's more – you don't have to start at the beginning and work to the end. You kind of go wherever you're interested. And incidentally, this is one other detail here that I'll mention is that once you get a foundation, I think you're going to find out that some aspects of Christian apologetics appeal to you more than others. And it may be the pro-life issue or moral ethical issues like the pro-life or homosexuality or end-of-life issues or that range. You may be interested in the textual issues dealing with the Bible and biblical interpretation. and solving biblical problems and was the Bible handed down correctly

and all the textual issues that people raise questions about. Or I'm kind of a generalist. I like, you know, knowing a little bit about lots of stuff and that turns out to be adequate for my tastes and my position, my role. So this is where, and you might even be getting this, there now T, that you're thinking, now it's time to go a little deeper

in the certain areas that you care about. And I've done that too. I think it's healthy and it helps keep things fun if you follow your interests here. You don't have any obligation to go any particular place. Just do what you want.

Follow your interests. You may have some training in one area. You might be an engineer. Okay. Well, those folks usually go to design arguments and that kind of stuff. But just follow your interests and enjoy yourself and keep reading not just the apologetic stuff, which includes philosophy stuff, philosophy of religion stuff, because you're going to learn some skills there and some ways to approach these issues

that you might not have picked up just from apologetics in general. And you also want to work on your theology. Keep working to build your theological foundation. one way you can go deeper in the areas where you're interested is just look at who's being referenced in the books that you're enjoying. Who are they citing? And then go look for their books. And then you just get deeper and deeper that way. When I thought about this, Greg, I have like different levels here. Because like you said, I don't know exactly where he is in his level.

But I also tried to get some different topics that maybe he hasn't thought about before. But I want to start by saying the theology thing is huge. And one really important thing you can do is read the Bible. And I would read it in a way where you spend a good amount of time reading several chapters in a row so that you can get a really good foundation overall picture of the Bible. Because what I'm finding now is that most of the questions I get have to do with theology. And you're going to have a lot of theology coming at you from different directions. And so you need that foundation of the Bible. So when someone makes a case for their theology, you have in your mind, wait, but what about this other part? You're not just focusing on the little part that you know or the little part they're using to make their argument, but you have a picture of the whole at once. So I would read the Bible once a year, at least. maybe read the New Testament twice a year, but I would start just spend the first few years

getting a really good foundation of the overall picture of the Bible. In terms of theology, if you're somewhere between, say, mere Christianity and systematic theology, J.I. Packers, Knowing God is a good option. And if you're thinking about different areas of the Bible, here are a few books. books, myths and mistakes in New Testament textual criticism that will teach you more about textual criticism. There's a book by Lydia McGrew called Hidden in Plain View, Undesigned Coincidences and the Gospels and Acts that gets more into that topic. And then I have, oh, another theological topic that came to mind because it's a huge one in the problem of evil.

And it's Randy Alcorn's, if God is Good, Faith in the midst of Suffering and Evil. And this book is not a difficult read, but it is, it's a long book, and he goes into a lot of different topics. So this is a good one to expand your knowledge without it being too academic. And another topic people don't often think of is Jay Richards' money greeting God. And that's about economics and how that relates to Christian ideas. So that's something people haven't necessarily thought about. about the case for life. You mentioned pro-life apologetics. That's Scott Cluesendorf. Here is something that's above maybe the baseline, but not too difficult, and that would be

total truth by Nancy Piercy. And all of her books are a great way to go forward and read through. I'm trying to think of the names of all of them right now. Saving Leonardo. Saving Leonardo. Finding truth, I think, is one of them. love thy body. She has several books that I think would be very helpful to you. In the science area, if you want a really difficult academic one, theistic evolution. Oh, yeah. Well, explain why. It's theistic evolution, a scientific, philosophical, and theological critique. That critique word is the important part there because it's kind of clickbait for the other side. The point is that these are, this is a very smart, very long book, but a very smart critique of theistic evolution.

evolution from a scientific, theological, and philosophical perspective. And in my view, this was my endorsement of it that I wrote for it. I use the word eviscerate because I think that's what it does to theistic evolution. It totally eviscerates it. It's not an easy book, though. So if you want to really challenge yourself. And there's lots of different contributors who are specialists in specific areas. So Stephen Meyer is the general editor for the science stuff.

But he also wrote the recently wrote the book, The Return of the God Hypothesis. Yes, and that was the next one I was going to mention. That one maybe not quite as academic, but still more rigorous than the baseline would be Return of the God hypothesis by Stephen Meyer. Here's another topic. Maybe you haven't thought too much about. This one's called the victory of reason, how Christianity led to freedom, capitalism, and Western success by Rodney Stark. So that's more of an idea of how Christianity affects the world and how it changed the world. and also on kind of a social area. Critical dilemma. That's the one by Neil Shinvi, right? Critical dilemma? Yeah, that's the longer one.

Strange New World, I think, is the shorter. Critical dilemma, the rise of critical theories and social justice. I think that's Neil Shinvi. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's more accessible. That's about critical theory. And then the rise in triumph of the modern self by Carl Truman. Yeah, Carl Trubman.

Those are kind of social areas that talk about Christian philosophy and what's going on in our culture. The Rise and Triumph, that's a longer one that's more complex. And he wrote kind of an easier read on the same material called Strange New World. I suggest that's a place for people to start maybe than lumbering through the longer one. What do you think? Yeah, again, this just depends on where you are and how far you want to go ahead. What's really frustrating is I have these books laying around my office, and I think, oh, I've got to get to that one. I've got to get to that one.

So many books, so little time, right? And, of course, if you haven't read how to read the Bible for all its worth, going back to the Bible, sorry, I should have gone in order a little better. But that one's really key because you need to be able to understand how to interpret what your readings. Fian Stewart. So that is an important one. Another theological one that will help you answer theological questions is the holiness of God. by R. C. Sprole. That one is important, too. There are just, there are so many, but I think that is, that's a good look at kind of a many different topics and places to go.

So let me throw this other one in that goes to the Bible understanding issue, and that is actually a video training series that we do at Standard Reason called the Bible Fast Forward. It's eight weeks, 50 minutes each session. It's video series, audio. There's a workbook that comes with it that's about 150 pages long. So in other words, the entire – all of my lecture notes are all there, basically, in well-organized fashion on the footnotes and all that, bib sources. But that will, I think, go a long way to give people a theological structure from the Old Testament

to help them to understand the New Testament. And I highly recommend that. I probably should recommend it more often. But if I were to ask you one book, if you had one book to recommend at whatever level, one that has really been useful to you, which one would it be? Or could you give a time? Well, the first one I usually recommend is tactics. Because if you're talking about usefulness. Okay. Thank you. I wasn't thinking of that, but I'll take it.

Gosh. I think maybe start with total truth. But that, I mean, so much of this is your, oh, here's another one. I forgot to mention this one. This is another theological one, but the incarnate Christ and his critics is one that just came out about the deity of Christ by Rob Bowman and Ed Comachevsky. Yeah. So that's another one. A few weeks ago. And this is a reissue of an older book. But it's a, it's, I mean, it's a long one too, but it's got lots of unbelievably good stuff in it. So I think if I were to take things from different categories, I would say for theology, I would read if God is good by Randy Alcorn. For philosophy, I would read Nancy Piercy's

total truth. And then for for culture, I think I would read critical dilemma. Yeah, Neil Schindvie and Pat Sawyer. Yeah. Yeah. Good. My number one would be mere Christianity, but it's not surprising. It's probably the most quoted book by other apologists, I would think. Now, it doesn't deal with current issues.

It's theological. It doesn't deal with all the concerns that we're faced with now, but it lays a foundation. That's absolutely vital. So here's a companion question to that from Dan. As someone with a passion for apologetics, theology, and philosophy, and academic-slash-intellectual pursuits, what resources might be helpful for spiritual formation and developing the non-cerebral side of living a Christian life? Long side, let's say. It's not that I don't have any thoughts about that because this is critical.

This is one of the reasons we are talking about theology is such an important component to the apologetics. but it is easy to kind of get into the right brain too much and then just kind of forget about the left hand. It becomes an exercise. I mentioned earlier, and I mentioned a reference book or a devotional of sorts. I don't even like calling it that because it's very different than the kinds of things you pick up nowadays

that are called devotionals. And many of them I'm not in favor. of for different reasons. But this one is the Puritan prayers that's called Valley of Vision. Valley of Vision. And I don't read it every single day, but a lot of times I'm kind of getting warmed up for prayer. If I don't have something heavy in my mind, I can kind of get out of the gates fast with

the Lord because prayer's hard, but it's vital. And so any inducement or encouragement or help that you can, can make use of is going to be a benefit. And this is one of them. And so that's something I do. Now, some people have others, like my utmost for his highest. It's probably one of the most popular. I actually don't like that one. I like Chambers. I think he's a very godly man, but I do not think he's careful with the way he uses scripture. So many times it's the right sermon, wrong text. The words he has, the encouragement he has is really good, but the way the text. that he gets it from are not supportive of the point.

So I don't want to encourage people to be reading somebody that's going to maybe encourage bad habits that they would have in the text. But I'm trying to think of what books, and maybe I should let you go first here, Amy, or next, that really has, this is a real important question. We don't want to give it the short shrift. but I think there are a lot of bad books out there on spiritual formation. All the hearing from God books, I think, are compromised because their theology is not sound on that issue.

So what's the famous Henry Black, Blackaby experiencing God, and all of those kinds of things that are in that, of that ilk. Don't go there. This is not going to be giving you a genuine spirituality. Obviously, I have more to say about that, and it's controversial to say it, but I can't talk about it all now. So bring it up 21 minutes. Yeah, I know. But, well, many people know what I'm talking about. I'm just offering a warning.

People haven't heard me talk about this before. So I'm trying to think what other books, and maybe as you offer some thoughts, have, I've read that have enriched me on the affective side of my relationship with God. So John Piper has written some very good books and that relate to that. And desiring God, for example, a lot of people found that helpful. What books come to mind for you, Amy? For me, one thing I want to say is, for me, philosophy and theology and apologetics are all devotional. And so what I would encourage you to do is to make a habit of thinking of them in that way. So after you read them, make it a habit to think about them in terms of who God is and respond in praise, respond in prayer, respond in worship, respond in praise.

So if you take the things that you're even, you're already doing, everything you're doing is teaching you about who God is. So if you can reflect on that and just be very intentional about responding in praise, I think that will be helpful. And I don't know that, you know, the things that help us are not really complicated. You know, reading the Bible, praying, fellowship. All three of those things you could do. So if you want help with them, then I would say, maybe. be what you need to do is work on developing those habits. So there are different things you can do to develop habits. You can come up with things that you're doing in your life every day. And you

connect the new habit to the old habit. And that helps you to remember to read the Bible at a certain time and a certain place. So you can be very intentional about creating kind of a system within which you are engaging in these simple things that you don't need a lot of information for how to do them. You just need to do them. Right. So the trick is creating a situation where you actually do them on a regular basis. And then sometimes you'll have emotions. Sometimes you won't have emotions. But I think the faithfulness and the discipline, I think, are really helpful. So make a plan for, reading the Bible for praying, for being in fellowship, and make them a priority. And also be intentional about thinking of God as a person, as someone you're coming to know, think about how the things you're learning glorify him and then turn that into praise on a regular basis.

I would also say, if you're looking for developing the non-cerebral side, as you put it, music is very good. I would find some hymns. I would listen to hymns. I would sing hymns after you are reading. So you can begin your reading with prayer to make the whole thing devotional. You can end with music, because music touches you in a different way. I actually start with music. If I'm going to use that, I'll start singing some hymns first. That kind of gets my engines going, so to speak. There you go. Everybody's got it their own. And also, I would say memorization. Memorization has a way of helping you to meditate on a text in a much deeper way.

If you are, and I mean like memorizing a whole book. So start in a chapter, memorize the whole chapter, keep going. Memorize just keep going. And your meditation on that book and seeing who God is will increase dramatically. And I'm a huge advocate of that kind of memorization. So I think memorization, hymns, turning everything you're learning into praise, doing the basics. And then finally, one more, if you're looking for a resource, if I have to give a resource beyond the Bible, then there is one called Be Thou My Vision, a liturgy for daily worship. And this is a book where they have, you know, you have the call to praise, called to worship, and you have the confession, and then you have a,

a response, like it goes through a whole short liturgy. And so that book is really helpful. If you're looking for something like that to help you develop the habit of doing these things. And you can get that on Audible and you can listen to that. So those are my suggestions. I want to go back to a little tip you made, you gave about building something into the structure of your day that's already there. So I have a habit. And that is when I go to bed at night, I take a knee before I get into bed, and I have a time of prayer. It might be 15 seconds. It might be five minutes. But my getting into bed is the thing I do every night, and it is the trigger for me to take a knee and to spend a little time with the Lord. So, you know, a lot of times I'm tired like

everybody else, but I still want to acknowledge God's presence in my day, having gotten me through. There are some specific things I might pray about, for example, but There's an example of taking a thing you do all the time and attaching a spiritual discipline to that activity, so it allows you to build a habit of the spiritual discipline. There are two other books that you have mentioned. One, you encourage me to get, and I haven't read it, but I saw it the other day as I was perusing my stacks. as a book by by not Chenby

but Thaddeus Williams. Williams, right, about relationship with God. Revereing God. Yeah, that one. So just based on your recommendation to me, I thought I'd mentioned that.

And you also like the book on the Trinity. Oh, delighting in the Trinity. Delighting in the Trinity. Yeah. And that has had an impact on you in a sense, devotually, on that element. It's so funny because like I said, And so many of these books of theology have an impact on me devotional.

And that's the way it should be. Because the better we know God, the more we will love Him. So everything you're reading to learn about Him should be fueling your devotion and your love and your prayer and all those sorts of things. The Holiness of God is another one we've already mentioned. Packer. So any of these theology books. Oh, no, that was R.C. Sprole, right? R.C. Sprolet, yeah. And strangely, when I'm reading books for other religions, that also fuels my devotion for God because I see the contrast.

Interesting. And it makes me love him so much more. And so anything you're reading can be turned to that. So just be very intentional about that. You're going to have to have a lot of links here in the show notes. Amy, created a lot of work for yourself. But these are very good recommendations. So thank you, Dan and Teague. We really appreciate hearing from you. And we would love to hear your question. You can send that on X with a hashtag STR Ask or just go to our website at STR.org. This is Amy Hall and Greg Kokel for Stand to Reason.