Top 25 Christian Classics

Christian History magazine asked a number of their past contributors to help identify the most influential works in Christian history (aside from the Bible). 

Here are the Top 25 writings as selected by Christian History:

  1. Augustine, Confessions (c. 398)
  2. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (1265–1274)
  3. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536)
  4. Augustine, City of God (413–426)
  5. Martin Luther, 95 Theses (1517)
  6. John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)
  7. The Nicene Creed (325, revised 381)
  8. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952)
  9. Athanasius, On the Incarnation (c. 319)
  10. Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (c. 1418–1427)
  11. Benedict, Rule (c. 540s)
  12. The Book of Common Prayer (1549)
  13. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (1937)
  14. Martin Luther, Freedom of a Christian (1520)
  15. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (1932–1967)
  16. Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1320)
  17. Anselm, Why God Became Man (c. 1095–1098)
  18. Augustine, On Christian Teaching (397–426
  19. Augustine, On the Trinity (c. 400–428)
  20. Westminster Confession (1646)
  21. Irenaeus, Against Heresies (c. 175–185)
  22. John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777)
  23. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (1746)
  24. Pope Gregory I, Pastoral Rule (c. 591)
  25. Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans (c. 1515–1516)