I just received an email from the chair of the Board of Education at church asking what books I thought should be in a Lutheran library. So what do you think?To be honest our library looks like any nondenominational library with a few exceptions. We do have a few books on and by Luther, Sasse, and a small number of historical books. However, combined together the solidly Lutheran books don’t total up to what seems like the collected works of Billy Graham. Heck, we have more books about Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa than we do the early fathers and martyrs who boldly confessed Christ as they were being put to death.
I’m certainly not saying we can’t have a Billy Graham or Charles Swindoll, but when these books teach something that goes against Scripture (like decision theology for starters) and Lutheran teaching, they shouldn’t be on our shelves.
A few years back someone added a book by a new age rabbi that made his case that Jesus wasn’t God (God would never humiliate himself by taking on the flesh of His creation… sounds a little like the Mohammadians doesn’t it?) and Eve wasn’t the first women (it was Lilith). Why was such a book added? Well it had gotten good reviews in a “Christian” book distributor publication. I guess they were going for, uh, equal time? Thankfully, I haven’t seen that book on the shelves lately.
So I ask again, what would you put in your library that would distinguish it as being Lutheran? What books would you add that are not written by Lutherans but are still very good?
