On My Shelf helps you get to know various writers through a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives as readers.
I asked Philip Ryken—president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and author more than 50 books, including Beauty Is Your Destiny—about what’s on his bedside table, favorite fiction, favorite books for leaders, and much more.
What’s on your nightstand right now?
I usually have a big stack of books on (and around) my nightstand—books I’ve started reading plus books I wish I had more time to read. I just finished The Land Is Not Empty by Sarah Augustine. Despite having some very significant hermeneutical and theological disagreements with the book, I also find the main topic to be morally relevant and in need of much wider awareness in the evangelical church: the devastating long-term impact of the “doctrine of discovery” on indigenous communities in North America and around the world.
So Sarah Augustine is moving to the shelf, but there are still plenty of titles on my nightstand with bookmarks in between the pages. This summer I am taking a second leadership trip to Poland to visit sites related to the Jewish experience before, during, and after the Holocaust. To prepare, I’m doing some reading to add to my knowledge base, starting with Jonathan Freedland’s riveting account of the life of Rudolf Vrba, entitled The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World.
Wheaton College was thrilled to welcome Daniel Nayeri to campus last fall, when we were reading his Everything Sad Is Untrue as our book of the year. As soon as I saw the title, I guessed (rightly) that the author had been in Tim Keller’s church in New York City. When Nayeri won a Newbery Honor in January, I couldn’t resist picking up a beautiful hardback copy of his award winner, The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams.
What else? Let’s see: Tiffany Kriner’s In Thought, Word, and Seed. Kriner is a stellar professor in Wheaton’s English department and also deeply committed to the acreage that she and her husband farm in rural Illinois. In each thoughtful essay in her latest book, she offers biblical, theological, literary, and personal reflections on the daily hardships and stunning joys of living close to the land.
Finally, I’m chipping away—a chapter here and a chapter there—at Lincoln Paine’s The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. It’s the kind of history book I like to read, on a subject I don’t know too much about, but intersecting with many other areas of personal interest.
What are your favorite fiction books?
The first books that come to mind are the 20 novels in Patrick O’Brian’s series of seafaring tales, starting with Master and Commander. O’Brian’s ability to make a past world come to life is without peer. I also like to read a variety of mysteries, from different times and places—mostly ones that a friend sends me (you know who you are, Sue). I also want to give a shout-out to my friend David Walton. Although I don’t read much science fiction, I am immensely proud of his Philip K. Dick Award and highly recommend his book The Genius Plague.
As a minister, there is a special place in my heart for Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. Robinson has written some other fine books, too, but none contain as many of my marks, underlines, and comments as Gilead, which is close to the perfect novel. Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country also features a minister as the protagonist—a faithful minister who perseveres through many trials, including three great temptations that nearly every minister faces: money, sex, and power.
I could easily put Lewis and Tolkien on my short list of favorite fiction too, but I’m saving them for later.
What biographies or autobiographies have most influenced you and why?
I have to start with Corrie ten Boom (The Hiding Place), Joni Eareckson Tada (Joni), and Elisabeth Elliot (Through Gates of Splendor)—three women who are in the highest echelon of my personal heroines. Their gospel-centered responses to unimaginable evil and unbearable suffering inspire brave courage and give me undying hope. I find Ernest Gordon’s To End All Wars equally inspiring.
There are several biographies of pastors that I love, including J. N. D. Kelly on John Chrysostom (Golden Mouth), Bruce Hindmarsh on John Newton (John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition), and George Marsden on Jonathan Edwards—the eponymously titled Jonathan Edwards: A Life.
Then I simply must mention R. A. Dickey’s memoir, Wherever I Wind Up. It’s more than one of my favorite sports books; it’s one of my favorite books, period, on the triumph of God’s redeeming grace in the face of professional disappointment, childhood sexual abuse, spiritual depression, and marital discord.
What are some books you regularly reread and why?
With apologies to C. S. Lewis, I don’t do too much rereading; I always have too many new books that I want to read for the first time. My top rereads—by far—are the The Chronicles of Narnia (no need to apologize to Lewis or anyone else for that) and The Lord of the Rings. This is partly because these stories have done so much to form my character, partly because they grow in their meaning for me over the years, and also because I am always looking for another family member to read them to. My grandchildren aren’t old enough yet, but they will be soon!
I also find myself dipping back into Calvin’s Institutes pretty often—not cover to cover, but with reference to key themes in Christian doctrine.
What books have most profoundly shaped how you serve and lead others for the sake of the gospel?
Here two titles rise to the top. One is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. Goodwin masterfully documents the way that Abraham Lincoln cultivated contrary viewpoints within his presidential cabinet. Doing this was more than difficult, but it made Lincoln a wiser leader and a better decision-maker, with results that changed the world. Like most people, there is a part of me that wishes people would agree with me all of the time, but Scripture, history, and experience have confirmed for me what Lincoln learned during the Civil War: good leaders need people who will challenge their thinking.
The other book I often recommend on leadership is Bryce G. Hoffman’s book on Alan Mulally’s turnaround of the Ford Motor Company, American Icon. It’s the best book I know on team leadership and change management, as well as the decisiveness that true leadership requires.
What’s one book you wish every pastor would read?
The book I recommend perhaps most often these days is John Dunlop’s Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia. This compassionate, comprehensible, practical book offers wise biblical, medical, and pastoral guidance to readers caring for loved ones with various forms of dementia—such a common experience.
I also plead with pastors to read more poetry. I know it’s hard, but it’s also necessary. Roughly 40 percent of the Bible is written in poetic form, so reading more poetry pays high exegetical and homiletical dividends. It also helps preachers to be more imaginative and to elevate their use of language.
A good place to start is my father’s The Soul in Paraphrase, which offers three or four pages of explication on a generous list of classic Christian poems from John Donne, George Herbert, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, and other great poets.
What are you learning about life and following Jesus?
Most of the things I am learning about loving Jesus are things I am still learning. You don’t need to worry about anything; just trust God to do what is best. You are accepted in Jesus Christ—you, with all your failings, and also your work, with all its limitations. Don’t quit until God tells you to quit; keep persevering in your calling.
I am also noticing some themes right now that seem more important than ever. The reason gossip and other sins of speech appear on almost all the New Testament vice lists is because such sins are terribly destructive to Christian community. Speak the truth in love, with love—in Ephesians 4, where he wants to combat false teaching and wrong thinking in the church, Paul talks about truth and then doubles down on the love. Listen carefully to honest critics but don’t be dissuaded or disheartened by spiritual bullies.
The God of justifying righteousness is also the God of righteous justice; in following him, I want to be as alive to justification as the prophet Habakkuk and at the same time as awake to biblical justice as the prophet Amos. These are good lessons for me, for other Christian leaders, for all of us.
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