Every Book I had to Read for my Theology Degree

A theology degree is many things, but day in and day out, there is one thing that doesn’t change: reading. Over the course of my theology degree at Moody Bible Institute, I read dozens of required books, and even more for papers—not to mention the hundreds of PDF excerpts. Some were life-changing, and others were a great alternative to popping melatonin.

Recently, I wrote a blog about whether a theology degree is worth the money, and the answer was: it depends. But for some people, the best way to go about it is to read the books and skip the formal education. You’ll certainly save loads of money that way.

If that’s the path you want to pursue—a DIY theology degree, if you will—this post is for you.

Below, I have a comprehensive list of all the books I was required to read.

Note: I was able to finish my degree in three years through a combination of AP credits and summer classes. I have not included the books for classes I took in high school that counted towards my degree.

Year 1 - Fall

Intro to Disciple Making

·      Mark Cahill, One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven

·      J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Discipleship

·      Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ

Intro to Ministry

·      Dave Early and Ben Guitierrez, Ministry Is

 Bible Introduction

·       Paul Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations

·       Norman Geisler and William Nix, From God to us

·       Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology

·       Kenneth Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament

·       F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?

 Spiritual Life in Community

·       John Koessler, True Discipleship: The Art of Following Jesus

·       James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

 Exploring Music

·       Ronald Pen, Introduction to Music

·       Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters

 The Church and Its Doctrines

·       Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology

Year 1 - Spring

Studying and Teaching the Bible

·       Dennis Fledderjohann, Handbook to Interactive Bible Study

·       Howard Hendricks and William Hendricks, Living by the Book

·       Lawrence Richards and Gary Bredfeldt, Creative Bible Teaching

Christian Missions

·       Scott Moreau, Gary R. Corwin, and Gary B. McGee, Introducing World Missions

·       Ruth A. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya

Theologian’s Craft

·       Keith L. Johnson, Theology as Discipleship

·       Michael Kibbe, From Topic to Thesis: A Guide to Theological Research

·       Mark Sayers, Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience

·       Mark Sayers, Reappearing Church: The Hope for Renewal in the Rise of Our Post-Christian Culture

·       William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style 

 Research Writing

·       C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

·       [writing textbook]

Introduction to Philosophy

·       Garrett DeWeese and J. P. Moreland, Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult

·       Thomas Morris, Philosophy for Dummies

·       Nigel Warburton, Philosophy: The Classics

Speech Communication

·       Kathryn Sue Young and Howard Paul Travis, Oral Communication: Skills, Choices, and Consequences

 Year 1 - Summer

Christianity in Western Cultures 1

·       Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Vol 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation

·       Timothy Dowley, Introduction to the History of Christianity

·       Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

Christianity in Western Cultures 2

·       Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, Vol 2: The Reformation to the Present Day

·       Larry Sidencamp, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism

 Year 2 - Fall

Trinitarian Theology

·       Robert M. Bowman Jr., Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ

 Theology of John Calvin

·       John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Systematic Theology 1

·       Daniel Akin, A Theology for the Church

Hermeneutics

• J. Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, interpreting, and Applying the Bible

• Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth

• Scott McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible

Historical Theology 1

·       Roger Olson, The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform

·       Jonathan Hill, The History of Christian Thought

·       Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way

·       Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

·       Scott McKnight, Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought

Year 2 - Spring

Principles of Lifetime Fitness

Historical Theology 2

·       Kirk MacGregor, Contemporary Theology: An Introduction

·       Roger Olson, The Journey of Modern Theology: From Reconstruction to Deconstruction

·       Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited*

Old Testament Biblical Theology

·       Walter Brueggemann, Reverberations of Faith: A Theological Handbook of Old Testament Themes

·       James K. Mead, Biblical Theology: Issues, Methods, and Themes

·       John Kessler, Old Testament Theology: Divine Call and Human Response

Systematic Theology 2

·       Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity

·       Marcus Peter Johnson, One with Christ

History of Ecumenism

·       Yves Congar, The Meaning of Tradition

·       Avery Cardinal Dulles, A Testimonial to Grace and Reflections on a Theological Journey

·       Joseph F. Kelly, The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History

·       Scott W. Sunquist, Why Church? A Basic Introduction

Year 2 - Summer (Catholic University of America)

Elementary Latin 1 & 2

·       C. T. Lewis, An Elementary Latin Dictionary

·       F. L. Moreland and R. M. Fleischer, Latin: An Intensive Course

Intermediate Latin 

·       Eutropius, Wars with Hannibal

·       G. Steadman, College Caesar

 Year 3 - Fall

Apologetics

·       James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World

·       Nella Larsen, Passing

·       Myron Penner, The End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Post-Modern Context

·       Chaim Potok, Davita’s Harp

·       Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just

Greek Grammar 1

·       N. Clayton Croy, A Primer of Biblical Greek

·       C. Samuel Lamerson, English Grammar to Ace New Testament Greek

·       E. Nestle and K. Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th ed.

Romans

·       Douglas J. Moo, The NIV Application Commentary: Romans

·       N. T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?

Pentateuch

·       John Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative

·       Gary Schittjer, The Torah Story: An Apprenticeship on the Pentateuch

 The Holocaust and the Crisis of Evil

·       Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

·       Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

·       Eli Wiesel, Night

Directed Study: Medieval History

·       Carlos Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller

·       Clifford R. Backman, The Worlds of Medieval Europe

·       R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages

·       Ruth Mazo Karras, Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others

·       Sarah Maza, Thinking About History

·       Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft

Spring 2022

Life in Bible Times

·       John Hilber, Jonathan Greer and John Walton, Behind the Scenes of the Old Testament: Social, Cultural, and Historical Contexts

·       James C. VanderKam, An Introduction to Early Judaism

·       Bruce Longenecker, In Stone and Story: Early Christianity in the Roman World

Greek Grammar 2

·       [See Greek Grammar 1]

History of American Protestantism

·       Mark Noll, The Work We Have to Do: A History of Protestants in America

·       Douglas Sweeney, The American Evangelical Story: History of a Movement

·       Stephen J. Nichols, Jesus: Made in America

·       Jemar Tisby, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism 

Wellness Seminar

Communicating Biblical Truth

·       Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages

·       Andy Stanley, Communicating for a Change

Senior Seminar (Thesis Material)

·       Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue

·       Catherine of Siena, Letters

·       Catherine of Siena, Prayers

·       F. Thomas Luongo, The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena

·      Paul Murray, O.P., Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire, Preacher of Freedom