Christianity Today Book Awards

Book Awards 2007
22 titles that bring understanding to people, events, and ideas that
 shape evangelical life, thought, and mission.

This year, 43 publishers nominated 291 titles. CT editors selected the top books in each category, and then panels of judges—one panel for each category—voted. In the end, they chose 22 titles that bring understanding to people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission. Selections from judges’ comments are below.

Apologetics/Evangelism
The Language of God: ‘A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
Francis S. Collins (Free Press)
Our judges said: “Faces head-on the most tactically challenging issues that keep people from Christian faith in our time with both clarity and charity. And by showing a Christian who loves creation, science, his neighbors, and his Lord, it presents a rare and welcome picture of mature Christian character.”

Biblical Studies
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
Richard Bauckham (Eerdmans)
Our judges said: “Wonderful. A dazzlingbook. It reads beautifully, grabs the reader with its fascinating detective work, and sets the scholarly discussion of the historical Jesus on a new (very old!) foundation: eyewitness reports as the basis of the biblical gospel. This is biblical scholarship of the highest order that can be read with enjoyment by the thoughtful layperson.”

Christianity and Culture
The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World
Miroslav Volf (Eerdmans)
Our judges said: “How should a Christian handle the memory of abuse? If it is forgotten, where is justice for the accuser? How is reconciliation possible when abuse involves communities and nations? Volf addresses these questions with a profound theological grasp of their implications both for the present and the future.”

Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
Philip Yancey (Zondervan)
Our judges said: “Directness and liveliness of illustration and argument, theological substance, quality of biblical reflection, and readability that may make it accessible even to those coming to faith, Bible reading, or prayer for the first time.”

Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples
Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger (B&H Publishing)
Our judges said: “This very practical book addresses a big gap in most evangelical churches: the lack of a functional process for actually making disciples (not just incorporating church attenders).”

Dwelling Places
Vinita Hampton Wright (HarperSanFrancisco)
Our judges said: “Literarily sophisticated and subtle. Characters and setting are extremely well developed. The nexus of family drama and large sociopolitical context is very rare. Faith plays a subtle but powerful role.”

History/Biography
Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War
Harry S. Stout (Viking)
Our judges said: “Likely to change people’s minds about deeply important cultural views and memories. The Civil War, Stout argues, was not a just war in its inception or in its conduct.”

The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
Christopher J. H. Wright (IVP Academic)
Our judges said: “Completely fresh with new insights presented in a lucid and compelling way. This is an important work of scholarship that will likely give future generations a firm foundation for thinking theologically about the church’s mission in the world. Likely to affect the way that biblical theology and exegesis are done in evangelical seminaries.”

Spirituality
The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life
Robert E. Webber (Baker Books)
Our judges said: “A brilliant and convincing exposition of the deficiencies of intellectualized, mysticized, and experientialized approaches to spirituality with a convincing, positive case for Christian spirituality as entering into the reality (divine embrace) of what Christ has accomplished for us on the Cross. The engagement with the rich history of spirituality, orthodox and otherwise, is outstanding.”

The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche’s Critique of Christianity
Stephen N. Williams (Baker Academic)
Our judges said: “This book tackles a subject too often ignored by evangelical Christians. The role of Nietzsche in forming what we call modern culture is of foundational importance, and Williams expounds this for us in a clear and compelling way. Every pastor and Christian educator should read and ponder this book when addressing the concerns of modern society.”

Awards of Merit

Apologetics/Evangelism
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense
N. T. Wright (HarperSanFrancisco)

The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made
Mark Dever (Crossway)

Christianity and Culture (tie)
Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity
Edward Gilbreath (IVP Books)

Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church
James K. A. Smith (Baker Academic)

Christian Living (tie)
The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’ Essential Teachings on Discipleship
Dallas Willard (HarperSanFrancisco)

Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God
Mark Galli (Baker Books)

The Church/Pastoral Leadership
Why Church Matters: Worship, Ministry and Mission in Practice
Jonathan R. Wilson (Brazos)

Fiction
Winter Birds
Jamie Langston Turner (Bethany House)

History/Biography
A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan
Michael Kazin (Knopf)

Missions/Global Affairs
The New Faces of Christianity: Believing in the Bible in the Global South
Philip Jenkins (Oxford)

Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading
Eugene H. Peterson (Eerdmans)

Theology/ Ethics
Evil and the Justice of God
N. T. Wright (IVP Books)