Women’s History Month is an annual observance highlighting women’s contributions to the world. Toward that end, I will make a small contribution: ten books written by women that every Christian will benefit from reading.
- The Hiding Place (Corrie Ten Boom). Corrie Ten Boom was a survivor of Hitler’s concentration camps, heroine of the German Resistance, and rescuer of many Jews. Among her family, only she lived to tell the story of God’s goodness amid great evil. That story is told in a riveting fashion in The Hiding Place.
- Free Grace and Dying Love (Susannah Spurgeon). Susannah Spurgeon, wife of the great British preacher, was a lay theologian and devotional writer whose prose awakens the heart. In Free Grace and Dying Love, Spurgeon gives her testimony and explores the depths of the Savior’s love.
- Being Brought from Africa to America (Phyllis Wheatley). Phyllis Wheatley was sold into slavery at the age of seven, wrested from West Africa, and sent to the United States. Later, she was freed and became the first Black American to make a living as a poet. Being Brought from Africa to America is a collection of her acclaimed poetry.
- The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank). As a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, Anne Frank and her family fled their Amsterdam home to hide in an abandoned office building. Amid the hunger, fear, and isolation, Frank wrote the entries we now know as The Diary of a Young Girl, recording her thoughtful, emotionally moving, and sometimes amusing reflections on life in that era.
- Through Gates of Splendor (Elisabeth Elliot). Elisabeth Elliot was the wife of Jim Elliot, who was one of five young missionaries brutally murdered while trying to minister to the Auca Indians of Ecuador. Through Gates of Splendor is Elisabeth’s account of the story, a biographical narrative undergirded by spiritual and theological reflections.
- L’Abri (Edith Schaeffer). In 1955, Francis and Edith Schaeffer moved from the United States to the Swiss Alps, where they purchased a small chalet named L’Abri (the French word for shelter). In L’Abri, Edith Schaeffer tells how their small home became a Christian retreat ministering to spiritual and intellectual seekers from around the world. This is a moving account of the gospel’s triumph in a secular context through the ministry of a tightly-knit Christian community.
- Confronting Christianity (Rebecca McLaughlin). Rebecca McLaughlin is one of Christianity’s premiere apologists, able to translate the claims of Christ for a secular age. In Confronting Christianity, she answers a dozen objections that keep contemporary people from embracing the faith. Grounded in Scripture, the author draws upon the best social scientific research, personal stories, and cultural trends to show the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christians’ claims.
8. The Child’s Story Bible (Catherine F. Vos). There is no better test of a Bible teacher’s skill than distilling profound biblical truth into forms a young child can understand. Catherine Vos excels in this. First published nearly 75 years ago, the Child’s Story Bible continues to instruct and delight, offering the perfect opportunity for families of small children to make the most of their bedtimes together.
There is no better test of a Bible teacher’s skill than distilling profound biblical truth into forms a young child can understand.
9. Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age (Rosario Butterfield). Known for her testimony as a formerly lesbian literature professor turned evangelical Christian, Butterfield is one of my favorite thinkers and writers. In Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, she draws upon biblical lines of reason to confront the lies our secular culture tells about gender roles, sexuality, faith, feminism, and modesty. Faithfully biblical and winsomely communicated.
10. Total Truth (Nancy Pearcey). In Total Truth, we are provided with one of the best, one-stop treatments of the Christian worldview available in book form today. Pearcey demonstrates the logical coherence, existential viability, and empirical reliability of the Christian faith and applies Christian claims to every sphere of culture. This is a very thick book—not for the fainthearted reader—but well worth the time spent.
There it is—my list of ten. Of course, this list is by no means comprehensive nor is it intended to be a list of the “10 best books ever” by Christian women. Instead, it is a list of ten books I highly recommend that might nudge you to read hundreds of similarly profitable books if you like them.
