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Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World
Robert E. Webber

The late Bob Webber wrote the first popular book about the church fathers as a source for contemporary ministry. This volume talks about their relevance for theology, church, worship, and evangelism.

Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers
Christopher A. Hall

Hall, provost of Eastern University, worked closely with Thomas Oden to birth the massive Ancient Christian Commentary series. In this book, Hall introduces the methods the fathers used to interpret Scripture.

Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction
Bryan M. Litfin

A teacher at Moody Bible Institute, Litfin knows the suspicions many evangelicals have about the fathers. This book introduces beginners to 10 key figures from the early church.

A New Song for an Old World: Musical Thought in the Early Church
Calvin R. Stapert

Calvin College professor Stapert is a Bach expert, but he's also well informed on what early Christian writers had to say about music. He'll tell you why Christians first sang the psalms around the dinner table, and what crisis prompted the first hymn-sing inside a church.

Early Christian Fathers (Library of Christian Classics, volume 1)
Edited by Cyril C. Richardson

It's 54 years old, but this volume is still a handy and reliable collection of key early Christian writings, including the Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Didache, and selections from Irenaeus's Against Heresies.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous top 5 lists had books about the civil rights era, social justice, church history, popular culture, the Civil War, apologetics, atheism, and sex.

Neff, editor-in-chief of the Christianity Today Media Group, blogs at Ancient Evangelical Future.

Christianity Today briefly excerpted Ancient-Future Faith and interviewed Hall and Litfin about their books.

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March 2008, Vol. 52, No. 3