100 Books Like God's Funeral

I love books that debunk widespread popular myths. Most people think Charles Darwin was an anti-religious crusader who sailed around the globe trying to find evidence to disprove the biblical story of creation. Many people have told me this; even more have written about it. They are all so wrong it would be hard to imagine them being more wrong.

Darwin, shortly after some studies to become a priest, boarded the Beagle with a Bible and a traditional Anglican faith—a faith that survived his many explorations as he circled the globe. His theory “tormented” him as it gestated for he understood the damage it would do to the beloved story in Genesis.

I loved this book for its sparkling, eloquent prose. As a young writer, I strove to emulate the author. The book’s engaging, often novelistic, narrative tells the tale of how we came to understand and accept that our planet moves, that the universe is very old and very large, and began with a Big Bang.

The characters—Galileo, Newton, and Einstein—come to life as real people struggling to understand. Their bewilderment at our strange cosmic home pulled me into the story. The unwelcome realizations reveal the power of science to force us to abandon our cherished notions of how we wish the world to be—to “Come of Age in the Milky Way.”

I was captured by the first sentence in this book: “Between 1550 and 1650 Western thinkers ceased to believe that they could find all important truths in ancient books.” I think this is the greatest intellectual revolution in history—when we stopped looking back in time for the truth about the world and started looking forward. 

We stopped believing that ancient thinkers—Moses, Aristotle, Galen—had privileged access to knowledge. We realized that Newton was better equipped to understand the world than Aristotle and that Darwin knew more than Moses. This realization made science possible, but it’s a fragile insight.

I have always been intrigued by thoughtful doubters who reject mainstream ideas, whose intellects “boldly go where nobody has gone before.”  Most of our intellectual revolutions start with such doubters, who look at widely accepted ideas and say “I am not so sure about this.”

I really loved the author's discussion of poor Job as he wrestled with the prevailing belief that a good man would be blessed by God with a happy life. Jennifer Hecht is a gifted writer. She reminds us that now-mainstream thinkers from the past—Pythagoras, Jesus, Marx, Galileo, Freud, Darwin—were radicals in their own time.

This book stands as a testament to the enduring legacies of two remarkable scholars whose contributions continue to shape our understanding of the relationship between science and religion.

Lindberg and Numbers, both of whom have sadly passed away in recent years, paved the way for a more nuanced and complex examination of this crucial intersection. Their edited collection brings together diverse perspectives and rigorous scholarship, offering invaluable insights into the historical, philosophical, and theological dimensions of the dialogue between science and Christianity.

If there's one book that captures the essence of this ongoing discourse, it's this one. Lindberg and Numbers' work is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between these two realms of human inquiry.

There are a group of leading thinkers in science and religion who simultaneously provoke fertile thought in their readers and irritate them at the same time! This group includes biologists Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, and Edward O. Wilson, and physicists Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Steven Weinberg, who have become public intellectuals, articulating a much larger vision for science and what role it should play in the modern worldview. The scientific prestige and literary eloquence of each of these thinkers combines to transform them into what can only be called oracles of science. Curiously, these thinkers create a very misleading and culturally damaging impression that science as a whole is incompatible with religion. Giberson and Artigas offer an informed analysis of their views, carefully distinguishing science from philosophy and religion in the writings of the oracles. Overall, the book is a great introduction to many of the fascinating questions… show more.

Michael Guillen, a well-known science reporter and broadcast journalist, has published an exciting and easily understood book about how science, especially physics, supports the idea of a divine creator of the universe.

Guillen, a former atheist and skeptic of Christianity, found his worldview turned around by his scientific studies. 

This book is beautifully written and absolutely accessible to everyone, including those with no training in physics or other sciences.

The author describes his own journey to faith through his science and answers all the questions a reader might have about the truth of the evidence. His faith shines through all the pages of this book and it is a must read for anyone interested in the harmony of science and Christian faith.

The previous two authors, van Inwagen and Steward, are libertarians: they believe free will exists and is incompatible with determinism (so determinism is false).

List, on the other hand, is a compatibilist: he believes free will exists and is compatible with determinism (so determinism might be true). This is a view that has surprising few book-length defenses, and List takes up that challenge with characteristic thoughtfulness and rigor.

The devotional book, Indescribable, is engaging way to show kids how our world (science) and God are connected in the most wonderful way.

Including a Bible verse, nonfiction information, a closing prayer and a “Be Amazed” sidebar, topics include space, earth, and animals. For example, after quoting Isaiah, “He calls the stars by name,” the author gives facts about the stars. Then Mr. Giglio says “But do you know what’s even more astonishing and wonderful?

That same God who knows the stars’ names also knows your name.” What a great introduction to God’s world from a Biblical perspective for 6-10-year-olds.

My favorite professor once told me that this book is an essential staple of any respectable ecologist’s bookshelf. And after savoring it for myself (and re-reading it many times since), I couldn’t agree more. Since being penned by a conservation writer exploring his home farm, this environmental classic has contributed significantly to the foundation of modern stewardship narratives. 

The book brims with short chapters that read less like ecological essays and more like diary entries overflowing with intellectual depth and nature-loving philosophy. Through artistic prose, you’ll accompany the author as he listens to early morning birdsongs, goes fishing for wild trout, studies roadside plants, follows tracks by a river, and chops trees for firewood.

After pondering these humble practices, you’ll see even the most mundane garden weeds with wonder-filled eyes.