Here are 15 books that Theism and Humanism fans have personally recommended if you like Theism and Humanism. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?

Peter Bussey Author Of Signposts to God: How Modern Physics and Astronomy Point the Way to Belief

From my list on science and religion with mutual support.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been intrigued by science since childhood, especially astronomy, and I became a university academic, teaching physics to students and researching in experiments with elementary particles. I was raised in a Christian family and have maintained my faith. I don’t find any real issues with science–it shows how clever God was in creating the universe! At the same time, I know many people have difficulties in this area. My book was written to help them, and I think the recommended books will help them, too.

Peter's book list on science and religion with mutual support

Peter Bussey Why Peter loves this book

I see this as an outstanding explanation of why the theory of evolution and the Biblical story of creation are compatible, contrary to what many believe. No, we don’t have to choose, we should have both!

Dr Alexander is an expert biologist and a committed Christian, and he presents the theory of evolution and the story of life on Earth well from a scientific point of view. He then shows how the Biblical account can very reasonably be read in a faithful way that fits in with modern knowledge.

Many people have problems in this area, and I think they can get much help from this book, even though it is a bit technical in places.

By Denis Alexander ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Creation or Evolution as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Creation or Evolution helps you make sense of the complex common ground between the biblical doctrine of creation and the scientific evidence behind the theory of evolutionary.

With the guidance of neuroscientist Denis Alexander - a passionate believer in both the Bible and science, you can build a fully integrated understanding of the tricky questions that have divided so many for too long.

This book combines the latest genetic research with an exploration of what we mean by creation and evolution to overcome the common scientific and religious objections to each. He addresses the argument that evolution is atheistic and…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of Scientists of Faith: Forty-Eight Biographies of Historic Scientists and Their Christian Faith

Peter Bussey Author Of Signposts to God: How Modern Physics and Astronomy Point the Way to Belief

From my list on science and religion with mutual support.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been intrigued by science since childhood, especially astronomy, and I became a university academic, teaching physics to students and researching in experiments with elementary particles. I was raised in a Christian family and have maintained my faith. I don’t find any real issues with science–it shows how clever God was in creating the universe! At the same time, I know many people have difficulties in this area. My book was written to help them, and I think the recommended books will help them, too.

Peter's book list on science and religion with mutual support

Peter Bussey Why Peter loves this book

I always feel that personal stories are the best recommendation for what people believe. Dan Graves gives us many prominent scientists who were at the same time sincere Christian believers.

They lived over many centuries and worked in various scientific fields, making some of the most important discoveries. Some were Catholics; some were protestants. I think this is a very readable book, and if anyone ever tries to say that a good scientist can’t be a Christian or the other way around, it provides complete proof that this is untrue.

By Dan Graves ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Scientists of Faith as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Scientists Of Faith


Book cover of Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians

Peter Bussey Author Of Signposts to God: How Modern Physics and Astronomy Point the Way to Belief

From my list on science and religion with mutual support.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been intrigued by science since childhood, especially astronomy, and I became a university academic, teaching physics to students and researching in experiments with elementary particles. I was raised in a Christian family and have maintained my faith. I don’t find any real issues with science–it shows how clever God was in creating the universe! At the same time, I know many people have difficulties in this area. My book was written to help them, and I think the recommended books will help them, too.

Peter's book list on science and religion with mutual support

Peter Bussey Why Peter loves this book

We are still living in the aftermath of the myth that before the age of modern science, people believed that the Earth was flat. I was taken by surprise to find how utterly mistaken this is and that nineteenth-century writers were the ones who propagated this false idea. It is usually coupled with the notion that in former times, folk believed both in a flat earth and in religion, but that nowadays, people believe in neither.

This is all nonsense, and I was delighted to read the proper historical story in this excellently written book. Christopher Columbus and his associates never believed that the Earth was flat!

By Jeffrey B. Russell ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Inventing the Flat Earth as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Neither Christopher Columbus nor his contemporaries thought the earth was flat. Yet this curious illusion persists today, firmly established with the help of the media, textbooks, teachers-even noted historians. Inventing the Flat Earth is Russell's attempt to set the record straight. He begins with a discussion of geographical knowledge in the Middle Ages, examining what Columbus and his contemporaries actually did believe, and then moves to a look at how the error was first propagated in the 1820s and 1830s and then snowballed to outrageous proportions by the late 19th century. But perhaps the most intriguing focus of the book…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of Inventing the Universe: Why we can't stop talking about science, faith and God

Peter Bussey Author Of Signposts to God: How Modern Physics and Astronomy Point the Way to Belief

From my list on science and religion with mutual support.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been intrigued by science since childhood, especially astronomy, and I became a university academic, teaching physics to students and researching in experiments with elementary particles. I was raised in a Christian family and have maintained my faith. I don’t find any real issues with science–it shows how clever God was in creating the universe! At the same time, I know many people have difficulties in this area. My book was written to help them, and I think the recommended books will help them, too.

Peter's book list on science and religion with mutual support

Peter Bussey Why Peter loves this book

Alister McGrath is one of the most readable authors on difficult areas. Here, he deals with some very general issues of religious faith in a scientific age and addresses the personal side of the equation.

Religion won’t go away, and McGrath tells us how and why this is so, bringing in some important philosophical questions that he explains in a very down-to-earth way. Whether we realize it or not, we all have a personal philosophy, and science and faith can help each other. I found it hard to put this book down.

By Alister McGrath ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Inventing the Universe as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

We just can't stop talking about the big questions around science and faith. They haven't gone away, as some predicted they might; in fact, we seem to talk about them more than ever. Far from being a spent force, religion continues to grow around the world. Meanwhile, Richard Dawkins and the New Atheists argue that religion is at war with science - and that we have to choose between them.

It's time to consider a different way of looking at these two great cultural forces. What if science and faith might enrich each other? What if they can together give…


Book cover of Lanark: A Life in Four Books

Iain Hood Author Of This Good Book

From my list on Scottish reads about moments of madness.

Why am I passionate about this?

Scotland’s greatest poet since Burns, Hugh MacDiarmid, said that there were no traditions in writing, only precedents. He was thinking that, were traditions followed, adhered to, applauded, and praised, and prized too highly, then the danger of slavish repetition rather than creative divergence was too high. We need the mad moments, when all bets are off and something truly unpredictable will happen. I write with Scots modernist, postmodernist, and experimental precedents in mind. I want there to be Scots literature that reflects a divergent, creative nation, willing to experiment with words and life, and, in Alasdair Gray’s formulation, “work as though in the early days of a better nation.”

Iain's book list on Scottish reads about moments of madness

Iain Hood Why Iain loves this book

The most “please don’t do it” I have felt in response to a story is as Gray’s protagonist Thaw empties his pockets and throws his life documents and identifying possessions from a moving train on his way to his moment of madness. This will transpose or transform or, I suppose we must, translate Thaw into Lanark.

Critics have noted the many madcap imaginative moments in Gray’s large (in every sense) debut novel. The sequencing of the parts alone (Part 3, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 4) is enough to signal we are in no realist story of a boy and man’s life in Glasgow – more, think surrealist – and yet the book is also just that, and Glasgow is a hell called Unthank in the imagination of an artist who lived all his life in Glasgow.

By Alasdair Gray ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Lanark as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Probably the greatest novel of the century' Observer
'Remarkable' William Boyd

Lanark, a modern vision of hell, is set in the disintegrating cities of Unthank and Glasgow, and tells the interwoven stories of Lanark and Duncan Thaw. A work of extraordinary imagination and wide range, its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind's inability to love, and yet our compulsion to go on trying.

First published in 1981, Lanark immediately established Gray as one of Britain's leading writers.


Book cover of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale

Alan McManus Author Of Alchemy at the Chalkface: Pirsig, Pedagogy and the Metaphysics of Quality

From my list on philosophical fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

Scotland has a proud tradition of philosophical enquiry and I studied closely the work of most of these authors and benefited from almost all of them for my own Ph.D. work. Pirsig uses the old Scots word “gumption” for know-how and initiative and, in his honour, I use his related term “gumptionology” as my handle on social media. I also write my own mystery books series set in Scotland (the Bruno Benedetti mysteries) and they are often inspired by musing on philosophical and metaphysical matters but even my books on ethics contain some philosophical fiction. Our shared stories are fundamental to our humanity—and to our philosophy!

Alan's book list on philosophical fiction

Alan McManus Why Alan loves this book

This was a book I bought and loved and lost (my fault for leaving it in the University of Glasgow library) but not just because I loved the TV series. Ok, mostly. But also because it gave me a whole new insight into the forceful philosophy of Nietzsche as embodied by Buddy’s friend, rival and nemesis, Faith, and this was really useful for me trying to put generational conflict into words for my Ph.D. The 25 authors obviously love the series and, as this is one that I know well and have rewatched with audio/subtitles in various languages as an easy way to learn, their insights have added interest by providing another layer of meaning in this already multi-dimensional enthralling—and hilarious—narrative. I want this book back!

By James B. South (editor) , William Irwin (editor) ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Designed by writer Joss Whedon as a multilevel story with most of its meanings deeply buried in heaps of heavy irony, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has replaced the "X-Files" as the show that explains to Americans the nature of the powerful forces of evil continually threatening to surge into a world of everyday decency. This collection features 23 essays by young professional philosophers that examine crucial ethical and metaphysical aspects of the "Buffyverse" (the world of Buffy). In the tradition of the classic horror films, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" addresses ethical issues that have long fascinated audiences. This book finds…


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Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of The Existence of God

Rodney Holder Author Of Ramified Natural Theology in Science and Religion: Moving Forward from Natural Theology

From my list on my Christian faith confirmed through science.

Why am I passionate about this?

I believe that the most important questions one can possibly ask are, ‘Is there a God?’ and ‘Is Jesus God in human flesh?’ Since becoming a Christian at University in Cambridge the answers I have found to these questions have been the bedrock of my life. They have been confirmed by experience and I have wanted to share them. My academic work has been devoted to them. I am an astrophysicist as well as a priest and find, contrary to popular conceptions, that these vocations fit wonderfully neatly together. I am persuaded that there is a wealth of evidence for the truth of Christian beliefs, including from science itself.

Rodney's book list on my Christian faith confirmed through science

Rodney Holder Why Rodney loves this book

Swinburne is a world-leading philosopher of religion and in this book he mounts a powerful case for the existence of God. Each piece of evidence he adduces is more likely to be found if God exists than if he does not so this enhances the probability that God does in fact exist. The evidence includes the cosmological and design arguments, arguments from consciousness and morality, arguments from history and miracles and from religious experience. Making reasonable assumptions and bringing all this evidence together gives us a high probability that God exists.

By Richard Swinburne ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Existence of God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Richard Swinburne presents a substantially rewritten and updated edition of his most celebrated book. No other work has made a more powerful case for the probability of the existence of God. Swinburne gives a rigorous and penetrating analysis of the most important arguments for theism: the cosmological argument; arguments from the existence of laws of nature and the 'fine-tuning' of the universe; from the occurrence of consciousness and moral awareness; and from
miracles and religious experience. He claims that while none of these arguments are deductively valid, they do give inductive support to theism and that, even when the argument…


Book cover of Return of the God Hypothesis

Sy Garte Author Of Beyond Evolution

From my list on science and the Christian faith.

Why am I passionate about this?

Raised in an atheist family, I came to faith in Christ in middle age and am now devoted to spreading the Gospel. I am a PhD biochemist and the author of the award-winning The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith. I was a professor at three major universities and held leadership positions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. I have published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, as well as articles on science and faith. I serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly magazine God and Nature. My passion is to proclaim the harmony between science and Christianity.

Sy's book list on science and the Christian faith

Sy Garte Why Sy loves this book

Stephen Meyer, author of Signature in the Cell, presents the historical reality of the relationship between science and faith as complementary, and not in conflict, as the modern mythology of atheism holds.

He then makes a detailed, comprehensive, yet accessible case for the reality of a divine mind behind the creation of the universe and of life. 

The three areas Meyer focuses on are the Big Bang beginning of all matter and energy, the extremely well-tuned values of the cosmological and other physical constants (without which life would be impossible), and the unique complexity of the genetic code as the information system in all of life. 

The arguments are compelling, and this book is a great example of how science refutes the claim that there is no scientific evidence for God, a claim that is still being made by atheists. This book leaves no doubt that the God hypothesis is…

By Stephen C. Meyer ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Return of the God Hypothesis as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestselling author of Darwin's Doubt, Stephen Meyer,presents groundbreaking scientific evidence of the existence of God, based on breakthroughs in physics, cosmology, and biology.

Beginning in the late 19th century, many intellectuals began to insist that scientific knowledge conflicts with traditional theistic belief—that science and belief in God are “at war.” Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer challenges this view by examining three scientific discoveries with decidedly theistic implications. Building on the case for the intelligent design of life that he developed in Signature in the Cell and Darwin's Doubt, Meyer demonstrates how discoveries in cosmology and physics…


Book cover of A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time

Mark E. Leib Author Of Image Breaker

From my list on Jewish life and ethics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started studying Judaism as an adult in 1982, and in the 40 or so years that have passed since then I’ve read voraciously on the subject and have discussed it at length with Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis from Boston to Tampa. I’ve come to see over that time that Judaism’s objective is to shape conscientious, caring human beings who will bring light and compassion to the earth in spite of all the forces that want to keep trouble and insensitivity there. The books that I’ve listed are among the best in communicating the Jewish vision for the planet. I think you’ll learn much from them.

Mark's book list on Jewish life and ethics

Mark E. Leib Why Mark loves this book

Anyone wishing to understand the history of modern Israel will find all questions answered in this beautifully written account beginning in the 19th century and continuing to the end of the 20th.

Sachar’s eloquence is stunning, and his attention to detail means that nothing is left undefined or ambiguous. There are quite a few histories of Israel on bookshelves, but none of them comes near Sachar’s work in perceptiveness or reach.

If only all histories were written as well!

By Howard M. Sachar ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A History of Israel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First published in 1976, Howard M. Sachar’s A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time was regarded one of the most valuable works available detailing the history of this still relatively young country. Decades later, readers can again be immersed in this monumental work.

The second edition of this volume covers topics such as the first of the Aliyahs in the 1880s; the rise of Jewish nationalism; the beginning of the political Zionist movement and, later, how the movement changed after Theodor Herzl; the Balfour Declaration; the factors that led to the Arab-Jewish confrontation; Palestine and…


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Book cover of Old Man Country

Old Man Country by Thomas R. Cole,

This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.

In these and other intimate conversations, the book…

Book cover of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

Mark Tessler Author Of A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

From my list on the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Why am I passionate about this?

Professor Tessler attended university in Israel and an Arab country, Tunisia, and he has lived for extended periods both in Israel and in several Arab countries. He has written extensively not only on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also on politics in Israel and a number of Arab countries. With respect to the latter, he has gained distinction for his groundbreaking research on public opinion in the Arab world; he co-founded the Arab Barometer survey project in 2006 and has been its co-director since that time. The first edition of his book, A History of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict, was named a notable book of the year by The New York Times.

Mark's book list on the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict

Mark Tessler Why Mark loves this book

Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory.

Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age.

He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.

This is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces…

By Rashid Khalidi ,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Hundred Years' War on Palestine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Shortlisted for the 2020 Cundill History Prize

'Riveting and original ... a work enriched by solid scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this deeply unequal conflict ' Noam Chomsky

The twentieth century for Palestine and the Palestinians has been a century of denial: denial of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. The Hundred Years War on Palestine is Rashid Khalidi's powerful response. Drawing on his family archives, he reclaims the fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their own…


Book cover of Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?
Book cover of Scientists of Faith: Forty-Eight Biographies of Historic Scientists and Their Christian Faith
Book cover of Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians

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