Here are 100 books that Traces on the Rhodian Shore fans have personally recommended if you like Traces on the Rhodian Shore. Book DNA is a community of 13,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives

David N. Livingstone Author Of The Empire of Climate: A History of an Idea

From my list on the history of ideas.

Why am I passionate about this?

My love for ideas and their history was born when I was still in high school. It was my old English teacher who first opened up the power of ideas in literature to change the world. I’m pretty sure he loved Eleanor Roosevelt’s comment: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Whether or not that’s true, my taste was further sharpened when I took a two-year course on the history of thought about nature and culture as an undergraduate student. I was captivated. 

David's book list on the history of ideas

David N. Livingstone Why David loves this book

This book has long been my go-to guide on all matters related to the relationship between science and religion. Its beauty is that it takes a cool, clear-headed look at the history of a subject that frequently stimulates more heat than light.

It’s now over thirty years old but has aged extremely well–certainly better than I have! I still find it illuminating on episode after episode. The connections are subtle and complex; Brooke never allows us to settle for comfortable simplicity. 

By John Hedley Brooke ,

Why should I read it?

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


If you love Traces on the Rhodian Shore...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Book cover of Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities

David N. Livingstone Author Of The Empire of Climate: A History of an Idea

From my list on the history of ideas.

Why am I passionate about this?

My love for ideas and their history was born when I was still in high school. It was my old English teacher who first opened up the power of ideas in literature to change the world. I’m pretty sure he loved Eleanor Roosevelt’s comment: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Whether or not that’s true, my taste was further sharpened when I took a two-year course on the history of thought about nature and culture as an undergraduate student. I was captivated. 

David's book list on the history of ideas

David N. Livingstone Why David loves this book

My admiration for this book knows no limits. Initially, I was put off by the title, but the subtitle says it all: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities. I know of no other book that tells the remarkable story of the very idea that there’s something called ‘the humanities’ and how it emerged as a suite of disciplines in modern education.

In a book of this scope and scale, I find it stunning that the author seems to have included a witticism on every other page! 

By James Turner ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Many today do not recognize the word, but "philology" was for centuries nearly synonymous with humanistic intellectual life, encompassing not only the study of Greek and Roman literature and the Bible but also all other studies of language and literature, as well as history, culture, art, and more. In short, philology was the queen of the human sciences. How did it become little more than an archaic word? In Philology, the first history of Western humanistic learning as a connected whole ever published in English, James Turner tells the fascinating, forgotten story of how the study of languages and texts…


Book cover of A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England

David N. Livingstone Author Of The Empire of Climate: A History of an Idea

From my list on the history of ideas.

Why am I passionate about this?

My love for ideas and their history was born when I was still in high school. It was my old English teacher who first opened up the power of ideas in literature to change the world. I’m pretty sure he loved Eleanor Roosevelt’s comment: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Whether or not that’s true, my taste was further sharpened when I took a two-year course on the history of thought about nature and culture as an undergraduate student. I was captivated. 

David's book list on the history of ideas

David N. Livingstone Why David loves this book

What I love about this book is the way it challenges the taken-for-granted thought that ‘truth’ is easily discovered. With compelling examples from the past, Shapin works through the ways in which scientific knowledge is made–the struggles that its practitioners have to engage in to construct and consolidate credibility.

What the author reveals is that trust is as fundamental in science as it is in everyday life. A revolutionary thought: who do we trust, and why?

By Steven Shapin ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

How do we come to trust our knowledge of the world? What are the means by which we distinguish true from false accounts? Why do we credit one observational statement over another? This study engages these universal questions through a recreation of a crucial period in the history of early modern science: the social world of gentlemen-philosophers in 17th-century England. The author paints a picture of the relations between gentlemanly culture and scientific practice. He argues that problems of credibility in science were practically solved through the codes and conventions of genteel conduct: trust, civility, honour, and integrity. These codes…


If you love Clarence J. Glacken...

Book cover of AcClaim

AcClaim by Jean Thesquare,

AcClaim is a dark, high-society romance about Beatrix Winslow-Hale, a successful romance author who believes desire can be negotiated and controlled—until enigmatic billionaire Dorian Wolker crosses the line between consensual surrender and violation. Publicly humiliated and emotionally shattered, Beatrix turns to Manon de Rochemaure, her fiercely loyal best friend and…

Book cover of Alexander Von Humboldt: A Metabiography

David N. Livingstone Author Of The Empire of Climate: A History of an Idea

From my list on the history of ideas.

Why am I passionate about this?

My love for ideas and their history was born when I was still in high school. It was my old English teacher who first opened up the power of ideas in literature to change the world. I’m pretty sure he loved Eleanor Roosevelt’s comment: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Whether or not that’s true, my taste was further sharpened when I took a two-year course on the history of thought about nature and culture as an undergraduate student. I was captivated. 

David's book list on the history of ideas

David N. Livingstone Why David loves this book

What struck me about this book was its enigmatic subtitle: A Metabiography. Here, I encountered not a biography of the great Prussian scientific traveler Alexander von Humboldt but a host of different Humboldts: Humboldt the liberal democrat, Humboldt the Aryan supremacist, Humboldt the anti-slavery Marxist, and Humboldt the pioneer of globalization.

What I discovered is that biographers construct their subjects in the image of their own time and place. This impressed me with two thoughts: that all scientific reputations are fundamentally unstable and that all of us are composed of multiple selfhoods.

By Nicolaas A Rupke ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Alexander Von Humboldt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is one of the most celebrated figures of late-modern science, famous for his work in physical geography, botanical geography, and climatology, and his role as one of the first great popularizers of the sciences. His momentous accomplishments have intrigued German biographers from the Prussian era to the fall of the Berlin wall, all of whom configured and reconfigured Humboldt's life according to the sensibilities of the day.This volume, the first metabiography of the great scientist, traces Humboldt's biographical identities through Germany's collective past to shed light on the historical instability of our scientific heroes.


Book cover of Soul of Doubt: The Religious Roots of Unbelief from Luther to Marx

Alec Ryrie Author Of Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt

From my list on atheism and religion.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a recovering atheist: a Christian convert who has more sympathy with some of my former atheist brethren than with a lot of my fellow believers. And I’m a historian by trade, which means I believe in the importance of trying to get inside the heads of people living in very different times – but who were still people. I’ve chosen polemical books by atheists and by believers, but in my own writing I try to get sympathetically inside the heads of both. I find that I get on better if I listen to the other side rather than banging the drum for my own – whichever ‘my own side’ is.

Alec's book list on atheism and religion

Alec Ryrie Why Alec loves this book

This is a wonderfully mind-expanding book which gently takes the history of philosophy that you think you know and turns it on its head. Most of the great critics of Christianity – Spinoza, Voltaire, Tom Paine, they’re all here – were not really, it turns out, atheists trying to tear it all up: they were idealistic, reforming believers who weren’t satisfied with churchy orthodoxies and wanted to purify religions that they thought had become corrupted. That made them maybe even fiercer in their criticisms, and it certainly meant they had unleashed forces they couldn’t control. But it means the moral force that drove anti-religious criticism during the Enlightenment was the desire, not to destroy religion, but to perfect it.

By Dominic Erdozain ,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

It is widely assumed that science is the enemy of religious faith. The idea is so pervasive that entire industries of religious apologetics converge around the challenge of Darwin, evolution, and the "secular worldview." This book challenges such assumptions by proposing a different cause of unbelief in the West: the Christian conscience. Tracing a history of doubt and unbelief from the Reformation to the age of Darwin and Karl Marx, Dominic Erdozain argues that the
most powerful solvents of religious orthodoxy have been concepts of moral equity and personal freedom generated by Christianity itself.

Revealing links between the radical Reformation…


Book cover of The Hidden History of Women's Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West

Lisa McClain Author Of Divided Loyalties? Pushing the Boundaries of Gender and Lay Roles in the Catholic Church, 1534-1829

From my list on how we got so confused about women, gender, and Christianity.

Why am I passionate about this?

I do what I do for completely self-interested reasons. I am a woman, wife, and mother; a history professor specializing in the Catholic Church and gender; and a Christian (Episcopalian). I used to compartmentalize those roles. I was a Christian at church, a secular scholar at work, etc. It was exhausting. I was frustrated by conflicting messages about gender and faith from my family, profession, and religion. I wanted to be true to all aspects of my identity in all situations, but how? History is full of people who’ve questioned and adapted at the intersections of gender and religion. I learn from their journeys and add another piece of the puzzle.

Lisa's book list on how we got so confused about women, gender, and Christianity

Lisa McClain Why Lisa loves this book

So many Christian churches struggle over who ought to lead. Do female priests/pastors fulfill or discount God’s intentions? How does one know? Scripture? Tradition?

Macy digs into the long-term history and finds that women were clearly ordained in the early church, but evidence of that ordination has been erased or explained away. Women used to perform many duties that we associate with religious leadership today, including some sacraments.

Furthermore, some were ordained, receiving vestments, staffs, and mitres. Their gradual exclusion from their traditional roles happened over centuries and was virtually complete by the 13th century, as the Church redefined ordination in ways that excluded women and their ministries.

Then we rewrote the history to make it appear women had never been ordained. Again, no agenda here—just the history.

By Gary Macy ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Hidden History of Women's Ordination as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Roman Catholic leadership still refuses to ordain women officially or even to recognize that women are capable of ordination. But is the widely held assumption that women have always been excluded from such roles historically accurate? How might the current debate change if our view of the history of women's ordination were to change?
In The Hidden History of Women's Ordination, Gary Macy offers illuminating and surprising answers to these questions. Macy argues that for the first twelve hundred years of Christianity, women were in fact ordained into various roles in the church. He uncovers references to the ordination…


If you love Traces on the Rhodian Shore...

Book cover of The Silent Women

The Silent Women by Tara Lynn Masih,

"A profound and often affecting story of resilience." —Kirkus Reviews

The Silent Women, an extraordinary novel inspired by the real women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee—the Manhattan Project’s “Secret City," where thousands kept the deadliest secret of World War II—is a sweeping, absorbing, and deeply human story about chosen…

Book cover of The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth

Dorothy Littell Greco Author Of For the Love of Women

From my list on identifying and confronting misogyny.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve spent my entire life facing and dealing with misogyny. Last year, I wrote a book on the topic which marries storytelling, research, and journalism. For the Love of Women is vulnerable, but not a memoir; well-researched but not academic; and though it’s confrontive, it ends on a hopeful note. If you have any doubts that misogyny is an issue in America, you need to read this book. 

Dorothy's book list on identifying and confronting misogyny

Dorothy Littell Greco Why Dorothy loves this book

Barr’s academic chops and in-depth research reveal how the subjugation of women became wrongly synonymous with Christianity.

Barr teaches history at Baylor, so she relies heavily on historic accounts to help us understand how culture bends toward and enforces patriarchy and misogyny, but Christianity does not. She is adamant that those who follow Jesus should never aim for, or practice, hierarchy or subjugation.

While The Making of Biblical Womanhood does lean toward being academic, her work is accessible and relevant. 

By Beth Allison Barr ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Making of Biblical Womanhood as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

USA Today Bestseller
Christianity Today 2022 Book Award Finalist (History & Biography)

"A powerful work of skillful research and personal insight."--Publishers Weekly

Biblical womanhood--the belief that God designed women to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers--pervades North American Christianity. From choices about careers to roles in local churches to relationship dynamics, this belief shapes the everyday lives of evangelical women. Yet biblical womanhood isn't biblical, says Baylor University historian Beth Allison Barr. It arose from a series of clearly definable historical moments.

This book moves the conversation about biblical womanhood beyond Greek grammar and into the realm of…


Book cover of Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work

Lowell W Busenitz Author Of Soul Work: Finding God in Your Entrepreneurial Pursuits

From my list on growing your faith at work.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have long been passionate about helping people connect with God through their work. After graduating from college, I worked in full-time minister for six years and then became an entrepreneur. Was I dropping off a spiritual cliff by leaving full-time ministry? I later pursued my PhD and became a professor. At the University of Oklahoma, I became a top researcher and co-founded the Center for Entrepreneurship. The impact of work on my faith has long been an important issue for me. I ultimately gained valuable insights from God that enhanced my spiritual journey. In my book, I explain the profound significance of work for knowing God. 

Lowell's book list on growing your faith at work

Lowell W Busenitz Why Lowell loves this book

This book is quickly becoming a classic in the faith and work area. For me personally, it offered a solid Biblical foundation for my thinking on the goodness of work, the Creation Mandate, and the Doctrine of Vocation.

I particularly appreciated the chapter on the dignity of work, where Keller outlines the value of work for all human beings regardless of their status and pay. We are also free to seek work that aligns with our gifts and passions.

Finally, Keller discusses the impact of the Fall on our work in a very refreshing way. I appreciate this book because it gives us solid reasons to strive for skill and patience in our places of work. 

By Timothy Keller ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Every Good Endeavor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet Timothy Keller shows how God calls on each of us to express meaning and purpose through our work and careers.

“A touchstone of the [new evangelical] movement.” —The New York Times

Tim Keller, pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the New York Times bestselling author of The Reason for God, has taught and counseled students, young professionals, and senior leaders on the subject of work and calling for more than twenty years. Now he pulls his insights into a thoughtful and practical book for readers everywhere.

With deep conviction…


Book cover of Medieval Trinitarian Thought from Aquinas to Ockham

Peter Adamson Author Of Medieval Philosophy: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Volume 4

From my list on a fresh approach to medieval philosophy.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a professor of philosophy in Munich who has been working on various aspects of medieval philosophy for nearly three decades. My own research is on philosophy in the Islamic world but I've always been fascinated by philosophy in medieval Christian Europe. What I find most interesting is the way medieval philosophy constantly overturns our expectations: we imagine that this was a deeply conservative and highly controlled society where it was almost impossible to explore new ideas. Yet, it was an incredibly diverse and innovative time in the history of human thought. Thanks to my History of Philosophy podcast project I had the chance to delve deeply into medieval philosophy in Latin Christendom.

Peter's book list on a fresh approach to medieval philosophy

Peter Adamson Why Peter loves this book

A prejudice people have about medieval philosophy is that it is all about theology, and theology isn’t philosophy (or isn’t philosophically interesting). There are two answers to be given here: first, medieval philosophers thought about lots of things apart from theology, like logic, physics, ethics, and so on. But also, when they did theology the results could be philosophically fascinating! In this case, discussions of the Trinity turn out to involve explorations of such topics as the nature of relations and the philosophy of mind (because one idea was to understand the Trinity as being akin to interrelations between aspects of human psychology). Other topics worth looking at to show how philosophically rewarding theology could be would be the eucharist and angels.

By Russell L. Friedman ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Medieval Trinitarian Thought from Aquinas to Ockham as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How can the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be distinct and yet identical? Prompted by the doctrine of the divine Trinity, this question sparked centuries of lively debate. In the current context of renewed interest in Trinitarian theology, Russell L. Friedman provides the first survey of the scholastic discussion of the Trinity in the 100-year period stretching from Thomas Aquinas' earliest works to William Ockham's death. Tracing two central issues - the attempt to explain how the three persons are distinct from each other but identical as God, and the application to the Trinity of a 'psychological model',…


If you love Clarence J. Glacken...

Book cover of Broken Boots, Redeemed Soul: A Veteran’s War with Sin and Salvation

Broken Boots, Redeemed Soul: A Veteran’s War with Sin and Salvation by Brian Lofton,

Broken Boots, Redeemed Soul: A Veteran’s War with Sin and Salvation, is a raw and faith-centered memoir about life after military service—and the internal battles many never see. Brian Lofton shares his journey through addiction, shame, identity loss, and spiritual distance, revealing how the hardest struggles often begin after…

Book cover of Not Afraid of the Antichrist: Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture

K.J. Soze Author Of Revelation Explained

From my list on to help explain Bible prophecies.

Why am I passionate about this?

Ever since I was very young I had an interest in Bible prophecy. I thought it was fascinating that someone could predict the future and wondered if the prophecies would come true in my lifetime. It all started with an old audio recording from Alexander Scourby reading the Book of Ezekiel. After that I read the Book of Revelation several times but didn't know what the symbolism meant. Decades later, I picked up the interest again and used my work experience of analytical skills to help interpret its meaning. Most people focus on the Antichrist or Mark of the Beast, yet there are more warnings about the False Prophet than any other character.

K.J.'s book list on to help explain Bible prophecies

K.J. Soze Why K.J. loves this book

Some of the big topics within Bible prophecy are the Great Tribulation Period with the Antichrist at the helm, and whether Bible believers will be raptured before or after this period of distress. The authors tackle this tough question with sound biblical evidence to support their claims.

Unfortunately, their findings go against many popular opinions of the modern Church and there is great debate amongst believers about the Rapture. This is why their book is very important to provide much needed information for those who hold differing views.

By Michael L. Brown , Craig S. Keener ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Not Afraid of the Antichrist as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Despite the popular theology of our day, Christians should not expect to get out of experiencing the tribulation or the end times. Nowhere in the Bible does the Lord promise us this, say Michael Brown and Craig Keener, two leading, acclaimed Bible scholars. In fact, they say, Jesus promises us tribulation in this world.

Yet this is no reason to fear. In this fascinating, accessible, and personal book, Brown and Keener walk you through what the Bible really says about the rapture, the tribulation, and the end times. What they find will leave you full of hope. God's wrath is…


Book cover of Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives
Book cover of Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities
Book cover of A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England

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