While I’m the last person who is truly qualified to offer such a list, Church Times recently offered a list of the 100 Best Books of the Christian Tradition, and, as a graduate student studying the History of Christianity, I happen to read a lot of books belonging to the Christian tradition. And I like making lists. So I figured I would try my hand at listing the 100 Best Book of the Christian Tradition. Before starting, three notes: 1) these are not intended to strictly be the “best” books (I still have a lot to read), bur rather important works worth reading; 2) while the list is in some sort of order, the hierarchy is not overly rigid; and 3) his list contains only books I’ve read at least substantial portions of, and does not include works I have not read in some fashion.
1. The Christian Bible, Old and New Testaments (You’d be surprised how many lists of “important books” leave this off)
2. Confessions, Augustine of Hippo
3. On the Incarnation, Athansius of Alexandria
4. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
5. Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis
7. On the Freedom of the Will, Erasmus of Rotterdam
6. Theological Orations, Gregory Nazianzan
7. Against Heresies, Irenaeus of Lyons
9. The Divine Comedy, Dante Aligheri
10. Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
11. City of God, Augustine of Hippo
12. Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius of Caesarea
13. The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
14. Holy Writing, Sacred Text, John Barton
15. Life of Antony, Athanasius of Alexandria
16. Four Hundred Chapters on Love, Maximus the Confessor
17. Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton
18. Epistles, Ignatius of Antioch
19. The Drama of Scripture, Bartholomew and Goheen
20. How Then Should We Live?, Francis Schaeffer
21. Handbook of the Christian Solider, Erasmus of Rotterdam
22. The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative, Hans Frei
24. The Intellectual Life, A. G. Sertillanges
25. The Divine Names, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
26. The Freedom of a Christian, Martin Luther
27. The Freedom of a Christian, Gilbert Meilaender
28. On First Principles, Origen
29. Early Christian Doctrines, J. N. D. Kelly
30. On Grace and Freewill, Augustine of Hippo
32. Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis
33. Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
34. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll
35. Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius of Loyola
36. The Heresy of Orthodoxy, Kostenberger and Kruger
37. Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin
38. Hymns on Faith, Ephrem the Syrian (Translation Forthcoming)
39. Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich
40. Rule of Saint Benedict, Benedict of Nursia
41. The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis
42. Augustine of Hippo, Peter Brown
43. The Cloud of Unknowing, Anonymous
44. First Epistle to the Corinthians, Clement of Rome
45. Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, John Henry Newman
46. The New Testament and the People of God, N. T. Wright
47. The Epistle to the Romans, Karl Barth
48. Basic Christianity, John Stott
49. Four Quartets, T. S. Eliot
50. Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkegaard
51. Foxes Book of Martyrs, John Foxe
52. Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth
54. Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, Anonymous
55. Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, Thaddeus of Vitovnica
56. The Experience of God, David Bentley Hart
57. An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Wolfhart Pannenberg
58. Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee
59. Ground and Grammar of Theology, Thomas Torrance
60. The Nature of Doctrine, George Lindbeck
61. The Quest for the Historical Jesus, Albert Schweitzer
62. Either/Or, Soren Kierkegaard
63. Pilgrim Theology, Michael Bauman
64. The Mind of the Maker, Dorothy Sayers
65. Life of Marcina, Gregory of Nyssa
66. The Orthodox Way, Timothy Ware
67. The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren
68. Mystical Theology, Pseudo-Dionysius
69. On Religion, Friederich Schleiermacher
70. The Canon of the New Testament, Bruce Metzger
71. Understanding the Times, David Noebel
72. On the Unity of the Catholic Church, Cyprian of Carthage
73. A Reformation Debate, Calvin and Sadoleto
74. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Anonymous
75. The Story of Christianity, David Bentley Hart
76. Commentary on the Our Father, Tertullian of Carthage
79. Dialogues, Pope Gregory the Great
80. The Taste for the Other, Gilbert Meilaender
81. The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
82. Life of Moses, Gregory of Nyssa
83. Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede
84. In Memory of Her, Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza
85. Theology of Liberation, Gustavo Gutierrez
86. A Science of God?, Austin Farrer
87. Stride Toward Freedom, Martin Luther King Jr.
88. God and Human Suffering, Douglas John Hall
89. Hymns on Paradise, Ephrem the Syrian
90. The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James
91. The Idea of the Holy, Rudolph Otto
92. The Rise of Western Christendom, Peter Brown
93. Interior Castle, Theresa of Avila
94. Major Works, Gerard Manley Hopkins
95. The Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross
96. A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken
97. Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI
99. Reasons to Believe, Scott Hahn
100. The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day
What books would you add? What else do I need to read?
Pursuing Veritas 
Thanks for sharing this list of good Christian Books! I’ve read at least half of the books on the list and right now, I’m really hooked into the works of Pastor Keion Henderson, https://www.keionhenderson.com/books/. I think his books will really make it to the top too since it is well and carefully written and really intelligently thought of!
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll take a look! JJP