Want To Go To Seminary?

Below is a recommended reading list from Westminster Seminary California for students who are considering entering seminary. I would concur that it is important for a pre-seminarian to read a number of these books so that the discussions in seminary may be more fruitful.

I also believe that this list is useful for any Christian who is wanting to learn more about God, Christ, the Bible, or any of the topics listed below. So 'pick up and read' as the singing children told Augustine to do long ago!

BIBLE CONTENT AND INTERPRETATION

• Reformation Study Bible (Ligonier)
• Edmund Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery (P&R)
• Dan McCartney and Charles Clayton, Let the Reader Understand (Bridge Point)
• Michael Horton, God of Promise: Introducing Covenant Theology (Baker)
• Gerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology (Banner of Truth)
• Dennis Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation (P&R)

REFORMED CONFESSIONS AND CATECHISMS

• Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms; Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, Canons of Dort
• A. A. Hodge, The Confession of Faith (Banner of Truth)
• Zacharius Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism (P&R)

PHILOSOPHY, APOLOGETICS, AND PROLEGOMENA TO THEOLOGY

• Diogenes Allen, Philosophy for Understanding Theology (Westminster John Knox)
• Cornelius Van Til, Defense of the Faith (P&R)
• Louis Berkhof, Introduction to Theology (Eerdmans)
• Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Prolegomena (Baker)
• Michael Horton, Covenant and Eschatology (Westminster John Knox)

THEOLOGY

• B. B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation (Wipf and Stock)
• John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Eerdmans)
• Michael Horton, Putting Amazing Back Into Grace (Baker)
• Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Eerdmans)
• Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics (Baker)
• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. (Westminster John Knox)

CHURCH HISTORY

• W. Robert Godfrey, Reformation Sketches (P&R)
• Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity (Scribner Book Co.)
• D. G. Hart, Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America (P&R)
• Bengt Hagglund, History of Theology (Concordia)
• Philip Benedict, Christ's Church Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (Yale University Press)

SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND CALLING

• W. Robert Godfrey, Unexpected Journey (P&R)
• J.I. Packer, Knowing God (IVP)
• Edmund Clowney, Called to the Ministry (P&R)
• Charles Bridges, Christian Ministry (Banner of Truth)
• Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Christian Heritage)

PREACHING, WORSHIP, AND THE CHURCH

• Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Zondervan)
• Michael Horton, A Better Way (Baker)
• D.G. Hart and John Muether, With Reverence and Awe (P&R)
• Edmund Clowney, The Church (IVP)
• Samuel Logan, ed., The Preacher and Preaching (P&R)

EVANGELISM AND MISSIONS

• Ernest Reisinger, Today's Evangelism: Its Message and Methods (P&R)
• J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (IVP)
• R.B. Kuyper, God-Centered Evangelism (Banner of Truth)
• John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad (Baker)

CHRISTIAN COUNSELING

• David Powlison, Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition through the Lens of Scripture (P&R)
• John MacArthur and Wayne Mack, Introduction to Biblical Counseling (W Publishing Group)
• Paul Vitz, Psychology as Religion (Eerdmans)
• Alfred Poirier, The Peacemaking Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict (Baker)

CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL ISSUES

• J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (Eerdmans)
• Michael Horton, Where in the World is the Church?
• D. G. Hart, The Lost Soul of American Protestantism
• David Wells, God in the Wasteland (Eerdmans)
• John Piper and Wayne Grudem, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Crossway)

RESEARCH AND WRITING SKILLS

• William Strunk and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (Allyn and Bacon); Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book (Simon and Schuster);
• William Zinsser, On Writing Well (Quill Press) Joseph Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (University of Chicago)
• Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (Gotham)
• Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (University of Chicago)