Christian Literature

There are a lot of Christian books that don't qualify as literature, and many books legitimately called literature that are in no way Christian. While this category may seem a bit redundant for a bookstore like ours, Christian Literature is simply our way of telling the two apart. Only books that are both literary and explicitly Christian (or at least authored by self-professed orthodox Christians) are included here.

Books that don't qualify include Christian genre fiction, books for younger readers, stories that are merely moral without expressing specific Christian truths, and the like. Books that do qualify include spiritual autobiographies and memoirs, high-quality Christian novels (think Dostoevsky and G.K. Chesterton), classics of the faith, etc.

If you're looking for doctrine, theology, Bible curriculum, or materials of that sort, we have other categories named accordingly. The titles here are intentionally selected to reflect work that is universally accepted for its stylistic quality, while simultaneously reflecting a Christian worldview, sometimes explicitly and sometimes through allegory. Both fiction and nonfiction are represented.

But why Christian literature? For one thing, part of our goal at Exodus Books is to help families and individuals think biblically about every aspect of life; art (particularly good art) can help in this regard by applying Christian principles to the universal elements of human experience, activities and feelings with which all of us are familiar but few think about.

Another reason for Christian literature as a category is to help readers recognize the often overlooked presence of genuinely Christian writing that is also genuinely honest and realistic. Too often "Christian" books are filled with sunshine, impossibly resolved situations, or simply positive messages that ignore the presence of sin, despair, and fear in the world. These books are not like that.

The Brothers Karamazov, for instance, is very Christian, but it also takes seriously the atheist's dilemma, the fact of evil, and the presence of tribulation in the life of believers. St. Augustine's Confessions reveals a man running from God before surrending himself wholly to the Holy Spirit; the essays of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton are pithy, funny, and perceptive; Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will is historically and theologically significant (and also makes excellent devotional reading).

All of these books are sometimes dark, sometimes lighthearted, always filled with the grace of Jesus. We don't necessarily endorse every idea you'll find in any of these titles, but we do heartily endorse the authors' desire to create beautiful works that illuminate God and our world from the perspective of the redeeming love and justice of Christ.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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36 Items found Print
Active Filters: 19th Century Literature, 9th grade (Ages 14-15)
Apologia Pro Vita Sua
Dover Giant Thrift Editions
by John Henry Newman
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00
Autobiography of Charles G. Finney
by Charles G. Finney
from Bethany House
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$19.00
Ben-Hur
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Lew Wallace
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00
Ben-Hur
Signet Classics
by Lew Wallace
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Daughter's Devotion
by George MacDonald, edited by Michael R. Phillips
from Bethany House
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Gentlewoman's Choice
by George MacDonald, edited by Michael R. Phillips
2nd edition from Bethany House
for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.00 (2 in stock)
In His Steps
by Charles Monroe Sheldon
from Hendrickson Publishers
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
from Bantam Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ivanhoe
Signet Classics
by Sir Walter Scott
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
from Dover Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover
200th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ivanhoe
Penguin Classics
by Sir Walter Scott, edited by Graham Tulloch
from Penguin Classics
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$12.00
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Easton Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 4
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 1
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 2
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 3
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Kenilworth
Penguin Classics
by Sir Walter Scott
from Penguin Classics
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Lady of the Lake
by Sir Walter Scott, edited with notes by William J. Rolfe
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lady of the Lake
The Students' Series of English Classics
by Sir Walter Scott, edited with introduction and notes by James Arthur Tufts
from Leach, Shewell & Sanborn
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Life of Our Lord
by Charles Dickens
from Simon and Schuster
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
Lorna Doone
by R. D. Blackmore
from Oxford University
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$13.95
Lorna Doone
by R. D. Blackmore, illustrated by John Austen
from Heritage Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Lorna Doone
by R. D. Blackmore
from Living Book Press
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$21.99
Major Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.95
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Copper Lodge Library
by Frederick Douglass, annotated by Stephanie B. Meter
from Classical Conversations
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
On Slavery and the Civil War
Dover Thrift Editions
by Frederick Douglass
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by W. S. Kuniczak
from Hippocrene Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$24.95
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Jeremiah Curtin
from Dover Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$14.95
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Jeremiah Curtin, introduction by Harold Lamb, illustrated by Salvatore Fiume
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Quo Vadis (abridged)
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, edited and abridged by James S. Bell, Jr.
from Moody Press
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Quo Vadis?
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Stanley F. Conrad
from Ignatius Press
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Story of King Arthur and His Knights
Signet Classics
by Howard Pyle
from Signet Classics
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 7th-9th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.95