Materials for Christian Worldview and Vocation
December 12, 2007 by Mark
Over the past few years I have been exposed to a growing body of books, sermons, and other resources related to Christian worldview, leadership, vocation, and evangelism. Overall, I believe there is a lack of material that connects Christian worldview with vocation. Most worldview-specific materials, including those below, seem largely focused on dealing with presuppositions and alternative systems to Biblical truth. This is a great place to start, but I believe the next step is to connect the dots with our professional callings.
Scripture makes clear that the gospel is of first importance, and that is no less true in our vocations as in our family and church lives. It looks a lot different at work, but the root principles are the same. Moving forward, I hope this blog serves people by helping them see and apply a gospel-centered Christian worldview as “Total Truth” governing all of life, particularly within our vocations.
I use the term Total Truth in reference to the best book I read last year, and the one I would recommend anyone read first before any others on the list. It was written by Nancy Pearcey in 2002 and a great review of it is found here.
If you love theology proper, I would recommend John Frame’s Doctrine of God as a deeper doctrinal foundation to Pearcey’s invaluable contributions.
*Anything with a star is something I have read or heard and can personally recommend.
MATERIAL - BY CATEGORY
Calling: Vocation, Roles, etc.
*Os Guiness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life
*Gene Edward Veith, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life
*Andreas Köstenberger and David Jones, God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation
John Calvin, “Vocation,” Institutes of the Christian Religion
William Perkins, “A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men”
Work: Leadership, Planning, etc.
*Tim Keller, Work
*Tim Keller, Made for Stewardship
*Tim Keller, Work and Rest
*Henry Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership
*John Piper, Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce
*Grant Layman, Message on Roles & Goals at Family Room
Worldview: Concepts of Theology, Apologetics, and Cultural Engagement
*Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity
*John Frame, Doctrine of God
John Piper, The Blazing Center
*Abraham Kuyper, Lectures on Calvinism (review)
Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith
J.P. Moreland, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview
Chuck Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict
James Montgomery Boice, Two Cities, Two Loves: Christian Responsibility in a Crumbling Culture
James Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalogue
Lesslie Newbigin, Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth
*Tim Keller, The Supremacy of Christ and the Gospel in a Postmodern World
*John Piper, The Supremacy of Christ and Joy in a Postmodern World
*Mark Driscoll, The Supremacy of Christ and the Church in a Postmodern World
*D.A. Carson, The Supremacy of Christ and Love in a Postmodern World
D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism
*David Wells, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World
David Wells, Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World
*Carl Henry, Twilight of a Great Civilization
Carl Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism
*Stanley Kurtz, Culture and Values in the 1960s
Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto
*Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity, Freedom, and Capitalism Led to Western Success
Worldview-based Approaches to Personal Engagement
*John Piper, “No Swagger in Cultural Engagement”
*Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There
Michael Ramsden, “Conversational Apologetics” messages
*Brian Follis, Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer
Mercy & Peacemaking
Ken Sande, The Peacemaker
Freedom, Justice and Hope: Toward a Strategy for the Poor and the Oppressed
Marvin Olasky, The Tragedy of American Compassion
Business
Wayne Grudem, Business to the Glory of God
Michael Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life
*Jim Collins, Good to Great
Cultivating Christian Thought
J.P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul
Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
James Sire, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling
The Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media
Desiring God. Dr. Piper’s ministry is a great place to start for just about anything.
The Clash: Forging a Mind to Engage the World. Recent worldview conference from Sovereign Grace, the family of churches to which I belong.
Focus on the Family’s Total Truth DVD curriculum. A twelve-part in-depth worldview training series covering subjects of philosophy, ethics, anthropology, theology, science, history, and sociology with experts such as Ravi Zacharias, Os Guinness, and R. C. Sproul.
BreakPoint & Prison Fellowship Wilberforce Weekend conference. Chuck Colson’s worldview training program conference.
Passing the Baton. The founder, Jeff Myers, has set a compelling mission for this ministry: “By 2015, we will mobilize one million adults to pass the baton of culture-shaping leadership to the next generation.”
Biblicaltraining.org. I have only reviewed their site briefly and do not know any of the principals, but they have a lot of available online leadership training materials (mainly downloadable sermons), including a track by Dr. Piper.
Sermonaudio.com. A clearinghouse of available sermons in audio formats.
Monergism.com. A clearinghouse of reformed theology and links to volumes of materials all over the web.
Christian Leadership Ministries’ Academic Initiative. A more scholarly organization, they too reference volumes of external materials, mainly through their bibliography sections.
Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics. Another good source of references and materials specific to apologetics from a reformed perspective
Calvin College’s Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Once you join (it’s free), you can download numerous classics in PDF format, and some in audio format that they created.
History and Theology of Calvinism. Thanks for looking through these resources. This is your reward. Trust me. This set of 75 seminary lectures by Dr. Curt Daniel at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis has been on my iPod as a daily companion on my work commute for months. If you believe Calvinism accurately represents God as He reveals Himself in Scripture, or if you want to learn more about this often-maligned term “Calvinism” I encourage you to listen to some of these messages with an open heart and mind. Expect to be challenged in your presuppositions at the roots. Don’t be surprised if you are transformed as a result. If you agree this theological system most magnifies God’s Sovereign Grace (as I am convinced), download these messages and enjoy a steady, meaty, portable diet!
nice list. you may want to link to the hard cover version of the Mike Novak book: Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life. The soft cover is out of print I think.
also check out: Doing God’s Business - Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace by R. Paul Stevens
Is this an ad for Calvinism?
Thanks Joelly Reb. You touch on something I have wanted to say for clarification. Please indulge me as I explain further…
Let’s just say you lean in more of an Arminian direction…what do I say to that?
Thanks for calling me out on probably the biggest divide in the church today. Well, the great flaw in Arminianism in my view is that it over-elevates human will and thus minimizes God’s authority. This is hard to conform to Scripture.
Calvinism commends itself to me as most consistent with Scripture and with reality. My definition of Calvinism is the view of Scripture and all of life that has its ultimate starting point in the Sovereign Grace of God.
Here is what I want to say about this…I may agree with Calvinism, but I want to avoid the many failures of Calvinists throughout history. The good news here is that Calvinism is strong in its doctrine of sin, which to me is absolutely consistent with reality and provides the proper diagnosis for these problems.
In particular, I am troubled by the tendencies of Calvinists to self-righteousness, breaking off into new denominations over secondary matters, and a general disengagement from culture. The Arminians often do a better job of boldly engaging others. In this way, I want to be more like them, but focused more on God’s Sovereign Grace than human will.
I am glad we have great leaders in the church today helping us avoid these tendencies. The guys at Together for the Gospel (www.togetherforthegospel.com) are at the forefront of this.
At the end of the day, Calvinism is beneficial inasmuch as it is an accurate window into Scripture. Scripture is the self-revelation of God. That’s where I want to live.
That’s why the above authors are not all Calvinists. I have learned and continue to learn much from all types of people, even folks openly hostile to God. The Biblical worldview is unique because it alone holds together to help one filter out the true from the false, so one may organize all the details of life into a cohesive, harmonious whole. This is a great advantage in all of life, particularly in our competitive work environments, which is why I provided the above resources to help folks on that path.
So, I guess THAT is my ad for Calvinism. Thanks for asking. Hope that I was clear amid the many words.
Since you asked me, now I ask you: Do you want to provide an ad for what you are doing? Your site has a compelling message, and I understand you do great work.
good list!
hey guys,
great list. its encouraging to see others valuing worldview and vocational calling.
Connie J.