A library. Not a prerequisite.

The Shack

William P. Young

A novel I expected to dislike became one of my favourite resources for thinking about God and relationships.

3 min read · Reading guide

Getting started

A place to begin.

Your first steps into the Bible, with no assumed knowledge and no pressure to have the answers.

One book. Many voices.

Poetry, history, law, prophecy, letters, and stories. A little context changes how you read.

Reading poetry.

Make room for imagery, feeling, and the way a line echoes the one before it.

Reading historical accounts.

Ask about the setting, the writer, and the purpose of the account.

Reading letters.

Meet the sender, the readers, and the conversation behind the words.

Reading stories.

Follow the people, the choices, and the questions a story leaves with you.

2 min read · Reading guide

Meeting the Old Testament.

A doorway into the writings Christians call the Old Testament.

Meeting the New Testament.

Start with Jesus, then explore the writings of the early Christian movement.

7 min read · Reading guide

Is belief in God reasonable?

Explore reasons for belief, their limits, and the objections they need to face.

Why would a good God allow suffering?

Consider freedom, suffering, protest, and Christian hope without easy explanations for another person’s pain.

7 min read · Reading guide

What reasons are there to believe Jesus rose from the dead?

Examine the early sources, the Christian argument, alternative explanations, and the limits of historical inquiry.

3 min read · Reading guide

How can we assess a spiritual experience?

Practical questions about Scripture, Jesus, evidence, shared judgment, and the fruit of a claim over time.

What would it mean to begin following Jesus?

A practical introduction to trust, repentance, prayer, baptism, and Christian community, with room for uncertainty.

2 min read · Reading guide

Christian words, in plain language.

A companion to Christianese 101, for phrases that can feel familiar to some and puzzling to others.

Romans

God’s grace puts people right through Christ and creates a shared life for Jews and non-Jews.

1 Corinthians

The cross and resurrection challenge a divided church to understand power, freedom, and spiritual gifts through Christ’s self-giving love.

2 Corinthians

God’s reconciling work in Christ shapes Paul’s account of vulnerable ministry, restored trust, and generous giving.

Galatians

God’s promise, Christ’s saving work, and the gift of the Spirit shape Paul’s defense of Gentile belonging and freedom for love.

Ephesians

God reconciles divided people in Christ, giving the church a shared life that reaches into everyday relationships.

Philippians

Jesus’ self-giving life and God’s continuing work sustain joy, humility, and friendship amid uncertainty.

Colossians

Christ’s place in creation and reconciliation grounds the letter’s invitation to a renewed life of compassion and integrity.

1 Thessalonians

Jesus’ resurrection and promised return give a young community hope through grief and strength for faithful daily life.

2 Thessalonians

A frightened community is urged to resist alarming claims and remain faithful in everyday responsibilities.

1 Timothy

Guidance for a community leader connects trustworthy teaching with character, care, and generosity.

2 Timothy

A farewell-shaped letter explores courage, patient teaching, and passing faith to another generation.

Titus

A short letter connects leadership and everyday conduct with God’s freely given kindness.

Philemon

Paul’s appeal concerning Onesimus exposes the tension between Christian kinship and human ownership.

Hebrews

An anonymous sermon presents Jesus as a compassionate high priest and calls weary believers to persevere.

James

A searching account of faith that becomes visible in our words, choices, and treatment of people without power.

1 Peter

God’s mercy and Jesus’ resurrection ground hope, belonging, and faithful witness for communities under pressure.

2 Peter

A call to grow in character, resist exploitative teaching, and think carefully about the hope of Jesus’ return.

1 John

God’s love revealed in Jesus connects forgiveness, truthful confession, and practical love for one another.

2 John

Thirteen verses explore the difficult relationship between love, truth, and the support a community gives its teachers.

3 John

A personal note exposes how welcome and the misuse of authority shape a community’s life.

Jude

An urgent warning against exploitative teaching ends with a call to show mercy and trust God’s sustaining power.

Job

An innocent sufferer challenges the claim that every tragedy is a punishment, in a remarkable conversation about justice, friendship, and God.

Psalms

Prayers and songs that bring delight, anger, fear, gratitude, and unanswered questions into conversation with God.

Proverbs

Reverence for God and attention to ordinary choices train readers in wisdom about speech, work, money, relationships, and justice.

Ecclesiastes

A searching voice asks what human effort can secure and how to receive life’s gifts when God’s work exceeds our understanding.

Song of Songs

Love poetry that explores attraction, longing, mutual delight, and the strength of a love that cannot be bought.

Lamentations

Poems address God amid Jerusalem’s devastation, holding grief, judgment, mercy, and an unanswered plea for restoration together.

Isaiah

God’s holiness exposes injustice, while promises of comfort and renewal carry Israel’s hope toward a future reaching the nations.

Jeremiah

A prophet resists comforting lies as Jerusalem approaches disaster, while imagining a renewed relationship with God beyond the wreckage.

Ezekiel

Striking visions and symbolic performances confront a community in exile and imagine a future with renewed life, just leadership, and God present again.

Daniel

Stories of courage at foreign courts and visions of monstrous empires ask how people can remain faithful when political power demands their allegiance.

Hosea

Vivid poems about broken trust and persistent compassion explore Israel's relationship with God during a national crisis.

Joel

A ruined harvest opens a conversation about communal grief, honest change, and hope that God's Spirit can reach beyond social boundaries.

Amos

God confronts worship that conceals exploitation, calling a prosperous people to face judgment and responsibility for justice.

Obadiah

The Bible's shortest prophetic book confronts pride, betrayal, and the decision to profit from a neighbor's disaster.

Jonah

A reluctant prophet's journey asks whether mercy remains welcome when it reaches people we would rather condemn.

Micah

Micah confronts land theft and corrupt leadership while imagining a society shaped by justice, mercy, and lasting peace.

Nahum

Vivid poems announce the fall of an empire built on violence and ask whether oppressive power can last forever.

Habakkuk

A prophet questions God about injustice and learns to live faithfully without receiving an easy explanation.

Zephaniah

Severe warnings about complacency and injustice give way to a vision of a humble community living without fear.

Haggai

A struggling community is urged to rebuild its temple and consider what its shared priorities reveal.

Zechariah

Strange visions and practical calls for justice sustain hope as Jerusalem rebuilds after exile.

Malachi

A series of searching exchanges confronts disillusionment with religion, broken trust, and the question of whether justice matters.

Joshua

Israel’s entry into Canaan raises searching questions about land, belonging, faithfulness, and the violence of ancient warfare.

Judges

Repeated rescues give way to deepening disorder as Israel’s leaders and communities struggle with power, loyalty, and violence.

Ruth

Loss gives way to provision and a future through Ruth and Boaz’s loyalty, within Israel’s larger story of God’s faithfulness.

1 Samuel

The rise of Israel’s monarchy tests whether religious authority, public power, and personal ambition can serve a community faithfully.

2 Samuel

David becomes king, receives a lasting promise, and discovers that royal power cannot protect him from accountability or undo the harm he causes.

1 Kings

Solomon builds a magnificent temple, a kingdom divides, and prophets challenge the belief that wealth and political success prove a ruler is faithful.

2 Kings

The kingdoms of Israel and Judah collapse under imperial conquest, leaving a searching account of failed leadership, prophetic warning, and fragile hope.

1 Chronicles

Genealogies and a fresh account of David invite a community after exile to recover its sense of belonging, shared worship, and responsibility for the future.

2 Chronicles

Judah’s kings are measured by their response to God, as warning, repentance, and the hope of return shape the story.

Ezra

Returned exiles rebuild Jerusalem’s temple and seek a renewed communal life, raising difficult questions about belonging, law, and exclusion.

Nehemiah

Rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls becomes a wider examination of security, economic justice, shared commitments, and the limits of leadership.

Esther

A Jewish woman in the Persian court risks her position to confront a threat of annihilation, in a story of concealment, courage, and reversals.

Genesis

God gives life to a good world and begins a promise through Abraham’s imperfect family that reaches toward all peoples.

Exodus

God hears enslaved people, delivers Israel from Egypt, and calls them into covenant life in his presence.

Leviticus

Sacred rituals and everyday justice explore how a community can live in the presence of a holy God.

Numbers

A wilderness journey tests Israel’s trust, leadership, and shared hopes as a new generation prepares for life in the land.

Deuteronomy

Moses’ farewell speeches connect memory, love, law, and the responsibilities of a community preparing for a new beginning.

Matthew

Jesus as Israel’s Messiah and a teacher whose call to mercy, justice, and faithful living reaches people of every nation.

Mark

An urgent account of Jesus challenges expectations about power, suffering, and what it means to follow him.

Luke

Luke follows Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, exploring God’s promises through mercy, prayer, generosity, and the welcome of overlooked people.

John

Encounters, signs, and conversations explore Jesus’ identity and an invitation to life shaped by trust and love.

New Testament history

Acts

The risen Jesus works through the Spirit as witnesses carry the good news from Jerusalem toward Rome and learn who can belong.

6 min read · Book study

New Testament visions

Revelation

The victory of the slain and living Lamb exposes destructive power and opens hope for God’s judgment and the renewal of creation.

7 min read · Book study

Reading the Gospels.

Meet four accounts of Jesus and learn to read each distinctive voice with context and care.

Reading the first five books.

Find your way through the Torah’s narratives, laws, worship, and questions about life together.

3 min read · Reading guide

Reading the prophets.

Meet the ancient world behind prophetic poetry, warnings, visions, and hope.

How do Christians read the creation accounts?

Young-earth, old-earth, and evolutionary creation: shared convictions, different readings, and the reasons behind them.

5 min read · View comparison

How were the biblical books written?

Traditional authorship, later editing, historical research, and why composition is different from a book’s authority.

How do Christians read the Bible’s violence?

Divine judgment, ancient warfare language, and readings centered on Jesus: the arguments and their difficult questions.

5 min read · View comparison

How do Christians understand Israel’s laws?

Continuing moral instruction, fulfillment in Christ, and different Christian practices of Sabbath and Sunday.

How do Christians understand prophecy and Israel?

Prediction, patterns fulfilled in Jesus, Israel’s continuing future, and why Christians read temple and land promises differently.

Is Song of Songs about human love or divine love?

Love poetry, spiritual interpretation, and readings that bring the two together without silencing the poem’s voices.

How do faith, grace, and good works belong together?

Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox explanations of salvation, with their biblical reasons and the questions they ask each other.

Does God choose us, and can faith be lost?

Election, free response, and perseverance in Reformed, Arminian, Wesleyan, Catholic, and Orthodox thought.

Who should be baptized, and what does baptism do?

Separate the debate over infants and believers from the debate over baptism as a means of grace, covenant sign, or testimony.

How do Christians understand the Spirit and spiritual gifts?

Spirit baptism, tongues, prophecy, and healing: distinguish Pentecostal experience from the separate continuationist and cessationist debate.

Why do Christians disagree about women in ministry?

The biblical arguments for shared leadership and differentiated roles, with the distinct Catholic and Orthodox understanding of ordained priesthood.

What do Christians mean by Communion?

Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, and memorial explanations of the shared meal and Christ’s presence.

How do Christians understand final judgment?

The reasons for eternal punishment, conditional immortality, and universal reconciliation, with their strongest questions for each other.

Why do Christian Bibles have different books?

The reasons behind Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox collections, and the questions each view must answer.

What does it mean to call the Bible authoritative?

Inspiration, inerrancy, and the relationship between Scripture and church tradition are related questions, with different Christian answers.

7 min read · View comparison

How do Christians understand Father, Son, and Spirit?

The Nicene confession, minority alternatives, the Spirit’s procession, and the disputed question of the Son’s obedience and eternal authority.

How does Jesus’ death bring salvation?

Substitution, victory, healing, and transforming love: the arguments behind different Christian explanations of the cross.

How do Christians interpret Revelation?

Compare readings centered on the first century, church history, future events, and recurring patterns of witness and power.

What is the thousand-year reign?

Read the premillennial, amillennial, and postmillennial arguments about Revelation 20 and Jesus’ return.

Will creation be replaced or renewed?

Compare the arguments about cosmic fire, the liberation of creation, and the promised new heaven and earth.

Is physical healing promised to every believer now?

Compare promises of healing now, the hope of future renewal, and prayer without blaming the person who remains ill.

Reading The Shack thoughtfully

Consider the novel’s portrayal of the Father, the incarnation, and authority, with concrete objections and sympathetic replies.

Catholic churches

A worldwide communion with roots in the earliest Christian communities, united through its bishops and the pope, and expressed in both Western and Eastern traditions.

Eastern Orthodox churches

Greek, Antiochian, Romanian, and other Orthodox churches share ancient councils, sacramental worship, and a vision of salvation as healing and participation in God’s life.

Oriental Orthodox churches

Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Indian Orthodox traditions preserve ancient Christian communities, distinctive liturgies, and a shared confession of Christ’s divinity and humanity.

The Church of the East

An ancient Syriac Christian tradition formed east of the Roman Empire, with a remarkable history across Asia and surviving communities including the Assyrian Church of the East.

Old Catholic churches

Churches retaining Catholic worship and bishops while rejecting Rome’s definitions of papal authority, with a history centered on Utrecht and nineteenth-century disputes over Vatican I.

Anglican & Episcopal churches

A worldwide family shaped by the English Reformation, shared prayer, and bishops, bringing together Protestant convictions and practices inherited from the ancient church.

Lutheran churches

Churches shaped by Martin Luther's Reformation, with a particular emphasis on God's freely given grace, the preaching of the gospel, baptism, and Communion.

Reformed & Presbyterian churches

A family rooted in the Swiss and French Reformation, emphasizing God's initiative, Scripture, thoughtful teaching, and shared leadership through elders.

Baptist churches

A diverse worldwide family emphasizing personal faith, baptism following a profession of faith, local congregational responsibility, and religious liberty.

Methodist & Wesleyan churches

Churches arising from the Wesleyan renewal movement, emphasizing grace offered to everyone, growth in love, practical discipleship, and service to neighbors.

Pentecostal churches

A worldwide movement emphasizing the Holy Spirit's activity, spiritual gifts, personal witness, and mission, with many denominations and independent churches.

Anabaptists, Mennonites, and Amish

A worldwide family shaped by freely chosen faith, following Jesus in daily life, community, and peace. Mennonites and Amish share roots but live them in different ways.

Quakers: the Religious Society of Friends

Friends share a history of listening for divine guidance, integrity, and peace. Their communities range from evangelical churches with pastors to silent meetings with diverse religious beliefs.

The Moravian Church

An older reforming tradition renewed by a refugee community in the eighteenth century, with a strong emphasis on Jesus, prayer, music, mission, and Christian fellowship.

A worldwide Protestant church known for Saturday Sabbath observance, expectation of Jesus’ return, and ministries in education and health, with several distinctive interpretations of biblical prophecy.

The Salvation Army

A Christian church and service movement with Methodist roots, combining worship, evangelism, and practical care. Its military language describes a spiritual mission rather than armed activity.

The Stone–Campbell Restoration Movement

Churches of Christ, independent Christian Churches, and Disciples of Christ share a movement seeking Christian unity through New Testament faith and practice, but developed different church identities.

African Instituted Churches

A broad family of churches founded through African initiative, expressing Christian faith through local leadership, languages, culture, prayer, and community life. They share no single doctrine or organization.

Non-denominational and independent churches

Independent congregations and networks: what the absence of a denominational name tells you, and what it leaves open.

Latter-day Saints

A nineteenth-century restoration movement centered on Jesus, with additional Scripture and an account of God distinct from the Nicene creed.

Jehovah’s Witnesses

A modern Bible-study movement with distinctive teachings about God, Jesus, the Kingdom, and the future, and a disputed Christian identity.

What is a denomination?

Understand church families, the reasons for their differences, and labels such as evangelical, charismatic, and non-denominational.

How did the church families develop?

A short history of Christian communities, councils, reform movements, revivals, separation, and efforts toward unity.

The Seer

James W. Goll

James W. Goll’s account of visions and dreams, with reflections on listening, discernment, and spiritual gifts.

The Gospel of Healing

A. B. Simpson

A. B. Simpson’s teaching on healing: faith, prayer, and questions about medicine.

When Heaven Invades Earth

Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson’s vision of spiritual gifts and healing, with agreements, questions, and personal reflection.

Mansions of the Heart

R. Thomas Ashbrook

R. Thomas Ashbrook’s approach to spiritual growth, shaped by Teresa of Ávila’s image of an interior castle.

River Dwellers

Rob Reimer

Rob Reimer on living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the challenge of putting belief into practice.

Corrie ten Boom and Jamie Buckingham

Tramp for the Lord

Corrie ten Boom’s stories of trust, forgiveness, and dependence on God.

2 min read · Book review

Outrageous Love, Transforming Power

Terry Wardle

Terry Wardle’s account of Christian maturity, explored through identity, community, character, and ministry.

6 min read · Book review

The Screwtape Letters

C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis’s fictional letters about temptation: a challenging read that opened questions about selflessness and spiritual conflict.

2 min read · Book review

The Fourfold Gospel

A. B. Simpson

A. B. Simpson on Jesus as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King, with reflections on Christian life.

6 min read · Book review

Practicing Greatness

Reggie McNeal

Identity, purpose, relationships, and rest: an honest look at the person doing the leading.

7 min read · Book review

Strategic Pastoral Counseling

David G. Benner

What makes care pastoral? Reflections on David G. Benner’s approach, its practical help, and its limits.

Christian Counseling

Gary R. Collins

Gary R. Collins on Christian counseling, with reflections on the first six chapters and the responsibilities of care.

Experiencing God Through Prayer

Madame Jeanne Guyon

Fifteen minutes of silence, unexpected discoveries, and learning to enjoy the God who loves me.

8 min read · Book review

Connecting

Larry Crabb

Larry Crabb on healing relationships, with a critical response to the role of community, counseling, and the Holy Spirit.

5 min read · Book review

Four Views on the Book of Revelation

C. Marvin Pate, editor

A short reflection on C. Marvin Pate’s collection of contrasting interpretations of Revelation.

2 min read · Book review