A careful selection of 100 books is a good library beginning for many churches.
Some books, of course, have more general and comprehensive value than others. Which books are most useful depends in some measure on the local situation.
The following list does not include volumes in systematic theology: each congregation will know what key materials best define its distinctive denominational convictions. Nor does the list include recommended modern fiction. Such titles are actually a kind of specialized service. (A checklist of 400 biblical novels by subject and character, for example, is available from BCH Publications, 1327 Ferndale Street, Anaheim, California, at $1.00.) Since a well-planned church library usually incorporates reading for all ages the supplementary booklist on pages 13–15 suggests some of the many graded materials currently available.
Dr. Arnold P. Ehlert, librarian of Biola College and Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada, California, and who helped organize the Church Librarians Association of Southern California in 1955, reminds us that church libraries are really no recent development. Already in A.D. 303 they were considered so important that Diocletian burned many of the book collections in his effort to destroy Christian literature.
EARLY AMERICAN TRADITION
A long history also surrounds the American Sunday school library. In 1821 the Female School of St. James’ Church, Philadelphia, opened a small library. St. Paul’s Sunday school in Baltimore listed 236 books in 1829. By 1841 several Sunday schools boasted libraries of 350 to 400 volumes and by 1886 a Sunday School Library Association had been established in this country.
The modern church library movement however dates from around 1940–45 when the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board began to develop church libraries and organized the Church Library Service. For over 15 years it published The Church Library Bulletin, now replaced by The Church Library Magazine. Other denominational groups followed with similar departments. In the early ’50s the Methodist Publishing House formed a Church Library Service and issued a bulletin called Bookmarks and also The Bookshelf, a Booklist for Church Libraries. Presbyterians in 1958 advertised the Westminster Church Library Plan with a manual. Nazarene Publishing House issued a manual on the church library in the mid ’50s. In St. Louis the Christian Literature Commission of the Christian Board of Publication promotes a ten-year reading program called the Disciple Reader’s Plan.
The following “first 100 books” for a church library represent volumes presently available from their publishers. This basic collection primarily stresses reading and therefore omits some of the more technical manuals useful to teachers, youth leaders, and church workers generally. Most church libraries will systematically add such working tools, of course. The present list covers a broad range of subject matter. Obviously, in some cases other titles could be equally recommended; at best the stated selections are only representative. Denominational churches will be especially alert to materials from their own publishing houses, of course, and to possible cost discounts. Some groups also issue helpful librarians’ handbooks and even catalogues for the church library with books already classified according to the Dewey Decimal System.
Indeed, the church library is an exciting adventure in recognizing and meeting important responsibilities for its present and potential readers. An entire congregation, even a whole community, may experience the far-reaching impact of an effective church library. If it is at all possible to organize a church library, every church should do so, but only with utmost spiritual dedication to the task’s requirements. (Note also the supplementary suggestions on pages 13–15.)
BIBLE STUDY AND REFERENCE
BRUCE, F. F., The English Bible. Oxford, 1961, 234 pages, $4.
CHAFER, L. S., Major Bible Themes. Dunham, 1926, 329 pages, $2.50.
CONYBEARE, W. J. and HOWSON, J. S., The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Eerdmans, 1949, 850 pages, $5.
CORSWANT, WILLY, A Dictionary of Life in Bible Times. Oxford, 1960, 308 pages, $6.50.
ORR, JAMES, ed., International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Eerdmans, 1915, 5 vols., $35.
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, 1957, 1492 pages, $17.50.
SHORT, A. R., Modern Discovery and the Bible. Inter-Varsity, 1943, 188 pages, $2.50.
SMITH, WILBUR M., A Treasury of Books for Bible Study. Wilde, 1960, 289 pages, $3.95.
STALKER, JAMES, Life of Christ. Zondervan, 1949, 160 pages, $1.25.
STALKER, JAMES, Life of St. Paul. Zondervan, 1949, 160 pages, $1.25.
THE CHURCH
BLANSHARD, PAUL, American Freedom and Catholic Power. Beacon, 1958, 402 pages, $3.95.
LATOURETTE, KENNETH S., A History of Christianity. Harper, 1953, 1516 pages, $9.50.
MAYER, F. E., Religious Bodies of America. Concordia, 1958, 591 pages, $8.50.
MEAD, FRANK S., Handbook of Denominations in the United States. (2nd rev. ed.), Abingdon, 1961, 272 pages, $2.95.
STUBER, STANLEY L., Primer on Roman Catholicism for Protestants. Association, 1960, 276 pages, $3.50.
VAN BAALEN, J. K., The Chaos of Cults. (Rev. ed.), Eerdmans, 1956, 409 pages, $3.95.
WALKER, WILLISTON, A History of the Christian Church, (rev. by Cyril C. Richardson, Wilhelm Pauck, and Robert T. Handy). Scribner’s, 1959, 585 pages, $6.
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
CALVIN, JOHN, Institutes of the Christian Religion. (Ed. by John T. McNeill), Westminster, 1960, 2 vols., 1734 pages, $12.50 set.
BERKOUWER, G. C., Studies in Dogmatics (a series of 20 volumes now in translation). Eerdmans, 1952, $3 to $4.50 per volume.
DENNEY, JAMES, The Death of Christ. Inter-Varsity, 1951, 272 pages, $3.50.
GORDON, A. J., The Ministry of the Spirit. Judson, 1895, 225 pages, $2.