“What are some books that every pastor should read?”
PTS faculty were asked this question in spring 2023.
Consider these 9 recommendations for reading literature to inform your ministry:
- Shusaku Endo, Silence: A Novel
- Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist: A Fable about Following Your Dreams
- Mary Oliver, Thirst
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
- Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
- Glenn Gray, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle
- Annie Dillard, Living by Fiction
- Maryann Wolf, Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World
And, a bonus recommendation from the Rev. Erik Hoeke, PTS communications strategist:
- Nimi Wariboko, Methods of Ethical Analysis
- Erik says: “In 2022 I took a course at Boston University with Dr. Wariboko titled ‘Literature and Ethics.’ In the course, we read a different work of literature each week, from ancient Greek tragedies to contemporary bestsellers. Then, using his framework in this book, we engaged in ethical analysis of what we had read. We discovered that any work of literature can be read with a theo-ethical lens, and story and narrative has tremendous power to help teach ethics.”
- E-mail Erik at ehoeke@pts.edu for a Literature and Ethics reading list.