MIDTOWN RESOURCE

LIBRARY

One of our values at Midtown is discipleship: it’s rooted in the historic and Christian conviction that following Jesus means never outgrowing curiosity, but instead living constantly as a learner. The assumption is that faith is not about having all the answers, but instead about continually living in wonder, asking good questions, and learning to grow in love of God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength as we love our neighbors.

That said, we live in a digital and globalized world that can make finding trustworthy resources feel overwhelming. There are thousands of books, podcasts, videos, websites, and voices competing for our attention, many times not for good reasons or without real expertise or authority on the subjects to which they attempt to speak. This library is our attempt to point you toward resources that are thoughtful, scripturally faithful, well-vetted, and spiritually formative. Whether you're exploring Christianity for the first time, looking to go deeper in a particular area, or searching for tools to help you lead others, we hope you'll find something here that serves you well.

To make things easier to navigate, we've organized the library into a variety of categories, from Bible study and theology to spiritual formation, culture, parenting, leadership, skepticism, and more, so you can jump into whatever area which interests you.

A few quick notes before you dive in:

  • Not a big reader? That's okay. We've included a wide range of resources for different learning styles, including podcasts, videos, websites, classes, software, and other tools alongside books.

  • Recommendations, not endorsements. Every resource here has something we believe is worth learning from, but that doesn't mean we agree with every conclusion or perspective. As always, read thoughtfully and with discernment, and always read and learn in community with others, learning and growing together.

  • About the links. We don't receive any affiliate income from the links on this page. Where we've included purchasing options, they're simply there for convenience.

    1. Study Bibles

      1. Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible - NRSV or NIV)

      2. Spiritual Formation Study Bible - NRSV

    2. A Study in Luke - curriculum and facilitator guide from Midtown Presbyterian Church; will need to download pdfs for each

    3. The Year of Biblical Literacy, through Reality SF, for individuals or 

    4. Discipleship Groups

    5. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart

    6. The Drama of Scripture, by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen

    7. How (Not) To Read The Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture, by Dan Kimball

    8. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible, by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon O’Brien

    9. Eat This Book, by Eugene Peterson

    10. Commentaries - reach out to Pastor Clint for more options on specific books (he’s got hundreds of recommendations), but here are a few of our standout series and individual releases that are both robust and accessible

      1. The Bible Speaks Today commentary series 

      2. The Story of God Bible commentary

      3. New Testament For Everyone Series, by N.T. Wright

      4. Old Testament For Everyone Series, by John Goldingay

      5. Commentary on Matthew: The Christbook and Churchbook, by F. Dale Bruner

    1. Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters, by Iain Provan

    2. Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible, by John Walton

    3. Old Testament Theology for Christians: From Ancient Context to Enduring Belief, by John H. Walton 

    4. The Lost World series by John Walton

      1. The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority, by John Walton 

      2. The Lost World of Genesis 1: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, by John Walton 

      3. The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2–3 and the Human Origins Debate, by John Walton 

      4. The Lost World of the Flood: Mythology, Theology, and the Deluge Debate, by John Walton 

      5. The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest: Covenant, Retribution, and the Fate of the Canaanites, by John Walton 

      6. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context, by John Walton

    5. Knowing God Through The Old Testament, by Christopher J.H. Wright

    6. Opening Israel’s Scriptures, by Ellen Davis

    7. The Prophets (Pt. 1 and Pt. 2), by Abraham Joshua Heschel 

    8. The Prophetic Imagination, by Walter Bruggemann

    9. The Imago Dei, by J. Richard Middleton

    10. “Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the LORD?,” by Michael Morales

    11. The Art of Biblical Poetry, by Robert Alter

    12. The Art of Biblical Narrative, by Robert Alter

    13. From Paradise to Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch, by T. Desmond Alexander

    1. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, by Richard Bauckham

    2. The Drama of Ephesians, by Timothy Gombis

    3. Jesus: A Very Short Introduction, by Richard Baukham

    4. The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission, by Christopher J. H. Wright

    5. God’s Empowering Presence: the Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, by Gordon Fee

    6. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, by Kenneth Bailey

    7. Jesus and the Victory of God, by N.T. Wright 

    8. The Resurrection and the Son of God, by N.T. Wright 

    9. Paul and the Faithfulness of God, by N.T. Wright

    10. Paul: A Biography, by N.T. Wright

    11. The Moral Vision of the New Testament, by Richard B. Hays

    12. The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, by Fleming Rutledge

    13. Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination, by Eugene Peterson

    14. The Theology of the Book of Revelation, by Richard Bauckham

    15. The Revelation of St. John, by G.B. Caird

    16. The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, by Jonathan Pennington 

    1. A Guide to Prayer for All God’s Servants, compiled by Ruben Job

    2. The Transforming Friendship: A Guide To Prayer, by James Houston

    3. Prayer: Finding The Heart’s True Home, by Richard Foster

    4. Answering God, by Eugene Peterson

    5. Prayer, by Timothy Keller

    6. Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer, by Tyler Staton

    7. A Guidebook to Prayer, by MaryKate Morse

    8. Valley of Vision, by Arthur Bennett

    9. Devotional Classics, compiled by Richard Foster

    10. Invitation To A Journey and The Deeper Journey, by M. Robert Mulholland

    11. Renovation of the Heart, by Dallas Willard

    12. Renovated, by Jim Wilder

    13. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero

    14. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, by Richard J. Foster

    15. Spirit of the Disciplines, by Dalls Willard

    16. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, by John Mark Comer

    17. The Life You’ve Always Wanted, by John Ortberg

    18. Sabbath, by Abraham Joshua Heschel

    19. Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No To The Culture of Now, by Walter Brueggemann

    20. Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, by Tish Harrison Warren

    21. The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction, by Justin Whitmeal Earley

    22. Crafting A Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way, by Stephen A. Macchia

    23. The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

    24. The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks, by Benedicta Ward

    25. The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence

    26. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society, by Eugene Peterson

    27. The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis

    28. You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, by James K. A. Smith

    1. Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

    2. Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus, by C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison

    3. Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community Without Judgmentalism, by Mark Baker

    4. Transforming Fellowship: 19 Brain Skills That Build Joyful Community, by Chris Coursey

    5. The Other Half of Church: Christian Community, Brain Science, and Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation, by Jim Wilder and Michel Hendricks

    6. The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, by Justo Gonzalez

    7. The Story of Christianity, Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day, by Justo Gonzalez

    8. Exclusion and Embrace, by Miroslav Volf

    9. The Art of Neighboring, by Dave Runyon and Jay Pathak

    10. The Gospel Comes with a House Key, by Rosaria Butterfield 

    11. Prophetic Lament, by Soon Chan-Rah

    12. On Death, by Timothy Keller

    13. A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis

    14. Trauma and Grace, by Serene Jones

    1. The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward, by Malcolm Foley

    2. Doing Christian Ethics From The Margins, by Miguel A. De La Torre

    3. Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope, by Esau Mccauley

    4. Jesus and the Disenchanted, by Howard Thurman

    5. When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

    6. How to Heal Our Racial Divide: What the Bible Says, and the First Christians Knew, about Racial Reconciliation, by Derwin Gray

    7. Strength to Love and Letter From A Birmingham Jail, by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    8. The Christian Imagination: Theology and The Origins of Race, by Willie James Jennings

    9. On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends In An Unapologetic World, by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

    10. Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities Into Unity, Wholeness and Justice, by Brenda Salter McNeil

    11. How To Fight Racism, by Jemar Tisby

    12. Everyday Activism: Following 7 Practices of Jesus to Create a Just World, by J.W. Buck

    13. Jesus on Main Street, by Dave Kreesta

    1. Amoris Laetitia: On Love in the Family, by Pope Francis

    2. How We Love: Discover Your Love Style, Enhance Your Marriage, by Milan and Kay Yerkovich

    3. The Meaning of Marriage, by Timothy Keller

    4. A Celebration of Sex, by Douglas E. Roesnau

    5. Embodied, by Preston Sprinkle

    6. Sex God, by Rob Bell

    1. The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood Man and Woman, One in Christ, by Phillip Payne

    2. Why I Believe In Women In Ministry, by Nijay Gupta 

    3. Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church, by Nijay Gupta

    4. The Making of Biblical Womanhood, by Beth Allison Barr

    5. Ordained Women in the Church: A Documentary History

    6. Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle's Vision for Men and Women in Christ, by Cynthia Long Westfall

    7. Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy, edited by Ronald W. Pierce, Cynthia Long Westfall, Christa L. McKirland, and Rebecca Groothuis

    1. Every Good Endeavor, by Tim Keller

    2. The Call, by Os Guiness

    3. Let Your Life Speak, by Parker Palmer

    4. The Good Enough Job, by Simone Stolzoff

    5. Run With The Horses: The Quest For Life At Its Best, by Eugene Peterson

    6. Life of the Beloved, by Henri Nouwen

    7. Art + Faith: A Theology of Making, by Makoto Fujimura

    8. Garden City, by John Mark Comer

    1. Evangelism in an Age of Despair, by Andrew Root

    2. The King Jesus Gospel, by Scot McKnight

    3. The Reluctant Witness, by Don Everts

    4. The Art of Neighboring, by Dave Runyon and Jay Pathak

    5. Kingdom Ethics, by by Glen Stassen and David Gushee

    1. Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship, by Lesslie Newbigin

    2. Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton

    3. After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith without Losing It, by A.J. Swoboda

    4. Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

    5. Is God To Blame? Beyond Pat Answers to the Problem of Suffering, by Greg Boyd

    6. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Tim Keller

    7. Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church, by James K. A. Smith

    8. Who’s Afraid of Relativism? Community, Contingency, and Creaturehood, by James K. A. Smith

    9. When Everything's on Fire: Faith Forged from the Ashes, by Brian Zahnd

    10. How (Not) To Read The Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture, by Dan Kimball

    11. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries, by Rodney Stark

    12. The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis

    13. Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion, by Rebecca McLaughlin

    1. Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians, by Lee Camp

    2. The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here, by Kaitlyn Schiess

    3. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, by Kristen Kobes Du Mes

    4. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt

    5. The Politics of Jesus, by John Howard Yoder

    1. Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, by Debra Reinstra

    2. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, by Francis Collins

    3. Creation Care and the Gospel: Reconsidering the Mission of the Church, by Colin Bell and Robert White

    4. The Bible, Rocks, and Time: Geological Evidence for the Age of the Earth, by Davis Young and Ralph Stearley

    5. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt

    1. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, by Lesslie Newbigin

    2. Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West, by Andrew Wilson

    3. Art + Faith: A Theology of Making, by Makoto Fujimura

    4. To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, by James Davison Hunter

    5. A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor

    6. How (Not) To Be Secular, by James K.A. Smith

    7. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness, by Neil Postman

    8. Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl

    1. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

    2. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

    3. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

    4. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

    5. The Princess and the Goblins, by George MacDonald

    6. The Princess and Curdie, by George MacDonald

    7. The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran

    8. The Space Trilogy, 3 novels by C. S. Lewis

    9. Till We Have Faces, by C. S. Lewis

    10. To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, by John O’Donohue

    11. Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

    12. Paradise Lost, by John Milton

    13. Phantastes: A Faerie Romance, by George MacDonald

    14. Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry

    15. The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

    16. The Ordering of Love, by Madeleine L’Engle

    1. Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

    2. Silence (2016)

    3. Soul (2020)

    4. Children of Men (2006)

    5. Arrival (2016)

    6. The Truman Show (1998)

    7. Pig (2021)

    8. The Two Popes (2019)

    9. Sound of Metal (2019)

    10. First Reformed (2018)

    11. A Hidden Life (2019)

    12. A Serious Man (2009)

    13. The Tree of Life (2011)

    14. Conclave (2024)

    15. Doubt (2008)

    16. In Bruges (2008)

    17. The Mission (1986)

    18. Calvary (2014)

    19. There Will Be Blood (2007)

    20. No Country For Old Men (2007)

    21. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

    22. Dekalog (1989)

    23. The Seventh Seal (1957)

    24. Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

    25. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

    26. The Holdovers (2023)

    27. The Green Knight (2021)

    28. Babette's Feast (1987)

    29. Groundhog Day (1993)

    30. Perfect Days (2023)

    1. Subscribe to Midtown Presbyterian Church’s sermon podcast for weekly dives into scripture

    2. The Bible Project podcast and videos

    3. Psalms - Learning The Language of Prayer Teaching Series

    4. Centering Prayer app (Apple or Google)

    5. Second Breath app (Apple or Google)

    6. Echo Prayer App

    7. Dallas Willard on Prayer

    8. Renovare podcast

    9. Teaching on disciplines

    10. Rule of Life Workbook

    11. Teaching on the church

    12. Jim Singleton sermon on Women in Ministry

    13. ECO Statements on Baptism and Communion

    14. The Labor of Hope teaching on grief

    15. On Sexual Desire sermon

    16. Where Grace Abounds - Scott Kingry ministry

    17. E-courses on Faith and Sexuality 

    18. Teaching on vocation 

    19. Midtown teaching on Witnessing

    20. The Embedded Church podcast

    21. Rebuilders Podcast