An Overview

1. Purpose

1.1. "To identify a handful of the most outstanding books ever written on Christian faith and the life of prayer and discipleship."

2. Selection Process

2.1. Solicited input from Renovare supporters

2.2. Nearly 400 recommendations submitted

2.3. Included East & West, Protestant & Catholic

2.4. "The books we have chosen to include, are, instead, the books that the board judged served as the best guides for living life with God."

2.5. Included variety of literary genres

2.6. Living authors excluded

3. Tips for Reading the Selected Works

3.1. Read for formation, not information

3.2. Don't have to read in any particular order

3.3. Read slowly; don't be in a hurry

3.4. Read for at least 30 minutes

4. Selections

4.1. On the Incarnation

4.2. Confessions

4.3. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

4.4. The Rule of St. Benedict

4.5. The Divine Comedy

4.6. The Cloud of Unknowing

4.7. Revelations of Divine Love

4.8. The Imitation of Christ

4.9. The Philokalia

4.10. Institutes of the Christian Religion

4.11. The Interior Castle

4.12. Dark Night of the Soul

4.13. Pensees

4.14. The Pilgrim's Progress

4.15. The Practice of the Presence of God

4.16. A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

4.17. The Way of a Pilgrim

4.18. The Brothers Karamazov

4.19. Orthodoxy

4.20. The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins

4.21. The Cost of Discipleship

4.22. A Testament of Devotion

4.23. The Seven Storey Mountain

4.24. Mere Christianity

4.25. The Return of the Prodigal Son

5. Editorial Board

5.1. Gayle Bebee

5.2. James Catford

5.3. Richard J. Foster

5.4. Emilie Griffin

5.5. Frederica Mathewes-Greene

5.6. Michael J. Maudlin

5.7. Richard Rohr

5.8. Lyle SmithGraybeal

5.9. Phyllis Tickle

5.10. Chris Webb

5.11. Dallas Willard

5.12. John Wilson

5.13. Edited by Julie L. Roller

6. Format of Book

6.1. Background of author/book; summary of major themes

6.2. Strategies for reading selected work

6.3. Key excerpts

6.4. Questions/study guide