It’s time to continue  my list, my rants, my reflections about spiritual books that have shaped  America’s faith. This week the list will take me over the half way point. This section of the list has some surprises, and has more fiction than the past two installments. As always, let me know if you agree or disagree with my choices and and your own!

 The Cost of Discipleship by Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer has been one of the most celebrated Protestant martyrs of the 20th Century and this is is his seminal work about sacrifice and community.

 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Her allegory about time travel broke  new ground in publishing and  is still unsurpassed in my opinion – even by Harry.

 Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

You just know that that more than one Lewis book has to be on this list, so let’s start with the fiction series that has influenced millions of children over the decades. People of all faiths have taken any number of spiritual lessons and images away from this magical world.

Exodus by Leon Uris

Maybe I chose this book because I am  a devotee of “MadMen” in which the book is referenced several times in season one as a significant and controversial book  in its contribution to the Jewish experience.

Brighton Beach Trilogy , Neil Simon

 I know , he wrote plays, not books, but certainly Neil i has been a literary-  and highly commercial – force in bringing the Jewish experience to the stage in many plays, including the deeply spiritual “God’s Favorite.”