Most though-provoking book you ever read (don't say The Bible)

[rocklobster]

I love it when books make you think. So, besides the Bible (it's supposed to make you think, that's what religion is all about) are there any books that were really thought-provoking for you. One book that definitely comes to mind is The Screwtape Letters.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

The Oath by Frank Peretti
The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker
Blood From Heaven Bill Myers
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

those are just a few

[Destiny]

I would have to say the Chronicles of Narnia in general. (Are we seeing a C.S. Lewis theme here?)
90 Minutes of Heaven
King Arthur and His Knights.

There's more, (Lord of the Rings anyone?) but these are some of the main ones I can think of.

[bigsleepj]

Off the top of my head....

• The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
• Till we have Faces by CS Lewis
• Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
• Notes from Underground by Fyodr Dostoevsky
• The Man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton
• Silence by Shusaku Endo

[mitsuki lover]

The Republic by Plato
The Last Days of Socrates by Plato
Beowulf
Scientists Confront Creationism
And The Horse He Rode In On by James Carval(sp?)
The Political Zoo by Michael Savage
Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
The South Was Right by the Kennedy Brothers
Treason by Anne Coulter
The Gospel According To Peanuts by Frank L. Short
The Parables Of Peanuts by Frank L.Short
Commonsense by Thomas Paine
The Cartoon History Of The Universe by Larry Gonick
Custer And The Battle Of The Little Bighorn by Jim Donovan
Hal Lindsey And Biblical Prophecy by Cornelis Vanderwaal

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

Just what comes to mind:

- Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places - Eugene Peterson
- Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
- Any of the Short Stories by Flannery O'Connor
- Inside Out and Connecting - Larry Crabb
- Knowing God - J. I. Packer
- Pilgrim on Tinker Creek - Annie Dillard
- The Silver Chair and The Magician's Nephew - Lewis
- King Lear - Shakespeare

I'm gonna go ahead and stop.

[Taliesin]

the screwtape letters and animal farm made me think alot.

[Dunedan]

The Visitation by Frank Peretti
1984
Flowers for Algernon
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
Fahrenheit 451

[MusicRocksGBV]

Hmmmwell, lessee:

Any book by Patricia A. McKillip, but The Forgotten Beasts of Eld in particular...that's the first book by this amazing fantasy author I have read.
Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
a number of Robert Frost's poems...
The Great Gatsby by Robert Fitzgerald

to name a few.

[Aileen Kailum]

The Oath by Frank Peretti
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

Although, pretty much anything by Peretti gets me thinking...

[Animus Seed]

(it's supposed to make you think, that's what religion is all about)

All about, you say? I think there might be a little more to it than that. Just kidding.

Well, for me:

The Iliad*, Homer

The Symposium, Plato

The Republic*, Plato

The Aeneid, Virgil

The Divine Comedy, Dante

The Truth (with jokes), Al Franken

Poison, Chris Wooding

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

I'm sure there's more. Hmm.....

*(I should note that "thought-provoking" does not equal enjoyment. I hated the Iliad, and the Republic, though good, bored me.)

[Zarn Ishtare]

Novelis's Hymns Of The Night was extremely inspiring.


Starship Troopers was a suprisingly good read as well.

[mitsuki lover]

In The South Was Right! The Kennedy Brothers basically argue that the South was
expressing a right that was inherent in both the Constitution and Declaration of
Independence.One of their best arguments though comes from the fact that,ironically enough,New England was itself on the verge of seceeding from the
Union during the War of 1812.
They also point out that the North had a double standard in regard to blacks.

[midori45]

Defenitaly My Sisters Keeper. *grabs head* It wasn't supossed to end like that!! The thought of what makes some one human by legal standards and the rights they posess; as well as family issues and hardships was amazing and written wonderfully.

[K. Ayato]

Ordinary People by Judith Guest, because (even if you're not a psychology major) it makes you think about what were the characters' trains of thought, and how things could've been a lot better in the long run had one or more characters reacted and viewed something another way.

[mitsuki lover]

Creed Or Chaos by Dorothy L.Sayers
Hal Lindsey And Biblical Prophecy by Cornelis Vanderwaal
Choosing My Religion by J.C.Sproul
The Parables of Peanuts by Frank L. Short
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington

[Yeshua-Knight]

well, i know that there's already a trend with c.s. lewis, but narnia didn't make me think as much as his scifi trilogy has, my gosh, if you don't really pay attention in perelandra, you will miss something and get hopelessly lost, so yeah, that trilogy is off the hook and will really get your gears grinding, aside from that, a book by ravi zacharias called "the lotus and the cross" it's actually a parable of sorts through which zacharias compares buddhism to christianity and sort of educates the reader on the beliefs of buddhism and how christianity should repond to them through a conversation that takes place between buddha and Jesus, very fascinating reading

[Etoh*the*Greato]

I don't know about thought provoking, per se, but The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger definitley stayde with me. It's the only time reading a book has truley taken me somewhere else. I mean I get well and good in to my books, no question, but this literally felt like living a separate and second life away from my own. And when it ended, I really did feel like I was parting with dear friends.

[Corkyspaniel]

I agree. The Chronicles of Narnia is a thought-provoking series. ^_^

[Monkey J. Luffy]

Eli by Bill Meyers

[mitsuki lover]

A Traveler's Guide To The History Of Scotland made me think about what my own ancestors were like.

[Alice]

Ender's Game was pretty rough for me in the thought provoking department. It was very difficult to rationalize the violence involved, and our natural rooting for Ender. When I thought about what I myself would do in the situations in the book, it was even harder, because I know in Christianity we're supposed to turn the other cheek... and I didn't think I would in the situations he was in.

There are several others, mostly books about religion, but I can't seem to find the titles right now.

[Headkicker9000]

The Unseen Hand by A. Ralph Epperson - Must read for all conspiracy buffs.
Anything by Ayn RAnd - Can't say I agree with everything the woman says, but she is one of the reasons I became a libertarian.

[Headkicker9000]

Ender's Game was pretty rough for me in the thought provoking department. It was very difficult to rationalize the violence involved, and our natural rooting for Ender. When I thought about what I myself would do in the situations in the book, it was even harder, because I know in Christianity we're supposed to turn the other cheek... and I didn't think I would in the situations he was in.

There are several others, mostly books about religion, but I can't seem to find the titles right now.

Turn the other cheek does not mean pacifism.

http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/qselfdefense.html

[rocklobster]

Don't double post. Just combine your posts as one.

[mitsuki lover]

Farmer's River World series.

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

Choosing one for me would be a nightmare. Every time I single one out, five, ten more come to mind and it never really ends. Even if I were to do it within a category or genre (fiction, theology, poetry,etc.) I would have the same problem.

A few authors who have made me think all over the place are:
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Larry Crabb
- Eugene Peterson
- T.S. Eliot
- Marilynne Robinson

[Puritan]

Let's see, a few of the most thought provoking (in no particular order):

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (though I vehemently disagree with her, she is certainly interesting to read)
The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence (actually a collection of his writings posthumously)
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Steven Donaldson

[JasonPratt]

Um... everything? (I think I think _too_ much about anything I read...{g})

Lewis' theological works (duh), but especially _Miracles: A Preliminary Study_.

MacDonald's _Unspoken Sermons_ (3 volumes); and _The Hope of the Gospel_.

Edersheim's _The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah_. (Egad... took me most of a year to get through _that_ one...)

Really, pretty much whatever I'm currently reading. {g} But those three would rank high on the list of giving me tools to work with that I've found helpful over and over and over again.

[mitsuki lover]

Oscar Wilde's works,especially stories like 'The Selfish Giant','The Model Millionaire',
and of course 'The Happy Prince'.He also wrote a couple of thought provoking letters on the subject of Prison Reform to one of the London papers after his release from prison.