I confess. I have read a good bit of NT Wright, and appreciate much of what he has to say. His books on Jesus opened the gospels for me in ways that nothing else did. Wright, for those who don’t know, is a bishop in the Church of England.
I confess. John Milbank, another Anglican, was my dissertation advisor, and his Theology and Social Theory is a fairly constant presence in my theology.
I confess. Russian Orthodox liturgist Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World is one of my favorite books.
I confess. I have read Lutheran Robert Jenson with profit, albeit mixed with a good bit of puzzlement.
I find Henri de Lubac’s books, particularly Catholicism , Medieval Exegesis , and Corpus Mysticum , awe-inspiring both in breadth of scholarship and in theological depth.
Geoffrey Wainwright, a Methodist, has written some admirable books on liturgy, and I started reading Stanley Hauerwas before he became Anglican.
Of course, I learn a great deal Reformed writers too: From the past Calvin especially, but from the present Cornelius Van Til, John Frame, Vern Poythress, Richard Gaffin, Michael Horton, Kevin Vanhoozer, and so on.
If I came for ordination in a PCA Presbytery with such a reading list, could I be ordained?
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
More from Theology
Continue reading related articles

In Praise of Thomas
Gotta love ol’ Tommaso d’Aquino, a.k.a. Thomas Aquinas. The margins of my various copies of his works are full of notes of disagreement and question marks, but still: His toss-off arguments are usually deeper than the sustained arguments of lesser theologians. Here’s a pot pourri from the early part of…

Hoping For Love
In his 2007 encyclical on hope, Spe Salvi , Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI observes that the experience of loving and being loved is a moment of “redemption.” Love gives new meaning, new joy, new energy. Every love is a new birth. We long and hope for love. We want it…

Is All That's In God God?
Divine simplicity is often summarized in the axiom, "All that's in God is God." If this is taken at face value, though, it conflicts with Trinitarian orthodoxy. 1) By this axiom, the Persons are identical with the essence of God. 2) But the Persons have (or are) identifying particularities or…
In Medias Res
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.