This coming semester I’ll be teaching two courses on eschatology at Southern Seminary. Several folks beyond students at the seminary have asked me via email and Twitter what books I assign for these, so I decided I would post these reading lists for each of my courses here.
Doctoral Seminar
- Alan F. Segal, Life after Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion (Doubleday, 2004)
- Charles E. Hill, Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (Eerdmans, 2001)
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (Catholic University of America, 2003)
- N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, vol. 3, Christian Origins and the Question of God (Fortress, 2003)
- Michael S. Horton, Covenant and Eschatology: Divine Drama (Westminster/John Knox, 2002)
- Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Harvard University Press, 1994)
- Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Fortress, 1996)
Masters-Level Course
Required Reading
- Anthony A. Hoekema, The Bible and the Future (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994)
- George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974)
- C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (HarperOne, 2001)
- Richard J. Mouw, When the Kings Come Marching In: Isaiah and the New Jerusalem (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002)
- N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Hope of the Church (HarperOne, 2008)
Fiction (Students pick one of these to read)
- Margaret Atwood, A Handmaid’s Tale (Anchor, 1998) [Feminist Apocalyptic]
- Edward Abbey, Good News (Plume, 1980) [Secular Environmental Apocalyptic]
- Timothy LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind: A Novel of Earth’s Last Days (Tyndale House, 1996) [Dispensational Evangelical Apocalyptic]
- C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (HarperTrophy, 1994) [Mere Christian Apocalyptic]
- Michael O’Brien, Father Elijah: An Apocalypse (Ignatius, 1998) [Roman Catholic Apocalyptic]
- Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1971) [Southern Literary Catholic Apocalyptic]
Recommended Reading
- Gregory A. Boyd, God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997)
- Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1992)
- Robert G. Clouse, The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1977)
- Brian E. Daley, The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Hendrickson, 2003)
- Russell D. Moore, The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004)
- Jeffrey Burton Russell, Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven and How We Can Regain It (Oxford University Press, 2007)
- Jerry L. Walls, Heaven: The Logic of Eternal Joy (Oxford University Press, 2002)
