8 Types of Books Pastors Should Be Reading! // Advice from Dr. Hershael York

In this video I am covering 8 types or kinds of books that pastors should be reading according to Dr. Hershael York. This list was first shared on episode 53 of the Pastor Well podcast, published in December 2022. In addition to my own commentary through Dr. York's list I have added a bonus 9th category that I believe is a type/kind of book preaching pastors especially should endeavor to read yearly.
If you have questions or insights about the topics covered in this video or have recommendations for future videos let me know in the comments.
Links:
Pastor Well Podcast Episode 53: • What Types of Books Sh...
C. S. Lewis Introduction to Athanasius Video: • Pt.1 On The Incarnatio...
Section Titles:
0:00 - Welcome & Video Content
0:34 - Why This Video? And why Read?
2:48 - Channel Pitch
3:01 - About: Dr. York
3:51 - Ebook or Physical Book?
4:34 - The Question
5:19 - The List (8 from Dr. York, and a Bonus)
13:25 - Bonus Category
15:08 - Feedback & Final Thoughts
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This is a great way to categorize and prioritize the kinds of books pastors (and many Christians) might wish to read. 😊
1. The only caveat I'd have is I wouldn't make it a "must do" but only a "recommended" list. Many pastors don't have access to a library that would include all these categories of books (e.g. pastors in my mother's home country which is a poor and sadly currently war stricken country). So I'd say these categories are a great way to prioritize the kinds of books a pastor might wish to read if they are able to buy or borrow these sorts of books, but I wouldn't make it an imperative. Sorry, I'm sure that's not what Pastor York would mean either, and I'm sure he'd say the same thing, but just to be clear.
2. That said, I think many or most pastors in the US and the West in general would likely have access to these kinds of books. Either through local libraries, seminary libraries, online, used bookstores, even online vendors like Amazon can be quite affordable (not always the case in other nations where Amazon and its equivalents can actually be quite pricey). We're blessed to have so many options and ways to access these kinds of books. We're fortunate to be far from Spurgeon's day when he preached to "ministers with a slender apparatus" if I remember his sermon title correctly, though this is still an edifying and helpful sermon to read today.
3. Personally, I'd recommend the following books (based on factors like quality and affordability) which are similar to Pastor York's categories but not identical:
A. Bible. A good translation like the ESV or CSB. There are premium versions which run hundreds of dollars but there are also affordable versions of the same premium Bibles which don't use the same leather and paper but do use the same typeface and design. For example, Crossway has the ESV Heirloom series which is beautiful in both premium as well as affordable versions. For example, the TruTone Heritage is affordable and great quality for the price. Obviously the pastor must (and this is truly the only must) have the Bible if they have no other book. If the Bible is the only book they can buy, then perhaps it'd be best to get a good study Bible like the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Baker Illustrated Study Bible, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, etc. because study Bibles are one stop shops for so much good material. I know Crossway has generously donated many ESV Study Bibles to pastors in developing nations precisely because they want to give these pastors a great resource if they have no other resources. Another option is something like the STEP Bible which is free to access online and which can be downloaded for free and used offline too. It was expressly developed for use by pastors in developing nations. It's from the biblical scholar Derek Instone Brewer at Tyndale House in Cambridge, UK (which is the same place where other evangelical and Reformed luminaries like Peter Williams and James Bejon work).
B. An overview book about the Bible. I think we live in a golden age of biblical theology. There are so many to choose from. Like God's Big Picture (Vaughn Roberts), The God Who Is There (Don Carson), From Eden to the New Jerusalem (T. Desmond Alexander), God Dwells Among Us (Greg Beale and Mitchell Kim), The King in His Beauty (Tom Schreiner), etc. If I could only pick one, though, I think I'd pick The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. It is a bit dated and perhaps would do well with an update, and it is slightly more pricey than others, but it still contains a tremendous amount of useful material on the Bible as a whole and it can be used profitably for years or perhaps over a decade. I imagine it'd be a great reference to turn to for sermon prep. Otherwise I think The King in His Beauty would be another great choice since it's more meaty than the introductory books but still very approachable.
C. Commentaries. So many great series. From beginner to advanced levels, from more expository to more exegetical. The Bible Speaks Today contains many fine volumes which are introductory and affordable. My favorites in this series are from Alec Motyer, of whom past students at his Bible college aka seminary would say they'd go to the Bible college for Packer (when Packer used to teach there before he moved to Regent in Vancouver) and stay for Motyer. But I think it'd be best to get individual volumes in various series rather than an entire series. A good way to begin to research which volumes are good is the website Best Commentaries as well as Denver Seminary's annual list of commentaries since Denver gives useful comments on commentaries.
D. Biographies. So many. Iain Murray is a model writer of great biographies. Virtually any of his biographies would be great to read. I also like John Piper's Men of Whom the World Was Not Worthy series which is free to read or watch online and which has been collected in a single volume too. My personal favorite is Augustine's Confessions. I originally read it in the Henry Chadwick translation which is a fine translation but reads a bit donnish as in an Oxford or Cambridge professor aka don. Today I think the best English translation is Thomas Williams. Williams is far more philosophically astute than any other English translation I've encountered and Augustine was of course one of history's greatest philosophical theologians. It's a bit of a shame other English translations don't capture this fundamental aspect of Augustine's Confessions (e.g. Chadwick, Boulding, Ruden, Wills, Pine Coffin, Sheen), but thankfully Williams does.
E. Classics/Fiction. Personally I'm a bit hesitant to recommend literature with a predominant focus involving pagan gods like Homer and Virgil, though I really appreciate their literary skill and epic poetry, especially Virgil (e.g. good English translations of Homer and Virgil include Fagles, Fitzgerald, Lombardo, I'm not as impressed with Emily Wilson's recent translations but she is the daughter of the eminent British literary critic and author and sometime Anglican A.N. Wilson). I suppose I'd prefer to recommend literature at least in a pseudo Christian vein since I think Christianity itself has transformed literature (e.g. where would Shakespeare be without the Geneva Bible?). In that respect, I like Seamus Heaney's Beowulf (and Tolkien is good too). Beowulf is a stunning work in its own right, of course, and Heaney is a stunning achievement in translation. It mixes and meshes well our earliest ancestral English themes with Judeo-Christian ones (e.g. the monster Grendel and its mother trace their own to the line of Cain). Furthermore, translators could learn from Heaney's translation. Indeed as Don Carson has pointed out: “One thinks, by analogy, of the brilliant recent translation of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney. Within the constraints of terms and idioms that simply must be preserved, Heaney manages to bring to life an astonishingly ‘contemporary’ translation that nevertheless pulsates with the life of ancient Scandinavian mythological heroes.”
But there are so many to recommend. Dostoevsky's two greatest works are probably The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky was a committed Russian Orthodox Christian who suffered tremendously in life (his own biography could be a movie or book) and his Christianity shines through his novels. I'd start with Crime and Punishment before others. The most popular translations are the older free Constance Garnett which is okay but British Victorian-Edwardian which Dostoevsky certainly wasn't even though he lived in the era. And the Pevear and Volokhonsky translations now but see Gary Saul Morson's "The Pevearization of Russian Literature" as well as John McWhorter's "Pevear and Volokhonsky Are Indeed Overrated" for problems and concerns with P&V. Both articles are free to read online. Morson has been a guest on Al Mohler's podcast a couple of times and McWhorter is a secular linguist whom, for instance, Mark Ward has found very insightful and has recommended too. I'd instead recommend the translations by Michael Katz if you prefer American English or Oliver Ready if you prefer British English. Both Katz and Ready are excellent translations of Crime and Punishment.
Leland Ryken's favorite work of fiction and Karen Swallow Prior's second favorite (after Jane Eyre, which I personally can't stomach) is Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Most Dickens scholars today would agree Great Expectations is Dickens's finest novel. Other top contenders are: A Christmas Carol (though for another Christmas story see also his Haunted Man which many Christians have appreciated), Dickens's own personal favorite David Copperfield, Bleak House which Chesterton thinks is Dickens's best novel though not his best book, and more debatable is Our Mutual Friend which was the last complete published work from Dickens. The Gospel Coalition has a free class available to read on their website about Great Expectations from Ryken.
There are so many other great classics to recommend. Most of the classics are freely available to read. A great place for free eBooks is Standard eBooks dot org. Their library is relatively small, much smaller than Project Gutenberg, but the quality of their eBooks is phenomenal, often better than even the same eBooks you have to pay for on places like Amazon. I'd recommend their work!