A few years ago it always seemed simple to find a few consensus picks. Recently, though, it has become far more difficult. So while I scour as many lists as ever, it is rare for a single book to appear on more than a handful of them. With that in mind, here are the ones that appeared repeatedly.

I probably don’t need to tell you how much I love books in general, and Christian books in particular. One of my favorite times to be a reader is in mid-December when people begin to share their picks for the top books of the year. I usually collect a good number of these lists and scour them to see if there is any consensus. I have done that over the past few weeks and am ready to share the results.

A few years ago it always seemed simple to find a few consensus picks. Recently, though, it has become far more difficult. So while I scour as many lists as ever, it is rare for a single book to appear on more than a handful of them. With that in mind, here are the ones that appeared repeatedly and, in a more subjective sense, seemed to generate the most positive buzz throughout the year.

The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus Our Shepherd, Companion, and Host, by David Gibson.

I read many positive reviews of this one throughout 2024 and also spotted it on several of the year-end roundups. What’s interesting to me is that it was also one of the ones that made last year’s list. My guess is that this is related to the fact that it released near the end of 2023 which meant that many people did not actually read it until 2024. Either way, it stood out to a number of people. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)

What it Means to be Protestant: The Case for the Always-Reforming Church, by Gavin Ortland.

We are seeing a trend today in which people are abandoning Protestantism in favor of Catholicism or Orthodoxy and doing so because they appreciate liturgy, sacramentalism, and other elements like them. In this book, Ortlund defends Protestantism against these other traditions. The publisher says “this hunger for historical rootedness is welcome—but unfortunately, many assume that this need can only be met outside of Protestant contexts.” Ortlund proves this is not the case. (Buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)

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