Reformed Reading Guide · 15 books
The Best Books on the Doctrine of Man (Biblical Anthropology)
The doctrine of man, or theological anthropology, is the study of what Scripture teaches about human beings as creatures made in the image of God. It examines human nature, the union of body and soul, personhood, dignity, sex and gender, and how sin has marred yet not erased that image. Reformed theology confesses that people were created good, fell in Adam, and are being renewed in the image of Christ.
What does it mean to be human? These books unpack the biblical doctrine of man, the image of God, the union of body and soul, and the dignity of every person. We have sorted the best confessional Reformed and evangelical titles into three tiers, from accessible introductions to advanced scholarship. Start with our top pick, Anthony Hoekema's Created in God's Image.
Basic
5 books
Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality
Nancy R. Pearcey · 2019
Pearcey shows how a biblical view of the body confronts the modern split between personhood and biology across abortion, sexuality, and gender.
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What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves
Sam Allberry · 2021
Allberry offers a warm, gospel-shaped theology of the body through the lens of creation, fall, and redemption.
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Embodied: Living as Whole People in a Fractured World
Gregg R. Allison · 2021
Allison gives an accessible whole-person theology of embodiment, tracing the body from conception to resurrection.
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You're Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God's Design and Why That's Good News
Kelly M. Kapic · 2022
Kapic reframes human finitude and limits as a good gift of God's design rather than a defect to overcome.
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You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World
Alan Noble · 2021
Noble contrasts the modern lie that we belong to ourselves with the freeing truth that we belong, body and soul, to Christ.
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5 books
Created in God's Image
Anthony A. Hoekema · 1994
Hoekema's classic remains the standard confessional Reformed synthesis of the image of God, human nature, and sin.
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Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 2: Man and Christ
Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley · 2020
Beeke and Smalley set anthropology within a full Reformed systematic framework, joining the doctrine of man to the person of Christ.
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Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God
John F. Kilner · 2015
Kilner surveys every biblical reference to the image of God and argues it grounds both human dignity and human destiny.
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The Christian View of Man
J. Gresham Machen · 1984
Machen's plainspoken lectures cover creation, the image of God, the fall, and sin with enduring clarity.
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Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed
Marc Cortez · 2010
Cortez introduces the central debates, imago Dei, sexuality, mind and body, and free will, in a concise, fair-minded survey.
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5 books
Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate
John W. Cooper · 2000
Cooper's landmark study defends holistic dualism and the conscious intermediate state against monist readings of biblical anthropology.
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ReSourcing Theological Anthropology: A Constructive Account of Humanity in the Light of Christ
Marc Cortez · 2017
Cortez builds a constructive Christ-centered anthropology, arguing that what it means to be human is defined by Jesus.
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Adam, the Fall, and Original Sin: Theological, Biblical, and Scientific Perspectives
Hans Madueme and Michael Reeves (eds.) · 2014
This scholarly symposium defends the historical Adam and original sin across biblical, theological, and scientific fronts.
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Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 2: God and Creation
Herman Bavinck · 2004
Bavinck's volume anchors the doctrine of humanity in a magisterial Reformed treatment of God and creation.
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Man: The Image of God
G. C. Berkouwer · 1962
Berkouwer probes the biblical doctrine of man and the image of God in sustained dialogue with the theological tradition.
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