Although known as a representative of Puritanism, Richard Sibbes was an Anglican preacher. His pastoral care, deep understanding of Scripture, and ability to apply biblical truths to believers' practical struggles dubbed him the “Heavenly Doctor Sibbes.” He combined deep theological insight with a warm style, making his writings accessible and edifying for both scholars and the average believer.

Vance Havner devoured everything he could read about God and was particularly drawn to the sermons and writings of Charles Spurgeon. He grew up with “a Bible in one hand and a bird book in the other - Pilgrim‘s Progress and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.” He was a genius at creating a witticism. His comments regularly had a sharp but necessary point and were distinctively and memorably phrased.

Thomas Watson obtained great fame and popularity as a preacher until he was ejected for nonconformity. Even though Watson was kicked out of the church, he continued to preach in various places. In disobedience to the Five Mile Act, which forbade any pastor from living within five miles of their former parishes, Watson would walk several miles to preach and hold secret church meetings.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a Welsh Protestant minister, preacher, and medical doctor who was influential in the Reformed wing of evangelicalism in the 20th century. He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture. Lloyd-Jones was known for expository preaching, often lasting 50 minutes to an hour. He would take many months, even years, to expound a chapter of the Bible verse by verse, and his sermons drew thousands.

In his most known work, Christianity and Liberalism, John Gresham Machen argues that Christianity is not just a set of moral teachings or ethical principles but a supernatural religion based on historical facts and that liberalism undermines the very foundation of Christianity. He also criticizes the liberal view of salvation.

Thomas Brooks was a Puritan pastor and chaplain in the Navy. After his military, he returned to London to become an Anglican priest at a local church. He was famed for being a preacher before the House of Commons in 1648. Later, Brooks lost his preaching license due to the Act of Uniformity, although he continued to preach. He was buried in Bunhill Fields, London’s famous nonconformist cemetery.

William Tyndale’s work played a prominent role in the Protestant Reformation by challenging the papacy’s authority and advocating that everyone should be able to read the Bible, not just the clergy and academic elite. In 1523, William Tyndale proposed a new English translation of the Bible derived from the original languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. He was committed to getting God’s Word into the hands of the English-speaking world.

J.I. Packer was an Anglican priest and theologian. He was educated at The University of Oxford, where he started reading the Puritans and heard lectures by C.S. Lewis, whose teachings significantly influenced his life. C.S. Lewis was a Universalist, which may explain Packer’s later alliance with Roman Catholics (signing the Evangelicals and Catholics Together and Manhattan Declaration controversial documents). For a brief time, he sat under the teaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel.

Benjamin Breckinridge (B.B.) Warfield defended Christianity against the tides of liberalism and was especially antagonistic toward liberals who perpetuated the religious experience over the revelation of the Word of God. Warfield is best known for his careful efforts to defend the inerrancy of the Bible. In 1881, with A. A. Hodge (Charles Hodge’s son), he wrote a famous essay, “Inspiration,” which laid out the traditional Protestant belief in the full infallibility and truthfulness of Scripture. Warfield sought to clarify the Bible’s inspiration in countless essays and reviews.

Martyn Lloyd Jones has said that JC Ryle’s preaching and writing are always scriptural and expository. He never starts with a theory into which he tries to fit various scriptures. He begins with the Word and expounds it. This is expositional preaching at its very best and highest. It is always clear and logical and invariably leads to a clear enunciation of doctrine.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon is known as the Prince of Preachers. He loved reading and was most influenced by Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and The Pilgrim’s Progress. He preached at the famous New Park Street Chapel in London and, later, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He was outspoken against false teaching, which led to the Downgrade Controversy, arguing for the infallibility of Scripture and the existence and eternality of hell.

Theologian John Owen once said of John Bunyan, “I would willingly exchange my learning for the tinker’s power of touching men’s hearts.” Bunyan wrote 60+ books, including sermons expanded into treatises, poetry, and books for children. His best-known works are Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, The Holy War, and The Pilgrim’s Progress, all of which have been steadily in print since Bunyan’s day.

We have few Christian women Bible teachers who have remained faithful to God’s Word rather than bowing to feelings and culture-pleasing. Susan Heck has stood firm for over 40 years, teaching Bible Studies, counseling, and leading the women’s ministry at Grace Community Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She’s an author and speaker at women’s ministry conferences throughout the United States.

Author Flannery O’Connor lived a life like one of her short stories: sudden and powerful. Her characters are complex, seeking redemption in unusual and often violent ways. She writes with a deeply grounded and astute Christian worldview. Writers who see by the light of their Christian faith will have, in these times, the sharpest eye for the grotesque, for the perverse, and for the unacceptable.

C.S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis) is one of the most influential voices in modern Christianity, impacting Christians worldwide. Lewis wrote more than thirty books; his most popular include Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis was the most significant Christian apologist of the twentieth century and a profound philosopher and storyteller teaching a timeless message relevant to all Americans.

Fyodor Dostoevsky is considered one of the greatest psychological novelists in world literature. His works often explore human nature and the spiritual implications of human choices. His writings are prophetic because he accurately predicted how Russia’s revolutionaries would behave if they came to power. Dostoyevsky is best known for his long novels Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, and The Idiot. These significant works are renowned novels that address timeless and timely issues in philosophy and politics.

Russian literature is known for wrestling with universal questions about the nature of good and evil, human freedom, moral responsibility, and political utopianism. This is because it was written under extreme conditions with a literary intensity that presents a confrontation of evil. Bulgakov’s writings give essential insight into the cultural impact of an atheistic mindset. In a society where the most excellent goods are not religion or transcendence but material possessions and creature comforts—the consequence is a base and stupid society where everyone looks out for themselves, and selfishness reigns through a narrow pursuit of personal gratification. This narrowness of ideas and shallow character are all the direct consequence of the belief that humans are just molecules without purpose or accountability to any ultimate authority and have no future beyond our time on earth.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested for criticizing Stalin and was sentenced to 8 years in the Russian labor camps, the Gulags. The experience of the gulags provided him with raw material for the books he wrote. His writings force people to think more deeply about their values, assumptions, and societies, and in 1970, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his work on The Gulag Archipelago.