10 Must-Read Books for Christian Women in 2026 (Updated for Summer)
updated 06.15.2026
Important: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through these links at no additional cost to you.
Well, summer is here and its time for a refresh of our January book list. It’s hard to know who to read. With limited time, I try to prioritize my reading list and always have a book (or two) going. If I’m doing a lot of driving, audiobooks are a winner. (If you don’t know, a subscription to Spotify includes a large library of audiobooks!) Once in awhile, I’ll pick up a novel just for fun, but that isn’t this list.
For this list, I’m looking for certain things:
- Strengthen my knowledge of Biblical truth
- Improve my discernment skills
- Learn effective ways to study the Bible
- Lean how to step out boldly and share the Gospel
As Christians, we are to live in the world, not conform to the world. I’ve compiled this list of top-reads to help us do just that.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2
The culture tells us one thing. The Bible tells us another. Pastors can’t seem to agree. And in the middle of it all, Christians are trying to discern truth from deception, biblical faith from cultural Christianity, and genuine compassion from overdone empathy.
Start your summer with one (or more) of these ten books to help you keep you focus on Christ no matter what is going on around you!
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- Churchianity: How Modern Churches Corrupted Generations of Christians, Jon Del Arroz
- Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion, Allie Beth Stuckey
- A Visual Guide to Biblical Apologetics, Joseph M. Holden, Sarah R. Enterline, Todd Hampson
- Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, Alisa Childers
- Shepherds for Sale, Megan Basham
- Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, Voddie T. Baucham Jr
- Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed, Alisa Childers
- Knowing Scripture, R.C. Sproul
- Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
- The Bible, NASB
This isn’t a list of devotionals or feel-good inspirational reads (though those have their place). These are books that will challenge you, sharpen your discernment, strengthen your knowledge, and ground you firmly in biblical truth. They will also remind you that you are not alone in your confusion.
Important: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through these links at no additional cost to you.
With an Audible membership, you can listen to the audio versions of these books while you’re driving, sitting in traffic, or doing chores. There are promotions available.
Let’s dive in.
1. Churchianity: How Modern Churches Corrupted Generations of Christians, by Jon Del Arroz
Why This Book Matters
American Christianity has a problem: much of what passes for “church” today bears little resemblance to the New Testament church. Well, that’s not entirely true…much of what passes for “church” today looks exactly like the churches that Paul is writing to in the New Testament…begging them to change their ways.
This book exposes how modern churches have drifted from biblical Christianity into “Churchianity”—a cultural, social version of Christianity that entertainment over discipleship, and feelings over doctrine, and genuine transformation.
What You’ll Learn:
- How seeker-sensitive movements watered down the Gospel
- Why many churches prioritize comfort over conviction
- The difference between being a church member and being a disciple
- How consumer Christianity has created spiritually shallow believers
- What biblical church community actually looks like
Why Christian Women Need This: Women often carry the weight of keeping families engaged in church. This book will help you discern whether your church is teaching biblical Christianity or cultural religion…and what you can do about it.
Perfect For: Women frustrated with shallow church sermons, those seeking deeper discipleship, and anyone questioning whether “this is all there is” to Christian community.
2. The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, and John Sherrill
Why This Book Matters
This classic inspires faith and boldness. If you’ve already read this one, it’s worth another read and if you haven’t yet read it, it is a must-read!
There are books that encourage your faith and then there are books that challenge it. This story will challenge it.
This book tells the story of Corrie Ten Boom and her family during the Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II. It is a true story of how faith and forgiveness overcame horrific evils. Through prayer and the love of God, Corrie Ten Boom survived the most unimaginable conditions, while giving hope to hundreds of other women, She survived to tell her story, and even forgave and shared the Gospel with her captors.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to put faith over fear
- That God’s faithfulness is not contingent on your circumstances
- How to find God in the darkest of times
- How to praise God when there is nothing but evil and death surrounding you
Why Christian Women Need This: It’s easy to be faithful when life is going your way. Our culture may be quick to praise God when something good happens, but it is often quick to blame God when things go bad. This book will remind you what it looks like to trust God at all times, even when it feels like you’ve lost everything.
Perfect For: Everyone struggling with uncertainty or a season of suffering. Those wrestling with forgiveness. And anyone who simply needs a reminder of God’s presence through all seasons of life.
3. A Visual Guide to Biblical Apologetics, by Joseph M Holden, Sarah R Enterline, and Todd Hampson
Why This Book Matters
Can you defend what you believe? When you’re asked hard questions about faith, can you answer? When someone challenges Christianity, do you have a response?
This visual guide makes biblical apologetics accessible, using charts, graphics, and clear explanations to help you understand and articulate the evidence for Christian faith. I just ordered this book and I am excited to add it to build my knowledge in order to better defend my faith!
What You’ll Learn:
- Evidence for the reliability of Scripture
- Historical proof for Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection
- Answers to common objections about Christianity
- How to respond to skeptics with grace and truth
- The logical foundations of Christian belief
Why Christian Women Need This: Our culture increasingly views Christianity as intellectually bankrupt. This book equips you to show that faith is reasonable, evidence-based, and intellectually defensible—crucial for your own confidence and for teaching your children.
Perfect For: Moms homeschooling or raising children with questions, women in secular workplaces, anyone who wants to better defend their faith.
4. Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, by Alisa Childers
Why This Book Matters
Progressive Christianity sounds appealing: inclusive, affirming, focused on love and social justice. But is it actually Christianity?
Author Alisa Childers, a lifelong Christian and former member of a progressive church, investigates the claims of progressive Christianity and measures them against historic Christian orthodoxy.
This book is a few years old, published in 2020, but it is still very relevant.
What You’ll Learn:
- The key doctrines progressive Christianity rejects or redefines
- How to identify progressive theology in your church
- The history of liberal Christianity and its modern resurgence
- Why progressive Christianity is ultimately a different religion
- How to lovingly engage progressive Christian friends and family
Why Christian Women Need This: Progressive Christianity particularly appeals to women through its emphasis on emotions, relationships, and “love wins” messaging. This book exposes the theological compromises and equips you to recognize and refute them.
Perfect For: Women in progressive or “woke” churches, those with progressive Christian friends, anyone confused about what progressive Christianity actually teaches.
5. Shepherds For Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, by Megan Basham
Why This Book Matters
It is undeniable now that many evangelical churches and leaders no longer preach the true word of God. It’s watered-down. It’s focused on a culture that won’t call out sin. I don’t agree with everything Megan Basham says/does/posts, but the facts in this book are startling. At the urging of a church-friend, I read this book last year and was shocked at the variety of outside forces that have been working for decades to tear the church apart.
Regardless of where you are politically, this well-researched book will describe, in detail, the changes that have slowly weakened God’s Church and will open your eyes to why and how it is being orchestrated. Ms. Basham cites all of her many sources, calls out heresy by name, and leaves no subject untouched.
What You’ll Learn:
- How billionaires and think tanks and media have deliberately targeted evangelical institutions with the goal of weakening the Church
- Specific examples of financial compromises in Christian media and leadership
- The motivation for some churches to water-down the gospel and downplay the biblical truths about cultural issues
- The consequences we all face when culture is prioritized over scripture
Why Christian Women Need This: As wives, mothers, and active members of churches, Christian women need to understand the outside forces moving into our institutions and our media. Christians need to recognize when church leaders and Christian influencers may be affected by cultural agendas.
Perfect For: Anyone concerned about the culture taking over the church, about pastors preaching false gospels, about previously trusted sources skewing the truth to fit a narrative that isn’t biblical.
6. Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe, by Voddie T Bauchman, Jr
Why This Book Matters
I wasn’t going to include this one because it just sounds…so controversial. But, it is authored by Voddie Baucham, a great preacher that we lost, too early, in 2025. He has a powerful voice, a passionate delivery, and he is well qualified to speak to this topic from a biblical perspective and not with the goal of division.
Hear Voddie deliver the Gospel in 4 minutes…it is life changing.
In this book, Voddie Baucham exposes how the modern social justice movement differs from biblical justice and why its influence in evangelical churches threatens the Gospel itself.
What You’ll Learn:
- What Critical Race Theory actually teaches
- How CRT contradicts biblical anthropology and soteriology
- The difference between biblical justice and social justice
- Why “wokeness” is a false gospel
- How to pursue racial reconciliation biblically
Why Christian Women Need This: Women are often at the forefront of mercy ministries and social causes. This book equips you to pursue justice biblically without compromising the Gospel or importing secular ideologies into your faith.
Perfect For: Women involved in social causes, those in churches adopting social justice language, anyone wanting to understand CRT’s impact on the church.
7. Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed, by Alisa Childers
Why This Book Matters
“Follow your heart.” “Your truth is your truth.” “Love yourself first.” “You do you.”
These mantras dominate our culture and increasingly infiltrate Christian circles. They sound empowering but lead to anxiety, exhaustion, and self-obsession.
Alisa Childers examines the lies being passed off as righteous truths. What seems like messages of hope and empowerment are really deceiving.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to uncover common lies being passed as truths in today’s culture
- The beauty of true, biblical, freedom
- Living boldly, empowered by your Creator
- Why feelings are unreliable guides
- Biblical truth about identity, purpose, and fulfillment
Why Christian Women Need This: Women are constantly bombarded with therapeutic, self-focused messaging disguised as wisdom. This book provides the biblical antidote to cultural lies that promise freedom but deliver bondage.
Perfect For: Young women navigating dating and career, moms raising daughters in this culture, anyone struggling with anxiety and self-obsession.
8. Knowing Scripture, by R.C. Sproul
Why This Book Matters
You can’t live by God’s Word if you don’t know how to read it correctly. Too many Christians read the Bible devotionally but lack basic skills for understanding Scripture in context.
R.C. Sproul provides a clear, accessible guide to biblical interpretation that will transform how you read and understand God’s Word. It’s a little longer/harder read than some others on this list, but it’s worth it. I chose the audiobook and listened while I was driving.
What You’ll Learn:
- Basic principles of biblical interpretation (hermeneutics)
- How to read Scripture in context
- Understanding different literary genres in the Bible
- The importance of authorial intent
- Common mistakes in Bible interpretation
Why Christian Women Need This: If you’re going to discern false teaching, you need to be comfortable in God’s Word. This book gives you the tools to study Scripture accurately and confidently.
Perfect For: Women who want to go deeper in Bible study, those teaching children or leading Bible studies, anyone tired of surface-level devotional reading.
9. Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis
Why This Book Matters
It is a classic! C.S. Lewis’s classic apologetic work remains one of the clearest, most compelling defenses of Christian faith ever written.
Originally broadcast as radio talks during World War II, Mere Christianity presents the logical case for Christianity in accessible, engaging prose that has convinced skeptics and strengthened believers for decades.
What You’ll Learn:
- The moral argument for God’s existence
- Why Jesus must be either Lord, liar, or lunatic
- The core doctrines all Christians share
- How Christian morality differs from secular ethics
- The practical implications of Christian belief
Why Christian Women Need This: Lewis’s logical, literary approach appeals to both heart and mind. This book strengthens your intellectual confidence in Christianity while deepening your understanding of what Christians actually believe.
Perfect For: New believers establishing foundations, skeptics investigating Christianity, anyone wanting to articulate their faith more clearly.
10. The Bible
Why This Book Matters
Every other book on this list points back to this one.
The Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant Word—His revelation of Himself, His plan for humanity, and His truth for life. Without it, we have no foundation. With it, we have everything we need for life and godliness.
What You’ll Learn:
- Who God is and what He’s like
- The story of redemption from Genesis to Revelation
- God’s design for humanity, relationships, and society
- How to live in a way that honors God
- The hope of salvation through Jesus Christ
Why Christian Women Need This: In a culture of confusion, competing voices, and false teaching, Scripture is your anchor. The other nine books are helpful, but this one is essential. Read it daily. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Let it shape your thinking, your choices, and your life.
Perfect For: Every single Christian woman, regardless of where you are in your faith journey.
If you have one on your shelf, you don’t need a new one…just dust that one off! If you want to hold something new or pretty, I’ve linked a few options below. You don’t have to struggle through the King James version…with it’s old English style. If you haven’t looked recently, there are many good options. Four of the most popular are listed here.
| New King James Version (NKJV) | Modern English update of the traditional King James. Easier to read, still very traditional |
| English Standard Version (ESV) | Widely used, word for word translation |
| New American Standard Bible (NASB) | Considered one of the most literal word for word translations, but still easy to read (my personal favorite) |
| New International Version (NIV) | Seems to be the most popular. Considered a thought-by-thought translation, not word for word |
You can also read the Bible for free, anytime at Bible.com
How to Approach This Reading List
Don’t feel overwhelmed. You don’t have to read all ten books this month or even this year.
Start where you need it most.
Struggling with progressive theology in your church? Start with Another Gospel? or Fault Lines.
Need to defend your faith better? Begin with A Visual Guide to Biblical Apologetics or Mere Christianity.
Feeling manipulated by cultural messaging? Read Live Your Truth.
Want to be inspired? Read The Hiding Place.
Read with discernment. Even good books aren’t Scripture. Test everything against God’s Word (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
Discuss with others. These books spark important conversations. Read with a friend, start a book club, discuss with your small group or family.
Apply what you learn. Don’t just consume information—let these books change how you think, believe, and live.
These books equip you with:
- Discernment to recognize false teaching
- Knowledge to understand biblical doctrine
- Apologetics to defend your faith
- Wisdom to navigate cultural deception
- Courage to stand for truth even when it’s unpopular
These books help ensure you’re building on rock, not sand.
A Challenge
Choose one book from this list and commit to reading it in the next month.
Not someday. Not when life slows down. Now.
Your faith is worth investing in.
Which book will you start with?
Final Thoughts
These aren’t easy books. They challenge comfortable assumptions, expose hard truths, and demand thoughtful engagement.
But easy doesn’t produce strong faith. Comfort doesn’t create discernment. And avoiding hard truths doesn’t make them go away.
The Christian women who will faithfully navigate the coming years are those who:
- Know what they believe
- Understand why they believe it
- Can articulate their faith clearly
- Recognize false teaching when they hear it
- Stand firm on biblical truth regardless of cultural pressure
These ten books will help you become that woman.
So stop scrolling. Close the social media apps. Turn off the Netflix series.
And pick up a book that will actually change your life.
Which one are you starting with? Drop a comment and let me know. Let’s sharpen each other as we pursue truth together.
Where to Start If You Only Read Three
If ten books feels overwhelming, start with these three essentials:
- The Bible (obviously—this is non-negotiable)
- Another Gospel? by Alisa Childers (addresses the most pressing threat to evangelical Christianity right now)
- Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul (equips you to read the Bible correctly and discern false teaching)
These three give you the foundation (Scripture), the skills (biblical interpretation), and the discernment (recognizing progressive theology) that every Christian needs in modern times.
Additional Resources
Want to go deeper? Here are some additional recommendations:
- Find a solid, biblically-faithful church if you don’t have one
- Join or start a women’s theology book club
- Follow sound biblical teachers – test everything against Scripture!
- Listen to apologetics podcasts during your commute or while doing chores
- Commit to daily Bible reading with a solid reading plan
For more book recommendations and biblical encouragement, follow EnsnaredLife.com. it is our goal to post links to solid messages that stand the test of time!
Our Free Bible Study Series: Daily Moments of Discernment
We have published a series of brief, but deep Bible Studies available for free download. Four volumes to start with more to come. Individual studies are always free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: These books seem heavy. Where are the light, encouraging reads?
Q: What if my church teaches differently than these books?
Q: Won’t these books make me judgmental?
Q: Are these books suitable for beginners?
Ready to build your reading list?
Start with one book this month. Your faith—and your family’s faith—will thank you.
What books have strengthened your faith and discernment? Share your recommendations in the comments!
Important: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through these links at no additional cost to you.
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