Image is a literary and arts journal (among other things) with a mission to "support and showcase art shaped by the faith traditions of western civilization." A central part of Image's calling is to showcase contemporary writing that "grapples in a serious way with religious faith."
Image compiled its Top 100 Books of the Twentieth Century list during the flurry of Top 100 lists made around the turn of the Millennium. The intent was to provide a "resource for those just starting to explore the great tradition and wondering where to begin." (Like so many other book lists created around this time, Image's Top 100 list is no longer available on Image's website. I first created my post back when the list was still available.)
In selecting books for this list, Image listed an author only once in order to feature 100 different writers. Only "creative writing" was included – fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. The editors selected works that "manifest a genuine engagement with the Judeo-Christian heritage of faith, rather than merely use religion as background or subject matter."
The idea of this list intrigues me. I don't know if I will ever finish all the books on it because there are a lot of poetry book and I am not a big poetry reader. It also includes some books that are out of print and hard to find, which is too bad.
The books are listed in alphabetical order by the author's last name. I noted if I've read a book, if it is on my TBR shelf, or if it is available as an audiobook from my library.
Collected Poems by W.H. Auden
The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos
Sabbaths by Wendell Berry
77 Dream Songs by John Berryman
Souls Raised from the Dead by Doris Betts
The Woman Who was Poor by Leon Bloy
The Stories of Heinrich Boll by Heinrich Boll
A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt
Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury ON OVERDRIVE
Selected Poems by George Mackay Brown
Godric by Frederic Buechner
Recovered Body by Scott Cairns
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather FINISHED
The Man Who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton FINISHED
The Satin Slipper by Paul Claudel
Many Things have Happened Since He Died by Elizabeth Dewberry
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard FINISHED
Selected Stories by Andre Dubus
Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot FINISHED
The Sin Eater by Alice Thomas Ellis
Silence by Shusaku Endo TBR SHELF
Collected Poems (The Residual Years; The Veritable Years) by William Everson
The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote
The Lady's Not for Burning by Christopher Fry
Saints and Villains by Denise Giardina
The Cypresses Believe in God by Jose Maria Gironella
Diaries by Julien Green
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene FINISHED
Virgin Time by Patricia Hampl
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin ON OVERDRIVE
Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos
The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Peguy by Geoffrey Hill
Earthly Measures by Edward Hirsch
Great River by Paul Horgan
The Never-Ending by Andrew Hudgins
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving FINISHED
In the Crevice of Time: New and Selected Poems by Josephine Jacobsen
Questions for Ecclesiastes by Mark Jarman
Collected Poems by Elizabeth Jennings
The Anathemata by David Jones
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
Three Cheers for the Paraclete by Thomas Keneally
Ironweed by William Kennedy FINISHED
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb FINISHED
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott FINISHED
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle ON OVERDRIVE
The Stream and the Sapphire by Denise Levertov
The Mercy by Philip Levine
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis FINISHED
Light by Torgny Lindgren
Lord Weary's Castle by Robert Lowell
Salvage Operations by Paul Mariani
Viper's Tangle by Francois Mauriac FINISHED
Charming Billy by Alice McDermott FINISHED
Collected Poems by Thomas Merton
If I Had Wheels or Love: Collected Poems by Vassar Miller
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller FINISHED
Collected Poems by Czeslaw Milosz
Black Robe by Brian Moore
The Truest Pleasure by Robert Morgan
Chronicles of Wasted Time by Malcolm Muggeridge
Complete Poems by Edwin Muir
Collected Poems by Les Murray
Dakota by Kathleen Norris
The Aubrey/Maturin Novels by Patrick O'Brian ON OVERDRIVE
Short Stories by Flannery O'Connor TBR SHELF
If You do Love Old Men by Virginia Stem Owens
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc by Charles Peguy
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy FINISHED
The Francoeur Trilogy by David Plante
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Presence of Grace by J.F. Powers
Three Gospels by Reynolds Price
Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers
Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone
New and Selected Poems by Louis Simpson
Collected Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ON OVERDRIVE
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark FINISHED
Hapgood by Tom Stoppard
Collected Poems by John Heath Stubbs
Collected Poems by Allen Tate
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien FINISHED
Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset FINISHED
In the Beauty of the Lillies by John Updike TBR SHELF
The Blood of the Lamb by Peter de Vries
Returning by Dan Wakefield
The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr. ON OVERDRIVE
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh FINISHED
Night by Elie Wiesel FINISHED
New and Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur
All Hallows' Eve by Charles Williams
Wise Virgin by A.N. Wilson FINISHED
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Beyond the Bedroom Wall by Larry Woiwode
In the Garden of the North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff
UPDATED
October 26. 2023. So far, I've only read 20 of the 100 books. But there are several on my TBR shelf or available as audiobooks, so I will try to pay this list more attention -- even the poetry!
