Catherine Booth Books: A Guide to All 5 and Where to Start

Sermons Evangelism Holiness

Catherine Booth (1829–1890), co-founder of the Salvation Army, didn't set out to write books. Every one of hers began as addresses she gave in London, mostly in the 1880s, which were taken down, printed, and then gathered into volumes. TheWay Library has five of them, all free to read: Aggressive Christianity, Godliness, Popular Christianity, Life and Death and Papers on Practical Religion. For her life story, see who was Catherine Booth.

They overlap, because she preached the same few convictions again and again: go after the lost, repent for real, trust Christ fully, and expect Him to make you holy. But each book has its own focus, and this guide will help you choose.

Where to start

If you read only one, read Aggressive Christianity. It has her central call to an outgoing faith, her teaching on assurance and the Holy Spirit, and her own story of how she began to preach.

After that, choose by what you need:

For the basics of the Christian life, repentance, faith, prayer and holiness: Godliness.
For a hard look at comfortable religion: Popular Christianity.
For evangelistic sermons to share with someone who isn't a Christian: Life and Death.
For women preaching, raising children, or worldly amusements: Papers on Practical Religion.

Every quotation below is checked against the book it comes from. For many more, see our collection of Catherine Booth quotes.

Aggressive Christianity

Addresses given in London's West End in 1880 and brought out in an American edition. The title address takes Paul's commission in Acts 26 and argues that every Christian is sent after sinners rather than told to wait for them. "A Pure Gospel" insists on a gospel that demands repentance and a changed life. "Adaptation of Measures" defends new methods to reach the masses, so long as the message stays the same. Then come addresses on assurance of salvation, how Christ does what the law could not, the fruits of union with Christ, witnessing, being filled with the Spirit, the world's need and the Holy Ghost.

Ye are my witnesses, and, if ye have the grace and love and light of God, it is at the peril of your soul if you hide it.
Aggressive Christianity, Witnessing for Christ

The chapter "Witnessing for Christ" also holds her account of the Sunday she first spoke in public. Some pages were restored from a worn scan, so you'll meet an occasional misread letter. Read Aggressive Christianity.

Godliness

A companion volume, issued in America after Aggressive Christianity. It's the most orderly of her books, moving from the way into the Christian life to the way on. She begins with repentance, which she defines plainly, and saving faith, which she sets apart from mere agreement. Four chapters on 1 Corinthians 13 show that divine charity is not easy tolerance: it rebukes, it fights sin, and it can be lonely. Then come the conditions of effectual prayer, the "perfect heart" of 2 Chronicles 16:9, how to work for God with success, and four addresses on holiness and what hinders it.

Now, the truly repentant soul first sees sin; secondly, he hates sin; thirdly, he renounces sin.
Godliness, Saving Faith

If you want to understand what Catherine Booth meant by full salvation, this is the book. Read Godliness.

Popular Christianity

Five lectures from 1887, each setting a popular counterfeit beside the real thing. The first compares the "Christs" of her century, admired as teachers and examples, with the Christ of God, a divine Saviour and accepted sacrifice. The second sets a mock salvation that leaves people in their sins against real deliverance from sin. The third contrasts fashionable charity that visits the slums but ignores souls with Christ's dying love. The fourth sets a cowardly church against the costly warfare Christ calls His soldiers to. The fifth sets the world's lenient judgment against the Great White Throne. Three short addresses on "household gods" close the book.

You cannot fight without wounds of body, heart, or soul.
Popular Christianity, Popular Christianity: Its Cowardly Service Versus the Real Warfare

In her preface she says she long refused to publish these, afraid that cold print would lose their force. It didn't. This is her sharpest book. Read Popular Christianity.

Life and Death

Fifteen evangelistic addresses delivered in London and published in 1890, the year she died. Each takes a text and drives it home. "Religious Indifference" starts from Gallio, who "cared for none of these things." Others plead with the undecided ("Halting Between Two Opinions," "The Prodigal"), warn of consequences ("Sowing and Reaping," "His Wrath"), and explain the need of the atonement. "A True and a False Faith" and "A True and a False Peace" are among her clearest sermons. The book ends with "How to Consecrate" and a short address explaining what the Salvation Army is and why it exists.

God Himself cannot give peace to a soul holding on to sin, nor does He ever propose to do so.
Life and Death, A True and a False Peace

These are the sermons that brought people to the penitent form. They're direct and urgent, and they'd still serve a reader who isn't sure where he stands with God. Read Life and Death.

Papers on Practical Religion

Twelve addresses and papers published in 1891, the most varied of her books. It opens with a long address to parents on training children for God from the earliest age, with loving but real authority. Then come papers on strong drink, worldly amusements, heart backsliding (on the Ephesian church that left its first love), and dealing with anxious souls. The longest piece is Female Ministry; or, Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel, her famous case from Scripture for women preaching. Shorter pieces follow: "Compel Them to Come In," "Hot Saints," "Conscience," "Aggression," "The Uses of Trial" and "Prevailing Prayer."

No mother will succeed in begetting in her child a greater antipathy towards any sin than she feels for it herself.
Papers on Practical Religion, The Training of Children

If you're interested in her defense of women's ministry, start with "Female Ministry." If you're a parent, start with the first address. Read Papers on Practical Religion.

A note on these editions

All five books come from scans of old printings. Aggressive Christianity, Life and Death and Papers on Practical Religion still have scattered misread letters and words, such as "Grod" for "God." The sense is always clear, but you'll notice them.

Why read Catherine Booth today

She's honest, she's urgent, and she won't let you settle. Begin with Aggressive Christianity, then go on to Godliness. All five books are on the Catherine Booth author page.