Please help us continue to improve the experience of the James Bond Bible Study. I’m continuing to expand my own list of “Additional Resources” to make the study more spiritually challenging and rewarding. We welcome your suggestions, too.

We want to list books and movies that deal with the Bond Bible Study’s major themes. Please, give us your feedback and share with us via Email.

Helpful (and downright fascinating) Books on Fleming and Bond

I’ve found these books helpful to me in my own exploration of Ian Fleming and James Bond:

• Amis, Kingsley. The James Bond Dossier.  New York: The New American Library, 1965.
• Boyd, Ann S. The Devil with James Bond. Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1967.
• Johnson, Paul. Sex, Snobbery and Sadism. New Statesman, April 5, 1958.
• Lane, Sheldon ed. For Bond Lovers Only. New York: Dell Publishing, 1965.
• Lycett, Andrew. Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, Inc., 1999.
• Morris, Edmund. DUTCH: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan.  New York: Random House, 1999.
• Pearson, John. The Life of Ian Fleming. New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1966.
• Wilson, A. et al., Foreword by Ian Fleming. The Seven Deadly Sins. New York: Wm. Morrow and Company, 1962. (This is the book-length collection of essays on deadly sins that Fleming himself helped to assemble before he died.)

Chapter by Chapter Through the Bible Study 

If you’re reading the book or joining a discussion group, here are some chapter-by-chapter suggestions that I’ve found helpful — other books and films that might expand your experience.

CHAPTER 000: Cracking the Code

This chapter includes the themes of moral ambiguity and the nature of evil.

Books:

• Playing for the Ashes, Elizabeth George
• East of Eden, John Steinbeck
• Atonement, Ian McEwan
• Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
• Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
• The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe

Movies:

• Doubt

CHAPTER 001, Moral Cowardice

Books:

• The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane
• Lord Jim, Joseph Conrad

Movies:

• The Good Shepherd
• American Beauty
• Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within
• Breach
• Of Gods and Men
  

CHAPTER 002, Hypocrisy

• In the Presence of the Enemy, Elizabeth George
• Glittering Images, Susan Howatch
• Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens

CHAPTER 003, Self-Righteousness

• Too Late the Phalarope, Alan Paton
• The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
• Moby Dick, Hermann Melville
• Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
• Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
• The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
• A Journey to the End of the Millennium, Abraham Yehoshua

Movies & Plays: 

• Remains of the Day (also a superb novel)
• A Few Good Men
• Les Miserables (Stage Musical)
• The Crucible (Stage Play)

CHAPTER 004, Violence: Cruelty and Malice

Books:

• Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
• White Oleander, Janet Fitch
• Saturday, Ian McEwan
• Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
• Vinegar Hill, A. Manette Ansay

Movies: 

• Gran Torino
• Death Race

Online:

• Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance

CHAPTER 005, Avarice

Books:

• A Man In Full, Tom Wolfe
• The Partner, John Grisham
• The Fourth Estate, Jeffrey Archer
• Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
• The Clothes They Stood Up In, Alan Bennett
• The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

CHAPTER 006, Snobbery

Books:

• Snow Falling on Cedars, David Gutterson
• The Purple Sage, Zane Gray
• The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton
• Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler
• Huck Finn, Mark Twain
• The Sneetches and Other Stories, Dr. Suess
• Empire Falls, Richard Russo
• Mantecore, Robert Davies

CHAPTER 007, Accidie

Books:

• Father Melancholy’s Daughter, Gail Godwin
• The Brothers K, David James Duncan
• Therapy, David Lodge
• The Shack, William Young

Movies: 

• Gran Torino
• Stripes
• Nights in Rodanthe
• Henry Poole Is Here
• Thelma and Louise