Revd Canon Dr Andrew Coyningham was speaking after the Schools Minister Nick Gibb approached the publishing industry to work out a deal to provide schools with 100 pieces of classic literature as cheap as possible.
The deal would see publishers agree on a list of 100 must-reads, which they then sell for £1 each - significantly less than the normal price.
In turn, schools - funded by government - would buy 30 of each book, or 3000 in total, meaning publishers would benefit from bulk buying.
The aim is for children and teenagers to read some or all of as many great pieces of literature as possible.
The list of books to be part of the scheme has been hotly debated since the government floated the idea with publishers.
Revd Coyningham has argued the Bible should be in it because of the great historical stories it has, and also because the Bible has influenced so many other literary greats including William Shakespeare.
He told Premier's News Hour: "I would say it should certainly be in the top ten, if not at the very top [of the list], because - and Professor Richard Dawkins himself of all people rightly says - it underlies so much of our literature.
"If we're going to exclude religion then would you exclude for example the 1300 biblical citations in Shakespeare? You would have to do a lot of hard work on a lot of literature to cut out all of the religion.
"Many of the greatest writers of English literature are Christians. The poems of John Donne and George Herbert, [and John] Milton... is probably the greatest figure in English literature after Shakespeare."
Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speaking to Revd Canon Dr Andrew Coyningham on the News Hour:
