Reading List

Christianity gets a bad wrap amongst the intellectual (and pseudo-intellectual) crowd. Much of this can be laid at the feet of American fundamentalists and other Christian literalists who are guided by a sacred scripture that they are woefully unqualified to interpret. The Bible is the greatest story ever told and a fountain of wisdom, but it is not an easy book to understand. There are layers of interpretation. All of it is Spiritual Truth, some of it is literally true and some of it is absolutely not. The world wasn’t created in a busy week some 6,000 years ago. Genesis is an allegory, and it is Truth.

The anti-clerical movements in post “Enlightenment” revolutionary Europe are also to blame, of course. The rise of secularism, scientific materialism and the State as religion have led us down the primrose path and into this dark meadow of meaninglessness. May this reading list serve as an experimental antidote, not only to the delusional atheists, but also to the truly bad YouTube apologists who have built up massive followings of confused sheep; sheep who are nevertheless deserving of better shepherds than the pack of wolves who have mastered the dark arts of the algorithm.

Here are some books that I have in my personal library, all within the Christian landscape. You might like them. Keep in mind that I am an autodidact and this list is representative of that fact; it is incomplete and I am certain a college educated theologian would find it woefully inadequate, nevertheless, I am sharing it because there may be someone out there who finds it useful. I am always reading and will be adding to the list from time to time, so do check back.

The Strangest Way – Robert Barron (2002)

Catholicism – Robert Barron (2011)

Why the Church – Luigi Giussani (2001)

The Courage To Be – Paul Tillich (1952)

The Seven Story Mountain – Thomas Merton (1948)

Love and Living – Thomas Merton (1979)

Care of the Soul – Thomas Moore (1992)

The Subversion of Christianity – Jacques Ellul (1987)

The Early Christian Church – J.G. Davies (1965)

The Soul of Christianity – Huston Smith (2005)

Spiritual Writings – Soren Kierkegaard (1848)

The Phenomenon of Man – Teilhard de Chardin (1955)

The Long Loneliness – Dorothy Day (1952)

The New Testament: A Translation – David Bentley Hart (2017)

Foundations of Christian Faith – Karl Rahner (1972)

The Imitation of Christ – Thomas Kempis (c. 1420)

The Physics of Immortality – Frank J. Tipler (1994)

Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved? – Hans Urs von Balthasar (1988)

Christian Meditation – Hans Urs von Balthasar (1984)

Crossing the Threshold of Hope – Pope John Paul II (1994)

Jesus Through the Centuries – Jaroslav Pelkin (1985)

The Gospel Way of Mary – Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, SJ (2011)

Letters From A Saint – Saint Francis De Sales (1609)

Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI (2007)

Saint Thomas Aquinas “The Dumb Ox” – G.K. Chesterton (1933)

The Life of Moses – Saint Gregory of Nyssa (4th Century CE)

God Speaks – Charles Peguy (1945)

A Map of Life – Frank Sheed (1933)