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A
Reading List of Some Works in the Catholic Tradition
These books are suggestions for
summer reading for students.
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Ackroyd, Peter
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Thomas More. The saintly chancellor
and his times.
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Auclair, Marcelle
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Teresa of Avila, a Biography.
This is the best biography, though one would do well to read
the saint's own Autobiography.
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Belloc, Hillaire
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Path to Rome. This is a fun
book, telling of his pilgrimage on foot (well, most of the
way) from northern France to Rome, when he was a young man.
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Boylan, Eugene
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This Tremendous Lover, a book
for spiritual reading that focuses on Christ and his Mystical
Body. The author is an Irish Cistercian.
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Chesterton, G.K.
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Orthodoxy, written before he
became a Roman Catholic.
The Dumb Ox, the Life of St.
Thomas Aquinas. Short, insightful and amusing.
St. Francis of Assisi
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Escriva, St. Josemaria
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The Way.The Furrow, The Forge.
Three separate works of spiritual considerations, with short
points for meditation.
Christ is Passing By. A book
of homilies on liturgical themes, but practical for persons
in the world.
Friends of God, A book of homilies
on various virtues.
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Gilson, Etienne
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God and Philosophy, The Gifford
Lectures
The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy
The Gilson Reader, especially
the chapter "The Intellect in the Service of Christ the
King"
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John Paul II
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Evangelium Vitae, "the Gospel
of Life", an encyclical letter issued March 1995, discusses
threats to the dignity of human life.
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Knox, Ronald
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In Soft Garments, "Apologetical"
talks given to students at Oxford during the author's tenure
as chaplain at the University
The Hidden Stream The same for
his later years as Roman Catholic chaplain at Oxford.
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Lewis, C.S.
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The Great Divorce. A vision
of the Afterworld, with significant views about the nature
of good and evil.
Mere Christianity. A forceful
presentation of the basic Christian doctrines.
Miracles. The feasibility of
divine intervention.
The Problem of Pain. Reasonable
answers to the problem of evil and suffering in the world.
Til We Have Faces. A novel which
reworks the myth of Cupid and Psyche.
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Merton, Thomas
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The Seven Storey Mountain. Autobiographical
account of Merton’s conversion and subsequent entrance into
religious life as a Trappist.
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Newman, John Henry
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Apologia Pro Vita Sua, An Essay
on the Development of Christian Doctrine
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Nouwen, Henri
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The Return of the Prodigal Son
A contemporary commentary on the parable of our Lord in St.
Luke's Gospel.
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O’Connor, Flannery
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The novels Wise Blood and The
Violent Bear It Away. Short stories. Letters, A Habit
of Being. The letters are manifestly Catholic and show
the author’s zeal for the faith.
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Therese of Lisieux
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Autobiography. The Story of a Soul.
Therese, a Doctor of the Church, bases her doctrine on unshakeable
confidence in God’s love.
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Undset, Sigid
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Kristin Lavransdatter. A saga
of generations set in medieval Scandinavia by a Nobel laureate.
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Walsh, W. T.
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Our Lady of Fatima. Good account
of the apparitions and circumstances surrounding them.
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Waugh, Evelyn
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Brideshead Revisited. Beautifully
written story of an English family, Catholic and aristocratic.
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Weigel, George
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Witness to Hope. Biography of
John Paul II (1999). A good biography and even better reference
to his works.
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Wojtyla, Karol
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Love and Responsibility. The
future John Paul II’s first book. Loving is the opposite of
using and is the norm of marriage.
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5/20/01
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