Last thread: Atheists and members of other Christian denominations are welcome to debate theologuy, faith, etc. But please keep it civil.
>"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" -- Matthew 18:20
Recommended reading:
>Biblia Sacra Vulgata
>New American Study Bible
>Further recommendations pending review
Other urls found in this thread:
aristotelophile.com
goodreads.com
dailycatholic.org
mostholyfamilymonastery.com
youtube.com
twitter.com
Add these on the thomist list alongside the Summa Contra Gentiles and Theologica
Reginald Garrigou Larange (the most important figure of the neo-scholastic movement and a personal favourite, incredibly hard headed and systematic offering a magnificent defense of classical metaphysics from everything up untill, including Hegel, sadly ignored most contemporary developments so never wrote on WIttgenstein)
Jaques Maritain (democratic thomist, a very mid line thinker who never goes into extremes)
Etienne Gilson (original interpreter)
Frederick Copleston (a fantastic historian of philosophy)
Anthony Kenny (not a thomist, but wrote a lot about him)
Alasdair MacIntyre (easily the most interesting figure in ethics and political philosophy, as well as being the reason for a revival of aristotelian philosophy within the academia)
GEM Anscombe (a student of Wittgenstein and his friend, the only woman in the academia he respected, notable for her ethics and writings on her teacher)
Peter Geach (not a thomist per se, but drew heavily from him)
Edward Feser (the best contemporary figure when it comes to educating people about Aquinas and defending him)
David Oderberg (very important in epistemics and ontology as well as ethics)
Aw dang. Just realized I misspelled theology in the OP. My apologies, friends.
Can you recommend books based on my current Catholic selection?
Ignatius Bible: RSV2CE
Compendium by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Homer: Iliad, Odyssey
Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy (Hackett Publishing)
Augustine: Confessions, City of God, On Christian Doctrine
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy
Beowulf
Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas
Divine Comedy by Dante
Geoffrey Chaucer: Trolius and Criseyde, Canterbury Tales
More Quotable Chesterton (Ignatius Press)
aristotelophile.com
English translations of scholastic theology and philosophy including some hard to find texts.
Anyone /lapsed/?
I grew up Cradle Catholic. Went to Catholic School. Baptized, reconciled, eucharised, confirmed, etc. Lost faith after transferring to public school. And reaching puberty and wanting to masturbate despite forbiddance probably didn't help much either...
Fell in love with a hippie hipster chick in college. She got me into philosophy and drugs and premarital sex. Three bad habits I am still trying to kick. We were together three years. But our relationship lacked teleology as neither of us believed in marriage or children or truth or God...
Funnily enough, studying philosophy made me appreciate the faith more. Albeit in a perennialist or universalist or pluralist way. And then I did too much acid one summer and had some sort of Phillip K. Dick-esque "gnostic" (schizophrenic) experience which pretty much convinced me that Christianity is pretty much all true and correct, at least on an ethical leve. Not that that's really epistemologically valid reasoning but I'm just being honest...
Anyway, I moved back home after college and started attending mass with my Mom (Dad passed away a while back). I have not received communion yet and am scared to confess my lengthy list of sins... but also scared of eternal damnation when I get paranoid sometimes...
I feel like I am not good enough. I still smoke weed. I drink. I smoke cigarettes. I like to do hippie stuff like yoga and meditation. I like to read esoteric and occult authors. I feel I am a heretic because I did not have a traditional mystical experience from the divine but rather something more akin to an episode of drug-induced psychosis with brief flashes of insight, something I am not sure I can fully trust, and perhaps I am fooling myself into returning to my cultural tradition because I am a traditionalist and it's the easiest and most appropriate and acceptable way for me to fill that void of defining structure and tradition in my life...
Anyway, I just feel like I'm going to be excommunicated or something if I confess my full sins and heretical beliefs...
I'm not going to hell, am I?
Not sure what I'm hoping to achieve with this blogpost. Wish me luck, I guess... or pray for my soul or something...
Read the Aeneid after the Odyssey, it's a must read before Dante. Book VI is Inferno before it was cool.
There are scholars that also say the Aeneid influenced Beowulf, BTW.
I'd add Catechism of the Catholic Church so you have a reference work you can always go back to in case you're lost, it's a very practical tl;dr of Catholic doctrine, and The Girard Reader which gives you a Catholic perspective on topics not too many Catholic theologians cover like a general theory of desire, the function of scapegoating, etc. and defends the uniqueness of the Bible in its ability to teach us on those topics.
Forgot to mention I actually have Aeneid, Georgics, and Eclogues as well, but thank you. The compendium is a concise catechism. I'll check out The Girard Reader, as the more obscure stuff does interest me.
Learn to love sobriety, and search for that which is the cause of misery. Once you find it in yourself, learn that which is the only true source of redemption and salvation in this mortal life.
Your excommunication can only come from for example comitting an abortion. Just go to the confession, the state of mortal sin is far worse than the awkwardness of telling your sins to someone else. People in the state of mortal sin go to Hell, but confession returns you to the state of grace. Maybe try to find a good confessor, usually there's word on the street/online who is good at it.