Hi Veeky Forums so I was wondering, what books should one read to have a good understanding about Christianity?

Hi Veeky Forums so I was wondering, what books should one read to have a good understanding about Christianity?
Like, the Bible is a start, okay... But... What after that?
I know that "The City of God" by Augustine is a classic (I am actualy readint it), and I always was curious to read "Institutes of the Christian Religion" by Calvin to never done it.
What else should I read to have a good grasp of christianity and it's theology?

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The Watchtower

>Hi Veeky Forums so I was wondering, what books should one read to have a good understanding about Christianity?
Your favorite version of the Bible. Just pick 1 at random.
>Like, the Bible is a start, okay... But... What after that?
Nothing. Most Christians have never even read the full bible.
>What else should I read to have a good grasp of christianity and it's theology?
This following paragraph.
For most most Christians, they go to church, listen to the priest read select stories from the Gospels, talk a little about current events then socialize afterwards at pancake breakfasts or w/e the church puts on. You are not meant to have a good grasp on the theology unless you are a priest. I won't tell you why unless you ask (Matthew 7:6) but that's it. Just go to church and socialize.

The god delusion and god is not great.

> You are not meant to have a good grasp on the theology unless you are a priest.
W-why then? What priests have that I don't in order to understand questions of doctrine? I actualy find very interesting these things, and I am somewhat willing to read through.
> I won't tell you why unless you ask (Matthew 7:6) but that's it. Just go to church and socialize.
What do you mean by this? Matthew 7:6 seens to tell that I should talk to people in order to learn the word of God... That is... Idk, I read it and taking by your commentary, it sounds so... Are you implying I should use my time and energy to socialize with other christians and live in good will with my community instead of using my time and energy to read doctrine and theology if I ain't going to be a priest?

>Are you implying I should use my time and energy to socialize with other christians and live in good will with my community instead of using my time and energy to read doctrine and theology if I ain't going to be a priest

Bingo.

>What priests have that I don't in order to understand questions of doctrine?
Well you asked, so i'l answer.

The actual teachings of Christ are simple to understand. All you have to do is read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and you will understand 99% of it.

All of the problems in Christianity stem from the holy trinity. "Jesus was God!" "No Jesus was the son of God!" "NO! Jesus was a mortal man with the spirit of God within him!" "No Jesus was all of those things!" "No that's polytheism!"

A bunch of different people disagree over who/what Jesus really was. All the different doctrines are just arguments why my interpretation of what Jesus was is right and everyone else is wrong.

So many people have been killed over the stupid argument that it's better to ignore it and live like Jesus said to instead of fighting over it.

Pick a denomination you like, go to church, don't obsess about the details.

>Bingo.
B-but... You are telling me to go outsider and... Socialize...

>Pick a denomination you like, go to church, don't obsess about the details.
Y-yeah..I can agree with "not obsessing over details", but still... I dont like going to church, and neither have a good understanding about the denominations.
I just want to read stuff, I dont wanna dea l with people. People are mean, books aren't, snif.

You can't understand religion just from the Bible, but it is a start. I'd recommend reading from the following list.

What you need to read to understand Christianity, in order:

1. New Testament (start with the Gospels in order): I recommend KJV Bible just because it's very literary and aesthetic, but there are other versions that okay, and many versions you should definitely avoid
2. Old Testameny
3. Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Eastern Orthodox Catechism
4. Church Fathers overviews (this is about 20 million words so just read summaries and maybe selected works of big names)
5. Medieval theology overviews (ditto)
6. Reformation theology overviews (ditto)
7. worthwhile modern apologetics works

With that you should have a good grasp on Christianity.

>I dont like going to church
Go to a different one.

>and neither have a good understanding about the denominations.
Roman Catholicism was Romes state sponsored religion and the most popular. They did a lot of fucked up shit in the past and went full heretic at one point because they made it illegal to translate the bible from Latin into any other language. They just started flat out lying about what the bible said to gain power, and no one could call them on it because no one could read the bible.

Martin Luther (Lutherans) came along and did just that, translate the bible into various langues and started the Protestant reformation.
The Lutherans are basically just reformers that got Catholicism back on the right path. All the other Protestant faiths Baptist, Calvinist, Methodist, exc. took Luther's translation of the bible and put new spins on it making new denominations.

>I just want to read stuff, I dont wanna deal with people.
Read the Bible. That's really it. After that you just descend into the various faction wars and splintering of ideas.

Nice bullshit history, protecuck.
Protestantism laid the foundation for the weakening of religion in the west.

>The Lutherans are basically just reformers that got Catholicism back on the right path.

wow... That's a big list... I could try tho, thanks for the rec.

That's another big list, tho some of those I already have done (like, I already have read Mere Christianity). I can mix with the previous list, thanks user.

>Go to a different one.
Yo-you don't get it, the problem isen't the churchs in itself, the problem is me. I don't like people around, and going to church has always been something tedious for me (like, I have fallen asleep many times when my parents forced me to go, until they [thankfully] gave up on the idea). A-am I the problem? Am I just a lost heathen? desu

>Roman Catholicism was Romes state sponsored religion and the most popular. They did a lot of fucked up shit in the past and went full heretic at one point because they made it illegal to translate the bible from Latin into any other language. They just started flat out lying about what the bible said to gain power, and no one could call them on it because no one could read the bible.

Martin Luther (Lutherans) came along and did just that, translate the bible into various langues and started the Protestant reformation.
The Lutherans are basically just reformers that got Catholicism back on the right path. All the other Protestant faiths Baptist, Calvinist, Methodist, exc. took Luther's translation of the bible and put new spins on it making new denominations.
Yeah, those three I do have some knowledge in general, is only that I was wanting to get into the cherry picking levels of understanding

>Read the Bible. That's really it. After that you just descend into the various faction wars and splintering of ideas.
If you say, user, can do.

I will re-read the Bible and finish the books I didn't read (like, 4/5 of the Old Testament for example). You guys were of great help, thanks.
I would welcome any more recs or guides, it's always nice to have more of these.

>Nice bullshit history
Your going to argue the Catholics were not selling indulgences as a way out of purgatory? I'd like to hear this.

>Protestantism laid the foundation for the weakening of religion in the west.
I completely agree. But it was the Catholics fault for corrupting the teachings of Christ in the first place. Jesus never said "Give me a years worth of saving to get your father out of the fires of hell".

>Your going to argue the Catholics were not selling indulgences as a way out of purgatory? I'd like to hear this.
Not him, but yeah, that isn't how it worked.

Basically, the absolution of sins usually requires confessions and an act of contrition, which the priest taking the confession usually assigns as prayer, or if you stole something making restitution with the person you stole from, or offering donations to the Church, etc. When a Christian dies they still have to go to purgatory and be cleansed of their sins through suffering temporarily, as confessions and acts of contrition are imperfect given our human limitations of memory and lack of time machines. If you have a dead loved one, you can perform acts of contrition on their behalf to lessen their time in purgatory. This system was misrepresented by certain priests but it's hardly as reprehensible as it is in the popular imagination to this day as people "buying their way into Heaven." Luther sperged out about it but given his later actions and beliefs it's obvious that indulgences were just an excuse to sperg.

>But it was the Catholics fault for corrupting the teachings of Christ in the first place. Jesus never said "Give me a years worth of saving to get your father out of the fires of hell".
Neither did the Catholic Church. Purgatory isn't Hell. Contrition doesn't get anyone out of Purgatory, just decreases the amount of time they have to spend there. Christ and the Apostles did indeed teach the sacrament of contrition in the Bible.

>Basically, the absolution of sins usually requires confessions and an act of contrition
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.(Ephesians 2:8-9)

We could have this timeless debate, but it's just going to end the way it always ends.
We know the Catholic Church had some bad people at the time exploring the common peoples inability to read the bible along with serious idolatry problems and everything else we disagree on. We are past that.

please stop stuttering in written text, it's not endearing

Lutherism retained the sacrament of penance. So did Anglicans and Methodists. And various other Protestants.

Anyway, here's another good verse:

James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Further reading:
biblicalcatholic.com/apologetics/a135.htm#Fathers

That bit of history goes from biased as hell to outright wrong impressively quickly.
The contrition and the acts of penance required are understood as being for the purification of the penitent- they aren't to appease God or the Church in any sense, but to help restore one to their proper virtues after having fallen.
We haven't established idolatry problems (unless you manage to somehow successfully argue the "catholics pray to mary" trollop).
At some points exploiting people's ignorance? Probably so. People are flawed, this hasn't changed.

Some other books that might tickle your fancy.

>good understanding about Christianity?
Prepare for a lot of autists, semantics and hair splitting.

I’m reading Tolstoy’s What I Believe right now. The ideas put forth are worth their ink.

get Catholicism Edited by George Brantl

Has excerpts of council documents, scripture, Saints' writings, and explanations of the theology by the Editor. You can find it on Amazon. Really good book

Desert Fathers, Augustine, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer

Question. Given that forgiveness is the central tenet in a Christian life, it seems to me confession is a complementary mechanism. A means of letting go by testifying wrong, allowing the real forgiving of oneself.

Why is confession so formalized, aside from the tradition being left over from the bad old days when the church consolidated all the political power it could. James says to confess to each other, and I don't see how confession could be more effective being mediated through a priest over, say, the person you wronged. The brother whose mote you blamed, for example.

You will get used to it. Just stay in the back and listen to the priest. Often, they will tell a story and talk about it early in the Mass. They will also talk about different passages, and that's probably what you're interested about. Pick your Bible carefully and start with the New Testament. What you read will be discussed sooner or later. If you're curious, join one of the gatherings.

another mechanism for the priesthood to hold power over peasantry. confession is between the individual and God.

Good list.

Also: the apostolic fathers, Origen, Justin Martyr, Marcion. And the thoughtful user you've been talking to is bang on. Participate in your community, and be good to people.

>confession is between the individual and God.
but James specifically states to confess to each other

Diarmaid MacCulloch's "Christianity: The first 3000 Years" is a great historical overview.
If you're interested in Christian philosophy or theology, various works by Etienne Gilson are great for getting you passionate about the subject, specifically Thomism. Edward Feser is another scholastic dude, but he is kinda annoyingly aggressive about Aquinas being right about absolutely everything. Nevertheless, his work "Scholastic Metaphysics" is good.
For another historical overview about the philosophy, try John Marenbon's "Medieval Philosophy: An historical and philosophical introduction".

Kallistos Ware has two popular books on Orthodoxy, one which covers the history of the Orthodox Church and one which goes into the spirituality. Haven't really read anything on the Protestant side aside from former anglicans like John Henry Newman. Oh yeah, you should absolutely read Newman's poem "Gerontius", it's beautiful:
ccel.org/n/newman/gerontius/gerontius.htm

If you want to read the Institutes, I highly suggest reading some of Luther's major works before it (at the least).

I haven't read the whole Institutes (parts of it for a class), but a lot of it is refining ideas that Luther first proposed. Furthermore, Calvin is a beautiful but very wordy writer (if you've ever read any 17th century English prose, think of it like that) while Luther is one of the most direct writers from his period. In fact, one thing that probably helped Luther's message spread so much is that he was an incredibly straightforward writer whose voice was excellent at appealing to various listeners. It makes his works fascinating to read even if you have no interest in Lutheranism.