Which essential works of Catholicism should I read?

Which essential works of Catholicism should I read?

Other urls found in this thread:

usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm
vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

Bible:
usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm

Catechism:
vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM

For some reason "Catholics" on Veeky Forums never tell you to read it even though it is the foundation of Catholic teaching at all levels.

>For some reason "Catholics" on Veeky Forums never tell you to read it even though it is the foundation of Catholic teaching at all levels.

Maybe it's because those books are so obvious that it's not useful to recommend them. In order to recommend the bible and the catechism here you would have to make the assumption that the person asking for Catholic books is so stupid that they couldn't figure it out that they're worth reading on there own. It's insulting, really. You should assume that people asking for Christian books are looking for supplementary works that will help them understand the bible and the catechism better.

It's not the religion for you faggot.

I would not think foreigners who just happened to step inside a church for the first time yesterday to be stupid in any particular way.

Works for "further reading" are in the notes of both Catholic editions of the Bible and the CCC.

Here's a couple of my favorites. They're all fairly "entry level" in the sense that they're readable regardless of how much you know about philosophy/theology or scripture.

Practical Theology
You can Understand the Bible
A Summa of the Summa
Hard Sayings
The Fullness of Turth
Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide

I'm curious then, do you think that any other book about Christianity or scripture is superfluous?

OP asked for the essential and the Catholic.

Mt 7:7-11.

What? That's not what I asked. Nevermind I can't talk to you.

Get into St Augustine pham

catholic fag here. I read parts of the catechism for confirmation and while parts are interesting there is also a ton of boring formal stuff that the average layperson will never deal with

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this desu

The Catechism isn't a foundation of Catholic teachings at all, it's a summarization of them. They never originate in the Catechism itself, but in Scripture and Tradition.

You'll have to be more specific. Catholic faith has such a massive deposit of writing you could spend your life reading only sections of it. Fiction, theology, philosophy, mysticism, there's a lot of each in it. I've personally mostly been interested in philosophy so here's a guide to it, starting with contemporary sources to introduce you before jumping into primary ones:
Orthodoxy by Chesterton
God, Philosophy, Universities by Alsadair MacIntyre
Volumes 1 and 2 of History of Philosophy by Frederick Copleston
Aquinas by Edward Feser
Complete Plato and Aristotle for their massive influence and general philosophical literacy
Confessions and City of God by st. Augustine
Summa Contra Gentiles by Thomas Aquinas
There's then a lot of scholastic and neo-scholastic stuff that continues to live today, despite the attempt to make it irrelevant by some Church structures by Gilson, Maritain, Amscombe, Geach, Garrigou Larange, Suarez, MacIntyre, Oderberg, Schall etc.

The Consolation of Philosophy

Edward Feser's Scholastic Metaphysics looks like a good overview of scholastic thought for Aquinas, Suarez and Scotus.

it's merely christian, not to speak about catholicism.

Consolations of Philosophy is Catholic.

it's almost pagan

the problem with advertising boethius as a catholic writer is that he draws upon plato and neoplatonics a lot, rather than basing his thought on the scripture. he surely influenced early christian and scholastic philosophers, but as a translator and someone connecting two traditions, rather than original thinker. so he is not essential catholic writer, and that's what op's asking for. It's like answering thread's question with plato. and the consolatio itself contains very little actual christian doctrine. it's not even trying to connect neoplatonism with christianity, like origenes or augistine, besides trying to cope with the dillema of free will existing being given god's preknowledge of men's actions.

Careful with eckhart. I learned good things from him but the is outright heretical at times

23 sections of his writings were condemned as heretical, but mostly because he didn't phrase his words properly and could be read in a heretical way, much like [spoilers] amoris latitia[/spoilers].

>For some reason "Catholics" on Veeky Forums never tell you to read it even though it is the foundation of Catholic teaching at all levels.
Probably because it isn't. It is a summary of basic theology and uses specialized language, so it isn't for beginners.
1) A Catholic bible
2) Catholic Theology: An Introduction
3) Waking Up Catholic: A Guide for Converts, Reverts, and Anyone Becoming Catholic
4) Rome Sweet Home
5) Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend the Catholic Faith