I want to learn about Catholicism. What should I read?

Yea, start with the Sticky.

My diary desu

The Confessions of Saint Augustine is a little heavy, but it's what i thought of off the top of my head. Saint Augustine was a convert, too, so I think it should be accessible to non-christians. Might want to look up Kierkegaard, too.

Answering Atheism by Trent Horn will teach you some of the classical arguments for theism

Hard Sayings is another by Trent Horn that focuses on scripture

Reasons to Believe by Scott Hahn digs into why Catholics believe the things they do

Aquinas by Edward Feser is a good introduction into Aquinas. It can be a little heavy if you at times if you don't know anything about Plato or Aristotle but it's worth it.

The Fullness of Truth by James M. Seghers may not be that useful from the start but it's invaluable when you start digging into scripture. It's written to help Catholics defend the faith against protestants using just scripture.

Relativism: Feet planted Firmly in Mid-Air is not overtly Catholic but it does provide a good foundation for Catholic philosophy and Natural Law. If law (or morality) is not relative then it must be objective, and objective law implies an objective lawgiver, that sort of thing. The author goes down that road in the later chapters after some very strong refutations of the various forms of relativism popular today.

Bearing False Witness Rodney Stark might be interesting to you if you live in a protestant country. It focuses on the falsehoods and attacks on the church by protestants that have been so ingrained in our culture over the years that most of us don't think to question our assumptions.

I hear a lot of people recommending Catholicism by Bishop Robert Barron too. I haven't read it yet but he's popular on Youtube and he's very accessible so it might be worth checking out.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Walter Veith

Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Obviously.
This thread comes up several times a month and no one ever gives the obvious starting point. Instead you always have "literary" minds giving absurd answers like The Confessions.

What do you mean this never comes up? Somebody like you always comes into these threads and recommends the bible or the catechism with an indignant attitude because they were the first to recommend them. The truth is the Catechism just isn't all that accessible to non Catholics. It's not a starting point.

>It's not a starting point

The Bible or the Catechism are literally the only starting points.

How do you read the bible if you don't know English? I guess you have to start somewhere else and the bible is not a starting point.

>old testament
>the greeks™
>new testament
>read from the romans all the way up to medieval era with augustine and aquinas in chronological order

yes, its a lot of books, thousands of pages, but if yoi want to do it right, this is the way to go, plato to aquinas is the core of christianity. everything else recommended here is inside this gap.

Take a flight down some stairs and then read Frank Turek or another evangelist mouthbreather of your choice.

Make sure to read a Catholic translation of the bible like the RSV-CE or the NAB
Prots are missing a few books

Start with the Council of Ephesus after which the Greeks split from the Catholic Church. Later schisms among them such as the filioque schism matter not to the true Catholic Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

The Catholic Church: A History: (a torrent)

by William R. Cook.

why?

Why We're Catholic by Trent Horn

When you go to RCIA they don't just hand out Catechisms and say "let's start here" because it's not a book for teaching. The Catechism doesn't tell you why you should believe in God, nor does it give a critical historical account of the life and resurrection of Jesus. When it comes to the question of "why?" the Catechism doesn't tell you anything because it's meant for Catholics who already know this stuff. It's essentially a reference book so members can refresh their memory as needed. This is why the Catechism is not a starting point.

It's the same deal with the bible. These are 2000 year old books, If you go into it blind you're not going to understand anything and you're going to misinterpret a lot of text. It's like giving a copy of the Illiad to a 13 year old boy with no education and expecting them to understand it and not get bored with it.

user, listen to me, please.

Read The Seven-Story Mountain by Thomas Merton. It tells of his conversion, and eventual decision to become a monk. It's a great book. Although not an apologetic, strictly speaking, it obviously presents a sympathetic portrait of the Church, and helps the reader understand how prayer and the sacraments work. Among other things, you get to meet Dorothy Day in one chapter, when Merton assisted at one of her Catholic Worker homes. Believe me, although Dorothy Day was sui generis, there are still a lot of Catholics out there following in her footsteps with zero fanfare. I note that one recent edition of the book I came across had an introduction by some American bishop whose name I forget. What a sad piece of writing; he actually talks the book down to some extent. But the book stands on its own feet, alive and vital.

Karl Adam's The Spirit of Catholicism *is* an apologetic, and rather nice one. It was written in the 40s, and still holds up and is still in print.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, issued under Pope John Paul II, is fat tome, but surprisingly readable. Not the type of book you'd necessarily read from cover-to-cover, but it's well-organized and does an *excellent* job covering a plethora of topics in concise, lucid and rather beautiful prose (imho).

You can read a short, well-written primer on the historical and biblical bonafides of the Church here: catholic.com/tract/pillar-of-fire-pillar-of-truth

A personal favorite of mine is a book of conversion stories called Spiritual Journeys, edited by Robert Baram. I have read many such collections, and this is certainly one of the best, and perhaps the very best such book I've ever come across. It's the range of the stories - blue collar, white collar, academics, ordinary Joes, housewives, drug addicts, etc. Each of them coming to (or brought by grace to) the Church in their own unique, often fascinating way. And each story well-written, with its own voice, suggesting the editor did a masterful job in putting it all together. I think it may be out of print, but there are inexpensive used copies available at Amazon, ABE, and Barnes & Noble.

E.g., amazon.com/Spiritual-Journeys-Robert-Baram/dp/0819868760

If I had the money and could get the rights, I would put this book back in print!

Last, and most important - pray. Ask God to guide you in this inquiry; he knows the issues and questions that need to be addressed in your mind and heart, and he knows how to answer those questions, and often does so in surprising and unexpected and rather gentle ways (although not always so gentle; see, e.g., Paul on the road to Damascus).

I just started reading this the other day, I think it's actually perfect book for the OP.

ZOMG There IS NO GOD you stupid bakas!!!! The pope is gay. FUCK RELGION.

DAWKINS AND SAGAN FOR LYFE!!!!

Western Canon

...

>The Silmarillion
Will you idiots stop claiming Tolkien's books as Catholic allegories? The man despised allegory.

That doesn't mean it doesn't contain influence of Christianity or what he viewed as virtuous as a Roman Catholic.

Orthodox Study Bible xDDD

Start with the Introduction à la Vie Dévote, then read some of Saint Augustine's books, start basic philosophy and read the great classics like Dostoyevsky, Balzac, Tolstoy. After all that you can start to read the big guys like Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham and the modern specialists on them like Edward Feser, William L. Craig, Alexander Pruss.

Could you talk more about that book?

The Teaching Company produces video/audiobook courses. They can usually be found in any library. This one is 36 lectures long and places the most emphasis on the church's development into a secular authority. His explanation of the Protestant Reform is the most clear and descriptive I've heard yet.

The professor is very reputable. I particularly enjoyed his course on Dante's Commedia. He's a very old man but it is obvious he's been doing this his whole life. I'm not actively a student, so to me these are the next best thing.

The God Delusion

This, but unironically and not in memespeak.

Learning about theology is fun though.

If you don't believe in God then whats the point of theology?

Please, even if you want to be an atheist, don't read shit like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris, instead try to read actual intelligent atheists like Graham Oppy and William Rowe.