Catholic Classics Reading List

Theology and Spirituality: Ancient

Augustine of Hippo
Confessions, City of God, On Christian Doctrine, On the Free Choice of the Will

Basil of Caesaria
On the Holy Spirit

Athanasius
The Life of Antony, On the Incarnation

Benedict of Nursia
The Rule of St. Benedict

Clement of Alexandria
Protrepticus, Paedagogus, Stromata

Cyril of Jerusalem
Catechetical Lectures

Gregory of Nazianzus
Theological Orations, Homilies on "Our Father"

Gregory of Nyssa
Life of Moses

Boethius, Anicius
The Consolation of Philosophy

Ireneaus
Against Heresies

Justin Martyr
First Apology, Second Apology

Origen
On First Principles, Commentaries

Pseudo-Dionysius
Divine Names, Mystical Theology

Theology and Spirituality: Medieval

Abelard, Peter
Sic et Non, Letters

Anselm of Canterbury
Monologion, Proslogion, Cur Deus Homo?

Aquinas, Thomas
Summa Theologiae, Summa Contra Gentiles, Questiones de Veritate

Bede, Venerable
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

Bernard of Clairvaux
Commentary on the Song of Songs, Sermons

Bonaventure
Life of St. Francis, Itinerarium, Collationes de Hexameron, Sermons

Catherine of Sienna
Dialogues

Eckhart, Meister
Sermons

Julian of Norwich
Showings

Richard of St. Victor
On the Trinity

Ruysbroeck, John
The Spiritual Espousals

Scotus, Duns
Ordinatio, De Primo Principio

Thomas a Kempis
The Imitation of Christ

Theology and Spirituality:
Reformation-19th Century

Bellarmine, Robert
Ordinatio

Borromeo, Charles
Tridentine Catechism

de Sales, Francis
Letters of Spiritual Direction

Erasmus, Desiderius
Praise of Folly, Enchiridion

Ignatius of Loyola
Autobiography, Spiritual Exercises

John of the Cross
Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Flame of Love

Lamennais, Felicite de
Ouvres complètes de Lamennais

Liguori, Alphonsus
The Great Means of Salvation and Perfection

Newman, John Henry
Grammar of Assent, University Sermons, The Idea of a University

Pascal, Blaise
Pensees

Teresa of Avila
Interior Castle

Theology and Spirituality: 20th Century-Contemporary

Adam, Karl
The Spirit of Catholicism

Blondel, Maurice
L'Action

Chenu, Marie-Dominique
Aquinas and His Role in Theology

Congar, Yves
I Believe in the Holy Spirit

Day, Dorothy
The Long Loneliness

Danielou, Jean
Prayer: The Heart of the Church

De Lubac, Henri
Surnatural, The Drama of Atheistic Humanism

Dulles, Avery Cardinal
Models of the Church

Gilson, Etienne
The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy

Guardini, Romano
The Lord, Letters from Lake Como

Gutierrez, Gustavo
A Theology of Liberation

Haring, Bernard
Free and Faithful in Christ

Lisieux, Therese of
The Story of a Soul

Lonergan, Bernard
Insight, Method in Theology

Maritain, Jacques
The Degrees of Knowledge, Integral Humanism

Merton, Thomas
The Seven Storey Mountain

Metz, Johannes Baptist
Faith in History and Society

Mother Teresa
Letters

Murray, John Courtney
We Hold These Truths

Nouwen, Henri
The Wounded Healer

Rahner, Karl
Theological Investigations, Foundations of Christian Faith

Ratzinger, Joseph
Introduction to Christianity

Ruether, Rosemary Radford
Sexism and God-Talk

Schillebeeckx, Edward
Jesus, Christ, Church

Sertillanges, A.G.
The Intellectual Life

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre
The Phenomenon of Man, The Divine Milieu

von Balthasar, Hans Urs
Glory of the Lord

Wojtyla, Karol
Love and Responsibility

Philosophy: Ancient

Augustine
Confessions, On the Free Choice of the Will, The City of God

Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy

Philosophy: Medieval

Abelard, Peter
Sic et Non

Anselm of Canterbury
Monologion, Proslogion

Aquinas, Thomas
Summa Theologiae, Summa Contra Gentiles, Commentary on the Sentences

Bonaventure
Itinerarium, Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard

Cusa, Nicholas of
On the Vision of God

Lombard, Peter
The Sentences

Ockham, William of
Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard

Scotus, John Duns
Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, De Primo Principio

Philosophy: Modern

Descartes, Rene
Meditations on First Philosophy, Discourse on Method

Galilei, Galileo
Discourse on the Two Sciences

Pascal, Blaise
Pensees

Newman, John Henry
Grammar of Assent, University Sermons

Philosophy: 1900–Contemporary

Anscombe, Elizabeth
Collected Philosophical Papers

Copleston, Frederick
History of Philosophy

Gilson, Etienne
The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy

MacIntyre, Alasdair
After Virtue

Marcel, Gabriel
Homo Viator

Pieper, Josef
Leisure: The Basis of Culture, The Cardinal Virtues

Maritain, Jacques
Degrees of Knowledge, Integral Humanism

Taylor, Charles
Sources of the Self, Varieties of Religion Today, A Secular Age

Literature: Medieval

Alighieri, Dante
The Divine Comedy

Literature: 1500–1900

Cervantes, Miguel de
Don Quixote

Bossuet, Jacques-Benigne
Funeral Orations

Donne, John
The Major Works

Hopkins, Gerard Manley
Selected Poetry

Montaigne, Michel de
Meditations

Thompson, Francis
Poems

Vico, Giambattista
New Science

Literature: 20th–Contemporary

Belloc, Hiliare
Selected Essays

Boll, Heinrich
The Stories of Heinrich Boll

Bernanos, Georges
Diary of a Country Priest

Bloy, Leon
Le Désespéré, La Femme pauvre

Cairns, Scott
Recovered Body

Chesterton, G. K.
Orthodoxy, The Man Who Was Thursday

Claudel, Paul
The Satin Slipper

Dillard, Annie
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Holy the Firm

Dubus, Andre
Selected Stories, Meditations from a Movable Chair

Endo, Shusaku
Silence, Deep River, Jesus: A Life

Everson, William
Collected Poems

Gordon, Mary
The Company of Women

Greene, Graham
Monsignor Quixote, The End of the Affair, The Power and the Glory

Hampl, Patricia
Virgin Time

Hansen, Ron
Mariette in Ecstasy

Heaney, Seamus
Opened Ground: Selected Poems: 1966-1996

Helprin, Mark
A Soldier of the Great War

Hijuelos, Oscar
Mr. Ives' Christmas

Horgan, Paul
Great River

Jarman, Mark
Unholy Sonnets

Jones, David
Anathemata

Levertov, Denise
The Stream and the Sapphire

Levine, Philip
The Mercy

L'Heureux, John
The Shrine at Altamira

Lowell, Robert
Lord Weary's Castle

Mariani, Paul
Salvage Operations

McDermott, Alice
Charming Billy

Merton, Thomas
The Seven Storey Mountain, New Seeds of Contemplation

Milosz, Czeslaw
Selected Poems

Moore, Brian
Black Robe

Morrison, Toni
Paradise

Muggeridge, Malcolm
Chronicles of Wasted Time

O'Connor, Flannery
Collected Works

Peguy, Charles
The Portal of the Mystery of Hope

Percy, Walker
The Last Gentleman, The Moviegoer, The Second Coming

Powers, J. F.
The Presence of Grace

Rodriguez, Richard
Hunger of Memory

Sayers, Dorothy
The Mind of the Maker

Schneider, Reinhold
Las Casas before Charles V

Sheen, Fulton
Life is Worth Living

Silone, Ignazio
Bread and Wine

Spark, Muriel
Memento Mori

Tate, Allen
Collected Poems

Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Undset, Sigrid
Kristin Lavreansdatter

Waugh, Evelyn
Brideshead Revisited

Wilbur, Richard
New and Collected Poems

Wolff, Tobias
In the Garden of the North American Martyrs

Catholic Social Thought:
Magisterial Documents

Pope Leo XIII
Rerum Novarum 

Pope Pius XI
Quadragesimo Anno

Pope John XXIII
Mater et Magistra, Pacem in Terris

Pope John XXIII
Pacem in Terris

Vatican Council II
Gaudium et Spes, Dignitatis Humanae

Pope Paul VI
Populorum Progressio, Octogesima Adveniens

Synod of Bishops
Justice in the World

Latin American Bishops
Medellin Documents, Puebla Documents

U.S. Catholic Bishops
The Challenge of Peace

Catholic Social Thought: 18th–19th Centuries

Orestes Brownson
No Church, No Reform

Isaac Hecker
The Church and the Age

Felicite de Lamennais
Paroles D'un Croyant

Bishop Wilhelm von Ketteler
Christian Social Reform

Frederic Ozanam
Melanges

Catholic Social Thought: 20th Century

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
A Consistent Ethic of Life: An American Catholic Dialogue

Dorothy Day
The Long Loneliness

Madeleine Delbrel
We the Ordinary People of the Streets

Gustavo Gutierrez
A Theology of Liberation

John Lafarge
The Catholic Viewpoint on Race Relations

Jacques Maritain
The Person and the Common Good

Thomas Merton
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Virgil Michel
The Social Question

John Courtney Murray
We Hold These Truths

John Ryan
Distributive Justice