Essential Reading List

  • The following works are what I consider essential reading for anyone aiming to develop a realistic, mature, meaningful Christian (and perhaps Catholic) spirituality and way of life.

    I’ve organized them with topical headings and limited myself to only five books per area. Obviously, this excludes many other important works. I’ve also intentionally left out more academic and dense texts to keep the list accessible and approachable. 

    The list at the bottom is works that have influenced my liminal Catholicism.

Nouvelle Theologie & Catholic Thought

  • CORE CATHOLIC TEXTS

    The Documents of The Second Vatican Council
    Vatican Press

    The Catholic Social Thought Tradition
    Modern Encyclicals and other Writings

    The Encyclicals of John Paul II
    J. Donders, Ed.

    The General Councils
    Christopher Bellitto

    The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church
    Joseph Kelly

    SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

    Catholic Systematic Theology
    Thomas Rausch, SJ

    Chalice of God
    Aidan Nichols, OP

    Glory of the Lord: Theological Aesthetics (Vol I - VII)
    Hans Urs von Balthasar

    An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
    John Henry Newman

    THEOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY

    The Craft of Theology
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    The Shape of Catholic Theology
    Aidan Nichols, OP

    Creative Fidelity
    Francis Sullivan, SJ

    Ressourcement
    Flynn & Murray, Eds.

    The Meaning of Tradition
    Yves Congar, OP

    History and Dogma
    Maurice Blondel

    Models of Revelation
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    Theology in History
    Henri de Lubac, SJ

    Magisterium
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    Theological Investigations (Vols 1 - 23)
    Karl Rahner, SJ

    Action
    Maurice Blondel

  • ECCLESIOLOGY

    Models of the Church
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    Toward a Truly Catholic Church
    Thomas Rausch, SJ

    True and False Reform in the Church
    Yves Congar, OP

    Catholicism
    Henri de Lubac, SJ

    The Catholicity of the Church
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    The Splendor of the Church
    Henri de Lubac

    Diversity & Communion
    Yves Congar, OP

    Truth Is Symphonic
    Hans Urs von Balthasar

    SCRIPTURE

    The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church
    J.L. Houlden, Ed.

    Scripture in the Tradition
    Henri de Lubac, SJ

    The Interpretation of Scripture
    Joseph Fitzmyer, SJ

    The Word Made Strange
    John Milbank

    SACRAMENTS & LITURGY

    The Eucharist
    Edward Schillebeeckx, OP

    Heavenly Participation
    Hans Boersma

    Christ, The Sacrament of God
    Edward Schillebeeckx, OP

    The Spirit of the Liturgy
    Joseph Ratzinger

    After Writing
    Catherine Pistock

    MORAL THEOLOGY (And Philosophy)

    Morality Is for Persons
    Bernard Haring, CSSR

    Rational Man
    Henry Veatch

    Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values
    Max Scheler

    Ethics
    Dietrich von Hildebrand

    After Virtue
    Alasdair MacIntyre

    Whose Justice? Which Rationality?
    Alasdair MacIntyre

    Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals
    Iris Murdoch

  • THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD

    Catholic Social Thought
    O’Brien & Shannon, Eds.

    Prayer As a Political Problem
    Jean Danielou, SJ

    Guadium et Spes
    Second Vatican Council

    The Trinity and the Temple
    Jean Danielou, SJ

    The Politics of Discipleship
    Graham Ward

    Theology & Social Theory
    John Milbank

    Sacred and Social
    Kenneth Himes, OFM

    The Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology
    John Milbank

    We Hold These Truths
    John Courtney Murray, SJ

    Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology
    John Milbank, ed.

    GENERAL CATHOLIC THEOLOGY

    Catholic Theology
    Tracey Rowland

    Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians
    Fergus Kerr, OP

    Nouvelle Theologie
    Hans Boersma

    The Mystery of the Supernatural
    Henri de Lubac, SJ

    The Suspended Middle
    John Milbank

    Catholicism in the Third Millennium
    Thomas Rausch, SJ

    St. Maximus the Confessor
    Hans Urs von Balthasar

    The Discovery of God
    Henri de Lubac

    Introduction to Christianity
    Joseph Ratzinger

    The Lord of History
    Jean Danielou, SJ

    Western Culture
    Benedict XVI

    Radical Orthodoxy
    James K. A. Smith

    The Trinity
    Karl Rahner, SJ

  • DIVERSITY IN THEOLOGY

    A Church That Can, and Cannot Change
    John Noonan

    Dissent In The Church
    O’Brien, Ed.

    Sacred Resistance
    Ginger Gaines-Cirelli

    The Language of Dissent
    Daniel Thompson

    Theological Dissent In Post-Vatican II Catholicism
    Anthony Devlin

    Theories of Doctrinal Development in The Catholic Church
    Seewald & West, Eds.

    LOVE & SEXUALITY

    Love and Responsibility
    Karol Wojtyla

    The Nature of Love
    Dietrich von Hildebrand

    Just Love
    Margaret Farlay

    John Paul II’s Theology of the Body In Simple Language
    Philokalia Books, Ed.

    Sexual Diversity and Catholicism
    Jung & Coray, Eds.

    More Than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity
    Hinze & Hornbeck, Eds.

    More Than a Monologue: Inquiry & Thought
    Hornbeck & Norko, Eds.

    You Can If You Want To
    James Alison

    The Sexual Creators
    Andre Guindon

    Virtually Normal
    Andrew Sullivan

    Lower Than the Angels
    Diarmaid MacCulloch

    From Shame to Sin
    Kyle Harper