/lit/ - Literature

>>12595482
Thanks for your interest.

>>11722156
literally just read him goddamn brainlets

for funsies: compare Plotinus' description of light and fire to Christianity's depiction of light/fire at the Transfiguration or Pentecost

>>11547448
It is important to note that histories and philosophy are important for developing our mystical relation to Christ first, and settling curiosity about the Church second. You may find your faith increases as you learn.

>The Old Testament and New Testament
Goes without saying, but saying anyway. The NT was divinely inspired and assembled by man. Understanding it brings us to a greater harmony with Christ by helping us to imitate Him.

>Aristotle's Organon, then later Physics and Ethics
The medieval Scholastics and them were Aristotelians, and Aquinas builds his Summa arguments from Aristotle, frequently referring to him like he does Scripture. Organon is where Aristotle invented the tools of careful thinking.

>Plato's Timaeus and Republic
Platonism is the other half of Christianity's philosophical heritage. Republic for a few reasons but primarily for learning the Form of the Good, which will be associated with Christ (the Logos), love, and God. Timaeus is mostly cosmology, but Plotinus built off it.

>Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews
Josephus was a Jewish rebel who was captured and sent to Rome, freed, then returned to Jerusalem as a Roman historian. Documented the first century in Judea. Corroborates events of the New Testament.

>The Apostolic Fathers
Includes the Didache, from the first century, one of the earliest texts we have that resembles and represents the doctrine the Church would hold. Also epistles of Clement of Rome, Ignatius, etc. These are the guys immediately after the 12 apostles of Christ.

>Plotinus' Enneads
Rather important, I think he's crucial. Pic related: DO NOT miss his essay On Beauty*. A lot of what he says here goes on to inform Augustine and Aquinas. Especially the trichotomy of the One, the Intellect, and the Soul.

>Aquinas' Summa Theologica
:FatalAustism: of the best sort. I'm still chewing on this. Aquinas grapples with great questions of causes, will, sin, ethics, perfection, beauty, etc.

>Bonaventure
Franciscan mystic and contemporary of Aquinas who wrote The Journey of the Mind to God and The Tree of Life. Compare to Galatians 5's fruit of the Holy Spirit.

>a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ
Meant for people entering religious life, but the latter part of the book explains Imitatio Dei, an official position of the Catholic church and probably the easiest way of understanding our relationship to Christ as a species and individuals.

>Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
Ten volumes that break down the Greek words used in the LXX, their Hebrew etymology and usage in the OT, and explains context and word meanings. An encyclopedia of ancient vocabulary and a must.

>Via Pulchritudinis*
Ayyy, remember Plotinus essay On Beauty? Guess who took the ball and ran with it in the 21st century. The Vatican. Pulchritude is ofc of Latin extraction and means beauty. Via means way.

There are a bunch more, Origen and them, and Neo-Thomists, that I haven't read at all.

>>11396838
>Faith is free to give and infinitely rewarding
fpbp

>>11396825
A brief blog to give context. I grew up Catholic, but like many lost faith before I even knew what it was supposed to be. Bible stories I learned as a child promised miracles and wonders, but my parish priest was a fat alcoholic Mexican who barely spoke English and couldn't explain the concept of divine grace if he wanted to even in his native tongue. My parental unit was devout, but they treated it like many Catholics do (as magical amulets, superstition, and worship of the feminine prinicple rather than philosophy) and that was more reason to run from the Church. So I quit around puberty, after Confirmation. Did not at all lose interest in the accidentals of metaphysics though: switched to reading about druids, then new age crystal bullshit, Crowley, Carlos Castaneda, Buddhism, then nothing for a long time. Was never atheist, just "agnostic." Early 20s I got into Campbell's comparative mythology and Graves' Greek Myths and was reading the Bible looking for metaphors, trying to hack knowledge from parables without faith, and studying the Bible as projected psychodrama and primitive mythology. Kind of like what JBP has been doing.

1/2

>>11395556
Mark 12:29-30
>Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’"