/lit/ - Literature

CS Lewis for sure, Mere Christianity and Screwtape if you find it fun. The Space trilogy is also good.

>>20937090
I wouldn’t.
They’re all supposed to be heresy anyway

>>20937090
The Pilgrim's Progress

Aquinas

>>20937090
Mere Christianity

>>20937409
Seconded. Came here to post this. Also Strong's Concordance.

>>20937409
thanks anon. perfect gift for my mum

>>20937090
Pageau Pageau Pageau. Here are some videos that can help non-christians/secularists find the beauty and truth of Christ.
https://youtu.be/GPfITVjDWYw
https://youtu.be/WedCkywNYCU
https://youtu.be/2VLPDSRL5f4
https://youtu.be/OzGaby1nFZw
https://youtu.be/SGHNUVmsTGM
https://youtu.be/d0X_76SX2h8
https://youtu.be/snfKu88iVmM
https://youtu.be/Q1-vG-bLDwE
https://youtu.be/06Osa0EmJVc
https://youtu.be/qPrEcpL6ahc

>>20937090
Angela da Foligno

Tolstoy and dostoyevsky

The complete works of Vern Poythress, starting with" Redeeming Mathematics". Saved my STEM soul from being a fedora fag.

>>20937090

The Apostolic Fathers its a collection of the earliest Christian writers outside the NT

>>20937103
seconding the space trilogy, Perelandra is a masterpiece

The Genius of Christianity by Cheteaubriand
The Broadstone of Honor by Kenelm Henry Digby

>>20937090
these two

Augustine's "Confessions" and "City of God".
Blaise Pascal's "Pensees"

>>20938656
"Fioretti" is translated in english as "little flowers"
So cute :3

>>20937090
The Journey

His masterpiece imo

>>20937090
The first apologetic, Justin Martyr writing to the emperor trying to basically sell the religion as compatible with Roman values. Critics say he's making it up to retrofit Christianity with Platonism but he died for his beliefs. It has to represent some sort of trend in ideas at the time when the religion is emerging as a n organized thing and for me thinking more along those lines seemed to give context to everything in the Bible so it suddenly tends to say something consistently instead of being basically incoherent.

>>20937090
Just Bible commentaries so that you get historical/cultural background/context and symbolism information.

>>20937090
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (PBUH)

A Summary of Christian Doctrine - Louis Berkhof

Christian Worldview - Herman Bavinck

All of Grace - Charles Spurgeon

The Kingdom of God - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

>>20940948
go away

>>20937090
The Golden Legend by Voragine

>>20940304
based. I second this

>>20937090
Parsifal.

>Liszt wrote in a letter: 'The sketch of Parsifal which Wagner read to us recently is filled and permeated with the essence of Christianity . . . I am willing to confess that most of our poets who are regarded as Christian-Catholic stand far behind Wagner in their religious sentiments.'

>Weininger called Wagner 'the greatest man since Christ’s time', claimed ‘[U]nmistakeably the shadow of Ahasverus also falls on his Kundry, the most profound female figure in all art’, and crowns Parsifal ‘the deepest poetry in world literature’.

>Hitler was reported to have said: 'From Parsifal I build my religion, a sacred service in ceremonial form without theological trappings. With a brotherly foundation of genuine love without any theatrical show of humility and empty formalistic babbling. Without those disgusting gowns and effeminate attire. Only in heroic dress can one serve God.'

>>20938390
I always felt that was the weakest one, personally. Good poetic style, sure, but lacking in substance compared to Silent Planet and Hideous Strength.

>>20940304

Kierkegaard is under appreciated

I read him in college and was amused

Stephen Mitchell does a nice retelling of the life and teachings of Jesus stripping away the myths like the virgin birth etc, I found it very enlightening

Its really hard for new believers to relate to the life of Jesus as it so mythologized,

might I put a plug in for Bart Ehrman and Bishop Spong, they both have put out many impressive works helping us to see the reality of Christianity apart from all the fundamentalist dogmas and distortions

>>20937090
>Mysticism

it is funny to me how few Christians ever experience the Holy Spirit, there used to be traditional meditation practices to help with this, but they all but disappeared except for monasteries

Omphaloskepsis was a real meditation technique of focusing attention to the hara chakra and now it is just a joke term 'navel gazing'


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navel_gazing

>>20937103
>>20937409
>>20937474
>>20938656
>>20939562
Great suggestions.

>>20937090
>I also am very interested in other content too ie. podcasts and the like (I've listened a bit to the Godcast)
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgytXF0SPh0
Robert Barron is really the best out there right now. He's eloquent, erudite, kind, and a bishop.

>to historical work
N.T. Wright is a big name here but don't know a lot. McCullough too.
>apologetics
Keep in mind this is an old and a new problem, and as such you want the very very early Christians and the very recent modern ones. Against Celsus by Origen and Protrypticus by Clement of Alexandria are pretty much GOATs, where two random intellectuals in the heart of Alexandria convert to Christianity in 150 and tell every tradition and culture in the world that they were wrong. Clement of Alexandria says in that book that "Zeus is dead." Whether you agree with them or not, you have to respect their integrity and power. Modern-wise, Everlasting Man, Fear and Trembling, Sickness Unto Death, and Either/Or are written with a level of energy and sheer spiritual will that is daunting. Kierkergaard was a Christian at the level that some of us can barely even dedicate ourselves to anything and wrote most of his masterpieces in literal months. He is a singular in human history period.
>inspirational content
Butler's Lives of the Saints but St. Paul's epistles do this for me.
>Mysticism
St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross are the big names here but have read very little.
>Traditionalist
Big names here are: Jacques Meritain, St. John Henry Newman, G.K. Chesterton, and Belloc.

>>20941467
>Robert Barron is really the best out there right now. He's eloquent, erudite, kind, and a bishop.
I mostly recall him as the guy who did an IAMA and was very open to plebbitor atheists but got very passive-aggressive when catholics ask him about actual issues.

Nouvelle Theologie by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange.
He is still the eminent "make frauds within the Catholic church seethe at the very mention of his name" theologian.

>>20941756
>I mostly recall him as the guy who did an IAMA and was very open to plebbitor atheists but got very passive-aggressive when catholics ask him about actual issues.
Yeah doesn't change the fact that that interview was fantastic.

>>20940304
There are some good lessons in this, but the first discourse disproves itself in the last few pages. I just remember being frustrated that he sunk so much time into something that he quickly disproved.

Still a good read.

>>20937090
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene, it’s about a catholic guy who’s thrust into sin after trying to do a good deed. Also a lot of the classics have christian themes (Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, etc.) while not being just about religion.

Anyone have recs for books about people who have committed very serious sins (murder, rape, etc) repenting?

>>20937090
Machen’s The Christian View of Man and Christianity and Liberalism.

bump

>>20937090

As a FAQ I would have at hand the Summa Contra Gentiles from Aquinas. The chapters against heresies in the 4th book are exceptional. You are not supposed to read the entire thing, but take a look at the index and see if some of the small chapters interest you.

For absolutely top tier biblical apologetics, you can check Sam Shamoun in youtube. His area of expertise is the defend of Biblical doctrine, e.g. the Trinity etc, from mainly the Bible itself since he is not an expert in Church Fathers etc.

>>20941415
Bart Ehrman is pretty much a joke who has said wild fantasies like the proof of the hundreds of visions of Christ reported by Paul being a lie are the massive visions of a miracle observed at Fatima also being false (lol), the deluded denial of the authorship of the gospel. He is a hack, claiming to be an expert, being worshipped by cattle.

Considering that retard in your pic is described as a "spokesperson for liberal Christianity", I can also guarantee he is another clown that would have been spat on by the apostles.

>>20937090
lotr

>>20937090
Institutes of the Christian religion by Calvin and Paradise Lost. That's pretty much all you need.

The Treatise on the Love of God by St Francois de Sales.
The Imitation of Jesus Christ
Then for more strictly intellectual works or scriptural commentaries might as well go for the doctors of the Church.

>>20941774
By Garrigou-Lagrange the Three Ages of Inner Life would fit much more for anon's purposes, rather than btfo some recent errors. Gigabased author though.