Essential Reading List
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The following works are essential reading for anyone aiming to develop a realistic, mature, and meaningful Christian spirituality and way of life.
I’ve organized them with topical headings and tried to limit the number of 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 Christianity.
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CORE TEXTS
If The Church Were Christian
Philip GulleyThe Didache & Commentary
Thomas O’LoughlinThe Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology
John Paul SydnorWhat to Believe? 12 Lessons in Radical Theology
John D. CaputoLetter to a Christian Nation
Sam HarrisJesus: A Revolutionary Biography
(With supplement text, Who Is Jesus?)
John Dominic CrossanA New Kind of Christianity
Brian McLarenLiving the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity
Felton & Proctor-Murphy -
RETHINKING GOD
The Experience of God
David Bentley HartWe Who Wrestle With God
Jordan PetersonThe Weakness of God
John D. CaputoThe History of God
Karen ArmstrongGod Is No Thing: Coherent Christianity
Rupert ShorttThe Light of Tabor
David Bentley HartCosmic Liturgy
Hans Urs von Balthasar -
HISTORICAL JESUS
The God of Jesus
Stephen J. PattersonBeyond the Passion
Stephen J. PattersonThe Historical Jesus
John Dominic CrossanGod & Empire
John Dominic CrossanJesus: A Marginal Jew (Vol I-V)
John P. MeierThe Resurrection of Jesus
Crossan & WrightThe Resurrection
Geza VermesRevolutionary
Tom Holland, Ed. -
SCRIPTURE
How to Read the Bible and Remain a Christian
John Dominic CrossanHow to Read the Jewish Bible
Marc BrettlerWho Wrote the New Testament
Burton MackReading the Bible Again for the First Time
Marcus BorgThe Prophets
Abraham Joshua HeschelHermeneutics
John D. CaputoThe Face of Water
Sarah Ruden -
THE EARLY CHURCH
The Patient Ferment of the Early Church
Alan Krieder
The First Paul
Borg & CrossanThe Rise of Christianity
Rodney StarkPaul Among the People
Sarah RudenThe Birth of Christianity
John Dominic CrossanJesus Before the Gospels
Bart EhrmanThe Forgotten Creed
Stephen PattersonChristian Beginnings
Geza Vermes -
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
The Sermon on The Mount
Amy Jill-LevineThe Works of Mercy
Mark SheaFollowers of the Way
Simon ReedThe Sermon on the Mount & Human Flourishing
Jonathan PenningtonLiving by the Rule
(The Rule of the Iona Community)
Kathy GallowayFinding Our Way Again
Brian McLarenIn Constant Prayer
Robert Benson -
CHRISTIANITY & WESTERN CULTURE
Dominion
Tom HollandA Secular Age
Charles TaylorHow the West Won
Rodney StarkThe Meaning of the West
Don CupittThe Evolution of the West
Nick SpencerAmythia
Loyal RueZombies in Western Culture
John VervaekeAfter Virtue
Alasdair MacIntyre -
PERSONALISM
The Selfhood of the Human PersonJohn F. Crosby
The Irreducibility of the Human Person
Mark SpencerMore Than Things: A Personalist Ethic of a Throwaway Culture
Paul MetzgerTo Flourish or Destruct
Christian SmithThe Personalism of John Paul II
John F. Crosby -
SOCIAL THEOLOGY
The Documents of The Second Vatican Council
Vatican PressThe Catholic Social Thought Tradition
Modern Encyclicals and other WritingsThe Encyclicals of John Paul II
J. Donders, Ed.Western Culture
Benedict XVIRadical Orthodoxy
James K. A. SmithTheology & Social Theory
John MilbankSacred and Social
Kenneth Himes, OFMThe Future of Love: Essays in Political Theology
John MilbankWe Hold These Truths
John Courtney Murray, SJRadical Orthodoxy: A New Theology
John Milbank, ed. -
THEOLOGY OF THE BODY
Love and Responsibility
Karol WojtylaThe Nature of Love
Dietrich von HildebrandJust Love
Margaret FarlayJohn 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 AlisonThe Sexual Creators
Andre GuindonVirtually Normal
Andrew SullivanLower Than the Angels
Diarmaid MacCullochFrom Shame to Sin
Kyle Harper -
MORAL THEOLOGY
Morality Is for Persons
Bernard Haring, CSSRRational Man
Henry VeatchFormalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values
Max SchelerEthics
Dietrich von HildebrandAfter Virtue
Alasdair MacIntyreWhose Justice? Which Rationality?
Alasdair MacIntyreMetaphysics as a Guide to Morals
Iris Murdoch -
POST-DENOMINATIONAL
Solus Jesus
Swan & WilsonA Generous Orthodoxy
Brian McLarenSaving Jesus from the Church
Robin Meyers