Bishop Baron on what is good literature/philosophy

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bettercallpaul

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Bishop Barron doesn’t recommend the literature/philosophy that came after the Rennaisance, is my understanding. he likes Augustine , Dante, Aquinas.
He is especially critical of the existentialists like Camus and also of course Nietzche.
As a Catholic, what do you think is the best literature to read?
 
I work in a parish, so it’s all I can to do keep up with the LOTH. 😉

As a Director of RCIA, MUsic, and Liturgy there are loads of publications months that I read. But theyhav e specific applications. I rarely get a chance to read “classics”. Watching this thread with interest.
 
That’s a broad statement. After 16th century came plenty of good and bad, to many to mention. Benedict XVI and John Paul II were born in the 20th century and their writings were top quality and unprecedented in so many ways. You also need contemporary writers and philosophers to comment on current events.

What Bishop Barron seems to mean, is that most modern writers tend to nonsense and entertainment “leisure literature”. And the majority of catholic classics are placed before the 16th century. But we can’t exclude Saint Therese of Lisieux or Saint Alphonso Liguori.

Also, pope Leo XIII and those succeeding him had an important role in establishing Marian devotions and dogma. So I feel Marian devotions have evolved and refined, both to our profit and enjoyment.

Personally, I’ve read “frei Luis of Grenada” (one example) and I find much of contemporary theology easier and friendlier to read.
 
I’ve found Kierkegaard, Victor Hugo, Sohlzenitsyn, Tolstoy, von Balthasar very deep and thought provoking.

Also St John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.
 
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Anything by pope Benedict XVI is very good! I enjoyed his autobiography “la mi vita”, and his interviews that were transcribed into books are also very good. His catechesis is simply top quality, I especially enjoyed his catechesis on Lent.
 
I like your list very much. Havent looked at Balthasar yet. Is Hugo catholic?
Someone said that Kierkegaard’s view of Christianity was too subjective. Would you agree with that?
 
Hugo was born Catholic and took God very seriously…which rightly necessitated rejecting much of Church authority in France…as it was by and large, to him, impersonal, authoritarian and inhumane re the plight of ordinary people.
He restores a realistic, humane balance to religion often missing in traditional, establishment Catholicism…even to this day in some more traditional types. Les Mis is the book to read. He died a “freethinker”.

Balthasar is spurned by the same Catholics who would spurn Hugo. His tentative views on hell are all they know by hearsay and have them wrong. Yet he is Pope Benedicts favourite theologian. That itself speaks volumes as we all know Benedict is one of the greatest of our own age.
 
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I’ve read Camus’ The Stranger. Coming from a non-existentialist background, it was fascinating. The lack of life that exudes from the novel along with the void that you feel in the main character was quite interesting.

But many of the writers after the Rennaisance (and some from the Rennaisance) increasing distance themselves from an involved God. And you can see it in their work. They raise the nature of humanity above all else but also lower it to the level of an animal.

Did I mention that I hated reading Hegel? I wouldn’t do it again to save my life.
 
Thankful William Blake is still readable.

Whatever the expletive I want to read.
 
There are bad books out there sure… But I don’t like to burn them… at least anymore.
 
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