Fr. Schall's Ten Books

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From a recent interview with Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. :

“….But this being said, I will here suggest ten short books that I think will make my point about intelligence and revelation, that they do belong together and that their separation is what constitutes the origins of most of our disorders, when patiently spelled out. I often get emails or letters or requests from students and adults about what to read. So today I will give you this brief list that, I think, on reading, will alert any free soul to the fact that there is order and that we should both know and pursue it. John Paul II, following Aristotle really, remarked that every person is something of a philosopher. He did not mean that everyone was a Kant or a Heidegger, but that most people have common sense enough to see when something makes sense and when it does not, at least if spelled out a bit.

So, I would say, simply, try the following books, not all by Catholics, if you have nothing else to do, to see what happens to your mind:
  1. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
  2. G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
  3. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed
  4. Yves Simon, A General Theory of Authority
  5. Bochenski, Philosophy — An Introduction
  6. Josef Pieper, An Anthology
  7. Robert Sokolowski, The God of Faith and Reason
  8. G.K. Chesterton, St. Thomas Aquinas
  9. Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome
  10. Cardinal Ratzinger, The Salt of the Earth
Try them, they cannot hurt you. All are short, but you need to pay attention, even enjoy them."

ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/schall_intvw2_aug05.asp
 
This is a strange list. Schall is a political scientist, not a philosopher nor a theologian, so this might explain the picks?
Bochenski’s Intro is analytic and not at all amenable to traditional Catholic Thomist philosophy (I heard one Gilsonian Thomist philosopher label Bochenski a “logical positivist”). Sokolowski is a phenomenologist philosopher. And I am a little hesitant accepting a Protestant in the top ten books to read, especially when he didn’t list Gilson or Maritain (whom Schall is a fan and biographer of).
 
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