Good Catholic Books

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Recently, I signed up for a class which teaches the Cathechism of the Catholic Church in depth. To my dismay, one of the books required for this course is now out of print and virtually unavailable anywhere. This brings to mind Catholic books beyond the introductory level that have the potential for going out of print after as few as five years.

Since becoming Catholic, I started to collect books which I think are special and/or unique in their subjectmatter.

What books (with the exception of introductory level) would you recommend that would be collector’s items and a valuable part of any quality Catholic library?
 
Eichrodt, W., Theology of the Old Testament (SCM Press, London, 1961)

Duggan, M., The Consuming Fire (Ignatius, San Francisco, USA, 1991)

Boadt, L., Reading The Old Testament (Paulist Press, New York, USA, 1984)

Bright, J., A History of Israel (SCM Press, London, 1962)

Comby, J., et al; How to Read Church History Vol. 1 (SCM Press, London, 2007)

Comby, J., et al; How to Read Church History Vol. 2 (SCM Press, London, 2005)

Komonchak, J., Collins, M., Lane, D., The New Dictionary of Theology (The Liturgical Press, USA, 1993)

Flannery, A., Vatican* Council II, Volumes 1&2: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents* (Costello, U.S.A. 1998)

Neuner, J.& Dupuis, J., The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church (Alba House, New York, 2001)

Nichols, A., The Shape of Catholic Theology (Biddles, G.B., 2003)

McBrien, R. P., Catholicism, (Harper Collins, U.S.A., 1994)

Rahner, K., (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Theology (St. Pauls, India, 2004)

Ratzinger, J, An Introduction to Christianity, (Ignatius, San Francisco, 2004)

Ratizinger, J., Called to Communion (Ignatius, San Francisco, 1996)

Ratzinger, J., Jesus of Nazareth (Bloomsbury, London, 2007)

Ratzinger, J., Principles of Catholic Theology (Ignatius, San Francisco, 1989)

Redford, J., Bad, Mad or God (St. Pauls, London, 2005)

Redford, J. Catholicism: Hard Questions (Geoffrey Chapman, London, 1997)
 
FightingFat said:
McBrien, R. P., Catholicism, (Harper Collins, U.S.A., 1994)

Rahner, K., (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Theology (St. Pauls, India, 2004)
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I don’t think I’d recommend these two books as their authors are fairly well known for some heterodox views. If you’re able to wade through such things and pick up on what is problematic, then they might be okay for you. McBrien and Rahner are pretty widely recognizable, so it is important to know what they say, but only if you’re at that level where such a thing would be useful. I would not recommend these books as a starting point for anyone who is not knowledgeable of their faith.

Plus, I don’t think either of these are in any danger of going out of print anytime soon.
 
I’ve got both and don’t know what all the fuss about it is- to be honest, I think saying that they are Heterodoxical is a bit misleading, as far as I’m aware McBrien simply didn’t get an Imprimatur, I don’t think the material is heterodox though!
 
I would recommend Pope John Paul II’s Catechesis on the Creed series (6 volumes) published by Pauline Books & Media:
The set is already out of print and no longer available from Pauline. The volumes on Jesus and the Church were the first to be sold out and thus are between $150 and $250 on Amazon. If at all interested, it would be wise to scoop them up before the sellers of the other volumes realize the fact that those volumes are also sold out (as they still are between $10 and $15 dollars, except for the one on Mary which is also rising in price).

Another good set that is recently out of print is Dr. Mark Miravalle’s (editor) series on Mary published by Queenship Publishing:
You can still find these pretty cheap, but I don’t expect that to last long.

I’ll keep thinking to see if I can come up with anymore. Good question! 🙂
 
FightingFat said:
I’ve got both and don’t know what all the fuss about it is- to be honest, I think saying that they are Heterodoxical is a bit misleading, as far as I’m aware McBrien simply didn’t get an Imprimatur, I don’t think the material is heterodox though!
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Here’s a few articles that address McBrien’s book and the problems with it:
The most important statement comes from the US. Bishops themselves:
The severe deficiencies in McBrien’s book were pointed out to him on multiple occassions, but, as you can see from the statement from the bishops, he still has not addressed those problems even after several revisions. When the bishops actually go through the effort to make a public statement about a book, that should send up some red flags. In any case, I would certainly think twice about going to him for reliable information.
 
Joe,

Thank you so much for all the great (name removed by moderator)ut and links, too. I would think that the JPII books would be published again in the future, perhaps. I don’t know how that works. Those books are the exact reason why I’m wanting to get my hands on these kind of books before they’re no longer available.
 
Leah, once such book that I have found particularly informative and useful as a reference book is Leon Xavier-Dufour’s Dictionary of Biblical Theology.
 
LeahInancsi said:
Joe,

Thank you so much for all the great (name removed by moderator)ut and links, too. I would think that the JPII books would be published again in the future, perhaps. I don’t know how that works. Those books are the exact reason why I’m wanting to get my hands on these kind of books before they’re no longer available.
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I know these books won’t be published again by Pauline. Some sort of copyright issues are preventing them from continuing to publish the pope’s works (including the encyclicals). At least, that’s what one of their representatives told me when I asked. Since they are taken from the Pope’s Wednesday audiences, many of them are on the Vatican webpage, but so far John Paul II’s audiences are only translated into English back into 1997 on the main part of the site. The first four volumes of this series and half of the fifth predate this. I did find another section of the website that has the English translations of the first four (vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/index_en.html). A few of the audiences are skipped over, but most of them are there. Between this and the main part of the site, you can get all but the first half of the catechesis on Mary. 😉
 
Joe_5859 said:
I know these books won’t be published again by Pauline. Some sort of copyright issues are preventing them from continuing to publish the pope’s works (including the encyclicals). At least, that’s what one of their representatives told me when I asked. Since they are taken from the Pope’s Wednesday audiences, many of them are on the Vatican webpage, but so far John Paul II’s audiences are only translated into English back into 1997 on the main part of the site. The first four volumes of this series and half of the fifth predate this. I did find another section of the website that has the English translations of the first four (vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/index_en.html). A few of the audiences are skipped over, but most of them are there. Between this and the main part of the site, you can get all but the first half of the catechesis on Mary. 😉
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You’ve tempted me. If these books are from the Pope’s Wednesday audiences, they are on the Vatican website in Spanish, also. It’s been 35 years since I completed three years of high school Spanish, but with a good dictionary, I might be able to make an attempt at translating some of the Wednesday audiences.

My parish has a part-time Cuban priest who might be willing to edit my crude translations. Every which way you turn in a Texas Catholic parish, someone’s first language is Spanish. It shouldn’t be too hard to find someone to help me.
 
LeahInancsi said:
You’ve tempted me. If these books are from the Pope’s Wednesday audiences, they are on the Vatican website in Spanish, also. It’s been 35 years since I completed three years of high school Spanish, but with a good dictionary, I might be able to make an attempt at translating some of the Wednesday audiences.

My parish has a part-time Cuban priest who might be willing to edit my crude translations. Every which way you turn in a Texas Catholic parish, someone’s first language is Spanish. It shouldn’t be too hard to find someone to help me.
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Sorry for the temptation! 😉

I took three years of high school in Spanish, too, but I’m not nearly confident enought to try translating. It probably is easy enough to find someone, though. If you do, let me know when you’re finished! 🙂

I know that there are webpages out there that will translate websites into other languages. They aren’t nearly as good as having a real person do it, but it might help get you started. I tried it with a few of the audiences, and I wasn’t able to make much sense out of them. 🤷
 
Forget the high school Spanish, I found a feature in the newest version of MS Word that will translate. Italian is also an option! It is tied to one of the websites you’re thinking about, but I’m hoping I can do the translating through Word for free. The translations are very good for the most part. With the rearrangement of a few words here and there, it can pass for good English.

Thanks for your great suggests. Now I’m off on another project.:juggle:
 
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