Who are the best philosophers and theologians to study

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Writer_for_God

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Hi,
I want to start reading and studying philosophy and theology, and would like to ask who are the essential philosophers, and theologians and their works to study. I would also like to be knowledgeable about philosophers and theologians who have ideas that are not true. I would like to be well read even in philosophies and theological thinking that does not conform to Church teaching. Who would be the philosophers and theologians I should be most familiar with, both good and bad? Thank you for any recommendations you may have. Please pray that my study is fruitful and that in the course of studying, I may learn more about God and share it with others.
God bless you all.
 
Start with Frank Sheed’s Theology for Beginners. It is a great base for all theology study.
 
This is what dragged me out of my doldrums:

icspublications.org/bookstore/cross/b_cross01.html

He has the advantage of appealing just as strongly to avant garde poets and assorted bohemians as he does to mystically inclined Catholics. You really can’t go wrong with a deep love of Saint John of the Cross. He’ll become your friend.
 
Aristotle and Plutarch are my favorite pagan philosophers. Aristotle’s Ethica Nicomachea is an interesting read, and interesting in that it corresponds with Catholic moral teaching on ethics, the place of contemplation, and on happiness and the virtues. Plutarch is just fun to read, especially his Essays or Moralia (Penguin Classics published a good selection). Much of Plutarch has been found sympathetic to our religion.

St. Thomas Aquinas is commonly accepted as the greatest medieval thinker, and by many simply the greatest. If you are completely unfamiliar with St. Thomas, you should probably pick up one of Peter Kreeft’s introductions.

If psychology and anthropology interests you, I’d recommend René Girard’s “Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World.” His thoughts on the origins of and relationship between violence, religion and culture are pretty interesting.
 
Keep reading and rereading the Bible from start to finish, there is no greater theologian than Jesus.
 
I think it’s a good idea to have a plan for studying philosophy or theology. You don’t want to dive into something too dense and then be left with your head spinning. I started with CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity, then Frank Sheed’s* Theology for Beginners*, then Augustine’s *Confessions * in that order and that’s what I recommend. Each one builds upon the other.
 
St. Augustine, st. Thomas aquinas, C. S. Lewis, Chesterton, and many more. These 4 are the power house of philosophy, IMHO. 👍
 
If you are just starting out, the best way is to read a survey of philosophers and their books. This will give you the overview that is needed before zeroing in on the ones that interest you. It will also give you the foundation of a philosophical vocabulary.

Will Durant’s “The Story of Philosophy” is a good place to start because Durant is very readable for the layman, except that Durant entirely skips over Christian and Catholic philosophers, as if there were no philosophers in the Medieval era.

A more thorough treatment of the history of philosophy is to be found in Frederick Copleston’s 9 volume series on the history of philosophy, which, because Copleston was a Catholic, is going to give a different slant than Durant. All nine volumes are described at Amazon.
 
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