@EgoDeath

Recently the poster called "EgoDeath" has been asking (over and over) for a reading list about religion. I honestly don't know why he wants my advice on books to read, since he also says I am untrustworthy and not worth listening to. 

But I think that sometimes when someone asks you for something, the best response is just to give it to him. 

This is a list off the top of my head, not meant to be definitive, and completely personal. It is meant to be about religion, in a historical way, not ideological -- that is, to understand what Christianity is, not to pass judgment on it. I hope that others will add to it, to make a more useful and well-rounded list. 

~ Plato, Symposium and Phaedrus. These are the founding documents about how Eros works to attract us to God. Western thought, including Christianity, would be very different without them. 

~ Dante, The Divine Comedy. A systematic and dramatic presentation of Christian ethics and metaphysics. The Durling/Martinez translation or the Ciardi translation have good footnotes.

~ R.T. Wallis, Neoplatonism. The standard introductory text. 

~ Marcia Colish, Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition. 

~ Emile Male, The Gothic Image, and others. Pointers to how religious art works. My private theory is that the religious world view is a kind of art.

~ Umberto Eco, Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages. Mostly Thomas Aquinas' writing about aesthetics -- it provides a readable example of how the Aristotelian/Thomist tradition saw the world of the senses.

~ Jaroslav Pelikan, Christianity and Classical Culture: The Metamorphosis of Natural Theology in the Christian Encounter with Hellenism.

~ Kevin Fischer, Converse in the Spirit. On Jacob Boehme and William Blake. Glenn Magee, Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition, on Hegel and Boehme. David Punter, Blake, Hegel, and Dialectic. These three together provide a fascinating view of how mystical minority traditions in Christianity provide an alternative to the common "sky-daddy" view of God that we all love to hate.

Again, this is off the top of my head. These are books that I have enjoyed, but I am not saying anybody has to read them -- just replying to a request. After EgoDeath has had a chance to insult this group, I may add more. 

But again, I hope people will add their own to the list.

Dude you are fucking awesome lol

I was thinking more just like a private message or something but you made it a whole thread lol that's great

Maybe I should be a little more gentle with you. I honestly didn't think I was getting under your skin that much.

Anyway, I do seriously thank you for the list. I've read The Divine Comedy, and The Symposium by Plato, though the rest are foreign to me, but I will add them to my book list... I keep a comprehensive list on my phone for whenever I happen to wander into Barnes & Noble (yes I still prefer to buy physical books), which is pretty often.

I actually came into the store one day looking for a book on Hermeneutics, an inquiry inspired by you, actually. I ended up leaving with a complete volume of Josephus' works - which is an interesting read - because they didn't have any books on Hermeneutics.

Thanks for the list champ.

edit:

I'm admittedly more of a fiction guy... I like to read Hemingway and Dickens and Steinbeck and so on. But I certainly love non-fiction.

However, speaking of fiction, what do you think of Milton's Paradise Lost? Personally one of my all time favorite pieces of literature.

second edit:

I actually did get a good laugh from you doing this. So that's awesome... thank you.

Also, I think it will be good to have a list like this for the forum. Maybe we can get it stickied eventually. Despite some people's dismissive opinions of Christianity, and other religions, I do think that learning about religion can be useful, especially for atheists. After all, we should know exactly what we're standing in opposition to, no?

Though, technically, an atheist doesn't have to be opposed to religion... technically they just don't believe in, or lack belief in, god. But you get what I'm saying.

What, no books about other religions? How do you know Christianity is the right religion if you didn't study theology books from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology, witchcraft, etcetera? Seems very one-sided and very unresearched.

(October 15, 2019 at 11:58 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: What, no books about other religions? How do you know Christianity is the right religion if you didn't study theology books from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology, witchcraft, etcetera? Seems very one-sided and very unresearched.

The lack of H.P Lovecraft and Douglas Adams makes me a sad panda

(October 15, 2019 at 11:58 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: What, no books about other religions? How do you know Christianity is the right religion if you didn't study theology books from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology, witchcraft, etcetera? Seems very one-sided and very unresearched.

I was asked for a list about "religion." I listed the books that I know well.

I don't say that Christianity is the "right religion." It is the one that I have studied most. 

I spent some time at a Zen retreat outside Fukuyama and learned a lot there, but I don't know which books are best on the subject. 

Please add to the list with serious works on different religions.

For EgoDeath I would suggest a lift the flap book.

I would suggest for EgoDeath to read the Bible from beginning to end. And no skipping chapters. You have to read all the begets and all the psalms and rantings.

~William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience and A Will to Believe. Here and here.

(October 16, 2019 at 3:26 am)Belaqua Wrote: Please add to the list with serious works on different religions.

Ok, here is one. This book is by a Jewish Rabbi called Tovia Singer. Book is called

Let's Get Biblical! Why Doesn't Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah?

book info

Quote:Moreover, this exhaustive book illustrates how, over the course of many centuries, the Church systematically altered the Jewish Scriptures in its authorized translations of the Bible in order to persuade its adherents that Jesus is the promised Jewish messiah. To accomplish this task, Christian translators manipulated, misquoted, and mistranslated verses in the Hebrew Scriptures so that these texts appear to be speaking about Jesus.

(October 16, 2019 at 4:06 am)Cod Wrote: For EgoDeath I would suggest a lift the flap book.

Anything with lots of pictures would suffice. Maybe a section in the back for coloring?