“10 Books Nobody Should Die Without Reading”

A Lecture by Dr. Peter Kreeft
Immaculata Classical Academy | 2017

In this FSA Inspirations feature, we highlight a talk by Dr. Peter Kreeft, a philosophy professor at Boston College. While initially planning a talk entitled “10 Books to Read Before You Die,” Kreeft expands the list into his 26 necessary reads, grouped into categorical genres below. We are particularly interested in his selections on existentialism, poetry, spirituality, and faith.

 

 

Autobiographies

Confessions, by Augustine with translation by Sheed
A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken

Autobiographies

Confessions, by Saint Augustine of Hippo with translation by Sheed
A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken

Novels

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis

Plays

A Man For All Seasons, by Robert Bolt
Our Town, by Thornton Wilder

Epics

Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis 

Fantasy

The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis

Science Fiction

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley 

Spirituality

The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux 

Apologetics

Pensées, by Blaise Pascal
The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis

Philosophy

The Apology of Socrates, by Plato
The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius 

Popular Philosophy

The Introduction to Thomas Aquinas, by G.K. Chesterton
Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton

History

The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton
Our Lady of Guadalupe: And the Conquest of Darkness, by Warren Carroll 

Theology

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis
Summa Theologiae, by St. Thomas Aquinas, with a condensed, edited version by Peter Kreeft 

Poetry

“Lepanto”, by G.K. Chesterton
The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot

 

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