CIT (Catholic Intellectual Tradition) reading list

As part of a project while in law school at

St. Thomas

, Matt Donovan (’04 grad) and his compatriots “surveyed a number of experts from various institutions on what they believe to be the most important texts in the tradition, especially in the context of a legal curriculum.  Again, it is important to keep in mind that sufficiently answering the question regarding, say, the top five most important texts in the tradition is difficult at best.  In any event, here’s what they said:

Scripture (OT/NT)—Virtually everyone took for granted that the Bible is most important.

            

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae—Virtually everyone listed the Summa, specifically on the Commandments, Justice, Law, Sacred Doctrine, God, Virtue, Man, Happiness, and Kingship (though I believe On Kingship is its own treatise).          

                                                            

Augustine, City of God—Most everyone agreed that the City of God, specifically books XIV and IXX, is essential.

Augustine, Confessions—Many listed the Confessions as indispensable.

            

Pascal, Pensées—Many listed Pensées as an absolute must.

            

Athanasius, On the Incarnation—Some suggested De Incarnatione.

            

Bernard Lonergan, Insight—Some suggested Lonergan’s enormous work on human understanding.

            

St. Thomas More, Utopia—Some thought this to be an obvious choice for a legal curriculum.

            

St. Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict—A few mentioned Benedict’s Rule, a rigorous guide to living a disciplined life, as essential.

Thomas á Kempis, Imitation of Christ—A few mentioned the importance of Imitatio Christi, the second-most widely published work in         the tradition (after the Bible, of course).

Peter Lombard, Sentences—A few mention the Sentences for sheer influence in the tradition.

Catechism of the Catholic Church—A few mentioned the Catechism.

St. Bonaventure, Itinerarium—A few mentioned Bonaventure as essential.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics and Metaphysics—A few suggested that     one cannot properly understand Aquinas without understanding his master, “the Philosopher.”

At least one person listed the following texts as one of their top five:

                        

C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Bernard Lonergan, Verbum: Word and Idea in Aquinas

St.

Thomas More, Dialogue on Conscience

John Henry Newman, A Grammar of Assent

St. Anselm, Monologion

Plato, Republic

St. Augustine

, On Christian Doctrine

Dante, Divine Comedy

Jacques Maritain, Degrees of Knowledge and Man and the State

Heinrich Rommen, The Natural Law

Yves Simon, The Philosophy of Democratic Government

John Courtney Murray, We Hold These Truths

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets

Peter Abelard, Yes and No (Sic et Non)

Joseph Pieper, Leisure as the Basis of Culture

John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, Centesimus Annus, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and Theology of the Body”