Fr. Ken's Suggested Reading List (page one)

The Irony of Modern Catholic History:
How the Church Rediscovered Itself & Challenged the Modern World to Reform
George Weigel
Basic Books, 2019
 
George Weigel, one of the great Catholic intellectuals of our day and biographer of St. Pope John Paul II, offers a dramatic and important analysis of the past 150 years of Western Civilization. Weigel examines Catholicism’s struggle with the modern age ushered in by the rise of the scientific method and the Industrial Revolution. He documents how the Church moved from a defensive and reactionary stance to modernism to a rediscovery of its Biblical roots and a joyful Christ-centered engagement with the culture. This New Evangelization birthed by Vatican II, and further defined by Papal writings, is not a talking down or attempt to impose the Christian Faith but a listening and proposing stance pointing to the power of the Gospel in saving our personal and cultural souls. As Weigel says: “Catholicism’s task is to be a culture-converting counterculture that offers skeptics a path beyond doubt, relativists a path beyond the naked will to power, and nihilists a path beyond emptiness. The core of that offer is friendship with Jesus Christ.” This is not a sugar-coated analysis but an honest yet hopeful look at the tensions outside and inside the Body of Christ.

From Fire by Water:  My Journey to the Catholic Faith
Sohrab Ahmari
Ignatius Press, 2019
After spending the early years of his life under the spiritual and political oppression of Shia Islam in Iran, Ahmari comes to America only to experience the hollowness of secularism. Becoming then an articulate and out-spoken atheist, Ahmari looks for answers and meaning in Marxism and academic success. This beautifully written memoir sets out a young intellectual’s unlikely moral and spiritual conversion after observing the Mass and wrestling with the Catholic Faith. Sohrab Amari is the op-ed editor of the New York Post.
 

Paul: A Biography
N.T. Wright
Harper One, 2018
This new brilliant biography of the Apostle Paul is high on my list. Wright, one of the world’s leading Biblical scholars, argues that Paul is central to our understanding of early Christianity, and central to understanding Paul are his pre-Christian Jewish beliefs that he believed had been fully, if surprisingly, fulfilled in Jesus. This book reads like an adventure story - which, of course, it is.

The Case for Jesus
Brant Pitre
Image Press, 2016
This is an important and compelling study by a widely-respected Biblical scholar at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. Again, as with N.T. Wright, Professor Pitre shows that the claims to divinity for Jesus of Nazareth can only be understood by setting them in their ancient Jewish context. There is a helpful afterword by Bishop Robert Barron. Other excellent Pitre books include: Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist and Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary.

Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis
Harper One, 1952
A study of Christian literature is incomplete without reading C.S. Lewis. This intellectual giant of the twentieth century was a convert from atheism to Christianity. He taught Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. This classic is composed of talks Lewis gave to the British public on the BBC during the bombing blitz of London during World War II. Other Lewis classics include: Miracles, The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters, and The Chronicles of Narnia.

On Being Catholic
Thomas Howard
Ignatius Press, 1997
Beautifully written, literate, wise, and challenging meditations on Catholic teaching, spirituality, vision, and practice. It includes a moving and insightful examination of the grandeur and power of the Mass. This is a literary masterpiece.

The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ
Fleming Rutledge
Eerdmans, 2015
A tour de force study (668 pages) of the cosmic significance of Christ’s crucifixion. This is an unflinching examination of our human condition and a bold Pauline-like insistence that settings things right calls for crucifixion, not only Christ’s but ours. While this is a major reading project there are many surprising and memorable verbal illustrations to hold your attention and bring you back. This is a very important work by a superb scholar and a wonderful storyteller.

More Christianity: Finding the Fullness of the Faith
Fr. Dwight Longenecker
Ignatius Press, 2002
Fr. Longenecker challenges Protestants, and life-long Catholics, to move beyond the “Mere Christianity” of C.S. Lewis to the depth, richness, historicity, and fullness of Catholicism. Includes succinct and helpful explanations of the Marian dogmas, the papacy, the Mass, the Communion of Saints, and more.

Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross
Richard John Neuhaus
Basic Books, 2000
The late Catholic priest and editor of the journal First Things provides a rare and inspired reflection on our Lord’s last words on that first Good Friday. “If what Christians say about Good Friday is true,” Father Neuhaus writes, “then it is, quite simply, the truth about everything.” This is a deeply moving exploration of the dark side of humanity that brings us to Easter light. This book was instrumental in my own journey into the fullness of the Catholic Faith.

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
Henri J.M. Nouwen
Image Press,1992
Said to be one of the 100 most important books in the history of Christianity – it’s in my personal top ten. A visual encounter with Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Return of the Prodigal Son drew Fr. Nouwen into a profound and personal reflection on one of the Lord’s most important parables. This is a biography of Rembrandt, a spiritual autobiography of the author, and a powerful Bible study all rolled into one memorable reading experience. Fr. Nouwen takes us captive with such probing insights that connect our times of sojourn in a far country, loneliness, dejection, jealousy, and anger with the persistent image of the waiting, watching, and loving Father on the horizon.