Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Catholic Book Blogger

Home
About
Publications
Contact
The Open Book Podcast
Children's and Teen Book Reviews
Interviews
The Clergy Speaks
More
- 2015 Book Reviews
  - 2014 Book Reviews
  - 2013 Book Reviews
- Author Interviews
- Archive Index

Home
Catholic
The Clergy Speaks – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

The Clergy Speaks – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

Last updated on: August 11, 2014 at 5:30 pm by Pete Socks

The Clergy Speaks – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput 2014-08-09T14:41:34-05:00 Pete Socks

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Welcome back to “The Clergy Speaks”, a recurring feature here at The Catholic Book Blogger. “The Clergy Speaks” is a column focusing on one question I have asked various members of the clergy. That question is: What five books would you recommend as must-reads for Catholics today? I left the responses open to current or classic books with the only restriction being that the Bible and the Catechism could not be used as they are a given. This week we welcome Archbishop Charles Chaput from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Archbishop Chaput was ordained Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, on July 26, 1988. Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Denver on February 18, 1997, and he was installed on April 7 the same year. As a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe, Archbishop Chaput was the second Native American to be ordained a bishop in the United States, and the first Native American archbishop. He chose as his episcopal motto: “As Christ Loved the Church” (Ephesians 5:25).

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Philadelphia on July 19, 2011. He was installed as the 13th bishop and ninth archbishop of Philadelphia on September 8, 2011.

Here are Archbishop Chaput’s picks for must-read books:
I can’t narrow down the book list you requested to only five “must-reads.” But I’ll offer you these, in no particular order.

In non-fiction:

The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor, by Flannery O’Connor. A wonderful collection of her letters, and a window on the soul of America’s greatest Catholic writer.

The Life of Thomas More, by Peter Ackroyd. A great popular biography, vividly written and grounded in excellent scholarship.

Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, by Peter Brown. The finest biography of one of my two favorite saints (you can guess the other – I’m a Capuchin).

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. Still the best short work of Christian apologetics in English.

The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society, by Brad Gregory. The story of why and how the Reformation happened, and its impact on the way we live today.

Byzantium, by John Julius Norwich. Read the original three-volume version. It’s worth every minute of your time. This is the best kind of history-telling: absorbing, elegantly written and built on great research.

The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution, by John Allen. As a reporter on religious affairs, Allen has few peers. His work is always insightful and fair. And this book is important — especially now.

In fiction:

The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene. This is Greene at his best. It’s the great Catholic novel of the Mexican persecution.

Helena, by Evelyn Waugh. A novel of the mother of Constantine. One of Waugh’s own favorite works.

Viper’s Tangle, by Francois Mauriac. Mauriac won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1952. This is his profound, if harrowing, Catholic masterpiece; one of the great novels of the 20th century.

The Diary of a Country Priest: A Novel, by Georges Bernanos. Another of the great novels of the last century; winner of the Grand Prize for Literature from the French Academy. A Catholic classic.

Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset. A trilogy of life in medieval Scandinavia through the eyes of an extraordinary woman. Deeply, movingly Christian, and one of the great works of literature by any standard. Read the Tiina Nunnally translation. Undset, another Nobel Laureate, was born in Denmark, raised in Norway and entered the Catholic faith in 1924.

Love in the Ruins, by Walker Percy. Dated a bit now, but still a very funny, very telling, dark comedy from America’s other great Southern Catholic novelist.

I could go on – Augustine’s Confessions, Dante’s The Divine Comedy, Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. But the items above should be enough!

God bless you, and thanks for the opportunity to share these titles.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

An appreciative thank you to Archbishop Charles Chaput for taking time out of his schedule to provide this list of must-read books.

The Clergy Speaks

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

The Clergy Speaks

Previous Post

August 11, 2014

Put good things in their place; Church Fathers: Day 021

Next Post

August 12, 2014 Vice proves that our nature is good, Church Fathers: Day 022

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Year with Mary A Year with the Angels A Year with the Church Fathers Book News Children's Review Featured CD Giveaway Guest Post Interview Linked Review Media review Movie Review New Releases Off the Shelf Review speakers Teen Review The Clergy Speaks The Laity Speaks The Open Book Podcast Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz