Catholic Reading List

Some books to add to your reading list for learning about the Bible, the Church and the Catholic Faith

This list is from the :Rejoice in Faith" site operator, Michael Bromley, and from his perspective.

Holy Bible

My daily Bible is the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) from Saint Benedict Press (2011 by Good Will Publishers). It has extensive footnotes, so it is rather thick, but that in my mind is a good measure of a good Bible! It is available from Tan Books, a "traditional Catholic publishing company" and which is now owned by Saint Benedict Press. Various versions are available, including e-books. My copy is NABRE (Black Deluxe Leatherette) for $44.95. (You can find it cheaper on Amazon here)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Just get it, and read it. It's not a page-turner. It doesn't even have to be read cover to cover, page by page. But do start with the wonderful introduction by Saint Pope John Paul II. The Catechism should be a living part of Catholic life.

• Paperback
• Online:
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church | USCCB
    • flipbook version easy to read
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church | St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church Picayune MS
    • has excellent search function (better than the USCCB version)

Even just contemplating the structure of the Catechism is a worthwhile exercise. The flow of ideas and structure of topics and Scripture has been incredibly well-thought out. Indeed, this book represents 2000 years of thinking!

Biblical commentary

The Catholic record, being but 2,000 years old, is vast, deep, and voluminous. Consequently, concise, accessible -- English language -- Catholic commentary is hard to find. Serious thinkers such as Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are hard to understand and are so studied that commentary on their commentary is purely academic and thus overly focused.

Personally, I have encountered accessible Protestant commentaries more readily -- but they are Protestant commentaries and thus lose themselves on fundamental understandings, such as Woodward and Zuck's "The Bible Knowledge Commentary" and its commentary on John: 6:22-59 and the "Bread of Life Discourse" in which the absence of the Eucharist practically screams off the page, "HE WASN'T SAYING EAT MY BODY LITERALLY!!" Oh, no, dear brothers in Christ, that's exactly what he was sayin. Anyway, the Woodward & Zuck series is quite easy to use but be wary of its perspective and consequent errors and limitations.

Annotated Bibles

As noted above, my NABRE from St. Benedict Press has extensive footnotes -- but, like the below USCCB online version of the NABRE, you may find yourself frequently wanting more. Before I bought my NABRE, I used the The New Oxford Annotated Bible (link to Wikipedia entry), which I did then and still do find inadequate.

USCCB Books of the Bible

For ongoing Biblical commentary, the easiest and most reliable source is the UCSSB's online Books of the Bible The interface and navigation are easy and intuitive -- and trustworthy. I find the commentary at times limited, and it is, for formatting and concision, but it is ALWAYS a perfect place to start.

Net Bible

For additional online access to various Bible translations and commentary, as recommended to me by a seminarian whose professor uses this resource, I find NetBible quite useful. Each translation has a running set of notes, starting with "Net Notes," which focuses on the Greek word origins, "Constable's Notes," a protestant commentary, and "My Notes," which is for users to log their own (requires login). Constable's notes, he, previously a long-time teacher at the Dallas Theological Seminary, are again, are limited by his protestant perspective. If find that Constable's notes do occasionally acknowledge Catholic perspectives, but usually refute them.

That said, it's a great and easy source for getting into the original Greek meanings. Whereas Constable's notes focus on the Bread of Life Discourse as metaphorical and entirely ignores Jesus' literal instructions to eat the Bread of Life, we can learn from the Net Notes, that the English "eats" at verse 6:56 in Greek is "chews" (the USCCB Bible offers a brief comment -- see footnote at John 6:54). Good source - with caution.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) has its own heading here, but I add it under the heading of Biblical commentary because it's a great source for learning about Scripture and identifying trustworthy commentary.

I recommend that you use the CCC's "Index of Citations," a long and comprehensive, and fantastic, index that references the Catechism's text to its Scriptural and Church source. So rather than looking up a source within a paragraph, using the index you can look up the paragraphs related to the source. The sources include, Sacred Scripture, Professions of Faith, Ecumenical Councils, Particular Councils and Synods, Pontifical Documents, Ecclesiastical Documents, Canon Law, Liturgy, and Ecclesiastical Writings (here you will find Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Thomas, etc.)

Saint Augustine

Are you ready the latest English translation of all of Augustine's works? That'll be 132 of them, thank you, in 45 published books (with 101 works) and counting, each volume about $80. This is not for you and me.

I own one, Homilies on the Gospel of John, 1-40. I bought it out of enthusiasm, and have set it aside out of ignorance. Let's just say that this 604 page book covers Augustine's homilies on John 1-8:30. Yikes! And they are DENSE. I'm getting up the courage, but I'm not there yet, and my reading list has other reading priorities that remind me daily of their need.

The Eucharist

• This is My Body: a call to Eucharistic Revival by Bishiop Robert Barron provides a short background on the need for the current USCCB Eucharistic Revival and the Scriptural sources of the Eucharist, including John 6. Quick and very useful read.
• Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper by Brant Pitre. Pitre is great. I have not consumed this book yet, but I have used it for solid reference.

The Mass

General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM)

Like the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this document is a MUST for vibrant Catholic living. Your priests read it, studied it, and practice it at every Mass. The GIRM explains all the

• GIRM print version
• GIRM from the USCCB website
• GIRM from the Vatican
• GIRM from the Liturgy Office UK (pdf)

Daily and Sunday Missal

I was first catechized by this book, as it walked me through all the readings, prayers, liturgies and responses of the Mass

• I have the St. Joseph Sunday Missal from Catholic Book Publishing
• My wife and I use the monthly subscription to Magnificat for daily Masses

The Mass

• The Mass Explained and The Mass Explained for Kids by Maria Grace Dateno, FSP are great little handbooks for learning the whats, hows, and whys of the Mass
• A Biblical Walk Through the Mass: Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy by Edward Sri looks good, although I don't have it.

Catholicism & Catechism

• Symbolon by Edward Siri. From the Augustine Institute, provides a thoughtful structure to catechism and helpful overview of Church beliefs. Dr. Siri produced a video series of the same, which you can find at that link.

• Bordering on the apologetics genre is Thomas Joseph White's The Light of Christ: an introduction to Catholicism. I've started it, although barely, but do see the value in reading this great looking work.

Now, for the best explanations of Catholicism, we must go to our very own Church. Papal documents explain, teach and clarify dogma, and should be a primary source of learning for Catholics.

• Here for The Papal Encyclicals Online

I strongly recommend

• Dei Verbum by Paul VI
• Lumen Gentium by Paul VI
• Fides et Ratio by St. Pope John Paul II
• INSTRUCTION ON RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE IN ITS ORIGIN AND ON THE DIGNITY OF PROCREATION REPLIES TO CERTAIN QUESTIONS OF THE DAY by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI)

Early Church

Go straight to the Church fathers themselves, which you can find in English online easily, including

• Early Christian Writings: New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church Fathers

One of the dangers of venturing into the early Church is unknowingly walking into heretical works, like those of Tertullian, who either joined or was influenced by the Montanism heresy as well as "rigorism" (see Heresy entry here).

Important and accessible works include:

Against Heresies by St. Irenaeus

• CHURCH FATHERS: Against Heresies (St. Irenaeus) (newadvent.org)

The Didache

Pronounced" dee-da-kay", an important and very early statement of Christian faith and life, also called "The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations." The Didache describes and explains the Christian life, practices, and beliefs (such as Baptism, the Eucharist and the Our Father prayer).

• The Didache - Teaching of the Twelve Apostles - Oldest Church Manual (catholicplanet.com)

A note on early sources:

A good guide is to stick to those with "Saint" before their names... Speaking of which...

The Saints

I have a lovely collection of daily Saints from the Pauline Books, Caelo et in Terry: 365 Days with the Saints that is fun, instructive and easy to grab and put down.

My Confirmation Saint is Saint Joseph, and here for Consecration to St. Joseph: the Wonders of our Spiritual Father published by Marian Press.

Lives of Saints

• Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (from Amazon)
  • perhaps Twain's greatest work: entirely derived from St. Joan's testimonies at trial
  • here from Archive.org available for online reading or download in various formats
• The Autobiography of St. Ignatius (Amazon)
  • a wonderful, inspiring story, although incomplete in terms of his legacy and the Society of Jesus
    • (I listened to an audio version.)
  • Archive.org: The Testament of Ignatius Loyola
  • Project Gutenberg: The Autobiography of St. Ignatius - wonderful! (I listened to an audio version.)

Biblical historicity

A huge part of my personal journey into the Church included investigation into the early Church and Biblical historicity. I strongly recommend this very distinguished work by Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels Blomberg is not Catholic (raised Lutheran became a Baptist), but denominational perspectives are absent from this work, which is focused on -- and convincingly argues -- the historicity of the New Testament Gospels.

Tough, deep read that requires much advance learning , but worth the effort.

Apologetics

As I have mentioned here, this website is not interested in apologetics. RejoiceinFaith.org lets the Catholic teachings stand for themselves. Nevertheless, it's hard to talk Christianity without running into the obstacles to its fuller comprehension imposed on the modern world by Luther and other "religious reformers."

For a quick read on going from Protestant to Catholic, see John Bergsma's "Stunned by Scripture: How the Bible made me a Catholic." It's his personal story and was recommended to me by my lay catechist (my priestly catechist is blessedly ignorant of protestant theology, lol) who thought I was in that type of conversion: I was not, but I read it and do recommend it to anyone who is.

Catholicism & Catechism

Books I own but have not read yet

• Coming Soon: Unlocking the Book of Revelation, by Michael Barber
• Loving God's Children: The Church and Gender Ideology by John J. Bursch
• Theology and Sanity by Frank Sheed

C.S. Lewis

• I own and have started but not fully read Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. I don't feel the need to read these, although my wife insists that I finish Screwtape. She says it was extremely disturbing for him to write, and we can feel that same disturbance when reading -- and profit from it. As for Mere Christianity, it's an important apologetic, but not Catholic, although he claims not to select between denominations. As with anything Protestant, even Church of England or its American counter-part, the Episcopal Church, it will always fall short of the full Catholic faith.

Books I do not own yet

Father Robert Spitzer

I can't wait to get into Father Robert Spitzer's The Four Levels of Happiness: Your Path to Personal Flourishing which investigates philosophical and theological thought on finding happiness. Another book of his to note is his recent Science, Reason, and Faith: Discovering the Bible which harmonizes science and faith. I have not read either one yet.