I am not a professional theologian. But we laymen can be amateur theologians. Indeed we must, if we are to be “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks… the reason for the hope that [we] have” (1 Pet. 3:15). In the past, theological knowledge was limited to theologians or seminarians who could access the vast libraries of universities and seminaries. Now much is available to buy second-hand or to read for free online, if you look carefully.
Sadly, a lot of theological writing is not easy to read. But some authors have a knack of translating theologian-speak into plainer English. Those books in the lists below which I have found to be particularly readable and enjoyable I have marked with an asterisk (*).
The Bible
I like the New International Version [NIV] – at least, the edition I bought years ago, pre-inclusive language. Sadly for me, though, the translators of that version have declined to translate any of the deuterocanonical books. So, for the complete “Catholic” Bible I usually go to either the Revised Standard Version [RSV] or the New Catholic Bible (which is really the “old” Jerusalem Bible [JB] – as opposed to the New Jerusalem Bible [NJB] – is that clear…?)
Reading the gospels in parallel is fascinating. I love this book:
*Gospel Parallels: A Synopsis of the First
Three Gospels, ed. Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr.
(Thomas
Nelson, Nashville, 1979)
Also, it is interesting how differently different translations render really important concepts. To help me clarify some of these issues, I use online “interlinear” translations, such as those found on www.scripture4all.org or biblehub.com. For the Septuagint, including deuterocanonicals, try www.ellopos.net.
patristics
The writings of the ancient Christians are fascinating, and essential for understanding the development of Christian doctrine. The following book is a wonderful compendium of excerpts from the early Church fathers, including a very useful topic index. A great place from which to start exploring these writers.
*The Faith of the Early Fathers vol. 1, ed. William A. Jurgens
(Liturgical,
Collegeville, 1970)
The massive online collection found at www.ccel.org is a treasure trove, though the translations are often quite archaic and difficult to read. I would not recommend reading them cover-to-cover: there is just too much! Instead, start with some of the references in the text of this book (or other books) and work out from there. These are the volumes I have found the most useful for my purposes, though volume 1 in the following list I find especially fascinating, and worth reading (slowly) cover-to-cover, as it contains the earliest Christian writings outside the Bible:
Ante-Nicene
Fathers:
vol. 1 – Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Justin,
Irenaeus etc.
vol. 2 – Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras etc.
vol. 3 – Tertullian
vol. 4 – Tertullian, Origen etc.
vol. 5 – Hippolytus, Cyprian etc.
vol. 6 – misc.
vol. 7 – Didache
etc.
vol. 8 – misc.
vols. 1-14 – Augustine & John Chrysostom
vol. 1-14 – Eusebius, Socrates, Athanasius, Gregory
of Nyssa, Jerome, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory of Nazianzus, Hilary of Poitiers etc.
In contrast to the above volumes, the translations in the following editions are less literal, and easier to read. (The Penguin edition of Early Christian Writings below is a happy substitute for some of the content of the CCEL Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 1 listed above.)
*Early Christian Writings, ed. Maxwell Staniforth (Penguin, 1988)
*Eusebius, The History of the Church (Penguin, London, 1989)
*Ann Field, The Binding of the Strong Man: the teaching of St. Leo the Great
(Word of Life,
Ann Arbor, 1976)
*Ann Field, From Darkness to Light: How One Became a Christian in the Early Church
(Conciliar,
Ben Lomond, 1997)
Edward
Yarnold, The Awe Inspiring Rites of
Initiation: Baptismal Homilies
of the Fourth Century (St. Paul, Slough,
1981)
There is much more you can find online, on websites such as www.earlychristianwritings.com, www.newadvent.org, www.tertullian.org and of course good old www.ccel.org.
Some good books about the Church fathers:
*Benedict XVI,
Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to
Augustine
(Ignatius, San
Francisco, 2008)
Christopher
A. Hall, Reading Scripture with the Church
Fathers
(InterVarsity,
Downers Grove, 1998)
*Bryan M. Litfin, Getting to Know the Church Fathers
(Brazos, Grand Rapids, 2007)
(Of these, the last is by an Evangelical, and is particularly readable.)
Jewish
Many of the ancient Jewish rabbinical texts (Mishnah, Talmud, Targumim), and much more, can be read for free online, on websites such as www.chabad.org, halakhah.com, www.hebrewbooks.org, sefaria.org, targum.info, and toseftaonline.com.
These I have found particularly useful in working on this book, though none of them is easy reading:
R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of
the Old Testament in English
(OUP, Oxford, 1913), on
www.pseudepigrapha.com
Passover Hagadah, ed. Rabbi Bernard Goldenberg (Yeshiva Mesivta
Rabbi Chaim Berlin,
New York,
1945)
Charles Duke Yonge, The Works of
Philo Judaeus (H. G. Bohn, London),
on www.earlychristianwritings.com
And here are some modern writings about the Jewish faith:
*Gerald L.
Bruns, “Midrash and Allegory”, in The
Literary Guide to the Bible,
ed. Robert
Alter & Frank Kermode (Fontana, London, 1987)
Roger Le Déaut, “The Targums:
Aramaic Versions of the Bible”,
on www.notredamedesion.org
William W. Francis, Celebrate the Feasts of the Lord: The Christian
Heritage of
the Sacred Jewish Festivals (Crest,
Alexandria, 1997)
E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison
of Patterns of Religion
(Fortress,
Minneapolis, 2017)
Ira Steingroot, Keeping Passover (Harper, San Francisco,
1995)
*Rabbi Mayer Twersky, “And It Happened at Midnight”, on www.torahweb.org
H. Wheeler Robinson, Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel
(Fortress ,
Philadelphia, 1980)
(I think that Rabbi Twersky’s article is particularly brilliant.)
on the history
& development of Christian doctrine
Here are some good solid academic texts – not necessarily easy reading – by excellent theologians, on the development of Christian doctrine:
Oscar Cullmann, The Early Church (SCM, London, 1966)
J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds
(Longmans, London, 1967)
J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (A. & C.
Black, London, 1965)
Alister E. McGrath, Studies in Doctrine (Zondervan, Grand Rapids,
1997)
Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the
Development of Doctrine,
vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600)
(University of
Chicago, 1975)
Christopher
Stead, Philosophy in Christian Antiquity
(CUP, Cambridge, 2003)
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God
(SPCK, London, 1992)
Some other Christian theological books:
The Literary Guide to the Bible, ed. Robert Alter & Frank
Kermode
(Fontana,
London, 1987)
*Karen Armstrong, The Bible: The Biography (Atlantic,
London, 2008)
*Karen Armstrong, The Case for God (Vintage, London, 2010)
*Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (SPCK,
London, 2008)
Dictionary of Biblical Theology, ed. Xavier Léon-Dufour
(The Word
Among Us, Ijamsville, 1988)
Robert L. Wilken,
The Myth of Christian Beginnings
(SCM, London, 1979)
And I find it is hard to go wrong with C. S. Lewis:
*C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Fount, 1988)
C. S. Lewis, Prayer: Letters to Malcolm (Fount, London, 1977)
*C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (HarperCollins,
London, 2002)
C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (Fount, London, 1998)
C. S. Lewis, Screwtape Proposes a Toast (Fount, London, 1991)
official Catholic
Church documents
These two tomes
pretty much cover anything you could want to know about the current official teaching
of the Catholic Church:
Catechism of the Catholic
Church (Geoffrey Chapman,
London, 1994)
Vatican II: The Conciliar and
Post-Conciliar Documents,
ed. Austin Flannery (Dominican, Dublin, 1992)
Here are some other
documents and papal writings which I have found handy:
The Interpretation of the Bible
in the Church, on catholic-resources.org
John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, on www.newadvent.org
John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, on w2.vatican.va
John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, on w2.vatican.va
Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, on
w2.vatican.va
And you can find pretty much any Catholic Church document, ancient or modern, at w2.vatican.va.
modern Catholic writings
These books are about the Catholic faith in general:
Avery Dulles, The Catholicity of the Church (
Andrew Greeley, The Catholic Imagination (University of California, Berkeley, 2000)
*Catholic for a Reason: Scripture
and the Mystery of the Family of God, ed. Scott Hahn
& Leon J. Suprenant Jr. (Emmaus Road,
Steubenville, 1998)
*Peter Kreeft, Fundamentals of the Faith: Essays in
Christian Apologetics
(Ignatius, San
Francisco, 1988)
*Peter Kreeft, Ecumenical Jihad: Ecumenism and the Culture
War
(Ignatius, San
Francisco, 1996)
*Joseph Ratzinger, “In the Beginning…”: a Catholic
Understanding of Creation
and the F
Roderick Strange, The Catholic Faith (OUP, Oxford, 1988)
(Of these, Scott Hahn is the grand old man of Catholic apologetics. And Peter Kreeft is very astute and witty.)
These are aimed mainly at explaining Catholicism to Protestants – sometimes quite charitably, sometimes less so:
Dave Armstrong,
A Biblical Defense of Catholicism
(Sophia Institute, Manchester, 2003)
Dave
Armstrong, The Catholic Verses (Sophia
Institute, Manchester, 2004)
Francis J. Beckwith, Return to Rome:
Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic
(Brazos, Grand Rapids, 2009)
David B. Currie, Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic
(Ignatius, San Francisco, 1996)
Scott Hahn, Reasons to Believe: How to Understand, Explain, and Defend
the Catholic Faith (Darton Longman &
Todd, London, 2010)
*Thomas Howard, Evangelical Is Not Enough (Ignatius, San
Francisco, 1984)
Karl Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack
on “Romanism”
by “Bible Christians” (Ignatius, San
Francisco, 1988)
*Dwight Longenecker, More Christianity (Our Sunday Visitor,
Huntington, 2002)
Taylor R. Marshall, The Catholic Perspective on Paul:
Paul and the Origins of Catholic
Christianity (Saint John, Dallas, 2010)
*Alan Schreck, Catholic and Christian: An Explanation of
Commonly Misunderstood
Catholic Beliefs (Servant,
Ann Arbor, 1984)
(I am particularly fond of the Frank Beckwith, Thomas Howard and Dwight Longenecker volumes, for their generally charitable tone.)
Orthodoxy
I am fully aware that I have sorely neglected this great branch of Christianity. Often Protestants see Catholicism and Orthodoxy as two aspects of the same thing. And often the Orthodox see Protestantism and Catholicism similarly. Neither of these views is really fair. But it is probably fair to say that in Orthodoxy both Catholics and Protestants can, and should, discern many of the greatest characteristics of our common ancient Christian faith. Kallistos (formerly Timothy) Ware is an Orthodox bishop, but he explains the Orthodox faith so well that I count him as one of the foremost Catholic apologists.
Daniel B. Clendenin, Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western
Perspective
(Baker, Grand
Rapids, 2003)
Daniel B. Clendenin, “Partakers of
Divinity: The Orthodox Doctrine of Theosis”,
in JETS 37/3
(Sep. 1994), on www.etsjets.org
*Donald Fairbairn, Eastern
Orthodoxy through Western Eyes (Westminster John Knox,
Louisville,
2002)
Anthony Ugolnik, The Illuminating Icon (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids,
1989)
Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (Penguin, London,
1964)
*Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (St. Vladimir’s,
Crestwood, 2001)
*Kallistos Ware, “What Can Evangelicals and Orthodox
Learn From One Another?”
(North Park Univ.,
Chicago, 2011), on www.ancientfaith.com
(If you can read Ware’s The
Orthodox Way and not come out with a deep and abiding respect for the
Orthodox faith, there is something wrong with you…)
even-handed and
charitable books about inter-communal understanding
These ones are specifically about the Catholic-Protestant interface:
Albert H. Boudreau, The Born-Again Catholic (Authors Choice,
San Jose, 2000)
*Evangelicals and Catholics Together: Toward a Common Mission,
ed. Charles Colson
& Richard John Neuhaus (Word, D
*Your Word is Truth, ed. Charles Colson & Richard John Neuhaus
(William B.
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2002)
Oscar Cullmann, Catholics and Protestants (Lutterworth,
London, 1960)
*Reclaiming the Great Tradition: Evangelicals, Catholics & Orthodox in
Dialogue,
ed. James S.
Cutsinger (InterVarsity, Downers Grove, 1997)
Peter
Kreeft, Catholics and Protestants: What Can We Lean from Each Other?
(Ignatius, San
Francisco, 2017)
*Dwight Longenecker
& John Martin, Challenging Catholics:
A Catholic-Evangelical Dialogue
(Paternoster, Carlisle, 2001)
Mark A. Noll & Carolyn Nystrom,
Is the Reformation Over? – An Evangelical
Assessment
of Contemporary Roman Catholicism
(Baker, Grand Rapids, 2005)
*Andrew T. le Peau, “As Different as
We Think: Catholics and Protestants”,
on www.booksandculture.com
*Catholics and Evangelicals: Do They Share a Common Future?,
ed. Thomas P.
Rausch (Paulist, New York, 2000)
William M. Shea, The Lion and the Lamb: Evangelicals and
Catholics in America
(OUP, Oxford,
2004)
Thomas F.
Torrance, Theology in Reconciliation: Essays
towards Evangelical and Catholic.
Unity in East and West (Geoffrey
Chapman, London, 1975)
These have a broader focus, but are nevertheless very helpful:
Paul E. Billheimer, Love Covers: A Biblical Design for Unity in the
Body of Christ
(Christian
Literature Crusade, Fort Washington, 1995)
David Bjork & Stephen March, As Pilgrims Progress: Learning how Christians
can walk
hand in hand when they don’t see eye to eye
(Aventine, San Diego, 2015)
*David E. Bjork, Unfamiliar Paths: The Challenge of
Recognizing the Work of Christ
in Strange Clothing (William Carey,
Pasadena, 1997)
Avery Dulles, Models of the Church (Image, Garden
City, 1987)
C. T. R. Hewer, A Journey into Understanding: Reflections on
the UI programme
in London, on www.chrishewer.org
These come from the point of view of “reformed catholicity”, a series of movements within the Protestant churches toward retrieval of lost catholic heritage:
Michael
Allen & Scott R. Swain, Reformed
Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval
for Theology and Biblical Interpretation
(Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2015)
The Catholicity of the Reformation, ed.
Carl E. Braaten & Robert W. Jenson
(Eerdmans, Grand
Rapids, 1996)
W. Bradford
Littlejohn, The Mercersburg Theology and
the Quest for Reformed Catholicity
(Pickwick,
Eugene, 2009)
Philip
Schaff, The Principle of Protestantism as
related to the Present State of the Church,
trans.
John W. Nevin (German Reformed Church, Chambersburg, 1845),
on www.archive.org
*Robert E. Webber, Common Roots: A Call to Evangelical Maturity
(Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, 1979)
modern Evangelical
and Protestant writings
On the Church:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints (Harper &
Row, New York, 1963)
*Robert McAfee Brown, The Spirit of Protestantism (OUP, New
York, 1961)
Edmund P. Clowney, The Church (Inter-Varsity, Leicester,
1995)
Charles Colson, The Body: Being Light in Darkness (Word,
Dallas, 1992)
Evangelical Affirmations, ed. Kenneth S. Kantzer & Carl F. H.
Henry
(Academie, Grand
Rapids, 1990)
Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster (Crossway,
Wheaton, 1995)
About Catholicism, with varying degrees of understanding and/or accuracy:
Norman Geisler
& Ralph E. MacKenzie, Roman Catholics
and Evangelicals:
Agreements and Differences (Baker, Grand
Rapids, 2000)
Erwin Lutzer, The Doctrines That Divide: A Fresh Look at
the Historic Doctrines
That Separate Christians (Kregel, Grand
Rapids, 1998)
James R. White, The Roman Catholic Controversy (Bethany House,
Minneapolis, 1996)
Reformation
writings
I have read all of these online:
John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, on ccel.org
John Calvin, Short Treatise on the Supper of Our Lord, on www.the-highway.com
Martin Luther, “The Babylonian
Captivity of the Church”, on www.onthewing.org
Martin Luther, A
Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, on www.ccel.org
Martin Luther, “Concerning Christian
Liberty”, on www.iclnet.org
Martin Luther, The Magnificat – translated and explained, on
www.godrules.net|
Martin Luther: “An Open Letter on
Translating”, on www.bible-researcher.com
Martin Luther, “Preface to James and
Jude”, on matt1618.freeyellow.com
Martin Luther, “Preface to the Epistle
to the Hebrews”, on godrules.net
Martin Luther, “Preface to the New Testament”, on godrules.net
“Transcript of the Marburg Colloquy”,
on divdl.library.yale.edu
The Latin Works of Huldreich Zwingli, vol. II, ed. William John
Hinke, on archive.org
Now here’s a fascinating book, by a sixteenth-century Catholic evangelical:
Aonio
Paleario, The Benefit of Christ’s Death
(Bell & Daldy, London, 1855),
on archive.org
books about the Reformation
and Reformed theology
Roland
Bainton, Here I Stand (Lion, Oxford,
1990)
*Alister E. McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction
(Basil
Blackwell, Oxford), 1989
Eric W. Gritsch & Robert W.
Jenson, Lutheranism: The Theological
Movement
and its Confessional Writings (Fortress,
Philadelphia, 1976)
These two books are about one of my favourite Catholics from the Reformation period, a passionate reformer who embraced the concept of “justification by faith” some years before Luther did; and who tried – and failed – to broker reunification between Catholics and Lutherans:
Elisabeth G. Gleason, Gasparo Contarini: Venice, Rome, and Reform
(University of
California, Berkeley, 1993)
Peter Matheson, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg (OUP,
New York, 1972)
books on Scripture
and Tradition
Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Introduction to Interpreting
Scripture,
ed. Bruce
Corley, Steve W. Lemke & Grant I. Lovejoy (Broadman & Holman,
Nashville, 2002)
*Yves Congar, The Meaning of Tradition, trans. A. N.
Woodrow
(Ignatius, San
Francisco, 2004)
*Peter
Enns, Inspiration and Incarnation:
Evangelicals and the Problem of the
Old Testament (Baker, Grand Rapids, 2015)
John Henry
Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian
Doctrine
(Penguin, Harmondsworth,
1974)
Bruce
Shelley, By What Authority? – The
Standards of Truth in the Early Church
(Paternoster,
Grand Rapids, 1966)
George H. Tavard, Holy Writ or Holy Church (Burns &
Oates, London, 1959)
(Yves Congar – Catholic, and Peter Enns – Evangelical, are
both brilliant and very readable…)
writings on salvation & justification
Some official documents:
Council of Trent: session VI
(1547), on www.ewtn.com
Justification by Faith, ed. H. G. Anderson, T. A. Murphy & J.
A. Burgess
(Augsburg,
Minneapolis, 1985)
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (Eerdmans, Grand
Rapids, 2000)
Some excellent studies:
James D. G. Dunn, “The New Perspective on Paul”
(Univ. of Manchester, 1982),
on markgoodacre.org
Hans Küng, Justification (Burns & Oates, London, 1981)
Anthony N. S. Lane, Justification by Faith in Catholic-Protestant
Dialogue
(T&T
Clark, London, 2002)
Alister E. McGrath,
Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian
Doctrine of Justification
(CUP,
Cambridge, 2005)
Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Fortress,
Philadelphia, 1983)
George H. Tavard, Justification: An Ecumenical Study
(Paulist, New York, 1983)
*N. T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus
the Real Founder
of Christianity? (William B. Eerdmans, Grand
Rapids, 1997)
N. T. Wright, “New Perspectives
on Paul” (10th
Edinburgh Dogmatics Conference, 2003),
on ntwrightpage.com
And some more personal views on the subject:
Benedict XVI , “The Doctrine of
Justification: from Works to Faith”, on w2.vatican.va
Derrick Olliff, “All in the Family”, on beatenbrains.blogspot.co.uk
R. C. Sproul, Faith Alone (Baker, Grand Rapids, 1996)
R. C. Sproul, “Tilting at Scarecrows”,
on www.ligonier.org
books on Church, liturgy
& the sacraments
This is what Catholic Sunday liturgies consist of these days:
The Sunday Missal (Collins, London, 2011)
And these are some examples of their ancient forebears:
Didascalia Apostolorum, trans. R. Hugh Connelly, on www.earlychristianwritings.com
Hippolytus, The Apostolic Tradition,
trans. Kevin P. Edgecomb, on www.bombaxo
Early Sources of the Liturgy, ed. Lucien
Deiss (Geoffrey Chapman, London, 1967)
Here are some modern books about these topics:
Hans Boersma, Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental
Tapestry
(William B. Eerdmans,
Grand Rapids, 2011)
Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (Dacre, Westminster, 1943)
Tim Gray, Sacraments in Scripture: Salvation History Made Present
(Emmaus Road,
Steubenville, 2010)
Scott Hahn, The Lamb’s Supper (Doubleday, New York, 1999)
Catholic for a Reason III:
Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass, ed. Scott Hahn
& Regis J. Flaherty (Emmaus Road,
Steubenville, 2004)
Gary Macy, The Banquet’s Wisdom: A Short History of the Theologies
of the Lord’s Supper (OSL, Ashland City,
2005)
*Brant Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist
(Doubleday, New York, 2011)
*Brant Pitre, Jesus the Bridegroom
(Image, New York, 2018)
Joseph Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy (Ignatius, San
Francisco, 2000)
Isaac Todd, The Posture in Prayer, or God to be Worshipped with the Body as Well
as the Mind (Presbyterian Board of
Publication, Philadelphia, 1851),
on www.covenanter.org
*Robert E. Webber, Worship Old and New (Zondervan, Grand Rapids,
1982)
Edward Yarnold, The Awe Inspiring Rites of Initiation: Baptismal Homilies
of the
Fourth Century (St. Paul,
Slough, 1981)
(Of these, the Brant Pitre and the Robert Webber volumes are my favourites – one by a Catholic, one by an Evangelical. The former volume is a superb introduction to the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. If you are made of stern stuff, read also the Gregory Dix volume: written by an Anglican monk, it is long and hard, but fascinating and utterly brilliant.)
writings on Peter and the popes
Oscar Cullmann, Peter: Disciple, Apostle, Martyr (SCM, London,
1962)
Thomas Mor Athanasius, “Primacy of
St. Peter”, on www.syriacchristianity.info
J. M. R. Tillard, The Bishop of Rome, trans. John de Satgé
(SPCK, London, 1983)
Here is a rare thing: an easy-to-read – indeed, light-hearted – book by a pope:
Albino Luciani, Illustrissimi: The Letters of Pope John Paul I (Collins, London, 1979)
writings on Mary
Modern books:
Tim Perry, Mary for Evangelicals (InterVarsity, Downers Grove, 2006)
Ancient texts:
Nestorius of Constantinople, Second
Epistle to Cyril of Alexandria, on www.monachos.net
The Council of Ephesus - 431
A.D., on www.papalencyclicals.net
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