AESCHYLUS—Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides (Ancient Greek writer
whose works explore many human dilemmas)
ANSELM—Proslogium, Monologium, Cur Deus Homo (11th century founder of
Scholasticism, a movement which used logic to prove Christian doctrines
and to ferret out the answers to theological and other questions)
AQUINAS—Summa Theologica (Masterpiece of the most influential medieval
Catholic writer. This multi-volume work is so long that you may prefer
to read the condensed Summa of the Summa, available at discount from
Conservative Book Club)
ARISTOTLE—De Anima, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, Physics, Poetics
(One of the three fathers of Greek philosophy, and arguably the man who,
besides the biblical writers, most influenced Western thought)
ATHANASIUS—On the Incarnation (Church Father who successfully squelched
the Arian controversy almost single-handed, leading to the phrase
“Athanasius contra mundum,” or “Athanasius against the world.”)
AUGUSTINE—Confessions (Prodigal youth who converted to Christianity in
the 4th century and became a major force in Church theology)
AUSTEN—Emma, Pride and Prejudice (Flawless novels of 19th century
British manners by one of the first women novelists)
BACH—St. Matthew Passion (Great church music from the greatest church
musician)
BACON—Novum Organon (17th century work that introduces the modern
scientific method)
CALVIN—Institutes of the Christian Religion (An appeal to the king of
France to stop persecuting Protestants, and incidentally an organized
description of the entire Protestant theological system)
CERVANTES—Don Quixote (The famed “tilter at windmills,” demonstrating
the dilemma of the modern man who may yearn for heroic deeds but who
lives in an increasingly petty and nonheroic age)
CHAUCER—Canterbury Tales (From the father of English literature)
CLEMENT—Exhortation to the Greeks (Another influential Church Father,
considered the founder of Alexandrian theology)
DANTE—Divine Comedy (Italian Dante’s concept of heaven and hell has
greatly influenced Western literature)
DESCARTES—Discourse on Method (“I think, therefore I am”)
DOSTOYEVSKI—The Brothers Karamazov (Analysis in novel form of the moody,
ultimately penitent, soul in novel form from this moody, penitent
Russian)
FREUD—The Interpretation of Dreams, A Case of Obsessional Neurosis, The
Ego and the Id (Freud’s underlying theory is terribly wrong, and may in
fact have been prompted by his need to justify his own sexual sins and
other misdeeds, but the religion of psychoanalysis which he founded, in
which denial of guilt is substituted for forgiveness of guilt, has
arguably become the civil religion of the entire modern Western world)
HEGEL—Phenomenology of Spirit (Another German thinker with a major
influence on the modern world, Hegel believed that a “thesis”—a
particular worldview—and its “antithesis”—an opposing worldview—would
always ultimately meld into a new “synthesis,” which in turn would
eventually meld with its own antithesis, and so on. For one example,
Communism (a thesis) and capitalism (an antithesis) meld into the
“managed state,” in which Big Business and Big Government cooperate.
Such cooperation is largely made possible by the mindset Hegel
introduced.)
HERODOTUS—The Persian Wars (Ancient Greek history from the “first
historian” outside the biblical writers, otherwise known as “the father
of history”)
HOMER—Iliad, Odyssey (The greatest poet of the ancient world. His tales
of Odysseus trying to make his way home in the face of constant
interference from gods and goddesses must be read in order to understand
much of Western literature)
HUME—Treatise on Human Nature (18th century British thinker who argued
that all human knowledge comes from what we experience through our
senses, as opposed to the Christian view that God can and has revealed
facts outside our sensory experiences)
HUSSERL—Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy (Founder of 20th
century philosophical movement by that name)
KANT—Prolegomena, Foundations of a Metaphysic of Morals (Major thinker
behind the abandonment of classical Christian thinking in favor of a
“leap of faith”)
KIERKEGAARD—Fear and Trembling (“Christian” existentialist who promoted
the search for a “religious experience” in place of religious truth.
Very influential, moved many from “Is it true?” to “Does it work for
me?”)
LEWIS—God in the Dock, Essays (Excellent defense of the Christian
religion, from the author of the Screwtape Letters, the Narnia books,
and dozens of other fiction and nonfiction masterpieces)
LINCOLN—Speeches (As in “President Abraham Lincoln”)
LOCKE—Second Treatise on Government (Political philosopher who
influenced the Founding Fathers)
LUCRETIUS—On the Nature of Things (Major Roman philosopher)
LUTHER—Commentary on Galatians (John Wesley became “born again” as a
result of reading this book of Luther’s. A powerful exposition of the
teaching that we are saved by “faith alone,” from one of the major
fathers of the Protestant Reformation)
MACHIAVELLI—The Prince (From this discussion of the duties and
strategies of rulers, we get the word “Machiavellian,” meaning “amoral
and sneaky.” Naturally, rulers and the elite have studied this treatise
for hundreds of years.)
MARX—Das Capital (The work ultimately responsible for hundreds of
millions of deaths, from the father of Communism. Marx, the great
“friend of the working man” who paid his housemaid slave wages and made
her his mistress as well, believed that capitalism would die on its own,
but Lenin and his followers decided to help it along with any means
necessary, including terrorizing the people, lying to them, and denying
the system’s failure even when that failure became evident.)
MILTON—Paradise Lost (Famous poem that deals with Heaven and Hell,
including Milton’s own psychoanalysis of Satan and others.)
MONTAIGNE—Essays (Famous 16th century French author whose prose style
set the standard)
NIETZSCHE—Beyond Good and Evil (German book that introduced the idea of
the “superman,” not a flying being who wears Spandex, but a noble soul
who, by virtue of his superior qualities and strength, is above all
human laws. The Nazis loved this book.)
PASCAL—Pensées (Literally, “thoughts.” The great French Christian author
handles eternal questions in a cool, elegant manner.)
PLATO—Apology, Crito, Euthyphro, Gorgias, Meno, Phaedo, Republic,
Theatetus (The second great father of Greek philosophy. He taught
Aristotle, who ended up disagreeing violently with many of Plato’s
conclusions. Plato believed in the existence of eternal realities of
which earthly objects are only “shadows.” In the Republic, written over
2,000 years ago, he also designed a system of socialist government run
by “philosopher kings” who control everything from childbearing to
military service (for both sexes!) which eerily resembles what Hillary
and her friends are trying to introduce today.)
PLUTARCH—Greek Lives, Roman Lives (All the dirt on many famous figures
of the ancient world. Parts are not suitable for reading by children—for
them, obtain an expurgated edition.)
ROUSSEAU—Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, Social Contract (The
Frenchman who believed people should be “forced to be free” if they
didn’t want to accept the “freedom” of a system based on rebellion
against God’s laws and worship of Nature and Reason. This later
culminated in many clients for Madame Guillotine during the French
Revolution, where Rousseau’s theories were enthusiastically enforced.
All from the man who deposited his own babies at the nearest orphanage
door, while exhorting French mothers to nurse their babies and extolling
natural affection.)
SHAKESPEARE—Coriolanus, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, The Tempest ,Troilus
and Cressida (Actually, anything by Shakespeare is famous, and
everything should be read in order to understand the countless literary
allusions to his work that pop up everywhere from classical novels to
Star Trek.)
SMITH—Wealth of Nations (Proponent of an “invisible hand,” e.g., the
hand of God, which caused supply and demand to balance in an economy if
government didn’t step in to muck up the waters. The father of “laissez
faire” capitalism, vastly influential in an earlier America, ignored by
economists today who love the thought of government tinkering with the
economy.)
SOPHOCLES—Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Ancient Greeks
agonizing over awful dilemmas, thus revealing their character in these
plays.)
SPENSER—The Faerie Queene (Very long 16th century poem that influenced
the later Romantic movement)
SWIFT—Gulliver’s Travels (The original “angry young man,” Dean Jonathan
Swift acerbically trashed what he hated about 19th century England in
this series of allegorical stories.)
TACITUS—Annals (First century Roman public official whose histories
cover much of the period of the early Emperors)
THUCYDIDES—Peloponessian War (Another early Greek historian, chronicling
the devastating war between Athens and Sparta.)
TOCQUEVILLE—Democracy in America (Insightful commentary on what made
America great, and how we could lose that greatness, written by a French
count who visited us several centuries ago.)
TOLSTOY—War and Peace (The original “empire” book. Someone has said that
the only two ways to write a great novel are to either chronicle the
entire history of a nation or to chronicle a single day in one man’s
life. Solzhenitsyn did the latter, with A Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovitch. A century earlier, the pacifist Russian Tolstoy did the
former, with his epic War and Peace. You will have to master the
intricacies of Russian nicknames to understand this monumental book,
which in turn inspired an eight-hour movie.)
TWAIN—Huckleberry Finn (Insight into the American soul from the
quintessential American writer, through the eyes of a young boy having
adventures.)
VIRGIL—Aeneid (Monumentally famous Roman work: the “Odyssey” of Rome,
telling the story of Aeneas and his wanderings after Troy fell, and
incidentally promoting the idea that Emperor Augustus was descended from
the goddess Aphrodite, ostensible mother of Aeneas.)
