Great Books
Reading List
Judaism/Christianity: ¡°The Flood,¡± Gen 4-9;Judaism, The Talmud
Hinduism: The Bhagadva Gita
Buddhism: ¡°Hare Mark in the Moon¡± and ¡°The Gateless Gate¡±
Islam: Qur¡¯an 2 ¡°The Cow¡± and sels. on Jesus
Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, The Oresteia, Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides
Anonymous: Epic of Gilgamesh (std ver.), trans. Kovac
Anonymous: ¡°Martyrdom of Perpetua¡±
Anselm: ¡°Ontological Argument,¡± Proslogium 1-6
Aquinas: ¡°Five Ways¡± and ¡°Natural Law¡± in Summa Theologica
Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics
Augustine: Confessions 8, City of God 8.1-13
Bacon: ¡°Idols¡± in Novum Organum Bk 1, Aphorisms 1-130
Calvin: Institutes 1.1-1.7
Camus: ¡°Myth of Sisyphus¡± in The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, tr. O¡¯Brien
Catherine of Siena: Dialogue of Divine Providence (sels.)
Dante: The Inferno
Darwin: Descent of Man, ch. 1
Descartes: ¡°Certainty of Self and God¡± in Meditations, 1-3
Dostoevsky: ¡°The Grand Inquisitor¡± in The Brothers Karamazov
Dubois: ¡°Souls of Black Folk,¡± in Three Negro Classics
Epictetus: Discourses 1.6-1.16-17
Erasmus/Luther: Discourse on Freewill
Freud: Civilization and Its Discontents Gutierrez: ¡°Option for the Poor,¡± in Mysterium
Liberationist: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology; tr. Barr.
Herodotus: Histories Bks 1, (sels.) 6-7 (McCauley)
Hobbes: Leviathan Bk 1, ¡°Of Man¡±
Homer: Iliad Abridged, Odyssey Abridged, Bks 9-24
Hume: ¡°Of Miracles¡± in Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love, Revelation 1
Kant: ¡°Reason and the Question of God¡± in Critique of Pure Reason
Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling, Prelude/Panegyric upon Abraham
Lewis: Mere Christianity Bk. 1
Locke: ¡°Ideas¡± in Essay Concerning Human Understanding 2.1-2.3, Second Treatise on Government
Lucretius: The Nature of Things Bks 2, 3, 6 (sels.)
Machiavelli: The Prince
Marx-Engels: Communist Manifesto
ML King: The Letter from Birmingham Jail
Nietzsche: ¡°Truth and Lie in an Extra Moral Sense¡± (pp. 42-47); ¡°The Gay Science¡± (pp. 93-102); ¡°The Genealogy of Morals¡± (pp. 447-454); ¡°Human, All Too Human¡± (pp. 51-64); ¡°Beyond Good and Evil¡± (pp. 443-54)
Plato: Republic, Apology
Plutarch: Lives: ¡°Julius Caesar,¡± ¡°Cato the Younger¡±, ¡°Lycurgus,¡± ¡°Solon¡±
Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Sappho: Poems from the 6th c. BC
Schaeffer: How Should We Then Live? (sels.)
Shelley: Fankenstein, The Modern Prometheus
Smith, Adam: The Wealth of Nations, from E. Butler¡¯s Condensed Wealth of Nations
Sun Tzu: The Art of War 5th c. BC Chinese military tactics/Taoism
Thucydides: Peloponnesian Wars1.1-88, 2.1-58 (Thillwell)
Tocqueville: Democracy in America, (sels.)
US Founders: Declaration of Independence; US Constitution, Bill of Rights
Van Doren: History of Knowledge
Virgil: The Essential Aeneid
Washington: Up From Slavery