Okay, so this is personal and highly subjective and I’m putting out my list only so that you will respond and remind me of all the great literature I haven’t put on the list.
5. Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory – Greene gets to the heart of what is strength, weakness, sin and grace through this story of the “whiskey priest.”
4. Shusaku Endo, Silence – often called “the Japanese Graham Greene,” Endo’s novel of faith and persecution in early modern Japan made me question all my certainties.
3. Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited – I’m not especially impressed by Waugh’s devotion to the British class system, but I found myself totally immersed in the grand sweep of this Catholic “Gone With The Wind.”
2. Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins – Percy writes searingly beautiful prose and, even if you don’t agree with him, you have to acknowledge the force of his argument.
1. Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain – Happily, I called this post “Top 5 Catholic Books” because this isn’t a novel, but a memoir. One that changed my life by drawing me towards a Religious vocation.
Hmm. Only one woman on the list. How could I have left out Flannery O’Connor or Rumer Godden? And what about G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ron Hansen and about a thousand others. I’m in trouble here. …
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Eric 03.13.09 at 9:03 am
Since you said Catholic books, rather than Catholic literature, I have my three favorites I would like to share.
3. A Friendship Like No Other, William Barry SJ
2.God’s Passionate Desire, William Barry SJ
1.Come Healing God, Prayers During Illness, Joan Guntzelman and Lou Gunzelman
Maura 03.13.09 at 3:16 pm
Paul
1 of my personal favorites though I haven’t reread it recently is Rober Hugh Benson’s Come Rack, Come Rope. Saddly it is rather hard to come by a copy these days but totally worth it.
This is totally random but I have to admit one of my favorite “games” when reading popular fiction is trying to guess if an author is Catholic. They often have a surprising incarnational and earthy view.
Peace
Maura
P.S. I would be remiss if I neglected to give a plug for a book written by my highschool classmate, Sr. Mary Catharine Perry O.P, Amata Means Beloved. I loved the way it handled the call to religious life not as an escape but a call to a deeper relationship. I think it holds true for other vocations too including Marriage.
Sheila Campbell (yes, his sister) 03.15.09 at 2:52 pm
When I was on Sabbatical program in Corazon, Vila St. Dominic, Glasco NY we had this rather bizarre Salvatorian priest called Julian who gave us classes on literature. On this subject he was surprisingly good. One I remember to this day was a book about an ex-priest who was dying and visted by another priest. The last sentence in the book is “All is grace” – but I can´t remember the name of the book!! Can anyone?
O'Mahoney 03.16.09 at 7:27 am
Paul (and Sheila)
“All is grace” is the end of “The Diary of a Country Priest” by Georges Bernanos. The greatest of all Catholic novels, in my humble opinion.
I’d also put Flannery O’Connor’s short stories in my top five. Paul — your list is excellent. “Silence” and “Brideshead Revisited” are great choices. I prefer “The Moviegoer” to “Love in the Ruins” and I’d like to see Ron Hansen in there — “Mariette in Ecstasy” is a classic and “Atticus” is pretty good too.
I recently read and loved “Lying Awake” by Mark Salzman. I recommend it highly. A minor character says something in the novel that’s been my motto lately: “”I don’t have it all worked out, but I’m ready. I want to try working with what I’ve got instead of wishing I had something else.”
Paul 03.16.09 at 9:40 am
Eric, Maura, Sheila & O’Mahoney,
I’ve been remiss in replying to each of you – - I’ve been working on a talk on Ignatian Spirituality I have to give this (Monday) afternoon and so have been preoccupied. Mea Culpa.
Eric, how can I not be impressed that two of the three books you suggest are published by Loyola Press. Way to go!
Maura, thanks for the suggestion of the Robert Hugh Benson book. It will go on my list of “must reads.”
Sheila & O’Mahoney, you seem to have managed quite well without my presence! O’Mahoney, thanks for the information about Bernanos ending. I did consider him for my list, but not for long. “The Dairy of a Country Priest” did not shake my world like the others I listed but I did think long and hard about whether or not to put in “The Moviegoer” instead of “Love in the Ruins” so we’re not so far apart after all.
Paul
Michelle 03.16.09 at 8:14 pm
The Seven Storey Mountain is what led me to the Liturgy of the Hours – 25 years later I’m still joyfully praying the monastic round. I’m glad to know I’m not alone in being led to a life of prayer through Merton. I’ll put a plug in for Rumer Godden – In This House of Brede is a treasure. Karl Rahner’s Encounters in Silence is high on my list.
Paul 03.17.09 at 8:36 am
Michelle,
I’m always amazed at the number of people who have been profoundly touched by “The Seven Storey Mountain.” (Incidentally, when I first read the book, it had the British edition title of “Elected Silence.”)
I agree with you about “This House of Brede” being a treasure and I will make sure I dip into Rahner’s “Encounters in Silence.” Thank you for suggesting it.
Paul
Ron Montpetit 10.27.09 at 5:30 am
Thank you for the list Father Campbell, I’ve read several books on your list but there is one in particular is on the list that I would like to re-read, “The Seven Story Mountain,” as well as review the others.
There is a book, a great classic, related in theme to “The Seven Story Mountain” is available online, and is called The Cloud of Unknowing:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/anonymous2/cloud.html
I include the short synopsis: Some things never change, including the human need to connect with our creator. Prayer and meditation on the divine are techniques that have been used for millennia to grow in the knowledge of God. Cloud of Unknowing documents techniques used by the medieval monastic community to build and maintain that contemplative knowledge of God. Scholars date the anonymous authorship of Cloud of Unknowing to 1375, during the height of European monasticism. Written as a primer for the young monastic, the work is instructional, but does not have an austere didactic tone. Rather, the work embraces the reader with a maternal call to grow closer to God through meditation and prayer.
Thank you Father, for the list, greatly appreciated.
Ron