Customer Reviews

One Hundred Great Catholic Books: From the Early Centuries to the Present

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The Catholic Church fascinates many people. This is not a new phenomenon. It fascinated people in the past and no doubt will continue to do so. On the one hand it is an authoritarian, hierarchical Church with many rules and regulations. On the other, it's also the same Church that has produced some of the world's greatest writers, artists, musicians, and forward thinking people. James Joyce's famous expression "Here Comes Everybody" from FINNEGAN'S WAKE applies to the Catholic Church. Catholic thought is far more diverse than many realize and when this is discovered, a new level of fascination with the Church often emerges.
Don Brophy's ONE HUNDRED GREAT CATHOLIC BOOKS includes titles which demonstrate the diversity of Catholicism and what is often called "the Catholic imagination." His list of great books includes what any reader should expect to find, titles such as THE CONFESSIONS of St. Augustine, Pope John XXIII's JOURNAL OF A SOUL, St. Benedict's RULE, Dante's DIVINE COMEDY, Thomas Merton's SEVEN STOREY MOUNTAIN, Georges Bernanos's DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, and Dorothy Day's THE LONG LONELINESS to name a sampling. While his selections of what could be termed Catholic "classics" are what should be expected, he also has some interesting contemporary choices. Sr. Helen Prejean's DEAD MAN WALKING, Robert Ellsberg's ALL SAINTS, and Gustavo Gutierrez's WE DRINK FROM OUR OWN WELLS immediately come to mind. Some are surprising. Thomas Cahill's HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION and Alice McDermott's CHARMING BILLY would not be immediate choices of mine, but certainly both make sense. Some are controversial selections. My guess is that more than a few eyebrows are raised when authors such as Richard McBrien and James Carroll are included. However, the point is to show the variety of thought that is so much a part of Catholicism, and this Brophy does well.
Each selection is given a short summary the merits of the book and why it was selected. It's a perfect guide for a Catholic reading group or for anyone who wants to see that the Catholic Church is far broader than it's often portrayed to be.

What if you had a dear friend who was able to recommend one hundred great books in the Catholic tradition for you to read? That is the service Don Brophy provides in "One Hundred Great Catholic Books." What makes a book "Catholic?" For Brophy's purposes, the primary criteria was that the author be Catholic because as he correctly states, "people are Catholic, books are not." In a couple of instances, Brophy does include books whose authors were not Catholic because they wrote about Catholics or collaborated with Catholics.

Of course, there is a danger whenever one tries to make a list of one hundred great anything. There are always going to me some favorites that are left out and some included that people feel shouldn't be. Brophy is to be given credit for taking on the challenge. In addition, he includes a list of fifty other books at the end that come highly recommended as well. Brophy has chosen wisely, including most of the great classics of spirituality such as St. Augustine's "Confessions," "The Cloud of Unknowing," St. Teresa's "The Interior Castle," and St. Therese's "Story of a Soul." He has attempted to also include a broad spectrum of works, including history, apologetics, autobiography, and fiction. In these entries, one becomes acquainted with works by Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, Maria Montessori, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. For each book, Brophy provides a two-page synopsis and indication of why this book was important. One can learn much about Catholic thought simply by reading these capsules. Hopefully, however, " One Hundred Great Catholic Books" will inspire you to go out and actually read some of these classics. A reader ambitious enough to read all of them would have a strong understanding of Catholic thought.

Great Disappointments

What a loser! The first few recommended books are all great
classics, St. Augustine, Dante, Chesterton etc. Then Don Brophy
lists all kinds of wacko's , many anti-catholic or just kooks.
I can think of a huge number of great books I have read that are
Catholic, apparently the author must shop at the lower level discount
bookstore. He does not know what Catholicism is and one has to wonder
how he even got the book published.

The author cites and describes 100 works worth reading for anyone interested in the spiritual life, primarily Catholics, but no limited to them. Each summary does justice to the work cited. Highly recommended.

If you'd like a good list of Catholic Christian classics published before the twentieth century, then please consult the first 36 titles of these alleged "One Hundred Great Catholic Books."

Additionally, some of the remaining 64 titles are also modern Catholic "classics." However, it is quite unfortunate that, mixed with so many great books that raise the mind and heart to the Living God, the author chooses to feature prominently many titles, which are neither "great," nor even orthodoxly "Catholic."

The father of Liberation Theology (which in many forms has been severely challenged by the Magisterium) and Hans Küng (a public dissenter who publicly rejects the infallibility of the Papacy, supports contraception, the ordination of women, among many other dissenting positions) with many others stand strangely (but largely) on this list.

Bottom line: When a list of the best of 2000 years of Catholic Christianity is dominated by very recent dissenters to the Church's teaching and Traditions, it's time to wonder how much this book is a collection of the Great Western Canon, or rather the author's pet list of recent "innovators."

I'm sorry but a list of the Fathers of the Church, St. Bonaventure, St. Ignatius, St. Thérèse de Lisieux, and other giants of Christian thought and spirituality should not occupy a minority position to the favor of all the top dissenters to the Catholic faith in the last 50 years.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up this book at my local library, and was very pleasantly surprised, and grateful that the author had put so much sincere thought into this truly catholic book. I really did appreciate the way Donald Brophy selected books that were so varied in perspective, in the times they were written, and in discipline. There were works of personal narratives, biographies, philosophy, literature, poetry, and more. Being a Hindu who always seeks diversity of thought in my own religion, I was comforted and inspired by the beauty I found in the books Donald Brophy so succinctly introduces us to in this book.

The "downside" of this book, if I may say, is that now I have a reading list that is at least 50 books long! Gee, thanks a lot Mr. Brophy (smile). When an author or a book inspires you to read more, to find out more about the mysteries of the world, to continue to seek the truth, what more could you ask for?

Useful compilation and summaries of catholic writings from early times to the present. Since the list is limited to 100, some authors are missing, such as Bishop Fulton Sheen and Father Benedict Groeschel. If this reviewer compiled a list of 100, they would be on the list.

This is a terrific, well-written book for browsing--or to use as a starting point for serious research. Learned a lot!

Looking quickly at the titles of the titles chosen for this book, and the fact that the author had worked for a Catholic press, I thought this book would be helpful. Unfortunately, the Modernist and at times downright anti-Church bias present in the reviews made this a 'return to sender' book.
The author should just come out and say that women should be priests, and God is a goddess. He refers once to Mary as "proto-priest", and sings the praises of "centering prayer".
So be warned that if you are looking for solid Catholic commentary, avoid this book at all costs.