What Are Your Favorite/Least Favorite Non-Orthodox Books?

[Justin Kissel]

The title says it all: what are your favorite and least favorite non-Orthodox books that you've read?

My favorites would be:

• G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith (Don't always agree, but makes you think and has tremendous wit)
• C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (very insightful, and not altogether unorthodox)
• Luke Timothy Johnson, The Anchor Bible: The Letter of James (a good commentary)

My least favorites would be:

• Bob Enyart, The Plot (manuscript of a hyper-dispensationalist, open theist--to mention just a couple strange beliefs)
• Bruce Chilton, Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography (claims to be scholarly and objective, but reads more like a religious novel)
• Basil Pennington, Centering Prayer: Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form (by a trappist monk apparently following along the same spiritual path Thomas Merton did)

[Mary Kissel]

My Favorites would be:

-The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
-The Lord of the Rings (all three books in this series)
-any mystery/suspence book by Agatha Christie

I don't really have any least favorites/ones I didn't like.

MaryCecilia

[demetrios karaolanis]

a book I hate is mao's little red book with it's aethism and hate of religion. it just really rubs me the wrong way. I had to read it for a pollitical theory class.

I do rather like the oxford history of byzantium. it was very well done and interesting.

[Seraphim Reeves]

Favourite Non-Orthodox Books:

• Anything by Michael Davies (RC traditionalist author who is a proponent of the Tridentine Mass; has written quite a few good books on the history of the Latin liturgy, whether it be the Roman missal or rubrical/ritual points.)

• Summa Theologica: of course I haven't read it in it's entirity, but as far as philosophical works go, it is very elegant. It's both a curiosity in it's insights, but also in so far as it shows the limitations of rationalistic thought, particularly as applied to the Christian revelation. It doesn't surprise me at all, that towards the end of his life it's author (Thomas Aquinas, truly a savant and uber-genius, and considered a saint and doctor by the RCC) had an empiphany, and realized all he had written was "much straw" and attempted to burn his own manuscripts (an interesting act indeed; it should make one wonder if the RCC has ever taken this act on his part as seriously as they should...I think it's obvious they did not).

• Analects of Confuscius: the actual sayings of Confuscius are a good read. I also appreciate Taoist wisdom literature as well (it's also my understanding that an Orthodox book has actually been written in recent times, saying that the Chinense concept of the Tao is similar to the concept of "Logos" - which, from my reading on Taoism is not at all a bizarre comparison.)

As for "least favourites", I'd have to give that some thought...

Seraphim

[Anastasios]

Seraphim,

That book is called Christ the Eternal Tao and is published by the St. Herman of Alaska brotherhood.

In Christ,

anastasios

[Serge]

A favorite: Tao Te-Ching by Lao-Tzu. Fr Seraphim Rose liked it too.

Among my least favorites: The works of Jane Austen. I'm a strange Anglophile, not into Austen, Gilbert & Sullivan, or Monty Python. Austen may be a girl thing. I think those books and movies are boring.