Kreeft is a Catholic professor of philosophy and does much work in Christian apologetics. Listening to him he seems to have a humble and instructive spirit about him which I quite enjoy. The follow texts he suggests are not all by Catholic authors, only a handful are.
See the full lecture from which this list is derived at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLm5RggbhlE&list=LLu0lqitLzCtL1eZkAAMuQCQ
Kreeft has authored several books as well.
He selected these to be not too difficult but difficult enough to be challenging.
The material in parenthesis are also analysis and commentary by Kreeft from the lecture.
Above all of these, he says The Bible is the best book!
A few mentions from Kreeft:
The greatest discoveries are found by asking dumb questions
You can’t force one to cry. Tears mean it’s a great author.
The job description of a great artist is to break the human heart.
He likes short books.
Autobiographies
-Confessions, by Augustine with translation by Sheed
-A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken
-Seven Story Mountain, by Thomas Merton
-Surprised by Joy, by CS Lewis
(CS Lewis is his favorite modern author)
Novels
-The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
(says novels are the best way to learn psychology and sociology, they’re more tangible, and that Dostoevsky does this masterfully)
-Till We Have Faces, by CS Lewis
-A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Plays
-A Man For All Seasons, by Robert Bolt (the movie very good too)
-Our Town, by Thornton Wilder (looks at life from the perspective of death)
-Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
Epics
-Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
(greatest book of the century)
(movie good but not as good as the book)
(He says everyone agrees on these books being great except the literary critics, which shows the critics are full of themselves)
(says when he feels something is missing in his life, its that he hasn’t read these recently enough)
-Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis
(all 7 are a great achievement.)
(He makes Christ character very interesting, which is very hard to do. He is terrifying but good, just like Christ)
-Silmarillon, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Fantasy
-The Great Divorce, by CS Lewis (Like divine comedy of Dante but clearer and shorter.
)
-The Screwtape Letters, by CS Lewis
-Descent into Hell, by Charles Williams (terrifying psychology of damnation)
Science Fiction
-A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller
-Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (the BNW is stable but not happy)
-The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
-says 50 years old and 100 years old are 2 good science fiction books.
-says he doesn’t like technology it bores him.
Spirituality
-The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
-Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
-Abandonment to Divine Providence, by de Caussad
-The passion of the Christ an amazing movie
Apologetics
-Pensees, by Blaise Pascal
-The Problem of Pain, by CS Lewis (on why evil exists and God)
-In Defense of Miracles, by CS Lewis (on nature science and God)
Philosophy
-The Apology of Socrates, by Plato
-The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius
-Republic, by Plato
Popular Philosophy
-The Introduction to Thomas Aquinas, by G.K. Chesterton
-Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton (its about everything, a masterpiece)
-Ethics, by Aristotle
History
-The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton
-Our Lady of Guadalupe: And the Conquest of Darkness, by Warren Carroll
-The City of God, by Augustine
Theology
-Mere Christianity, by CS Lewis (unites many branches of Christians; inexhaustible)
-Summa Theologiae, by St. Thomas Aquinas, with a condensed, edited version by Peter Kreeft called “Summa of the Summa”
-The Theology of the Body, by Christopher West (theology against sexual revolution, perhaps Satans chief weapon, great for our time in particular)
Poetry
-Lepanto, by G.K. Chesterton (good sound & sense, unlike modern poetry)
-The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot
-The Dream of Gerontius, by John Henry Newman (on dying and going to heaven)
