Forget the Classics: What New Theology Books Ought You Read This Lent?

If developing a challenging reading regiment is part of your Lent practice, then you are in line with hundreds of years of Christian practice, especially among monastics (See especially: Leclerq’s The Love of Learning and the Desire for God). And so you might grab for your St. Bernard, Theologia Deutsch, Abandonment to Divine Providence, or Mysterium Paschale (my habitual Lent favorite). But why would you read these when there are more recent books to ascetically replenish your brain?

This new and noteworthy reading list indicates von Balthasar is still on everyone’s mind, although von Speyr gets at least one book only about her.

If religion and science debates are your thing, then look no further than here.

Do you want to spice Lent up with inappropriate dinner or workplace conversations? Maybe you should try out this religion and politics list?

If you don’t want to give up on Catholic triumphalism, or alternatively, if you want to make it part of your Lent practice, then look at this and then this list on the contemporary Catholic dominance of Continental philosophy. You should also note how Wipf and Stock is quickly starting to dominate the publishing of new Catholic theology titles.

There’s also a list of challenging religious novels and poetry collections if imaginative literature is your thing.

If you’re in a purgatorial in-between mood there’s a list of books on hell and heaven. While I’m at it, here’s a book for you if you’re curious purgatory’s disappearance from the Catholic imagination.

When you only want the best, then there’s a list of the Top10 books I’ve read in the past ten years (as of last year), the best books I read in 2014, or my all time favorite novels and philosophy books.

If you want to repent of your atheist hatred, then here are books by atheists who talk about religion intelligently and charitably. On the other hand, if you want to delve into your Catholic prejudices, then check out this list of books on Catholic Studies.

Finally, if you want to find out more about the pious idea behind the image for today’s post look no further than here and below: