One of the friends of our community in Oxford asked us a very interesting question. We would like to extend this question to you.
What would be among your 100 basic Christian texts, without which you do not think that Christianity ever could have begun or developed, or those texts with which you think others will always associate their Christianity both in practice (e.g. Hail Mary and Our Father) or theologically or liturgically?
If you have any opinions on this, please share them with us! Have your say by adding a comment to this post. Give us some reasons for your choice, if you wish!
I think Saint Augustine's Confessions has to be on the list. But isn't the Bible the only essential text, sufficient for Christianity to begin and develop?
ReplyDeleteI think the term "text" needs some clarification. It could mean a sequence of words based on a consistent principle and centred around an abiding theme.
ReplyDeleteThe length of the text, is it relevant in the discussion? Since Pater Noster and Ave Maria could make it to the long-list, we may safely presume that "small but beautiful" criterion applies here.
So the nominees are: Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina Coelorum, Regina Coeli, Salve Regina, Ave Maris Stella, Angelus, Sub tuum, Memorare, Stabat Mater. These are chosen because Christians throughout the ages have cherished them and integrated them into their piety.
St Augustine's Confessions and City of God, St Gregory's Morales, St Benedict's Rule, St Thomas's Summa and Commentaries, St John of the Cross's Dark Night, St Montfort's Treaty, St Catherine's Dialogues. These are texts usually familiar to Christians.
I hope I didn't misunderstand the question.
Errr. Top 100 is tricky. How about a top 10?
ReplyDelete1. The Gospels - Mark for simplicity, Luke for Social Justice, Matthew for wisdom and John for Theology.
2. The Apostolic Creed - Easy to remember and so full of thoughts that you can;t get tired of thinking about it all
3. The Letters of St. Paul - He did a lot of preaching, got a lot right but said some odd things worth struggling with.
4. Augustine - The Confessions - humble and brilliant - a tricky combination for the best of us.
5. The Summa - Well Thomas did write a lot and most of it was fairly good!
6. Anslem of Canterbury's proof for God's existence and Gaunilo's reply.
7. Dietrich Bonhoeffer - The Cost of Discipleship
8. Jon Sobrino - Jesus the Liberator
9. Oscar Romero - many of his sermons give new light to the Gospel
10. All the people i meet who make me think again about why I am Christian and what effect it has on the way I live my life for God, for others and for myself.
So, alright the Gospel started with Jesus and it was spread through His grace. Every now and then though we need those bright sparks to come along and make us think again. If we are lucky they write something down, but for the most part the Gospel is spread through the way it started - word of mouth and action.
I think it is a good question, what counts as a 'text'. I have always remembered the comment of a woman many years ago that each followers of Christ writes a 'fifth gospel', the story of His presence and action in our lives ... the comment about other people being 'texts' brought it to mind.
ReplyDeleteThe following will never make anybody's - certainly not mine - "top 100" of seminal Christian texts, yet I somehow suspect that everybody now seriously contemplating this list has, under their bedside table or stuffed into a heap of books, a dog-eared, creased, much loved paperback of the "Screwtape Letters". I come back to this hilariously skewed view of temptation and the Christian life - really a collection of mini sermons - whenever I am in need of a spiritual pick-me-up but am just too tired or intellectually drained to read anything substantial.
ReplyDeleteOn a more serious note, I would expect that the Roman Missal (1962) is included, and perhaps a hymnal from the first half of the 20th century. I would also hope that a knowledgeable liturgist suggests a suitable compendium of Gregorian Chant.
I would add the Didache to the list.
ReplyDeleteNot sure that I should say this to Dominicans, but the fundamental texts of monasticism would get my vote after the Gospels and the rest of the NT: The sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the Rule of St Benedict. But the other posters are right: what do you mean by a text?
ReplyDeleteAs for liturgically, I find myself very caught: the words of Institution or Consecration, but how about the psalms? They may be part of the whole Abrahamic tradition, but does that invalidate them from this argument? Where would we be without the Miserere, or "The Lord is my Shepherd"?
Sorry: I should have added that, although I'm not the 'knowledgable liturgist' required, I was, in effect, brought up in terms of Chant on the Liber Usualis for Roman Chant, but, as the editions have changed, still have the wonderful Graduale Triplex on my bookshelf. It even gets used - well, sometimes. It's the Solesmes edition of the chant, with the early MSS notation superimposed, so that the reader can see where the later square-note editions leave unexpressed expressive notation &c.
ReplyDeleteBut try singing from that and then following the Dominican tradition!
I would suggest that the question is rather imprecise. The Church has always consisted of very diverse groups of people, so I have divided my groups into three sections and included truths conveyed by means other than books.
ReplyDeleteFor the illiterate (most people up to Middle Ages)
1. Sermons.
2. Stained glass windows (a sort of book).
3. Hymns containing doctrinal truths.
4. Prayers learnt by rote.
For the literate:
1. Books of hours
2. Devotional primers.
3. Lives of the saints
4. The Imitation of Christ (a Kempis)
5. The Penny and Twopenny Catechisms (!).
6. Thomas Merton.
7. Leonard Boff.
For the erudite:
1. St. Augustine.
2. St. Teresa of Avilla.
3. St. John of the Cross.
4. the Mystics
5. St. Francis de Sales.
6. Pere de Caussade.
7. St. Thomas Aquinas.
8. The Rule of St. Benedict
Etc.
What would be among your 100 basic Christian texts, without which you do not think that Christianity ever could have begun or developed, or those texts with which you think others will always associate their Christianity both in practice or theologically or liturgically?
ReplyDeleteBoff? BOFF?? BOFF???
I think it's a good idea to ask for the top 100 because then that would cover many different spiritualities - most of us can come up with the 10 or so texts that 'turn us on' so to speak, although of course the Word of God would be the first (especially New Testament) and hopefully liturgical texts would be at the top as well. I would put up St. Augustine's Confessions as a model of how a Christian can address God and move forward in the midst of his passions, the Conferences of John Cassian as a model of 'experienced' Christianity - these earthy ancient monks had a lot of humanity, compassion, and of course spiritual insight! the homilies of the early Fathers - gives us a sense of what is new and different about Christianity, the Summa because it covers sooooo much ground (although it isn't as accessible as the other texts). However, I think whatever is contained in the liturgy - particularly from the New Testament and Psalms, are sufficient for anyone who is reflective to become not only a pious but also a wise Christian.
ReplyDeleteFor eastern Christians, I think the list should by all means include:
ReplyDelete1. the Philokalia
2. the Apophthegmata Patrum (perhaps the Evergetinos/the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great)
3. the works of the Syriac Fathers (Ephraim and Isaac of Niniveh)
4. the Theological Orations of St. Gregory of Nazianz
5. the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith of St. John of Damascus
6. the Explanation of the Divine Liturgy and the "Life in Christ" by Nicholas Cabasilas
7. the Hexaemeron and De Spiritu Sancto of St. Basil the Great
8. any of the exegetical works/homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, Origen, Cyrill of Alexandria
9. the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church: Horologion, Octoechos/Paraklitike, Triodion, Pentekostarion
Partly in reply to Patrick:
ReplyDeleteHoly Scripture is indeed, in a certain sense, the only essential text: the sort of gold standard of the rest, from which most of them take their inspiration, and by whose standard their worth is judged.
That being said, it is in another sense I /don't/ think it's enough, either to understand how Christianity developed in practice, or for those beginning in the faith (or, for that matter, continuing to develop theirs). On the second point first: For the beginner, the Bible is a rather forbidding document: there is no easy "this is what Christianity is all about" introduction (unless someone has added one--but in that case it's not holy scripture). And it doesn't answer many of the WHY? questions--beginning with "Why should I care about Christianity to begin with?"
And of course it's for these reasons that theology, devotional works, and really the whole body of Christian literature exists.
On the first point: First, remember that the Bible isn't a defined "thing" until about the fourth century: up til then, people argue about whether Revelation is authentic scripture, and which of Paul's letters should be included, while a whole lot of other material was sometimes included in collections and lists of scripture. And there's a lot of other stuff that went into the making of the Christian tradition: the Creeds and the development of the theology the underlies them, the evolution of church practice (both on liturgy and way of life...) I'd like to single out the Apocryphal Gospel of James, which is (as I understand) the ultimate source of a good deal of later Catholic tradition (eg the Golden Legend). While I disagree with a good deal of that tradition, there's no denying its importance!
...OK, this is a hideously long post, especially for a non-RC with next-to-no theological background!
Also, I would be tempted to list under modern essential texts
ReplyDeleteD.L. Sayers, /The Mind of the Maker/
R.F. Capon, /The Third Peacock/