Books for the Novices (update: BOUGHT!)

As always I am overwhelmed by the generosity of the readers of this blog!

I have received several books this week from used bookstores. . .this means that there was no shipping invoice, so I don't know to whom to send a THANK YOU card! Bee, I know which ones you sent me. . .thanks again.

I've received a few worried inquiries about the nature of some of the books on my PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Wish List. There's lots of Nietzsche and Derrida and other strange characters on the list. Yes, there are. And with good reason. Right now, these guys dominate a lot of what happens in theology programs all over the world. Directly or indirectly, postmodern philosophies have seeped into the ways we "do theology" and there is simply no way to ignore this cold, hard fact. Anyone wanting to engage in serious theological discussion has to be able to refer intelligently to these figures. So, I have to read them. I don't have to like them or think that they are right or even think that they have a lot to offer the Church. But I have to read them. I will write papers on them and take exams on their work. Fortunately, I am not a 23 year old first year grad student, so there is no danger of being "going native" and streaking off into the sharp angles and kitschy montages of PoMo theory. Been there, done that. Got the collage to prove it. As I have said before: please think of my training in Continental philosophy as something like the training the students at Hogwarts go through when they take classes in Defense Against Dark Arts. I'm training to be their Prof. Let's just hope my fate is better planned. . .

So, help me defend against the dark arts of pOmO theory and buy me a few tomes of post-Nietzschean mutterings. Just click here, look for the priority rating, and send them on: PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Wish List.

[Update: the books have been purchased!] While I'm begging for books. . .I'm hoping someone out there has $80 to spare and would be willing to spend it on a book for the novices. I'm teaching a seminar this semester here at U.D. in the history of Christian spirituality. One of the books I use is Jean Danielou's God and the Ways of Knowing. This is a terrific book. Fr. Danielou is probably one of the most lucid writers I've run across in this genre. I would use the book as a text for discussion in the class the novices have with me, Fundamental Theology. We're reading Pope Benedict's book, Jesus of Nazareth in the spring. We have six novices. My shipping address is on the left-hand sidebar.

If you decide you can buy one or more of these for us, please drop me a note in the combox. Thanks in advance for your generosity!

Fr. Philip, OP