Here is the reading list for the St. Alphonsus Great Books group through April 2014.

Please note that the sessions in December and January will meet on the second Thursday of the month.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves.  In this work, Lewis explores the differences between four kinds of love: affection, friendship, romantic love, and Christian love (agape).

An online version may be found at:

http://online.santarosa.edu/homepage/jaharonian/TheFourLoves.pdf

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. 

There are numerous versions of A Christmas Carol online, some with illustrations, some without:

http://www.literature.org/authors/dickens-charles/christmas-carol/chapter-01.html (no illustrations)

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm (with illustrations)

Thursday, February 6, 2014

St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle.  This is St. Teresa’s classic work on the contemplative life.

An online translation may be found at:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/teresa/castle2.html

Thursday, March 6

David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss.  In this work, Hart critiques the demiurgic notion of God assumed or proposed by both the advocates of mechanical Naturalism, the dominant worldview of our age, and, often as not, even theists.

Thursday, April 3

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul.  This is St. Thérèse’s classic and hugely influential autobiography.  A recommended translation is The Complete  Therese of Lisieux (Paracle Giants), translated by Robert Edmonson.

Online versions may be found at:

http://www.storyofasoul.com/

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/therese/autobio.html