Great Books

Judaism/Christianity: “The Flood,” Gen 4-9;Judaism, The Talmud

Hinduism: The Bhagadva Gita

Buddhism: “Hare Mark in the Moon” and “The Gateless Gate”

Islam: Qur’an 2 “The Cow” and sels. on Jesus

Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, The Oresteia, Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides

Anonymous: Epic of Gilgamesh (std ver.), trans. Kovac

Anonymous: “Martyrdom of Perpetua”

Anselm: “Ontological Argument,” Proslogium 1-6

Aquinas: “Five Ways” and “Natural Law” in Summa Theologica

Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics

Augustine: Confessions 8, City of God 8.1-13

Bacon: “Idols” in Novum Organum Bk 1, Aphorisms 1-130

Calvin: Institutes 1.1-1.7

Camus: “Myth of Sisyphus” in The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, tr. O’Brien

Catherine of Siena: Dialogue of Divine Providence (sels.)

Dante: The Inferno

Darwin: Descent of Man, ch. 1

Descartes: “Certainty of Self and God” in Meditations, 1-3

Dostoevsky: “The Grand Inquisitor” in The Brothers Karamazov

Dubois: “Souls of Black Folk,” in Three Negro Classics

Epictetus: Discourses 1.6-1.16-17

Erasmus/Luther: Discourse on Freewill

Freud: Civilization and Its Discontents Gutierrez: “Option for the Poor,” in Mysterium

Liberationist: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology; tr. Barr.

Herodotus: Histories Bks 1, (sels.) 6-7 (McCauley)

Hobbes: Leviathan Bk 1, “Of Man”

Homer: Iliad Abridged, Odyssey Abridged, Bks 9-24

Hume: “Of Miracles” in Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love, Revelation 1

Kant: “Reason and the Question of God” in Critique of Pure Reason

Kierkegaard: Fear and Trembling, Prelude/Panegyric upon Abraham

Lewis: Mere Christianity Bk. 1

Locke: “Ideas” in Essay Concerning Human Understanding 2.1-2.3, Second Treatise on Government

Lucretius: The Nature of Things Bks 2, 3, 6 (sels.)

Machiavelli: The Prince

Marx-Engels: Communist Manifesto

ML King: The Letter from Birmingham Jail

Nietzsche: “Truth and Lie in an Extra Moral Sense” (pp. 42-47); “The Gay Science” (pp. 93-102); “The Genealogy of Morals” (pp. 447-454); “Human, All Too Human” (pp. 51-64); “Beyond Good and Evil” (pp. 443-54)

Plato: Republic,  Apology

Plutarch: Lives: “Julius Caesar,” “Cato the Younger”, “Lycurgus,” “Solon”

Rousseau: Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Sappho: Poems from the 6th c. BC

Schaeffer: How Should We Then Live? (sels.)

Shelley: Fankenstein, The Modern Prometheus

Smith, Adam: The Wealth of Nations, from E. Butler’s Condensed Wealth of Nations

Sun Tzu: The Art of War 5th c. BC Chinese military tactics/Taoism

Thucydides: Peloponnesian Wars1.1-88, 2.1-58 (Thillwell)

Tocqueville: Democracy in America, (sels.)

US Founders: Declaration of Independence; US Constitution, Bill of Rights

Van Doren: History of Knowledge

Virgil: The Essential Aeneid

Washington: Up From Slavery