Great Books of Christendom ideas needed

[shanezomom]

I am starting to think about how I could develop a high school class for our co-op that would be a survey of Great Books that are Christian classics. I am not equipped to go deep into the texts since I'm certainly not a literary scholar but I would like to lead the kids in encountering the ideas of Augustine, Dante, Milton, CS Lewis and others using a framework of truth, wisdom and beauty.

 

I would want it to be relevant, cool, and get them excited (is that possible?) without diluting the material. I think it's so relatable for teenagers to see how Augustine, for example, struggled with issues these kids are or will be encountering.

 

The co-op runs 32 weeks a year, for an hour and a half two days a week. Or I could just teach one semester or one day a week. I wouldn't want to do church doctrine because there would be Protestant and Catholic kids (if anyone signs up for the course). I would want to talk about transcendent Christian ideas in these Great Books.

 

Do any ideas pop into your mind to help me?

Edited May 18, 2017 by shanezomom

[Carol in Cal.]

A tangential point--there is a ton of Christianity pervading literature through about 60 years ago.

I think that it often gets ignored in the way that literature is taught these days, and that that means that kids are really missing out.

There is an opportunity there--to teach literature in a way that doesn't excluded its original Christian content/allusions/assumptions.

 

Some are more over that others--"The Hammer of God" and "That Hideous Strength", for instance, are more overt than, say, "The Heart of Darkness"; but it's in there pretty much.  "Anna Karenena", for example, is a tremendously Christian book.

[J-rap]

My dd just took a similar class at college, and one of the people they studied was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  I'm not sure if they read a full biography about him or excerpts of his own writings or just excerpts of his life, but you could do a little research into it.  It definitely gets into some weighty topics though which you'd have to be prepared to discuss.

[Milknhoney]

Pilgrim's Progress

Robinson Crusoe

Crime and Punishment/Brothers Karamazov

Vanity Fair

Ben Hur

 

I haven't read them myself, but Faust and Ivanhoe are on my "Christian classics to read someday" list. 

[FloridaLisa]

I agree with Carol that so much literature deals with Christian themes of forgiveness, redemption, restoration, struggle. But these books come to mind as particularly Christian or have been deemed Christian classics: 

 

Count of Monte Cristo 

Hinds Feet on High Places

Pilgrims Progress

The Mill on the Floss

Screwtape Letters (so many CS Lewis to choose!)

Scarlet Letter has themes dealing with Puritanism in earl America

 

Invitation to the Classics by Cowan and Guinness gives great background material. 

 

I would also include something like Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. Not fiction, and contemporary but it brings up current themes of justice and the Christian response. 

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by FloridaLisa

[ElizabethB]

Some of these teachers guides might give you good ideas:

 

https://classicalacademicpress.com/series/walking-to-wisdom-literature-guides/

Edited May 18, 2017 by ElizabethB

[winterbaby]

Augustine, Dante, Milton, CS Lewis

 

One of these things is not like the others. C.S. Lewis is great for teenagers; to teach that as literature he's on a level with Dante and Milton would be a disservice.

[Finlandia]

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis comes to mind.

[ElizaG]

Have you looked at the "Christian Classics Ethereal Library" web site? It's been around for ages, and has a large selection of public domain e-texts.

 

Here are the ones they've categorized as "classics." Of course, like all canonical lists, theirs is up for debate, but it might be helpful. :-)

 

http://www.ccel.org/index/subject/classics

[Alexigail]

Have you read Quo Vadis?  It's excellent.

[leeannpal]

One of these things is not like the others. C.S. Lewis is great for teenagers; to teach that as literature he's on a level with Dante and Milton would be a disservice.

I disagree, and I am a high school English teacher. For Christian thought, C.S. Lewis is among the best out there. Books do not have to belong the realm of classical literature to be great. 

[winterbaby]

I disagree, and I am a high school English teacher. For Christian thought, C.S. Lewis is among the best out there. Books do not have to belong the realm of classical literature to be great. 

 

"Thought" and literary artistry are not the same thing, but for that matter the ideas in the other authors mentioned are also more profound and fully developed. Lewis was an astute, sensitive popularizer. No mean feat, and an important role in the church, but not Paradise Lost either.

 

Edited May 22, 2017 by winterbaby

[aaplank]

G. K. Chesterton' s Orthodoxy would be a great addition to the list.

[aaplank]

"Thought" and literary artistry are not the same thing, but for that matter the ideas in the other authors mentioned are also more profound and fully developed. Lewis was an astute, sensitive popularizer. No mean feat, and an important role in the church, but not Paradise Lost either.

 

I disagree. Many people find C.S. Lewis to be quite profound with fully developed ideas. His theological treatises have become bastions of the faith for many.

Edited May 28, 2017 by aaplank

[Violet Crown]

These are the selections from the text I plan to use with Middle Girl. The list is very Catholic-centered, but it might be useful for your project.

 

To the Romans / St. Ignatius of Antioch

Address to young men on reading Greek literature / St. Basil the Great

On charity to the poor / St. John Chrysostom

The Confessions (from the end of Book 8 to the end of Book 10) ; The City of God (Book 19) / St. Augustine

The consolation of philosophy (Books 4 and 5) / Boethius

The Proslogion / St. Anselm of Canterbury

On the necessity of loving God / St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Jesu dulcis memoria / Anon

The ascent of the mind to God / St. Bonaventure

Wisdom, beatitude and the incarnation / St. Thomas Aquinas

Divine comedy: III. The Paradiso / Dante Alighieri

Letter to Denis of Borgo-San Sepolcro / Francis Petrarch

The ballade to our Lady / Francois Villon

The parson's tale, part I / Geoffrey Chaucer

Imitation of Christ (Book 2) / Thomas a Kempis

Four last things: Death / St. Thomas More

An exhortation to the Study of Christian philosophy / Desiderius Erasmus

The interior castle (Seventh mansion) / St. Teresa of Avila

The ascent of Mount Carmel (Book 1, chapters 1-13) / St. Robert Bellarmine

Pensees (Selections) / Blaise Pascal

Apologia pro vita sua (Part 5) / John Henry Cardinal Newman

A vision of prayer / Charles Peguy

On the restoration of Christian philosophy / Pope Leo XIII

On the reconstruction of the social order / Pope Pius XI

On the mystical body of Christ / Pope Pius XII

The satin slipper (Selections) / Paul Claudel

The restoration of property / Hilaire Belloc

The world inside out / Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The failure of liberalism / Christopher Dawson

Kristin Lavransdatter: the cross / Sigrid Undset

St. Thomas Aquinas / Etienne Gilson

Who is my neighbor? / Jacques Maritain

Medieval universalism and its present value / Etienne Gilson

Edited May 28, 2017 by Violet Crown

[ElizaG]

Another resource for online texts is the Kolbe Foundation (not connected to the homeschool program, AFAIK). Their list is relatively strong in modern non-English authors, e.g. Soloviev, Sienkewicz, and Edith Stein. Not all of them are Christian, but most are.

 

"Kolbe's Greatest Books of World Civilization"

http://www.kolbefoundation.org/gbookswebsite/studentlibrary/pagenewgbooks.html

 

The Kolbe Foundation's site is pretty heavily Catholic, while CCEL is more Protestant. Between the two, I'm sure you could find a lot of worthwhile material, including many of the works mentioned by PPs.

[HS Mom in NC]

Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

[CadenceSophia]

I am on the pro- C.S. Lewis side also.

 

I believe reading whole books is so important and so often neglected for high school kids. Or at least lately in public schools. Your subset of kids might not have that problem but have you thought about teaching HOW to read a great book? You could spend the first semester reading and practicing the method from Adler's How to Read a Book and then just working through 1-2 great books in the second semester. SWB's Well-educated mind might be a good resource, although I haven't read it myself yet.

 

Just an idea..

[rose]

Some of Tolstoy's short stories would be a great addition. Just be careful and preread them. Not all them are "clean" even though they are good. After Tolstoy's official conversion he only wrote his short stories. They are absolute gems in my opinion. I would suggest to start:

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Where Love Is, God Is

What Men Live By

Quench the Spark

 

On another note Shepherd of Hermas is a good read if you want to look at any of the early Christian writings. Some of the other early Christians even included it in their lists of New Testament books (this was before the NT cannon was agreed upon). It's an allegory (sort of like Pilgrim's Progress) so it shouldn't be too hard for teenagers to handle.