# Recommend Non-Theology Books



## CharlieJ (Dec 21, 2009)

Now that I've (basically) finished seminary, I'm taking a break for a year or so to work and build up cash before pursuing PhD studies. By "break," of course, I mean working harder than ever before in my life. 

My goal is to expand the breadth of my knowledge significantly so that I have a robust awareness of intellectual history and trends. I'm looking for heavy hitting primary sources and comprehensive introductions, not lightweights. I'm taking recommendations in almost all fields (entomology excluded), but I'm particularly interested in philosophy, intellectual history, world history, philosophy of science, mathematical theory, linguistic theory, formal logic, political theory, hermeneutics, literary criticism, and cultural studies. 

I know I can count on you.


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## Wayne (Dec 21, 2009)

Not much of a polymath, are you? 

Do you have any general sense of what field you want to work in for your doctorate?


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## CharlieJ (Dec 21, 2009)

Wayne said:


> Not much of a polymath, are you?
> 
> Do you have any general sense of what field you want to work in for your doctorate?



Yes, I'm looking at philosophical theology/philosophy of religion. However, that can mean almost anything. To clarify, though, I'm not limiting myself to things that I believe will directly pertain to my doctoral work. Doctoral work is by necessity quite narrow, and I'd like to take this opportunity to make a dent in some other areas which, maybe someday, will grow into something more significant. Or, maybe not.


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## Casey (Dec 21, 2009)

If you haven't one already, you should get a subscription to Mars Hill Audio Journal. I've purchased a number of books that were highlighted on that Journal. I don't know if that would help with your doctoral studies, because I don't know nothin' 'bout doctoral studies, but it's a good Journal.


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## Wayne (Dec 21, 2009)

One approach to consider would be to read through the Great Books, or perhaps just the philosophical works represented in that collection.

On the other hand, if you will please pardon me, I might instead ask "why immerse yourself in all the vanities of the world?" (I don't mean that in a curt or rude way)

Or to put it in a nicer sounding way, "If you don't mind my asking, why do you want to pursue doctoral work? Do you want to teach? In a secular or in a Christian context?"


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## py3ak (Dec 21, 2009)

CharlieJ said:


> intellectual history, linguistic theory, literary criticism, and cultural studies.



Umberto Eco.


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## CharlieJ (Dec 21, 2009)

Wayne said:


> On the other hand, if you will please pardon me, I might instead ask "why immerse yourself in all the vanities of the world?" (I don't mean that in a curt or rude way)
> 
> Or to put it in a nicer sounding way, "If you don't mind my asking, why do you want to pursue doctoral work? Do you want to teach? In a secular or in a Christian context?"



Yes, I want to teach. Teaching is what I do best (I'm a part-time teacher already). I also tutor Greek for free. Well, maybe researching is what I do best. I don't know.

I don't know where I want to teach. A part of me would love to teach at a place like Covenant College, but another part of me would love to teach at a secular school, if it wouldn't be a terribly hostile environment. I have plenty of time to work that out.

I plan on studying a lot of academic fields this next year. Most of them, I'll read a few books, store away some ideas, and move on. A few, though, I hope will catch my interest and prove lastingly productive as complements to my studies in theology. Also, I need a break. I'm not really enjoying reading theology at the moment.


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## Josiah (Dec 21, 2009)

I am really enjoying reading _The Gift of Good Land_ by Wendell Berry. I am not even through the first chapter of this book, but I am quite impressed with his prose and also the content, so far.


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## Covenant Joel (Dec 21, 2009)

I'd check out both the required readings and *extensive* bibliography in Dr. Frame's syllabus for "History of Philosophy and Christian Thought." The bibliography at the end of the syllabus is divided by category (e.g., History of Western Philosophy, Current Philosophy of Religion, etc.). You might pick out a few from each category to give you a good rounding in the general subjects.

Here's the link to the syllabus:
http://virtual.rts.edu/Site/Academics/Docs/Syllabi/Virtual/HPCT_Frame-Moodle.pdf


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## lynnie (Dec 22, 2009)

I think I would have to say that this is the best non theology book I ever read. Over 800 pages and I read it twice. As gripping as any suspense fiction.

Amazon.com: The Making of the Atomic Bomb (9780684813783): Richard Rhodes: Books

from the Amazon reviews:

Amazon.com Review
If the first 270 pages of this book had been published separately, they would have made up a lively, insightful, beautifully written history of theoretical physics and the men and women who plumbed the mysteries of the atom. Along with the following 600 pages, they become a sweeping epic, filled with terror and pity, of the ultimate scientific quest: the development of the ultimate weapon. Rhodes is a peerless explainer of difficult concepts; he is even better at chronicling the personalities who made the discoveries that led to the Bomb. Niels Bohr dominates the first half of the book as J. Robert Oppenheimer does the second; both men were gifted philosophers of science as well as brilliant physicists. The central irony of this book, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is that the greatest minds of the century contributed to the greatest destructive force in history. 

*****
By Hans U. Widmaier "Uli" (Elmhurst, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) 

Everyone seeking to understand the 20th century, its history, its politics, its scientific development, must read this book. Not only does it illuminate one of the foundational events of our time far better than any other source, it definitively sets forth modern science, its ethical dilemmas, its odd combination of unbelievable explanatory power and the utterly (humanly) unfathomable reality science suggests. Rhodes traces the development of the atomic bomb to its scientific roots, which he demonstrates are inextricably intertwined with the people pushing the scientific developments at an ever increasing speed and for a long time had no idea of the potential their theories carried. Rhodes manages to do all this with complete lucidity, allowing the reader totally unfamiliar with quantum mechanics to follow along with reasonable comprehension. At the same time, the psychological, ethical and political dramas Rhodes describes make this the hands-down most thrilling, most exciting book I have ever read


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## VictorBravo (Dec 22, 2009)

py3ak said:


> CharlieJ said:
> 
> 
> > intellectual history, linguistic theory, literary criticism, and cultural studies.
> ...





Also, some other personal favorites because they are odd-ball mind-blowing:

_Godel-Escher-Bach_, Douglas R. Hofstadter. A mathematician takes on the nature of thought.

_Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies _, Jared Diamond. A fascinating speculative history of the world.

_Critical Path_, R. Buckminster Fuller. His strange view of history (the Canaanite/Phonecians sailed north to become Vikings. . . .the fact that they learned to sail against the wind defines the fundamental character of Western Civilization, as opposed to the drifters who sailed east to found East Asia) is worth the price of the book. Fuller is a mix of unitarian-new age, but has a remarkable imagination.

If you want to understand older technology and be able to recreate the 20th Century, then check out Lindsay's Books. There's a wealth of almost forgotten information. I particularly liked the Metalworking Shop from Scrap Series. I built a foundry and some precision tools using those books.

_Atlas Shrugged_, Ayn Rand. An excellent example of an atheist's heroic attempt to deify man. I consider it an important book because it is so correct in its political incorrectness, yet so far off the mark in the solution. It is a pretty decent summary of today's political scene.

And, looking at my "Misc." library, there are boatbuilding books, calculus books, optics books, and a bunch of electronic project books. But two deserve special mention:

The CRC (Chemical Rubber Company) _Handbook of Chemistry and Physics_. If you ever need to know the melting point of sulphur or the variation of error in measurements of the speed of light, this is your book.

_Pocket Ref_, Thomas J. Glover. I carry this in my briefcase. It contains most of the references needed to give you a start on answering those day-to-day mysteries like what kind of lumber you need for floor joists, what the color codes are on resistors, how to figure the volume of a heap of grain, conversions from Ephahs to liters, that sort of thing. I onced used it to impeach an electrical engineer on cross-examination when he was saying a certain wire gauge was big enough for a certain load.

I know, too many choices. I'd start with general overview type of books to decompress from your studies.

Edited to add: BTW, I saw the Wendell Berry reference. I've read probably 4 books by him. He is a great writer.


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## CharlieJ (Dec 22, 2009)

You are my hero.



VictorBravo said:


> py3ak said:
> 
> 
> > CharlieJ said:
> ...


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## CharlieJ (Dec 24, 2009)

Thanks to everyone. I plan on pursuing several of the suggestions. The other day, I picked up a copy of de Tocqueville's _Democracy in America_, and so far, it is a Great Book. One of the things I appreciate about older essays is the authors' ability to inject his own soul, his moral force into the work without distracting from it. Logical positivism had not yet insisted on the depersonalization of the author in the pursuit of objectivity.


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## Reformed Thomist (Dec 24, 2009)

Amazon.com: The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 (9780300096491): Professor Ben Kiernan, Ben Kiernan: Books

Amazon.com: Mao: The Unknown Story (9780679746324): Jung Chang, Jon Halliday: Books


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## Simply_Nikki (Dec 24, 2009)

Honestly, the best way to be familiar with academic literature in various fields is to go to a university's website, locate the field you're interested in, go to their graduate school courses and find their reading list or syllabus. I've printed out several reading list in fields that my particular department does not cover well, such as political theory. 

For example here is an excerpt of Princeton's Graduate reading list for Political Theory. It is 9 pages long and has a very comprehensive overview of Political theory, it is then broken down into topics:

*I. Ancient and medieval political theory*​- Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, I; II; III, 1-50, 70-86; V, 84-115; VI, 1-32; VII, 60-87
- W. Robert Connor, Thucydides
- Steven Forde, The Ambition to Rule
- S. Sara Monoson, Plato’s Democratic Entanglements, ch 3
- Josiah Ober, Political Dissent in Democratic Athens, ch 2
- Clifford Orwin, The Humanity of Thucydides
- Jacqueline de Romilly, Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism
- Robert B. Strassler, ed., The Landmark Thucydides

- Plato, Apology; Crito; Republic; Laws, nos. 690-695, 709-715, 717-747, 753-757, 875, 961-968
- Julia Annas, Introduction to Plato’s Republic
- Allan Bloom, “Interpretive Essay” in The Republic of Plato, ed. Bloom
- J. Peter Euben, The Tragedy of Political Theory, chs 7, 8
- Charles Griswold, ed., Platonic Writings/Platonic Readings
- Terence Irwin, Plato’s Ethics
- C.D.C. Reeve, Philosopher-Kings
- Arlene Saxonhouse, Fear of Diversity
- Gregory Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher, an d Platonic Studies, nos. 5 and 6

- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics; Politics
- John Cooper, Reason and Human Good in Aristotle
- David Keyt and Fred D. Miller, Jr., eds., A Companion to Aristotle’s Politics
- Richard Kraut, Aristotle: Political Philosophy
- Martha Nussbaum, Fragility of Goodness, pt. 3
- Stephen Salkever, Finding the Mean
- Aristide Tessitore, Reading Aristotle’s Ethics
- Bernard Yack, The Problems of a Political Animal

- Cicero, On the Commonwealth [De Republica], I, 25-35; III, 17-25; VI, 17-26; On the Laws [DeLegibus], I; On Duties [De Officiis], entire
- Anthony Everitt, Cicero
- Neal Wood, Cicero’s Social and Political Thought
- C. E. W. Steel, Cicero, Rhetoric, and Empire

- Augustine, The City of God, IV, 3-4; V, 24; VIII, 1-11; XIV, 28; XV, 1-5; XIX, 4-22, 25-28; XX, 1-2
- Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo
- Henry Chadwick, Augustine
- Herbert A. Deane, The Political and Social Ideas of St. Augustine
- R.A. Markus, Saeculum: history and society in the theology of St. Augustine
- Reinhold Niebuhr, “Augustine's Political Realism,” in Niebuhr, Christian Realism and Political Problems, pp.119-146

- Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles, I:3, 4, 7, 8; II: 68; III: 2,3,25, 27, 32, 37, 48, 51, 53, 63, 64, 81; IV: 54,
76; De Regimine Principum, 1-6, 12, 14, 15; Summa Theologiae I, qq. 2, 12, 20, 75, 79, 85, 92, 96,
98; I-II, qq. 3,5,21, 62, 81, 90-97 [Treatise on Law], 100, 105, 109; II-II, qq. 10. 11, 12, 40, 42, 57,
60, 64, 66, 69, 77, 78, 194, 110, 150, 152, 154; III, qu. 8; Supplement, qu. 52 (these selections can be
found in St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics [Norton Critical Editions], ed. P. Sigmund).
J.H. Burns, ed., Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought
A.P. d’Entrèves, Natural Law
John Finnis, Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory
Norman Kretzmann and Eleonore Stump, eds. Cambridge Companion to Aquinas
*II. Modern political theory*​- Machiavelli, The Prince; The Discourses
- Mark Hulliung, Citizen Machiavelli
- Harvey Mansfield, Machiavelli’s Virtue
- Hannah Pitkin, Fortune is a Woman
- J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment
- Quentin Skinner, Machiavelli

- Hobbes, Leviathan
- Mary Dietz, Thomas Hobbes and Political Theory
- Jean Hampton, Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition
- Noel Malcolm, Aspects of Hobbes
- Michael Oakeshott, “Introduction to Leviathan” in Rationalism in Politics
- Quentin Skinner, Reason and Rhetoric, ch. 8 and Visions of Politics, vol. 3
- Leo Strauss, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes
- Richard Tuck, Hobbes and Philosophy and Government

- Locke, First Treatise of Civil Government, §§1, 3, 23, 33, 40-48, 56, 58, 66, 86-87, 89-94; Second
- Treatise of Civil Government; A Letter Concerning Toleration
- Richard Ashcraft, Revolutionary Politics and Locke’s Two Treatises of Government
- John Dunn, The Political Thought of John Locke
- Ruth Grant, John Locke’s Liberalism
- Peter Laslett, “Introduction” to CUP edition of Two Treatises of Government
- A. John Simmons, The Lockean Theory of Rights and On the Edge of Anarchy
- _____, Moral Principles and Political Obligations, ch. on tacit consent
- James Tully, An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts
- Jeremy Waldron, God, Locke, and Equality
- _____, The Right to Private Property, ch. 6
- J. Horton and S. Mendus, eds., John Locke: A letter concerning toleration in focus

- Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws, Books 1-6; Bk 7 chs 1, 9, 15-17; Bk 8; Bk 9 chs 1-5; Bk 10 chs 1-11; Bk 11 chs 1-6; Bk 12, chs 1-4; Bk 14 chs 1-6, 9-10, 15; Bk 15; Bk 16, chs 1-4, 9-10; Bk 17; Bk18 chs 1-17; Bk 19 chs 1-16, 27; Bk 20 chs 1-14, 23; Bk 21 chs 1-5, 20-23; Bk 23, chs 28-29; Bk 24,chs 1-8, 19-20; Bk 25 chs 1-2, 9-15; Bk 26, chs 1-3, 20-23; Bk 29, chs 1, 16, 19
- Nannerl Keohane, Philosophy and the State in France: The Renaissance to the Enlightenment
- Thomas Pangle, Montesquieu’s Philosophy of Liberalism

*2. Constitutionalism and the rule of law*
Ronald Dworkin, Law’s Empire
_____, Freedom’s Law
Jon Elster, ed., Democracy and Constitutionalism
John Hart Ely, Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review
F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
_____, Political Liberalism
Joseph Raz, The Authority of Law
_____, Ethics and the Public Domain, ch. 17
Jeremy Waldron, Liberal Rights
Jeremy Waldron, The Dignity of Legislation
*
3. Democracy*
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition
Robert Dahl, Democracy and its Critics
Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy
D. Estlund, ed., Democracy (papers by Christiano, Waldron, Cohen, Habermas, Miller)
Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement
Jurgen Habermas, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere
_____, Between Facts and Norms
Bernard Manin, The Principles of Representative Government
Hannah Pitkin, The Concept of Representation
Adam Przeworksi, “A Minimalist Conception of Democracy: A Defense”, in I. Shapiro and C.
Hacker-Cordon, eds., Democracy’s Value
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice
John Rawls, Political Liberalism
Carl Schmitt, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy
J.A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Part IV

for more see here: http://www.princeton.edu/politics/graduate/documents/THEORYReadingListMay05FInal.pdf


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## Bladestunner316 (Dec 24, 2009)

I would highly suggest reading Philip K Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'. Deal's with alot of philosophical issues most importantly. What is Human or Man?

- Blade


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## Ivan (Dec 24, 2009)

simply_nikki said:


> honestly, the best way to be familiar with academic literature in various fields is to go to a university's website, locate the field you're interested in, go to their graduate school courses and find their reading list or syllabus. I've printed out several reading list in fields that my particular department does not cover well, such as political theory.
> 
> For example here is an excerpt of princeton's graduate reading list for political theory. It is 9 pages long and has a very comprehensive overview of political theory, it is then broken down into topics:
> 
> ...



whoa!!


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