Best medieval thought philosophy books according to redditors

The line between philosophy (as we think of it now) and theology around the time of Aquinas was a bit blurred. To understand the 'philosophy' that Aquinas did, however (not his biblical exegesis), I would say that it is best to have an understanding of the platonized Aristotelianism which Aquinas received.

A good anthology/introduction book is: https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Middle-Ages-Christian-Traditions/dp/160384208X

EDIT: Verb tense

God bless you! :) I love how you have shared your testimony.
I'm a young Christian guy and, unfortunately, struggle with porn and masturbation as well. So I do relate to your troubles there.

As someone who is new to the Christian faith, you might find this book REALLY helpful:
https://www.amazon.com/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473987989&sr=8-1&keywords=mere+christianity

It is called "Mere Christianity" by C.S Lewis, who, fun fact, is also the auther of the "Chronicals of Narnia" fiction series.

C.S Lewis was a devout Christian and has wrote many great books on the Christian faith. I would also reccomend his book "the Screwtape Letters" which is a book about demons. And it might help you with temptation, as you shall realise the spiritual reality of what happens whan you go through that tempation.

You also mentioned that your parents are Catholic, so they might appreciate that you learn Theology from the renowned Theologian,
Thomas Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Aquinas-Selected-Writings-Classics/dp/0140436324/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473988742&sr=1-1&keywords=thomas+aquinas

https://www.amazon.com/Aquinass-Shorter-Summa-Thomass-Theologica/dp/1928832431/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473989822&sr=1-7&keywords=thomas+aquinas

https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Aquinas-50-Pages-Laymans/dp/0988442515/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473989867&sr=1-3&keywords=thomism

https://www.amazon.com/Aquinas-Beginners-Guide-Edward-Feser/dp/1851686908/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473989924&sr=1-6&keywords=thomism

Thomos Aquinas is not only one of the greatest philosophers of Christianity, but one of the greatest philosophers PERIOD.

Just by reading, you can really learn a lot about the nature of God, what it means to
pray, how to properly interpret Scripture, understanding your
sexuality, the proper use of meditation etc.

Just reading one book can inform you a LOT.

I say this because, a lot of times, new Christians ask how or where
they can learn more about Christianity. Which is funny because the
answer is right in front of them. :) You learn more about religion
just as you learn more about everything else iln life. Through books.
:)

Anyways. God bless you in your newfound relationship with Him.
May you grow in faith and find righteous abstinence from sin.
Pray for me as I shall pray for you.

Deo Gratias! +++

Get this book. I pray it helps. It helped me. The antidote to modernism is Thomism.


Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages: A Layman's Quick Guide to Thomism https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988442515/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_A3mVDbPXGHSEE

Well, it depends on what you want to study. If you want to go for religious experience, phenomenology, and epistemology, Yandell's "The Epistemology of Religious Experience", Otto's "The Idea of the Holy", James' "Varieties ...", and Alston's "Perceiving God" would be good.

For Medieval philosophy you really can't beat Aquinas. Since the SCG and ST are pretty hefty, it'd be good to start with Aristotle's metaphysica and physica (late late late edit: not just that, but read his works on souls as well as his other works). McKeon's "The Basic works of Aristotle" is an okay translation. There's a better one, but the name eludes me. After that, Aquinas' "On Being and Essence" is a must-read for metaphysics. Then either flip through the SCG or ST, or even better, find a companion for the two works (Peter Kreeft, Feser, and Sir A. Kenny are all decent). Beyond Aquinas, and a bit earlier than him, are Augustine and the Church fathers. I can't really say much on them because I'm not too familiar-- I fell in love with the Medieval philosopher-theologians before I converted, I didn't really pay much mind to those earlier than them in the Christian tradition. However, Augustine is usually the man I've heard recommended.

Beyond the books, philosophy papers between, say, Bergmann, Pruss, Almeida, et al. are wonderful. Almeida's "On Vague Eschatology", "A New Cosmological Argument Undone" (in response to Pruss), Almeida's refutation of Rowe's new evidentialist argument from evil, and his reply to Alston's skeptical theist response to Rowe's new evidentialist argument. Usually these will be followed by a response, and counter-response, etc.

For Oderberg, and in general for the Neo-Aristotelians, Tahko's collection of essays by varying neo-Aristotelians in "Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics", Oderberg's "Whatever is Changing...", and Oderberg's "Real Essentialism" are not explicitly Christian or related to the philosophy of religion (except the second, that is explicitly about the First Way of St. Thomas Aquinas) but implicitly related via the essentialists (particularly the Aristotelians) in the Christian tradition.

edit: Question for you: Which works of Plantinga? Also, by Zacharias, you mean Ravi Zacharias? I've never read much on him but I've heard he's okay. What is your take on him?

Discipline, perseverance, and patience are helpful. Start small then go from there...something as simple as getting out of bed on time will become over time a good habit and sort-of "second nature". Don't forget that this is the work of a lifetime.

If you want a primer, check out Dr. Taylor Marshall's Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages. (You can also get a free PDF online...Dr. Marshall purposely made it as a free e-book.) You will find the basics of virtue ethics spelled out there. If that's not enough, look at the resources it offers at the end.

Remember that the key to getting yourself to do something is to fall in love with it. If you love it, you will do it. But to love something, you've got to know it, and you've got to know it really well. So spend more time learning about virtue and then meditating upon it. Once you fall in love with the beauty of virtue you will pursue it. Good luck!

The only other modern religious thinkers that I’m familiar with are Jewish ones such as:

Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), an orthodox Jewish rabbi, thinker, and Kabbalist, one of the earliest religious Zionists. You may want to check out his work The Lights of Penitence, the Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems.

Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993), who was a major Jewish existentialist philosopher and rabbi in the modern orthodox tradition. He wrote some very interesting works such as The Lonely Man of Faith, Halakhic Man, and The Halakhic Mind.

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), a Jewish rabbi and theologian who published some works in the Jewish existentialism tradition such as Man Is Not Alone and God in Search of Man.

If you want to read some of the philosophical foundations for Abrahamic religious thought, then I highly recommend the anthology Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions.

> Like, you mentioned the third one, but correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like he's saying because entropy hasn't destroyed the universe yet there must be God.

The third way relies on contingency of beings. See here.
It basically says that no contingent being can be the cause of the universe... so entropy really has nothing to do with it.


Another point I'd like to make is that the 5 ways in the SUMMA are just brief sketches, not arguments proper, so if you take them from there there are some premises that people might object to strongly. For example in the 3rd way Aquinas says "But it is impossible for these always to exist, for that which is possible not to be at some time is not." which people sometimes reads "If something exists only contingently, then there is some time at which it did not exist."... which is problematic if read in this way... (of course Aquinas mainly meant that it simply is possible that something that is contingent to go out of existence and thus it cannot be necessary as a being)

But Thomists have not been sitting on their hands and have reformulated and worked on the arguments proper. It's not like the "Five Ways" have been taken as unchanged as in the Summa for 800 years, Thomists and philosophers have been listening to critics and have worked (successfully I might add) to find solution to the criticism.

For example in the third way you can argue that contingent beings are not necessary even if they exist forever in a temporal sense

....

The claim "because entropy hasn't destroyed the universe yet there must be God." seems to me to be again William Paileys


>and besides the fact that everyone has trouble discerning what he's talking about in the first place, of the many different interpretations I've not heard one that even makes sense.

I think the idea "everyone has trouble discerning what he's talking about " comes from the fact that Thomists continuously have to correct bad readings of Aquinas from pop-atheists.
If you read someone's purely through his critics you are very well bound to get distorted views, because atheists start with the intention to "debunk" rather than to "understand".

In addition, o properly understand Aquinas one must understand Aristotelian philosophy, Scholasticism and also be familiar with Platonism. Many if Aquinas "critics" read him without being overtly familiar with this (even most pro-philosophers are not really too familiar with pre-moderns).

Point is: read the experts on Aquinas and Medieval philosophy. You do not go to an Intelligent Design supporter to understand the theory of evolution, you go to someone who works on evolutionary biology instead.

So if you want to understand Aquinas you want to read someone who is interested in Aquinas work itself and not just reads it to debunk it and has no other interest than that.

To note that Thomists do NOT assume that "Thomas Aquinas was always 100% right and defintive". Rather their work builds on Aquinas as a foundation and they think the foundation is solid even if here and there there is work to be done (like actually expanding and updating the arguments)

Now onto the books I reccomend:
I would say Edward Feser is probably the most accessible writer for laymen on Aquinas. Indeed his book "Aquinas (A Beginner's Guide)" is concise and is both meant for non-philosophers and philosophers alike.
Notably Feser was an atheist for a long time until he actually startedto read Aquinas properly (he recounts his story here where he explains that initially he also just read it to set up strawmen to be knocked down for philosophy classes, but slowly he realized there was much more meat to the arguments than thought.)

For more depth there are so many volumes, I will only mention a few that are general, like Etienne Gilson's "Thomism"; Reality: A Synthesis of Thomistic Thought; Eleonore Stump, Aquinas

Highly recommend this anthology, Dr. Williams is one of my professors and his translations are quite well done.

joseph Pieper's Guide to Thomas Aquinas and Joseph Pieper's Silence of Thomas Aquinas were recommended to me by someone studying him as a good intro. I haven't had the time to read them yet, but I trust the persons judgement.

Dr. Taylor Marshall's Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages is really quick and is a good start.