Non-Catholic Authors

“I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” (St. John x, 14-16)

This is a partial list of works by authors who were not Christians of the one true and Catholic Church at the time those works were published; which works, however, are (a) animated by Catholic Christianity; (b) informed by a true though incomplete Christianity that, being authentically Christian, is part of the fullness of Catholic Christianity; (c) manifests a commitment to reason and/or humanity, that being open to truth and goodness, is part and preamble of the Catholic Faith; (d) may be relevant or useful to Catholic Christians and poses no danger to their faith (e) may be relevant or useful to Catholic Christians but should be read with caution. This includes works by persons who later became Catholic Christians in full communion of the one true and Catholic Church.

I. Works that may be read with profit

  • Answering Arguments for Abortion Rights, by Professor Francis J. Beckwith, Ph.D. (1990-1991). May be read online at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library: Part One: “The Appeal to Pity”; Part Two: “Arguments from Pity, Tolerance, and Ad Hominem”; Part Three: “Is The Unborn Human Less Than Human?”; Part Four: “When Does a Human Become a Person?”. [N.B.1, Although it was written before Professor Beckwith converted from “Evangelical” Protestantism to the Catholic Faith in 2007, this essay nonetheless provides intellectually solid arguments that Catholic Christians may find useful.] [N.B.2, Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) is a non-Catholic website, though it contains a number of Catholic works as well. Catholic Christians without sufficient theological formation are counseled to sift other materials on the website with prayerful caution.]
  • The Arians of the Fourth Century: Their Doctrine, Temper, and Conduct, Chiefly as Exhibited in the Councils of the Church, between A.D. 325, & A.D. 381, by John Henry Newman (London: J. & F. Rivington, 1833). Available at Internet Archive and Open Library, with a second copy at Internet Archive and Open Library, and a third copy at Internet Archive and Open Library, and a fourth copy at Open Library and Internet Archive; and it may be read online at e-Catholic 2000. [N.B., This was written when Cardinal Newman had not yet converted to the true and Catholic faith.]
  • The Cistercian Saints of England: St. Stephen, Abbot, by Blessed John Henry Newman (London: James Toovey, 1844). Part of the series Lives of the English Saints. Available in various formats at Internet Archive and Open Library. [N.B. This work appears to have been published soon before Cardinal Newman was received into the one true Church.]
  • The Complete Father Brown, by G. K. Chesterton. Available at ebooks@adelaide (This web edition published by eBooks@Adelaide. Rendered into HTML by Steve Thomas. Last updated Thu Aug 26 10:12:32 2010. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence). [N.B., Contains all the Father Brown short stories.] [N.B.2, The stories in The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) and The Wisdom of Father Brown (1914) were written before the author was received into the Catholic Church.]
  • The Crimes of England, by G. K. Chesterton (1915). Available in various formats at ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg. Audiobook available at LibriVox.org.
  • Heretics, by G.K. Chesterton (1905). Available in multiple formats at Manybooks. and Project Gutenberg. Audiobook available at LibriVox.org.
  • The Innocence of Father Brown, by G. K. Chesterton (1911). Detective fiction. Available at ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg. Audiobook available at Project Gutenberg and LibriVox.org.
  • Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis (New York: HarperCollins, 1952). The work, which to our knowledge is not yet in the public domain, may be purchased through Amazon.com.
  • Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton (1908). Available at ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg as well as at The Literature Networkand G. K. Chesterton’s Works on the Web. Audiobook available atLibriVox.org and LibriVox.org (2nd copy).
  • “A Question of Judgement: Dr. Alojzije Stepinac and the Jews”, by Esther Gitman, Review of Croatian History, Vol.II, No.1 (January 2007): pp. 47-72. Available in PDF format (on this page) through Hrcak: Portal of Scientific Journals of Crotia. [This article by a Jewish historian on the Holocaust corrects popular “black legends” fomented by the Yugoslav Communist regime, based on records that were uncovered after the fall of Communist rule.]
  • Recent Research in Plainsong: a paper read to the members of the Plainsong and Mediæval Music Society, by Henry Bremridge Briggs (London: Vincent, 1898). Available at Open Library and Internet Archive. (N.B., The book has no Imprimatur, but the work has no apparent heterodoxy and the topic relates to the Church. The author is possibly a High Church Anglican and cites the musical research of the Benedictines of Solesmes.)
  • Remarks by the President at the Rededication of the National Archives, by President George W. Bush, 17 September 2003.
  • The Superstition of Divorce, by G.K. Chesterton (1920). Available at ManyBooks.net and at Internet Archive.
  • Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays, by G. K. [Gilbert Keith] Chesterton (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1917). Available in various formats at Internet Archive and Open Library.  Possibly the same edition available at ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg, and may be downloaded in text format through G. K. Chesterton’s Works on the Web.
  • What’s Wrong with the World, by G. K. Chesterton (1910). Available at Many Books.net and Project Gutenberg.
  • Wine, Water, and Song, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1915). Poetry. Available in various formats at ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg.
  • The Wisdom of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton (1914). Fiction, Detective. Available in various formats at ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg. May be read online at G. K. Chesterton’s Works on the Web.
  • The Work of the Benedictines of Solesmes in the Plainsong Revival, by Henry Bremridge Briggs (London: Harrison and Sons, 1899). Available at Open Library and Internet Archive.  (N.B., The book has no Imprimatur, but the work has no apparent heterodoxy and the topic relates to the Church, specifically the musical research of the Benedictines of Solesmes. The author is possibly a High Church Anglican.)

II. Works that may be read with prayerful caution

  • A History of the Protestant “reformation” in England and Ireland, showing how that event has impoverished and degraded the main body of the people in those countries. In a series of letters addressed to all sensible and just Englishmen, by William Cobbett (London: C. Clement, 1824) Available at ManyBooks.net in multiple formats. Also available at Open Library and Internet Archive. History, Protestantism, Monasticism. [N.B.: Cobbett was not a Catholic, but amidst the fight for Catholic Emancipation against the oppression of Protestant England, he published this work to break English historical prejudice.]
  • The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-Day, by Evelyn Underhill (New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1922). Available At Project Gutenberg. [NB: Evelyn Underhill was not a Catholic. However, her writings provide excellent introductions to Catholic mysticism and spirituality, which her High Church Anglicanism, drawn from the same movement that drew Newman and many others to the Catholic Church, allowed her to understand.]
  • Religious Art in France, XIII Century; A Study in Mediaeval Iconography and Its Sources of Inspiration, by Emile Mâle, translated from the 3rd edition by Dora Nussey (London, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.; New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1913). Reprinted and sold by Dover as Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century and by Harper and Row as The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century. [N.B., Requires prayerful caution. While it is an excellent guide to Christian symbolism, it makes inaccurate or, at least, imprecise statements on certain teachings of the Church, particularly on grace and on the Assumption.]
  • Russia and the Universal Church, by Vladimir Solovyev [or Soloviev or Solovyov], translated by Herbert Rees (London: The Centenary Press, 1948). 204 pages. The ebook and printed book may be purchased at Amazon. The ebook and printed book of a new edition by William G. von Peters, Ph.D., which contains the Foreword of Giacomo Cardinal Biffi (Chatanooga: Catholic Resources, 2013) may also be purchased at Amazon.
  • “The Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Roman Catholic Church: What Psychologists and Counselors Should Know”, by Thomas G. Plante and Courtney Daniels, Pastoral Psychology, Vol. 52, No. 5, May 2004 (2004), pp. 381-393. Available in PDF format at Psychology Today. [N.B., The text does not appear to be written by Catholic Christians, but it provides a concise and even-handed psycho-social analysis of the problem that, unlike some other treatments of the subject, is free of underlying agendas. On alleged abuse in other communities, see this article by Patrick Parkinson et al. about child sexual abuse in the Anglican community in Australia and the Wikipedia article on alleged abuse in Jewish American communities.]
  • A Vanished Arcadia, Being Some Account of the Jesuits in Paraguay, 1607 to 1767, by R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Available in multiple formats at ManyBooks.net and Project Gutenberg. [N.B. Graham was not a Catholic Christian. However, his account of the heroic work of the Jesuits for the Amerindian peoples of Paraguay is very fair-minded and informative.]

III. Works that may be read only by prayerful persons with sufficient theological formation 

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