Works

#961

Sidereus Nuncius (Early-mid (the breakthrough that established Galileo's international reputation))

Galileo Galilei · March 1610 (Venice: Tommaso Baglioni)

Astronomical pamphlet · Early modern natural philosophy / observational astronomy

The telescope has shown what no eye had seen: mountains on the moon, satellites of Jupiter, the resolution of the Milky Way into uncountable stars

25% naturalism 20% realism 15% rationalism 15% empiricism 5% pragmatic-realism 5% platonism-classical 5% analytic-metaphysics +4

#962

The Assayer (Mature (composed during the brief honeymoon between Galileo and the new Pope Urban VIII))

Galileo Galilei · 1623 (Rome: Accademia dei Lincei)

Polemical natural-philosophical treatise · Early modern natural philosophy

The book of nature is written in the language of mathematics — without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth

20% naturalism 20% rationalism 15% realism 10% empiricism 10% analytic-metaphysics 10% platonism-classical 5% logical-positivism +4

#963

Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (Mature (composed at the height of the developing controversy with Rome))

Galileo Galilei · 1615 (composed; circulated in manuscript; first published 1636 in Strasbourg)

Long theological-methodological letter · Early modern natural philosophy / Catholic biblical hermeneutics

Scripture teaches how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go — natural philosophy must be free to follow its own evidence

20% rationalism 15% catholic-thomistic 20% liberal-theology 15% naturalism 10% realism 10% empiricism 5% critical-realism +4

#964

Custer Died for Your Sins (Mature (Deloria's breakthrough book, written at 36))

Vine Deloria Jr. · 1969 (Macmillan)

Polemical political-philosophical essays · Twentieth-century Native American political philosophy / Lakota intellectual tradition

Native Americans are not vanishing — they are nations within a nation, with distinct legal, philosophical, and spiritual standing that demands recognition

20% animism-relational-indigenous 20% critical-realism 15% realism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% humanism 10% postmodernism 10% liberation-theology +4

#965

The Metaphysics of Modern Existence (Mature (Deloria's most ambitious philosophical work))

Vine Deloria Jr. · 1979 (Harper & Row)

Philosophical-metaphysical treatise · Twentieth-century Native American philosophy / Lakota intellectual tradition

The Native metaphysics of relation, place, and event offers a corrective to Western philosophy's preoccupation with substance, time, and the isolated subject

30% animism-relational-indigenous 25% process-philosophy 15% quantum-realism 10% critical-realism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% phenomenology 5% deep-ecology +4

#966

Race Matters (Mature (the book that established West as a major public intellectual))

Cornel West · 1993 (Beacon Press; 25th anniversary edition 2017)

Public-intellectual essay collection · African American prophetic-Christian tradition / late twentieth-century cultural criticism

Race matters in America — and the failure to address race as a structural condition rather than a personal attitude has kept American democracy from its promise

20% liberal-theology 20% pragmatism 15% critical-realism 15% liberation-theology 10% existentialism 10% pragmatic-realism +3

#967

The American Evasion of Philosophy (Mature (West's major work of intellectual history, written before the Race Matters celebrity))

Cornel West · 1989 (Wisconsin UP)

Intellectual history / philosophical genealogy · Late twentieth-century American philosophy / pragmatist tradition

American pragmatism is the distinctive philosophical tradition that grew up around the American intellectual evasion of European epistemology — and it has prophetic resources for the present

35% pragmatism 15% liberal-theology 10% critical-realism 10% liberation-theology 10% existentialism 5% naturalism 10% postmodernism +4

#968

Democracy Matters (Late-mature (the post-9/11 sequel to the 1993 Race Matters))

Cornel West · 2004 (Penguin)

Public-intellectual essay collection · African American prophetic-Christian tradition / contemporary cultural criticism

American democracy faces three dogmas — free-market fundamentalism, aggressive militarism, and escalating authoritarianism — and democratic renewal requires confronting each

20% liberal-theology 20% pragmatism 15% critical-realism 10% platonism-classical 10% liberation-theology 10% existentialism 10% pragmatic-realism +4

#969

Dictionnaire philosophique (Late (composed during the Ferney years))

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) · 1764 (Dictionnaire philosophique portatif, Geneva; greatly expanded through 1769)

Philosophical dictionary · French Enlightenment

A portable Enlightenment — short, witty, polemical entries assaulting religious fanaticism and defending tolerance, reason, and natural rights

25% rationalism 15% empiricism 20% deism 10% liberal-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 10% pyrrhonism 10% realism +4

#970

Traité sur la tolérance (Late (the campaign-treatise of the Ferney period))

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) · 1763 (Traité sur la tolérance à l'occasion de la mort de Jean Calas)

Polemical-philosophical treatise · French Enlightenment

Religious tolerance is not a courtesy to be granted by the majority but the natural right of every human being — the Calas case shows what its denial costs

20% rationalism 25% liberal-theology 15% deism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 10% empiricism 5% pyrrhonism +4

#971

Éléments de la philosophie de Newton (Mid (the work that established Voltaire as a public intellectual of European reach))

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) · 1738 (Éléments de la philosophie de Newton, Amsterdam; revised 1741)

Popular-scientific philosophical treatise · French Enlightenment / Newtonian natural philosophy

Newton's natural philosophy — gravitation, optics, the calculus, the empirical method — explained for the educated French-reading public, against the entrenched Cartesianism of the Sorbonne

25% empiricism 15% rationalism 15% naturalism 15% deism 15% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% analytic-metaphysics +4

#972

Political Treatise (Late (Spinoza's last work, left incomplete at his death))

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza · 1675-77 (unfinished at Spinoza's 1677 death; published posthumously as part of the Opera Posthuma)

Unfinished political-philosophical treatise · Early modern political philosophy

The application of the Ethics's natural-rights framework to political institutions — and the most sustained early-modern defense of democratic constitutional government

20% spinozist-pantheism 20% rationalism 15% naturalism 15% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% liberal-theology 10% empiricism +4

#973

Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (Early (Spinoza's first major philosophical project, left incomplete as the Ethics took shape))

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza · c. 1661-62 (unfinished; published posthumously in the Opera Posthuma 1677)

Methodological-philosophical treatise (unfinished) · Early modern epistemology and ethics

The proper method of knowing — and the proper end of human life — both arise from the careful emendation of the intellect away from the distracting goods of fortune toward the love of an unchanging good

25% spinozist-pantheism 20% rationalism 10% realism 10% platonism-classical 10% empiricism 10% stoicism 5% liberal-theology +4

#974

Short Treatise on God (Early (Spinoza's first systematic presentation of his metaphysics, predating the Ethics))

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza · c. 1660-62 (Dutch manuscript circulated only among Spinoza's closest correspondents during his lifetime; rediscovered 1862)

Philosophical-theological treatise in two parts · Early modern philosophy

The early draft of the Ethics — Spinoza's first systematic presentation of his metaphysics, written before the more-Latin geometric form was fully developed

30% spinozist-pantheism 20% rationalism 15% realism 10% naturalism 5% platonism-classical 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% pragmatic-realism +4

#975

Principles of Cartesian Philosophy (Early (Spinoza's first published work))

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza · 1663 (Renati Des Cartes Principiorum Philosophiae Pars I et II, Amsterdam: Rieuwertsz)

Geometrical-deductive philosophical treatise · Early modern philosophy / Cartesian rationalism

A geometric reconstruction of Descartes — Spinoza's only work published under his own name during his lifetime, and the methodological forerunner of the Ethics

30% rationalism 15% spinozist-pantheism 15% analytic-metaphysics 10% realism 5% naturalism 5% platonism-classical 5% critical-realism +4

#976

Discourse on the Sciences and Arts (Early (the work that launched Rousseau's career))

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1750 (Discours sur les sciences et les arts, Geneva)

Polemical-philosophical Discourse · French Enlightenment / counter-Enlightenment

The progress of the sciences and arts has not improved morals — it has corrupted them, and the simplicity of pre-civilised humanity is the measure against which our progress fails

10% rationalism 20% stoicism 15% realism 15% critical-realism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% platonism-classical 5% existentialism 6% social-contract +5

#977

Julie (Mature (the literary high-point of Rousseau's career, between Social Contract and Émile))

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1761 (Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse: Lettres de deux amants, habitants d'une petite ville au pied des Alpes, Amsterdam)

Epistolary novel in six parts · French Enlightenment literature / pre-Romantic sensibility

Natural feeling against social artifice — the love of Julie and Saint-Preux, frustrated by the order of society, retains its truth at the level of the heart

15% liberal-theology 15% pragmatic-realism 15% realism 10% existentialism 5% pragmatism 10% transcendentalism 10% phenomenology 6% social-contract +5

#978

Reveries of the Solitary Walker (Last (composed in Rousseau's final two years, after he had retreated from public life))

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1776-78 (unfinished at Rousseau's death; published posthumously 1782)

Meditative essays / philosophical autobiography · French Enlightenment / pre-Romantic introspection

Ten meditations from solitary walks — the last and most introspective of Rousseau's autobiographical works, written when he had given up hope of public reconciliation

25% phenomenology 15% existentialism 15% transcendentalism 10% liberal-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 10% critical-realism 5% platonism-classical 6% social-contract +5

#979

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Late (Seneca's last completed major work, composed in retirement))

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · 63-65 CE (Seneca's last years, after retirement from Nero's court and before his forced suicide)

Philosophical letters (124 surviving, originally many more) · Roman Stoicism

Moral philosophy in epistolary form — the daily practice of Stoic virtue, illustrated through letters of advice to a younger friend

40% stoicism 15% rationalism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% epicureanism 5% platonism-classical 10% liberal-theology 5% phenomenology +4

#980

De Beneficiis (Mid-mature (composed during Seneca's most influential political-philosophical period))

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · c. 56-62 CE (Nero's court, before Seneca's retirement)

Seven-book philosophical treatise · Roman Stoicism

The giving and receiving of benefits is the fabric of human society — the proper conduct of benefits binds the social order together

35% stoicism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% rationalism 10% realism 15% liberal-theology 5% platonism-classical 10% critical-realism +4

#981

Naturales Quaestiones (Late)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · c. 62-64 CE (composed during Seneca's retirement)

Seven-book natural-philosophical treatise · Roman Stoicism / ancient natural philosophy

Stoic natural philosophy as a path to wisdom — the study of meteorology, geography, and cosmology trains the mind to apprehend the rational order of the cosmos

35% stoicism 20% naturalism 15% rationalism 10% realism 10% platonism-classical 5% liberal-theology 10% critical-realism +4

#982

De Otio (Late)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · c. 62 CE (composed at the time of Seneca's retirement from Nero's court)

Short philosophical treatise (incomplete — opening and closing portions lost) · Roman Stoicism

Philosophical retirement is not desertion of duty — it is a different mode of serving the cosmic commonwealth

35% stoicism 15% rationalism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 5% liberal-theology 10% platonism-classical 5% phenomenology +4

#983

De Constantia Sapientis (Mid)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · c. 56 CE (early in Seneca's tenure as Nero's advisor)

Short philosophical treatise · Roman Stoicism

The wise man cannot be injured because his good is what cannot be taken from him; he cannot be insulted because no insult reaches what he is

40% stoicism 15% rationalism 10% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% platonism-classical 5% liberal-theology 10% critical-realism +4

#984

Rhetoric (Mature)

Aristotle · c. 350-330 BC (composed during Aristotle's mature Lyceum period)

Philosophical treatise in three books · Classical Greek philosophy / rhetorical theory

Persuasion has three modes — through character (ethos), through emotion (pathos), and through reasoning (logos) — and the Rhetoric analyses each in systematic detail

20% rationalism 15% realism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% platonism-classical 15% phenomenology 10% empiricism 5% hylomorphism +4

#985

Poetics (Mature)

Aristotle · c. 335 BC (composed during Aristotle's Lyceum period; only the book on tragedy and epic survives; the book on comedy is lost)

Short philosophical treatise (Book 1 on tragedy surviving; Book 2 on comedy lost) · Classical Greek philosophy / literary theory

Tragedy is the imitation of a serious action — its proper effect is catharsis of pity and fear, achieved through the structure of plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle

20% rationalism 15% realism 15% platonism-classical 15% hylomorphism 10% empiricism 10% phenomenology +3

#986

Topics (Mid-mature)

Aristotle · c. 350-340 BC (one of Aristotle's earlier mature logical works)

Logical treatise in eight books · Classical Greek philosophy / dialectical logic

Dialectical reasoning from probable premises — distinct from demonstrative syllogism — has its own proper structure and uses, foundational for philosophical and rhetorical argument

25% rationalism 20% analytic-metaphysics 15% pragmatic-realism 10% platonism-classical 10% realism 5% structuralism +3

#987

Historia Animalium (Mature)

Aristotle · c. 343-340 BC (composed during Aristotle's Lesbos period and continued at the Lyceum)

Natural-historical treatise in ten books (Book 10 of disputed authenticity) · Classical Greek philosophy / ancient biology

The founding work of systematic biology — comparative anatomy, behaviour, reproduction, and ecology across the animal kingdom

30% empiricism 20% naturalism 15% realism 10% rationalism 15% hylomorphism 5% platonism-classical 5% critical-realism +4

#988

On Generation and Corruption (Mature)

Aristotle · c. 350 BC (during Aristotle's mature Lyceum period)

Philosophical treatise in two books · Classical Greek philosophy / ancient natural philosophy

The philosophy of substantial change — how does one thing become another? Through the four elements, their transformations, and the underlying matter that persists through them

30% hylomorphism 20% rationalism 15% realism 10% naturalism 10% platonism-classical 10% catholic-thomistic 10% critical-realism +4

#989

The Mandarins (Mature)

Simone de Beauvoir · 1954 (Gallimard; Prix Goncourt 1954)

Novel · Twentieth-century French existentialist literature

The post-Liberation Parisian intellectual scene confronts the cold war — through three central characters modeled on Camus, Sartre, and Beauvoir herself

35% existentialism 20% phenomenology 15% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% critical-realism 5% liberation-theology 5% postmodernism 8% continental-philosophy +5

#990

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (Mature)

Simone de Beauvoir · 1958 (Gallimard)

Autobiography · Twentieth-century French existentialist autobiography

A young Parisian woman's break with Catholic-bourgeois upbringing and discovery of philosophical-existential vocation

25% existentialism 20% phenomenology 15% realism 10% critical-realism 10% liberal-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 8% continental-philosophy +4

#991

Old Age (Late-mature)

Simone de Beauvoir · 1970 (Gallimard)

Philosophical-sociological treatise · Twentieth-century French existentialism / sociology of ageing

Old age as a social condition systematically denied and degraded — what The Second Sex did for womanhood, La Vieillesse does for ageing

30% existentialism 20% phenomenology 15% critical-realism 15% realism 10% liberation-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 8% continental-philosophy +4

#992

A Very Easy Death (Late)

Simone de Beauvoir · 1964 (Gallimard)

Memoir · Twentieth-century French existentialist memoir

A daughter's unsparing account of her mother's six-week dying — and an indictment of the medicalised lies that surrounded it

35% phenomenology 20% existentialism 15% realism 15% critical-realism 10% liberal-theology 5% pragmatic-realism 8% continental-philosophy +4

#993

Orlando (Mature)

Virginia Woolf · 1928 (Hogarth Press)

Mock-biographical novel · Twentieth-century English modernist literature

A young Elizabethan nobleman lives through four centuries and changes sex midway — founding work of modernist gender-fluid literature

20% postmodernism 15% phenomenology 15% constructivism 10% existentialism 5% realism 5% pragmatic-realism 10% critical-realism +4

#994

The Waves (Mature)

Virginia Woolf · 1931 (Hogarth Press)

Modernist novel in six interlocking soliloquies · Twentieth-century English modernist literature

Six characters, six soliloquies, six lives from childhood to death — Woolf's most formally experimental novel and her own choice as her best work

30% phenomenology 15% idealism 15% process-philosophy 10% existentialism 10% structuralism 5% realism 5% postmodernism +4

#995

Three Guineas (Late)

Virginia Woolf · 1938 (Hogarth Press)

Polemical-philosophical extended essay · Twentieth-century English feminist political philosophy

How can we prevent war? An anti-fascist feminist argues the patriarchal-educational establishment and the war system are continuous

25% critical-realism 15% liberation-theology 15% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 10% postmodernism 10% phenomenology 5% existentialism +4

#996

Between the Acts (Last)

Virginia Woolf · 1940-41 (Hogarth, posthumous July 1941; Woolf died March 28, 1941)

Novel · Twentieth-century English modernist literature

A village pageant on a June day in 1939 — England's historical-cultural reckoning at the brink of the Second World War

25% phenomenology 20% critical-realism 15% realism 10% postmodernism 10% process-philosophy 10% liberal-theology 5% existentialism +4

#997

Gyn/Ecology (Mature)

Mary Daly · 1978 (Beacon Press)

Radical-feminist philosophical-theological treatise · Twentieth-century radical feminism / post-Christian feminist philosophy

Patriarchy is a global religion of dismemberment — sati, foot-binding, genital mutilation are its rituals; gyn/ecology is the women-centred ecology that resists

20% liberation-theology 20% critical-realism 15% postmodernism 10% deep-ecology 10% phenomenology 10% existentialism 10% realism +4

#998

Pure Lust (Late-mature)

Mary Daly · 1984 (Beacon Press)

Radical-feminist philosophical treatise · Twentieth-century radical feminism

"Pure Lust" — elemental passion of women's desire for life, freedom, creative communion, against the "phallic lust" of patriarchal possession

20% process-philosophy 15% critical-realism 15% deep-ecology 15% postmodernism 10% existentialism 10% liberal-theology 10% pragmatic-realism +4

#999

Japji Sahib (Mature (Nānak's foundational devotional composition))

Guru Nānak Dev Ji · c. 1499-1539 (during Nānak's later teaching years; the morning prayer is one of his foundational compositions)

Devotional poetic prayer (38 pauris/stanzas plus a closing salok) · Sikhism

There is one God, the eternal truth — Ik Onkar Sat Nam — known by direct devotional remembrance rather than by ritual or priestly mediation

50% sikhism 15% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 15% liberal-theology 5% neo-platonism 10% realism 5% phenomenology 5% rationalism +4

#1000

Asa Di Var (Mature)

Guru Nānak Dev Ji · c. 1500-1539 (Nānak's mature teaching years; included in the Guru Granth Sahib 1604)

Devotional ballad (var) in 24 pauris with shaloks · Sikhism

A morning ballad in Asa raga — Nānak's extended devotional-philosophical reflection on God, creation, humility, and the ethical life

45% sikhism 20% liberal-theology 15% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 10% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% phenomenology 5% liberation-theology +4

#1001

Veritatis Splendor (Mature)

Karol Józef Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II · 1993 (Veritatis Splendor, issued August 6, 1993)

Papal encyclical · Catholic moral theology / Christian personalism

The splendour of truth shines in every action of the human being who is open to truth — moral truth has objective foundations, and the freedom that severs from truth becomes its own corruption

40% catholic-thomistic 20% christian-personalism 15% realism 10% rationalism 10% phenomenology 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% evangelical-protestantism 6% catholicism +5

#1002

Evangelium Vitae (Late-mature)

Karol Józef Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II · 1995 (Evangelium Vitae, issued March 25, 1995, the feast of the Annunciation)

Papal encyclical · Catholic moral theology / Christian personalism

The Gospel of Life — the inviolable dignity of human life from conception to natural death, against the "culture of death" that organises modern society against it

40% catholic-thomistic 20% christian-personalism 15% realism 15% critical-realism 10% rationalism 5% phenomenology 10% liberation-theology 6% catholicism +5

#1003

Theology of the Body (Mature (the major catechetical project of John Paul II's early pontificate))

Karol Józef Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II · 1979-84 (129 Wednesday General Audience addresses; published collectively as Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body)

Series of Wednesday General Audience addresses · Catholic moral theology / Christian personalism / theology of marriage

The body is the original sacrament — the visible sign of the invisible love that makes marriage, celibacy, and human sexuality the proper expressions of the human person

30% catholic-thomistic 25% christian-personalism 20% phenomenology 10% realism 10% rationalism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% evangelical-protestantism 6% catholicism +5

#1004

Politics and Conscience (Mature (composed during Havel's dissident period before the 1989 Velvet Revolution))

Václav Havel · 1984 (composed in Czechoslovakia under Communist authority; prepared as the acceptance speech for an honorary degree from the University of Toulouse that Havel could not attend)

Philosophical-political essay · Twentieth-century Czech philosophical dissidence

Modern political crisis has spiritual roots — and the recovery of political life requires the recovery of the inner conditions of authentic action

25% existentialism 20% phenomenology 20% critical-realism 10% liberal-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 5% liberation-theology +4

#1005

Disturbing the Peace (Late-dissident (composed three years before the Velvet Revolution))

Václav Havel · 1985-86 (long interview composed by mail between Havel in Prague and Karel Hvížďala in West Germany)

Long autobiographical-political interview · Twentieth-century Czech philosophical dissidence

A long interview through which Havel surveys his life, his philosophy, and his political commitments in the years just before the 1989 Velvet Revolution

25% existentialism 20% phenomenology 15% critical-realism 10% liberal-theology 15% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 5% liberation-theology +4

#1006

Summer Meditations (Late (the first major post-1989 reflection on the transition from dissidence to governance))

Václav Havel · 1991 (Letní přemítání, composed during Havel's first eighteen months as Czechoslovak president after the November 1989 Velvet Revolution)

Essay collection · Twentieth-century Czech philosophical dissidence / post-Communist political philosophy

Reflections from a dissident now in the presidential office — on the moral-political transition from "living in truth" to actual democratic governance

20% existentialism 20% pragmatic-realism 15% liberal-theology 15% critical-realism 10% realism 10% phenomenology 10% liberation-theology +4

#1007

Romans (Mature (Paul's most extensive and systematic letter))

Paul of Tarsus (Saul / Saint Paul) · c. 56-58 CE (composed in Corinth, near the end of Paul's third missionary journey)

Pastoral-doctrinal letter (16 chapters) · Earliest Christianity / Pauline Christianity

Justification by faith, the universality of sin, the universality of grace, and the place of Israel in God's redemptive plan — Paul's most systematic theological exposition

20% catholic-thomistic 20% reformed-calvinist-theology 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% liberation-theology 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% liberal-theology +4

#1008

1 Corinthians (Mature)

Paul of Tarsus (Saul / Saint Paul) · c. 53-55 CE (composed in Ephesus during Paul's third missionary journey)

Pastoral letter (16 chapters) · Earliest Christianity / Pauline Christianity

A pastoral letter to a troubled church — addressing factions, immorality, lawsuits, marriage, food offered to idols, worship, spiritual gifts, the resurrection, and the famous "hymn to love" of chapter 13

20% catholic-thomistic 15% reformed-calvinist-theology 15% evangelical-protestantism 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% liberal-theology 10% liberation-theology 5% phenomenology +4

#1009

2 Corinthians (Mature)

Paul of Tarsus (Saul / Saint Paul) · c. 55-56 CE (composed in Macedonia after a difficult Corinthian crisis)

Pastoral-apologetic letter (13 chapters) · Earliest Christianity / Pauline Christianity

When I am weak, then I am strong — Paul's most personal letter, defending his apostolic ministry through the theology of weakness

20% catholic-thomistic 15% reformed-calvinist-theology 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% liberation-theology 10% phenomenology 10% liberal-theology +4

#1010

Galatians (Mature)

Paul of Tarsus (Saul / Saint Paul) · c. 48-55 CE (either earliest or middle Pauline letter)

Polemical pastoral letter (6 chapters) · Earliest Christianity / Pauline Christianity

Justification by faith, not by works of the law — Paul's polemical manifesto, the "Magna Carta" of Christian freedom

25% reformed-calvinist-theology 15% catholic-thomistic 20% evangelical-protestantism 10% liberal-theology 10% liberation-theology 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% lutheranism +4

#1011

Philippians (Late)

Paul of Tarsus (Saul / Saint Paul) · c. 60-62 CE (from prison — Rome, Ephesus, or Caesarea)

Pastoral letter (4 chapters) · Earliest Christianity / Pauline Christianity

A prison letter of joy — and the Christological kenosis hymn that has organised Christian doctrine of incarnation for two millennia

25% catholic-thomistic 20% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% reformed-calvinist-theology 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% liberal-theology 5% phenomenology 10% liberation-theology +4

#1012

1 Thessalonians (Early)

Paul of Tarsus (Saul / Saint Paul) · c. 50-51 CE (earliest surviving Pauline letter)

Pastoral letter (5 chapters) · Earliest Christianity

The earliest surviving Pauline letter — eschatological questions about the parousia and the dead in Christ

20% catholic-thomistic 25% evangelical-protestantism 15% reformed-calvinist-theology 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% liberal-theology 5% phenomenology 10% liberation-theology +4

#1013

Philemon (Late)

Paul of Tarsus (Saul / Saint Paul) · c. 60-62 CE (composed in prison alongside Colossians)

Short personal letter (25 verses) · Earliest Christianity

Paul's short prison letter on behalf of a runaway slave — and the principal early-Christian text on slavery, manumission, and the gospel's social implications

25% liberation-theology 15% catholic-thomistic 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% liberal-theology 10% critical-realism +4

#1014

Othello (Mature)

William Shakespeare · c. 1603-04 (first performed Whitehall, 1 November 1604)

Tragic drama in five acts · Elizabethan-Jacobean English Renaissance drama

Jealousy, race, and the destruction of a good man — Iago's motiveless malignity working through Othello's capacity to be deceived

20% realism 15% phenomenology 15% critical-realism 10% existentialism 5% liberal-theology 10% postmodernism 10% naturalism +4

#1015

Macbeth (Mature)

William Shakespeare · c. 1606

Tragic drama in five acts · Elizabethan-Jacobean English Renaissance drama

Ambition, regicide, and the destruction of conscience — Shakespeare's most concentrated tragic structure

20% realism 15% phenomenology 10% liberal-theology 15% existentialism 10% critical-realism 10% naturalism 10% catholic-thomistic +4

#1016

Antony and Cleopatra (Mature)

William Shakespeare · c. 1606-07

Tragic drama in five acts · Elizabethan-Jacobean English Renaissance drama

Love and empire — the fall of Antony and Cleopatra and the end of the Roman Republic

15% realism 15% phenomenology 15% critical-realism 10% existentialism 5% postmodernism 10% naturalism +3

#1017

The Tempest (Last (probably Shakespeare's last sole-authored play))

William Shakespeare · c. 1610-11 (first performed Whitehall, 1 November 1611)

Late romance in five acts · Elizabethan-Jacobean English Renaissance drama

Prospero on his enchanted island — magic of theatrical art, civilisation and colonisation, Shakespeare's farewell to the stage

10% realism 15% phenomenology 20% postmodernism 15% critical-realism 10% idealism 10% liberal-theology 10% hermeticism 10% platonism-classical +5

#1018

Measure for Measure (Mature)

William Shakespeare · c. 1603-04

Problem comedy / dark comedy in five acts · Elizabethan-Jacobean English Renaissance drama

"Measure for measure" — a deeply ambiguous drama of sexual ethics, judicial power, and the relation between mercy and justice

15% realism 20% liberal-theology 15% critical-realism 10% phenomenology 10% catholic-thomistic 10% postmodernism 10% existentialism 10% reformed-calvinist-theology +5

#1019

Resistance to Civil Government (Mature)

Henry David Thoreau · 1849 (first published as "Resistance to Civil Government" in Aesthetic Papers; reprinted posthumously as "Civil Disobedience" in 1866)

Political-philosophical essay · American transcendentalism / political-philosophical individualism

"That government is best which governs least" — and when government becomes unjust, refusal to obey is not only a right but a duty

25% transcendentalism 20% liberation-theology 10% existentialism 10% liberal-theology 10% rationalism 15% critical-realism 10% pragmatic-realism +4

#1020

A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Early-mature)

Henry David Thoreau · 1849 (composed during Thoreau's Walden Pond years 1845-47; published 1849 at Thoreau's own expense)

Travel memoir / philosophical essay · American transcendentalism

A boat trip up the Concord and Merrimack rivers — and the philosophical-poetic-religious meditations the trip occasions

25% transcendentalism 20% phenomenology 15% naturalism 10% liberal-theology 10% realism 5% process-philosophy 10% existentialism 10% deep-ecology +5