Works

#1021

The Maine Woods (Mature-late)

Henry David Thoreau · 1846-57 (three Maine expedition narratives composed across a decade); compiled posthumously 1864

Wilderness travel narrative (three linked accounts) · American transcendentalism / wilderness literature

Three Maine expeditions — Ktaadn, Chesuncook, the Allegash and East Branch — and the foundational American confrontation with the unmodified wilderness

20% transcendentalism 20% naturalism 15% phenomenology 15% deep-ecology 10% animism-relational-indigenous 10% realism 10% critical-realism +4

#1022

A Plea for Captain John Brown (Mature)

Henry David Thoreau · 1859 (delivered as a public address in Concord, Boston, and Worcester, October-November 1859; published 1860)

Political address / polemical essay · American transcendentalism / radical abolitionism

A defense of John Brown after Harpers Ferry — the most politically incendiary of Thoreau's essays

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

#1023

Slavery in Massachusetts (Mature)

Henry David Thoreau · 1854 (delivered at the antislavery convention, Framingham, July 4, 1854; published in The Liberator and other papers)

Political address · American transcendentalism / radical abolitionism

Massachusetts has become complicit in slavery through the Fugitive Slave Act — and the citizens who tolerate this complicity have themselves become slave-catchers

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

#1024

The American Scholar (Mature)

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1837 (delivered August 31, 1837, at the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard; first published as An Oration Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1837)

Public address · American transcendentalism

America's intellectual Declaration of Independence — the scholar's vocation, the proper relation between books and life

30% transcendentalism 15% pragmatic-realism 15% pragmatism 10% liberal-theology 10% existentialism 10% idealism 10% phenomenology +4

#1025

Divinity School Address (Mature)

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1838 (delivered July 15, 1838, at Harvard Divinity School; published as An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, 1838)

Public address · American transcendentalism / liberal religion

The miracle is not Christ's but the ongoing miracle of moral-religious sensibility in every soul — Emerson's founding manifesto of transcendentalist religion

30% transcendentalism 25% liberal-theology 15% idealism 10% phenomenology 10% existentialism 10% pragmatism 5% naturalism +4

#1026

Essays: First Series (Mature)

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1841 (James Munroe & Co., Boston)

Essay collection (12 essays) · American transcendentalism

Self-Reliance, Compensation, The Over-Soul — the most concentrated statement of Emerson's transcendentalist programme

30% transcendentalism 20% existentialism 15% pragmatism 15% idealism 10% liberal-theology 5% process-philosophy 5% phenomenology +4

#1027

Essays: Second Series (Mature)

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1844 (James Munroe & Co., Boston)

Essay collection (8 essays) · American transcendentalism

The poet, experience, nature, politics — Emerson's second collection, more sober and philosophically mature than the First Series

25% transcendentalism 20% pragmatism 15% existentialism 15% phenomenology 10% idealism 5% liberal-theology 10% critical-realism +4

#1028

Representative Men (Mature)

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1850 (Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston; based on lectures delivered 1845-46)

Biographical-philosophical essay collection · American transcendentalism

Plato, Swedenborg, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Napoleon, Goethe — Emerson's engagement with the great figures of Western thought as representative types of human possibility

25% transcendentalism 15% idealism 10% pragmatism 10% liberal-theology 10% existentialism 10% realism 10% platonism-classical 10% critical-realism +5

#1029

Soliloquies (Early)

Friedrich Schleiermacher · 1800 (Monologen, Berlin)

Philosophical-religious meditations (5 monologues) · German Romanticism / liberal Protestant theology

Five meditations on selfhood, freedom, world, prospect, and youth — Schleiermacher's founding statement of ethical individuality

30% liberal-theology 20% idealism 15% phenomenology 10% existentialism 5% rationalism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% process-philosophy +4

#1030

Brief Outline of Theology as a Field of Study (Mature)

Friedrich Schleiermacher · 1811 (first edition); substantially revised 1830 (second edition)

Theological-methodological treatise · Liberal Protestant theology / nineteenth-century German theology

Theology as a positive science — Schleiermacher's methodological treatise organising the field into philosophical, historical, and practical theology

30% liberal-theology 15% rationalism 10% realism 15% critical-realism 10% phenomenology 15% pragmatic-realism 5% catholic-thomistic +4

#1031

Translation of Plato's dialogues (Mature)

Friedrich Schleiermacher · 1804-28 (multi-volume translation with extensive prefaces and notes)

Translation with critical introductions · German classical philology / nineteenth-century Platonic scholarship

The founding modern German translation of Plato — Schleiermacher's philological achievement that reshaped nineteenth-century Plato studies

30% platonism-classical 15% rationalism 10% idealism 5% liberal-theology 5% phenomenology 10% structuralism 15% realism 10% critical-realism +5

#1032

The Christian Faith (Mature)

Friedrich Schleiermacher · 1821-22 (first edition); substantially revised 1830-31 (second edition, the standard form)

Systematic dogmatic theology · Liberal Protestant theology

The founding modern Protestant systematic theology — Schleiermacher's reconstruction of Christian doctrine on the basis of religious self-consciousness

40% liberal-theology 20% phenomenology 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% idealism 10% critical-realism 10% rationalism 5% existentialism +4

#1033

Surprised by Joy (Late-mature)

C. S. Lewis · 1955 (Geoffrey Bles, London)

Spiritual autobiography · Twentieth-century Anglican apologetics

Lewis's autobiographical account of his conversion — the role of imagination, longing (Joy), and reason in the path from atheism to Christianity

20% evangelical-protestantism 10% catholic-thomistic 20% phenomenology 10% liberal-theology 10% existentialism 15% realism 10% platonism-classical 6% anglicanism +5

#1034

The Allegory of Love (Mature)

C. S. Lewis · 1936 (Oxford UP); Hawthornden Prize 1936

Literary-historical scholarship · Twentieth-century English medieval-Renaissance literary scholarship

Courtly love, allegorical poetry, the medieval European literary tradition — Lewis's scholarly masterpiece on the literary form that organised European love poetry from the troubadours to Spenser

15% catholic-thomistic 15% realism 15% platonism-classical 10% phenomenology 15% critical-realism 10% idealism 5% liberal-theology 5% rationalism 6% anglicanism +6

#1035

The Discarded Image (Last)

C. S. Lewis · Lectures delivered Oxford 1950s; published posthumously 1964 (Cambridge UP)

Literary-historical introduction · Twentieth-century English medieval-Renaissance literary scholarship

The medieval cosmological model — the discarded image of the world that organised pre-modern European literary-cultural life

20% platonism-classical 15% catholic-thomistic 15% realism 15% critical-realism 10% hermeticism 10% idealism 10% rationalism 5% neo-platonism 6% anglicanism +6

#1036

Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (Early)

Iris Murdoch · 1953 (Bowes & Bowes, Cambridge)

Philosophical-critical study · Twentieth-century British philosophy / engagement with French existentialism

Iris Murdoch's 1953 short study of Sartre — her first published book and the founding statement of her philosophical-literary engagement with French existentialism

20% analytic-metaphysics 20% existentialism 15% platonism-classical 15% realism 10% phenomenology 10% critical-realism 5% liberal-theology +4

#1037

The Sea, The Sea (Late-mature)

Iris Murdoch · 1978 (Chatto & Windus); Booker Prize 1978

Novel · Twentieth-century British philosophical fiction

A retired theatrical director's seaside memoir — and the metaphysical study of obsession, jealousy, and self-deception that the memoir becomes

20% platonism-classical 20% realism 20% phenomenology 10% liberal-theology 10% critical-realism 10% existentialism 5% analytic-metaphysics 5% buddhism +5

#1038

The Black Prince (Mature)

Iris Murdoch · 1973 (Chatto & Windus); James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1973

Novel · Twentieth-century British philosophical fiction

Bradley Pearson, an aging writer, encounters Julian Baffin and is overwhelmed by erotic-philosophical love — Murdoch's most ambitious novel on Eros and the artistic vocation

25% platonism-classical 15% realism 20% phenomenology 10% analytic-metaphysics 10% critical-realism 5% liberal-theology 10% existentialism 5% postmodernism +5

#1039

A Pluralistic Universe (Late)

William James · 1909 (Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College, Oxford, May 1908)

Philosophical lecture series · American pragmatism / radical empiricism

The universe is plural, not monistic — James's mature constructive metaphysics against absolute idealism

25% pragmatism 20% process-philosophy 15% pragmatic-realism 10% phenomenology 10% naturalism 10% liberal-theology 5% existentialism +4

#1040

Essays in Radical Empiricism (Late posthumous)

William James · 1904-08 essays; collected posthumously 1912

Philosophical essay collection · American pragmatism / radical empiricism

Radical empiricism — experience as foundation of metaphysics, with relations as much given as things related

25% pragmatism 20% empiricism 20% phenomenology 10% naturalism 10% process-philosophy 10% neutral-monism 5% pragmatic-realism +4

#1041

Some Remarks on Logical Form (Transitional)

Ludwig Wittgenstein · 1929 (Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 9)

Philosophical paper (short) · Twentieth-century analytic philosophy of logic

Wittgenstein's only short published paper — on color-exclusion and the limits of the Tractarian system

30% analytic-metaphysics 15% logical-positivism 10% rationalism 10% realism 15% constructivism 10% phenomenology 10% pragmatic-realism 8% analytic-philosophy +5

#1042

Eyeless in Gaza (Mid-mature)

Aldous Huxley · 1936

Novel (non-linear) · Twentieth-century English novel / spiritual-pacifist literature

Huxley's formally experimental 1936 novel — path from cynical bohemianism to mystical-pacifist commitment

15% phenomenology 20% buddhism 10% liberal-theology 15% existentialism 10% naturalism 10% pragmatic-realism 15% realism 5% liberation-theology +5

#1043

Brave New World Revisited (Late)

Aldous Huxley · 1958

Essay collection · Twentieth-century political-cultural criticism

Twenty-six years later — Huxley's sober reassessment argues the dystopia is arriving faster than he had imagined

25% critical-realism 20% realism 10% liberation-theology 15% pragmatic-realism 10% liberal-theology 10% naturalism 5% postmodernism 5% pragmatism +5

#1044

Purgatorio (Mature)

Dante Alighieri · c. 1314-19

Epic poem in 33 cantos of terza rima · Late medieval Italian Catholic poetry

The ascent of Mount Purgatory through the seven terraces of capital vice — Dante's most theologically careful cantica

35% catholic-thomistic 10% platonism-classical 15% realism 15% phenomenology 10% liberal-theology 10% critical-realism 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% existentialism +5

#1045

De Vulgari Eloquentia (Mid-mature)

Dante Alighieri · c. 1304-05 (two of four planned books)

Linguistic-rhetorical treatise (incomplete) · Late medieval Italian philosophy of language

The founding philosophical treatise on vernacular language — Dante defending the dignity of Italian against Latin while writing in Latin

15% rationalism 15% realism 15% catholic-thomistic 5% liberal-theology 10% platonism-classical 10% phenomenology 15% structuralism 10% pragmatic-realism +5

#1046

De Monarchia (Late)

Dante Alighieri · c. 1313-18 (during Dante's exile)

Political-philosophical treatise in three books · Late medieval political philosophy

Universal monarchy as the proper political form for humanity — and the imperial-papal independence

15% catholic-thomistic 20% rationalism 15% realism 10% platonism-classical 10% liberal-theology 10% hylomorphism 15% critical-realism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity +5

#1047

The Descent of Man (Mature)

Charles Darwin · 1871 (John Murray, London); revised 1874

Scientific treatise in two volumes · Nineteenth-century evolutionary biology

Humans as the product of evolutionary descent — and the theory of sexual selection as a major mechanism of evolutionary change

30% naturalism 20% empiricism 15% realism 10% rationalism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% critical-realism 5% liberal-theology +4

#1048

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Late)

Charles Darwin · 1872 (John Murray, London)

Scientific treatise · Nineteenth-century evolutionary biology / psychology

Comparative emotional expression — Darwin's foundational study of facial expression across humans and animals, with photographs of emotional states

25% naturalism 20% empiricism 15% realism 15% critical-realism 10% phenomenology 5% rationalism 10% pragmatic-realism +4

#1049

Journal of Researches (Early)

Charles Darwin · 1839 (first edition); 1845 (substantially revised second edition)

Scientific-naturalist travel narrative · Nineteenth-century natural history / scientific autobiography

Darwin's account of his 1831-36 Beagle voyage — the formative experience of his evolutionary thinking, popularly known as "The Voyage of the Beagle"

25% naturalism 25% empiricism 15% realism 10% phenomenology 10% rationalism 10% critical-realism 5% pragmatic-realism +4

#1050

The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (Last)

Charles Darwin · 1881 (John Murray, London) — Darwin's last book, published months before his April 1882 death

Scientific monograph · Nineteenth-century natural history / soil biology

Earthworms as geological agents — Darwin's last book, the founding text of soil biology and ecological-functional ecology

25% naturalism 25% empiricism 15% realism 15% critical-realism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% phenomenology 5% deep-ecology +4

#1051

The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (Mature)

Charles Darwin · 1868 (John Murray, London); revised 1875

Scientific treatise in two volumes · Nineteenth-century evolutionary biology

Domestic variation and the now-discarded theory of pangenesis — Darwin's major treatment of inheritance, ten years after Origin

20% naturalism 25% empiricism 15% realism 15% critical-realism 10% rationalism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% process-philosophy +4

#1052

Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Mid-mature)

Albert Einstein · 1916 (Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie); English translation 1920

Popular-scientific exposition · Twentieth-century physics / philosophy of physics

Einstein's own popular exposition of special and general relativity — the principal accessible source for the lay reader

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

#1053

The World as I See It (Mid-mature)

Albert Einstein · 1934 (German: Mein Weltbild, Querido Verlag, Amsterdam; English: Covici Friede, New York)

Essay and address collection · Twentieth-century scientific humanism / philosophy of science

Einstein's 1934 collection of essays and addresses — philosophical, political, personal — the most accessible non-technical statement of his worldview

25% spinozist-pantheism 15% rationalism 15% liberal-theology 10% naturalism 10% liberation-theology 10% realism 5% pragmatic-realism +4

#1054

Religion and Science (Mid-mature)

Albert Einstein · 1930 (published New York Times Magazine, November 9, 1930)

Short essay · Twentieth-century scientific humanism / philosophy of religion

Three stages of religion — fear, moral, cosmic — and mature science as continuous with cosmic religious feeling

25% spinozist-pantheism 20% naturalism 20% liberal-theology 15% rationalism 10% realism 5% critical-realism 10% phenomenology +4

#1055

Out of My Later Years (Late)

Albert Einstein · 1950 (Philosophical Library, New York)

Essay and address collection · Twentieth-century scientific humanism / philosophy of science / philosophy of religion

Einstein's 1950 late-career essay collection — Princeton years on science, politics, religion, and Zionism

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

#1056

The Born-Einstein Letters (Mature-late)

Albert Einstein · 1916-55 (correspondence across four decades); published in 1971 (German); English 1971 (Walker)

Scientific correspondence · Twentieth-century physics / philosophy of science

The Einstein-Born letters — the principal documentary record of the early-twentieth-century physics debate, especially over quantum mechanics

25% realism 15% rationalism 15% analytic-metaphysics 20% quantum-realism 10% naturalism 10% critical-realism 5% logical-positivism +4

#1057

Letter to Herodotus (Mature)

Epicurus · c. 300 BC

Philosophical letter · Hellenistic philosophy / Epicureanism

Epicurus's short summary of his natural philosophy — atoms, void, infinite worlds

50% epicureanism 20% naturalism 10% empiricism 10% realism 5% rationalism 5% critical-realism 8% atomism +4

#1058

Principal Doctrines (Mature)

Epicurus · c. 300 BC

Collection of 40 philosophical maxims · Hellenistic philosophy / Epicureanism

40 short Epicurean maxims — most-quoted statement of Epicurean ethics

50% epicureanism 15% naturalism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 5% liberal-theology 5% rationalism 8% atomism +4

#1059

Parable of the Sower (Mature)

Octavia E. Butler · 1993

Novel (epistolary-journal form) · African American speculative fiction / Afrofuturism

Near-future America collapsing into climate breakdown — and Lauren Olamina's Earthseed religion

30% afrofuturism 20% critical-realism 15% liberation-theology 15% realism 10% process-philosophy 10% phenomenology 5% deep-ecology 5% existentialism +5

#1060

Parable of the Talents (Late-mature)

Octavia E. Butler · 1998 (Nebula 1999)

Novel (multi-voiced journal) · African American speculative fiction / Afrofuturism

Earthseed community attacked by a theocratic American president — "Make America Great Again" predating Trump by 17 years

30% afrofuturism 25% critical-realism 20% liberation-theology 15% realism 10% process-philosophy 5% phenomenology 5% existentialism +4

#1061

The Immeasurable Equation (Posthumous)

Sun Ra (Herman Poole Blount) · 1950s-1993; collected 2005

Poetry and prose collection · Afrofuturism

Collected poetic-philosophical writings — foundational text of Afrofuturism

40% afrofuturism 15% hermeticism 15% liberation-theology 10% neo-platonism 10% process-philosophy 10% idealism +3

#1062

Cur Deus Homo (Late-mature)

Anselm of Canterbury · c. 1094-98

Philosophical dialogue · Medieval Latin theology / scholasticism

Why God became man — Anselm's rational argument for the necessity of the Incarnation, founding text of satisfaction theory of atonement

30% catholic-thomistic 25% rationalism 15% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% realism 10% hylomorphism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity +3

#1063

On Truth (Mature)

Anselm of Canterbury · c. 1080-85

Philosophical dialogue · Medieval Latin theology

Truth as "rectitude" — Anselm's philosophical analysis of truth in propositions, opinions, will, action, sensation, and substantial being

25% catholic-thomistic 20% rationalism 15% realism 15% platonism-classical 10% neo-platonism 10% analytic-metaphysics +3

#1064

On Free Will (Mature)

Anselm of Canterbury · c. 1080-85

Philosophical dialogue · Medieval Latin theology

Free will as the power to preserve rightness of will for its own sake — Anselm's distinctive medieval definition

25% catholic-thomistic 20% rationalism 15% realism 10% liberal-theology 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% platonism-classical +3

#1065

Faust I (Mature)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1772-1806 (composed over 35 years; published 1808)

Verse drama in two parts (Part I) · German Romanticism / classical-modern European drama

Faust's pact with Mephistopheles — the founding text of the Faust mythos in modern European literature

20% existentialism 15% idealism 15% hermeticism 15% critical-realism 10% process-philosophy 10% phenomenology +3

#1066

Faust II (Last)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1825-31 (completed shortly before Goethe's 1832 death; published posthumously 1832)

Verse drama in five acts · German Romanticism / late classical modernism

Goethe's 1832 posthumous Faust II — Faust's journey through history, the salvation of his striving soul

20% idealism 20% process-philosophy 15% platonism-classical 10% hermeticism 10% critical-realism 10% liberal-theology 5% existentialism +4

#1067

Theory of Colors (Mature)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1810 (J.G. Cotta, Tübingen)

Phenomenological-scientific treatise · German Romanticism / phenomenology of perception

Goethe's phenomenological treatise on color — long out of favour against Newton, rehabilitated by twentieth-century phenomenology

35% phenomenology 15% realism 15% empiricism 10% idealism 15% critical-realism 10% naturalism +3

#1068

Italian Journey (Late-mature retrospective)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe · 1816 (parts I-II) and 1829 (part III); recounting 1786-88 journey

Travel memoir / autobiographical-aesthetic essay · German classical-Romantic literature

Goethe's account of his 1786-88 Italian journey — the formative classical experience that reshaped his aesthetic-philosophical vision

20% phenomenology 25% platonism-classical 15% realism 10% naturalism 10% idealism 10% pragmatic-realism +3

#1069

Discourse on Metaphysics (Mature)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz · 1686 (composed February 1686; first published 1846)

Philosophical treatise in 37 sections · Early modern philosophy / German rationalism

Leibniz's 1686 systematic statement of his mature metaphysics — initiating the famous Arnauld correspondence

30% rationalism 15% idealism 15% liberal-theology 10% realism 15% analytic-metaphysics 10% catholic-thomistic 5% eternalism +4

#1070

The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence (Last)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz · 1715-16 (5 letters from Leibniz, 5 replies from Clarke); published 1717

Philosophical correspondence · Early modern philosophy of physics

Leibniz's 1715-16 last philosophical work — the founding debate over space, time, and divine action between relationalist and absolutist physics

25% rationalism 15% eternalism 15% idealism 15% analytic-metaphysics 10% liberal-theology 10% realism +3

#1071

Jesus and the Disinherited (Mature)

Howard Thurman · 1949

Theological-philosophical essay · Twentieth-century African American liberal-prophetic Christianity

Jesus as a disinherited Palestinian Jew — Thurman's short book that shaped Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement

35% liberation-theology 20% liberal-theology 15% critical-realism 10% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% evangelical-protestantism 8% christian-mysticism +4

#1072

The Inward Journey (Late-mature)

Howard Thurman · 1961

Meditational essays · Twentieth-century African American contemplative Christianity

The inward journey — Thurman's mature spiritual-contemplative teaching synthesising Black prophetic Christianity, Quaker contemplation, Indian-Buddhist practice

25% liberal-theology 20% phenomenology 10% liberation-theology 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% buddhism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% existentialism 8% christian-mysticism +5

#1073

Go Tell It on the Mountain (Early)

James Baldwin · 1953

Novel · African American literature

Baldwin's semi-autobiographical first novel — Harlem Pentecostal-Christian boyhood

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

#1074

Notes of a Native Son (Mid-mature)

James Baldwin · 1955

Essay collection (10 essays) · African American literary-political essay

Baldwin's founding essay collection — title essay on his father, "Stranger in the Village," Paris pieces

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

#1075

Giovanni's Room (Mid-mature)

James Baldwin · 1956

Novel · African American literature / mid-twentieth-century LGBT literature

Baldwin's 1956 Paris novel of male homosexual love — major founding text of post-war LGBT literature

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

#1076

A Madman's Diary (Mid-mature)

Lu Xun · 1918

Short story (diary form) · Modern Chinese literature / May Fourth

Lu Xun's 1918 founding text — first major work in vernacular Chinese, indicting Confucian society as "cannibalistic"

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

#1077

The True Story of Ah Q (Mature)

Lu Xun · 1921-22

Novella · Modern Chinese literature / May Fourth

The great satirical portrait of the Chinese national character — Ah Q's "spiritual victory" psychology

30% critical-realism 20% realism 15% phenomenology 10% existentialism 5% liberation-theology 10% postmodernism 10% pragmatic-realism +4

#1078

The Sea of Fertility (Last)

Yukio Mishima · 1965-71 (four-volume tetralogy)

Tetralogy of four novels · Twentieth-century Japanese literature

Mishima's final tetralogy — completed the day of his 1970 ritual suicide, tracing reincarnation across twentieth-century Japan

25% buddhism 15% existentialism 15% critical-realism 10% shintoism 15% phenomenology 10% realism 5% postmodernism 5% idealism +5

#1079

Patriotism (Mid-mature)

Yukio Mishima · 1961 ("Yūkoku")

Short story · Twentieth-century Japanese literature

Mishima's 1961 short story of a young officer's ritual suicide after the 1936 coup — prefiguring his own 1970 death

20% shintoism 25% phenomenology 15% existentialism 5% liberation-theology 15% realism 10% idealism 10% critical-realism +4

#1080

Slavery and Freedom (Late-mature)

Nikolai Berdyaev · 1939 (in Russian; English 1944)

Philosophical-theological treatise · Russian religious philosophy / Christian existentialism

Berdyaev's 1939 systematic philosophical statement on the many forms of human slavery and authentic spiritual freedom

30% christian-personalism 25% existentialism 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% critical-realism 10% liberation-theology 5% liberal-theology +3