Works

#181

Elements of the Philosophy of Right (Late (the mature systematic philosophy))

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel · 1820 (published 1821 with the famous controversial Preface)

Systematic philosophical treatise in three parts · German idealism / political philosophy

The dialectical unfolding of freedom in abstract right, morality, and ethical life — culminating in the rational state. "The rational is actual and the actual is rational"

30% idealism 15% dialectical-materialism 10% rationalism 10% kantian-transcendental-idealism 10% process-philosophy 5% realism 5% liberal-theology 5% lutheranism 5% pragmatic-realism 5% structuralism 8% hegelianism +8

#182

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Mid (the breakthrough book))

Richard Rorty · 1979

Philosophical-historical book in three parts · American neo-pragmatism / postanalytic philosophy

The mind as the mirror of nature — the founding image of modern epistemology — historically deconstructed. After foundationalism, edifying philosophical conversation

35% pragmatism 20% postmodernism 10% analytic-metaphysics 10% phenomenology 5% naturalism 5% constructivism 5% structuralism 5% relativism 5% existentialism +6

#183

Works of Love (Late (after the pseudonymous works; the major direct theological work))

Søren Kierkegaard · 1847 (published under his own name, not pseudonymous)

Theological-philosophical meditation in two series · Danish religious existentialism

"You shall love your neighbour" — Kierkegaard's sustained meditation on Christian love as commanded, neighbourly, and concretely actualised

30% christian-existentialism 15% lutheranism 15% christian-personalism 10% evangelical-protestantism 5% liberal-theology 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% catholic-thomistic 5% liberation-theology 5% phenomenology +7

#184

Essays: First Series (Mid (Emerson at the peak of his powers))

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1841 (twelve essays collected from earlier lectures and journal entries)

Twelve philosophical essays · American transcendentalism

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string" — Emerson's essays on the self, the Over-Soul, friendship, love, prudence, heroism, and the moral order

40% transcendentalism 10% idealism 10% neo-platonism 10% advaita-vedanta 5% naturalism 5% process-philosophy 5% pragmatism 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 5% liberal-theology 5% liberation-theology +7

#185

The Will to Believe (Mid (between Principles of Psychology and Varieties of Religious Experience))

William James · 1897 (title essay, addressed to the Philosophical Clubs of Yale and Brown, 1896)

Collection of ten popular philosophical essays · American pragmatism / philosophy of religion

In genuine options that cannot be settled on intellectual grounds, our passional and volitional nature must decide — and may legitimately decide for religious belief

30% pragmatism 15% empiricism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% liberal-theology 10% existentialism 5% naturalism 5% evangelical-protestantism 5% process-philosophy 5% christian-existentialism +6

#186

The Nature and Destiny of Man (Mid-late (Niebuhr's major systematic work))

Reinhold Niebuhr · 1941 (vol. I, Human Nature); 1943 (vol. II, Human Destiny) — based on the Gifford Lectures, Edinburgh, 1939

Two-volume theological-philosophical treatise · American mainline Protestant Christian realism

Christian anthropology and eschatology against modern optimism — human nature as the paradoxical synthesis of nature and spirit, sin and grace

20% liberal-theology 15% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% evangelical-protestantism 15% christian-existentialism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 5% liberation-theology 5% catholic-thomistic 5% existentialism 5% dialectical-materialism 8% neo-orthodoxy +8

#187

Adventures of Ideas (Late (Whitehead's last major book))

Alfred North Whitehead · 1933

Philosophical-historical study in four parts · Process philosophy / philosophy of culture

The civilising adventure of ideas — humanity, freedom, persuasion replacing coercion, beauty and truth and peace as the highest civilisational goods

30% process-philosophy 20% process-theology 10% idealism 10% pragmatism 10% liberal-theology 5% naturalism 5% analytic-metaphysics 5% realism 5% platonism-classical +6

#188

The Origins of Totalitarianism (Mid (Arendt's breakthrough book))

Hannah Arendt · 1951 (with later editions adding new prefaces and material through 1968)

Three-part historical-political study · Twentieth-century political philosophy

Antisemitism, imperialism, totalitarianism — Arendt's 1951 study of how Europe arrived at the death camps and the Gulag

20% pragmatic-realism 15% realism 15% existentialism 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% phenomenology 5% naturalism 5% liberation-theology 5% pragmatism 5% analytic-metaphysics 5% liberal-theology 5% critical-realism +8

#189

On Revolution (Late (after Eichmann in Jerusalem))

Hannah Arendt · 1963

Political-historical study in six chapters · Twentieth-century political philosophy

The lost treasure of revolution — public freedom rediscovered, then forgotten. The American success and the French failure

20% pragmatic-realism 15% realism 10% existentialism 10% pragmatism 5% phenomenology 5% liberal-theology 10% dialectical-materialism 5% liberation-theology 10% analytic-metaphysics 5% critical-realism 5% naturalism +8

#190

Dependent Rational Animals (Late (the explicit Thomist completion of the After Virtue trilogy))

Alasdair MacIntyre · 1999

Philosophical-anthropological treatise in nine chapters · Contemporary virtue ethics / philosophical anthropology

Humans as rational dependent animals — vulnerability and disability not as exceptions but as central to ethical-political reflection. The virtues of acknowledged dependence

30% catholic-thomistic 20% hylomorphism 10% naturalism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 5% christian-personalism 5% process-philosophy 5% phenomenology 5% liberation-theology +6

#191

Life Together (Mid (between the Cost of Discipleship and the prison theology))

Dietrich Bonhoeffer · 1939 (drawn from the Finkenwalde seminary, 1935-37)

Short theological treatise in five chapters · German Lutheran-evangelical / Confessing Church

Christian community as gift, not ideal — Bonhoeffer's short and influential guide to common life, drawn from the underground Confessing seminary at Finkenwalde

25% lutheranism 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% catholic-thomistic 10% christian-personalism 10% christian-existentialism 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% liberation-theology 5% phenomenology 5% liberal-theology 8% neo-orthodoxy +8

#192

The Copernican Revolution (Early (Kuhn's first book))

Thomas Kuhn · 1957

Historical-philosophical study in seven chapters · History and philosophy of science

Astronomy from antiquity to Newton, traced as a developmental whole — the historical study that gave Kuhn the questions answered five years later in Structure

15% analytic-metaphysics 15% pragmatic-realism 15% constructivism 10% realism 10% postmodernism 10% naturalism 5% structuralism 5% phenomenology 10% pragmatism 5% platonism-classical +7

#193

The Sovereignty of Good (Mid (her major philosophical statement, alongside Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals 1992))

Iris Murdoch · 1970 (collecting essays from 1956-67)

Collection of three philosophical essays · Twentieth-century British moral philosophy / Platonic-Christian moral realism

Moral life as attention to the real — Murdoch's recovery of moral realism against existentialist and analytic reductions of ethics to choice

25% platonism-classical 15% realism 10% liberal-theology 10% phenomenology 10% existentialism 10% analytic-metaphysics 5% catholic-thomistic 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% buddhism 5% pragmatic-realism +7

#194

Science of Logic (Mid (the central work of the mature Hegelian system))

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel · 1812 (Book I, Being); 1813 (Book II, Essence); 1816 (Book III, Concept); 1832 (Hegel's revised Book I, posthumous)

Multi-volume systematic philosophical treatise · German absolute idealism

The dialectical self-movement of pure concepts — Being passing into Nothing, Essence unfolding into Concept. Hegel's most ambitious and most difficult book

35% idealism 15% rationalism 15% dialectical-materialism 10% analytic-metaphysics 10% process-philosophy 5% kantian-transcendental-idealism 5% platonism-classical 5% neo-platonism 8% hegelianism +6

#195

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (Early (the breakthrough work))

Jürgen Habermas · 1962 (habilitation thesis; English translation 1989)

Historical-sociological-philosophical study · Frankfurt School / critical theory

The historical emergence and modern decline of the bourgeois public sphere — the locus of rational-critical discussion that grounded liberal democracy

15% critical-realism 15% dialectical-materialism 15% pragmatic-realism 5% liberal-theology 15% pragmatism 10% realism 10% rationalism 5% liberation-theology 5% phenomenology 5% constructivism +7

#196

The Epistle to the Romans (Early (the breakthrough work))

Karl Barth · 1919 (first edition); 1922 (second edition — the famous and influential one, almost completely rewritten)

Theological commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans · Twentieth-century dialectical theology / Reformed neo-orthodoxy

The infinite qualitative distinction between God and humanity — Barth's break with liberal Protestantism and the founding of dialectical theology

30% reformed-calvinist-theology 20% christian-existentialism 10% lutheranism 10% evangelical-protestantism 10% liberal-theology 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% catholic-thomistic 5% phenomenology 5% liberation-theology 8% neo-orthodoxy +7

#197

The Origin of German Tragic Drama (Early (the most ambitious early work, before the Arcades Project))

Walter Benjamin · 1925 (submitted as habilitation thesis, rejected by the University of Frankfurt); 1928 (published commercially)

Philosophical-literary historical study with extensive epistemological-critical Preface · German critical theory / philosophy of history

The German Baroque Trauerspiel and the philosophical theory of allegory — Benjamin's rejected habilitation thesis, now recognised as a masterpiece of critical theory

10% critical-realism 15% postmodernism 15% dialectical-materialism 15% kabbalah-lurianic 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% phenomenology 5% idealism 5% structuralism 5% liberal-theology 10% absurdism +7

#198

The Social Contract (Late (after the two Discourses; the political conclusion of Rousseau's mature thought))

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762

Political treatise in four books · Enlightenment political philosophy / republican theory

"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" — Rousseau's account of legitimate authority as grounded in the general will of the people

25% rationalism 10% liberation-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 10% idealism 10% liberal-theology 5% deism 5% naturalism 5% dialectical-materialism 5% process-philosophy 5% constructivism 6% social-contract +9

#199

Émile (Late)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762 (published the same year as the Social Contract; both condemned and burned by authorities)

Philosophical-educational treatise in five books · Enlightenment educational and moral philosophy

"Everything is good as it leaves the hands of the Author of things; everything degenerates in the hands of man" — Rousseau's landmark treatise on education according to nature

25% naturalism 15% deism 10% rationalism 10% transcendentalism 10% liberal-theology 5% liberation-theology 10% empiricism 5% pragmatic-realism 5% process-philosophy 5% christian-personalism 6% social-contract +8

#200

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (Mid (between the First Discourse and the Social Contract))

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1755 (submitted to the 1754 essay competition of the Académie de Dijon, on the question of the origin and justification of inequality)

Philosophical-historical essay in two parts, with preface · Enlightenment political-philosophical anthropology

"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, said 'this is mine'..." — Rousseau's philosophical anthropology of the conjectural state of nature and the historical genesis of social inequality

20% naturalism 20% dialectical-materialism 10% liberation-theology 10% rationalism 10% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% transcendentalism 5% animism-relational-indigenous 5% structuralism 5% process-philosophy 6% social-contract +8

#201

The Principles of Psychology (Mid (the major early work; foundational for both psychology and pragmatist philosophy))

William James · 1890 (after twelve years of writing; James later said he should not have spent so much time on it)

Two-volume systematic treatise in twenty-eight chapters · American pragmatism / scientific psychology / philosophy of mind

The stream of thought, the will, habit, emotion, attention — James's 1890 founding synthesis of scientific psychology with philosophical anthropology

25% pragmatism 20% empiricism 10% phenomenology 5% naturalism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% process-philosophy 5% realism 5% panpsychism 5% transcendentalism 5% analytic-metaphysics +7

#202

Monologion (Early (Anselm's first major work, before the Proslogion))

Anselm of Canterbury · c. 1076 (composed at the abbey of Bec; the first major work of mature scholastic theology)

Monologue / philosophical-theological meditation in 80 short chapters · Medieval Christian scholastic theology

A meditation on the divine nature reasoned from rational principles alone — the seedbed for the more famous Proslogion

30% catholic-thomistic 20% rationalism 15% neo-platonism 10% platonism-classical 5% realism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 5% hylomorphism 5% reformed-calvinist-theology +6

#203

Otherwise than Being (Late (the more radical successor to Totality and Infinity, 1961))

Emmanuel Levinas · 1974

Phenomenological-philosophical treatise · French phenomenology / Jewish religious philosophy

Beyond being — substitution, the trace, the saying and the said. Levinas's 1974 attempt to articulate ethical responsibility in a register beyond ontology

25% phenomenology 20% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% christian-existentialism 10% postmodernism 10% christian-personalism 5% process-philosophy 10% liberation-theology 5% kabbalah-lurianic 5% existentialism +6

#204

The Logical Structure of the World (Early (Carnap's breakthrough work))

Rudolf Carnap · 1928 (Carnap's habilitation; the founding text of the Vienna Circle's constructive-philosophical programme)

Systematic philosophical-logical treatise · Logical positivism / Vienna Circle

All empirical concepts constructed from immediate experience using the logical apparatus of Principia Mathematica — Carnap's most ambitious early book

35% logical-positivism 20% empiricism 15% analytic-metaphysics 10% rationalism 10% phenomenology 5% naturalism 5% constructivism 8% analytic-philosophy +5

#205

Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi (Zhuang Zhou) · c. 4th-3rd c. BC (Inner Chapters by Zhuang Zhou; Outer and Miscellaneous Chapters by later hands)

Anthology of philosophical-literary chapters in three sections (Inner, Outer, Miscellaneous) · Classical Daoism

The butterfly dream, the cook cutting the ox, the useless tree — Zhuangzi's playful-philosophical parables on the Dao, perspective, and the freedom of wu wei

40% taoism 10% pyrrhonism 15% buddhism 5% pure-land-buddhism 5% confucianism 5% phenomenology 5% relativism 5% process-philosophy 5% psychedelic-entheogenic 5% pragmatic-realism +7

#206

The Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean

Confucius (Kongzi) · Originally chapters of the Book of Rites (Li Ji, c. 1st c. BC); elevated to the Four Books by Zhu Xi (1130-1200) in the Song dynasty

Two short philosophical treatises · Classical Confucianism / Neo-Confucianism

The eight steps of self-cultivation (Da Xue) and the metaphysics of sincerity and the mean (Zhong Yong) — two short Confucian classics that became foundational for neo-Confucian thought

40% confucianism 10% taoism 5% buddhism 10% realism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% idealism 5% rationalism 5% liberal-theology 5% process-philosophy 5% stoicism +7

#207

Enchiridion Militis Christiani (Early (Erasmus's first major work))

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam · 1503 (with a famous expanded 1518 preface that became a humanist-Reformation manifesto)

Spiritual-philosophical handbook in twenty-two chapters · Renaissance Christian humanism / Northern Renaissance reform

"The Christian Soldier's Handbook" — Erasmus's 1503 manual of interior Christianity, the founding text of Christian humanism and a major source for the Reformation

20% catholic-thomistic 20% evangelical-protestantism 15% liberal-theology 10% platonism-classical 10% neo-platonism 10% stoicism 5% lutheranism 5% realism 5% pragmatic-realism +6

#208

The Stranger (Early (the breakthrough novel))

Albert Camus · 1942 (alongside The Myth of Sisyphus; published in occupied Paris)

Short novel in two parts · French absurdism / mid-century existentialist literature

"Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday" — Meursault's flat-affect narration through accidental murder to execution, the literary embodiment of Camus's philosophy of the absurd

40% absurdism 20% existentialism 10% nihilism 10% naturalism 10% phenomenology 5% pragmatic-realism 5% postmodernism +4

#209

The Plague (Mid (between The Stranger and The Rebel))

Albert Camus · 1947

Novel in five parts · French absurdism / post-war existentialist literature

A plague outbreak in the Algerian city of Oran — allegory of Nazi occupation, meditation on solidarity under absurdity. "There are more things to admire in men than to despise"

30% absurdism 15% existentialism 15% pragmatic-realism 10% liberation-theology 5% liberal-theology 10% realism 5% naturalism 5% process-philosophy 5% christian-personalism +6

#210

Brave New World (Mid (Huxley's breakthrough novel))

Aldous Huxley · 1932

Dystopian novel · Twentieth-century English dystopian literature / philosophy of technology

The World State of pleasant conditioning, soma, and engineered happiness — Huxley's 1932 dystopia of total social engineering, against which the Savage rebels

20% transhumanism-posthumanism 15% naturalism 10% liberation-theology 5% absurdism 5% liberal-theology 5% evangelical-protestantism 5% realism 5% analytic-metaphysics 10% christian-personalism 5% buddhism 15% psychedelic-entheogenic +8

#211

The Perennial Philosophy (Late (Huxley's mature spiritual-philosophical synthesis))

Aldous Huxley · 1945

Anthology with commentary, in twenty-seven chapters · Twentieth-century perennialism / comparative mysticism

The common metaphysical-experiential core of the world's mystical traditions — Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, Taoist — as a single perennial philosophy

20% advaita-vedanta 15% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 10% taoism 15% buddhism 10% neo-platonism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% catholic-thomistic 10% psychedelic-entheogenic 5% platonism-classical 5% kabbalah-lurianic +7

#212

The Doors of Perception (Late)

Aldous Huxley · 1954 (essay-length; often published together with the 1956 Heaven and Hell)

Long philosophical essay · Twentieth-century psychedelic-philosophical writing

"If the doors of perception were cleansed" — Huxley's 1954 essay on his first mescaline experience, the founding text of modern psychedelic-philosophical writing

40% psychedelic-entheogenic 10% phenomenology 10% advaita-vedanta 5% taoism 10% buddhism 5% tibetan-vajrayana-buddhism 5% transhumanism-posthumanism 5% naturalism 5% platonism-classical 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud +7

#214

Ideas and Opinions (Late (the most comprehensive single-volume collection))

Albert Einstein · 1954 (collected from earlier essays and addresses)

Collection of essays and addresses, organised thematically · Twentieth-century philosophy of science / public-philosophical reflection

Einstein on science, religion, ethics, politics — the major collection of his philosophical and public reflections

25% spinozist-pantheism 15% realism 15% rationalism 10% naturalism 10% liberal-theology 5% pragmatic-realism 10% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 5% process-philosophy 5% analytic-metaphysics +6

#215

Science and the Modern World (Mid (the major statement of philosophical-cultural critique, preceding the technical metaphysics of Process and Reality))

Alfred North Whitehead · 1925 (the Lowell Lectures, Harvard; the proximate prelude to Process and Reality, 1929)

Lectures in thirteen chapters · Process philosophy / philosophy of science

The "fallacy of misplaced concreteness" — Whitehead's critique of scientific materialism and the proximate prelude to process philosophy

25% process-philosophy 15% analytic-metaphysics 10% idealism 10% naturalism 10% realism 10% platonism-classical 10% liberal-theology 10% process-theology +5

#216

The Concept of Nature (Early-mid (preceding Science and the Modern World, 1925))

Alfred North Whitehead · 1920 (the Tarner Lectures, Trinity College Cambridge)

Lectures in eight chapters · Process philosophy / philosophy of nature

Against the "bifurcation of nature" into primary and secondary qualities — Whitehead's 1920 philosophy of nature as a single integrated event-process

30% process-philosophy 15% realism 15% naturalism 10% phenomenology 10% analytic-metaphysics 10% critical-realism 5% idealism 5% pragmatic-realism +5

#217

Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry (Late (third volume of the After Virtue trilogy))

Alasdair MacIntyre · 1990 (the Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, 1988)

Lecture series in ten chapters · Contemporary virtue ethics / tradition-constituted enquiry

Three rival modes of contemporary moral enquiry — Encyclopaedic, Genealogical, Traditioned — with the case for the Thomist-Aristotelian Traditioned version

35% catholic-thomistic 15% hylomorphism 10% postmodernism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% realism 5% rationalism 5% structuralism 5% process-philosophy 5% analytic-metaphysics 5% liberation-theology +7

#1623

Letter from Birmingham Jail (Mid (the canonical theological-political document))

Martin Luther King Jr. · April 16, 1963 (written in jail in response to a published statement by eight Alabama clergymen criticising King's direct-action methods)

Open letter / theological-political essay · American Civil Rights / black-church theology / non-violent direct-action

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" — King's 7,000-word jail-cell letter defending non-violent direct action and the Christian-prophetic foundations of civil rights

25% liberation-theology 15% evangelical-protestantism 15% catholic-thomistic 10% christian-personalism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% liberal-theology 5% realism 5% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% christian-existentialism +6

#218

Strength to Love (Mid (the major collection of sermons))

Martin Luther King Jr. · 1963 (collected sermons; some preached at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Montgomery in the 1950s)

Collection of seventeen sermons · American Civil Rights / black-church preaching

King's major book of theological-pastoral preaching — Christian love as the principle of non-violent social transformation

20% evangelical-protestantism 20% christian-personalism 15% liberation-theology 10% liberal-theology 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% catholic-thomistic 5% process-philosophy 5% pragmatic-realism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% christian-existentialism +7

#219

Gravity and Grace (Posthumous (Weil died in 1943 at age 34))

Simone Weil · 1947 (posthumous; assembled from Weil's notebooks by Gustave Thibon)

Posthumous anthology of aphorisms drawn from notebooks · Twentieth-century French mystical philosophy / Christian-Platonist

Gravity (pesanteur) and grace — Simone Weil's posthumous mystical-philosophical aphorisms on attention, affliction, and the void

20% platonism-classical 15% catholic-thomistic 15% christian-existentialism 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 10% neo-platonism 5% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% liberation-theology 5% stoicism 10% absurdism +7

#220

The Need for Roots (Posthumous)

Simone Weil · 1943 (written for Free France in London in the months before Weil's death; published posthumously 1949)

Political-philosophical treatise in three parts · Twentieth-century French political philosophy / Christian-Platonist

A declaration of duties before rights — Weil's posthumous political-philosophical prelude for post-war reconstruction, focused on the deep human need for rootedness

20% catholic-thomistic 15% platonism-classical 10% liberation-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 10% christian-personalism 5% christian-existentialism 5% phenomenology 5% liberal-theology 5% stoicism 5% animism-relational-indigenous +8

#221

Waiting for God (Posthumous)

Simone Weil · 1942 letters to Father Perrin; published posthumously 1950

Posthumous collection of letters and essays · Twentieth-century French mystical theology / Christian-Platonist

Letters and essays to Father Perrin — Weil's most extended account of her religious experience, her relation to the Church, and her refusal of baptism

20% catholic-thomistic 15% platonism-classical 15% christian-existentialism 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% neo-platonism 5% evangelical-protestantism 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 5% liberation-theology 10% phenomenology 5% liberal-theology +7

#222

Sanctorum Communio (Earliest (Bonhoeffer's dissertation at age 21))

Dietrich Bonhoeffer · 1927 (Bonhoeffer's doctoral dissertation, completed at age 21)

Doctoral dissertation in theology · German Lutheran-evangelical theology / theological sociology

The communion of the saints as a theological-sociological reality — Bonhoeffer's 21-year-old dissertation that Karl Barth called "a theological miracle"

25% lutheranism 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 10% evangelical-protestantism 15% christian-personalism 10% phenomenology 5% analytic-metaphysics 10% catholic-thomistic 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% liberation-theology 5% liberal-theology 8% neo-orthodoxy +8

#223

The Seven Storey Mountain (Early (Merton's breakthrough book; the spiritual autobiography of his conversion))

Thomas Merton · 1948

Spiritual autobiography in three parts · American Catholic / Trappist monastic spirituality

A modern Augustine's Confessions — Merton's 1948 narrative of his conversion to Catholicism and entry into the Trappist monastery at Gethsemani

35% catholic-thomistic 5% platonism-classical 5% neo-platonism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% christian-personalism 5% evangelical-protestantism 5% liberation-theology 5% liberal-theology 10% christian-existentialism 5% phenomenology 10% buddhism 6% catholicism 8% christian-mysticism +10

#224

Seeds of Contemplation (1949) / New Seeds of Contemplation (Mid-late (Merton's mature contemplative theology))

Thomas Merton · 1961 (expanded revision of Seeds of Contemplation, 1949)

Theological-contemplative essays in thirty-nine chapters · American Catholic / Trappist contemplative spirituality

The mature statement of Merton's contemplative spirituality — the false self and the true self, contemplative prayer as participation in the divine life

20% catholic-thomistic 15% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% buddhism 10% neo-platonism 5% platonism-classical 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 5% advaita-vedanta 10% christian-personalism 10% christian-existentialism 5% phenomenology 6% catholicism 8% christian-mysticism +9

#225

Love and Responsibility (Early (his major pre-papal work; drawn from pastoral and academic teaching))

Karol Józef Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II · 1960 (the first major theological-philosophical book of the future John Paul II; based on his pastoral and academic teaching)

Philosophical-pastoral treatise in five chapters · Polish personalism / Catholic moral theology / Lublin School

The personalist norm and the ethics of sexual love — Wojtyła's 1960 treatise developing the philosophical foundation of his later theology of the body

30% catholic-thomistic 25% christian-personalism 15% phenomenology 10% hylomorphism 5% evangelical-protestantism 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% realism 5% pragmatic-realism 6% catholicism +6

#226

The Acting Person (Mid (his major academic-philosophical work, before his 1978 papal election))

Karol Józef Wojtyła / Pope John Paul II · 1969 (the philosophical magnum opus of his pre-papal academic career)

Philosophical treatise in seven chapters · Polish phenomenological personalism / Lublin School

Person and act — Wojtyła's phenomenological-Thomistic analysis of human action as the constitution and self-revelation of the person

30% christian-personalism 20% phenomenology 20% catholic-thomistic 10% hylomorphism 5% realism 5% existentialism 5% rationalism 5% pragmatic-realism 6% catholicism +6

#227

Hind Swaraj (Early (the founding text of Gandhi's mature political-philosophical vision))

Mohandas K. Gandhi · 1909 (written aboard the Kildonan Castle in ten days during the voyage from London to South Africa)

Dialogue between Editor and Reader, in twenty chapters · Indian political philosophy / anti-colonial thought

Indian home rule as the rejection of British civilisation itself — Gandhi's 1909 dialogue establishing the philosophical foundation of his subsequent satyagraha

15% advaita-vedanta 20% liberation-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 5% realism 10% jainism-anekantavada 5% evangelical-protestantism 10% transcendentalism 5% animism-relational-indigenous 5% deep-ecology 5% christian-existentialism 5% liberal-theology 5% process-philosophy +9

#228

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Late-mid (looking back over the formative years))

Mohandas K. Gandhi · 1925-29 (originally serialised in the weekly Navajivan; the chapters cover Gandhi's life through the early Indian campaigns up to 1921)

Spiritual-political autobiography in five parts · Indian political philosophy / spiritual autobiography

The "experiments with truth" — Gandhi's spiritual-political journey from childhood through early satyagraha, the major source for his self-understanding

15% advaita-vedanta 15% jainism-anekantavada 15% liberation-theology 10% pragmatic-realism 10% transcendentalism 5% evangelical-protestantism 10% realism 5% liberal-theology 5% christian-existentialism 5% animism-relational-indigenous 5% stoicism +8

#229

Mishneh Torah (Mid (the major legal work, between the early Commentary on the Mishnah and the late Guide of the Perplexed))

Moses Maimonides (Rambam) · c. 1170-80 (the second of Maimonides's three major works; preceding the Guide of the Perplexed of c. 1190)

Comprehensive legal code in fourteen books · Medieval Jewish theology and law

The "Second Torah" — Maimonides's comprehensive code organising the entire Jewish legal tradition into fourteen systematic books

35% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 15% rationalism 10% hylomorphism 15% islamic-philosophy-falsafa 5% neo-platonism 5% catholic-thomistic 5% realism 5% pragmatic-realism 5% kabbalah-lurianic +6

#230

Sister Outsider (Mid (the major prose collection of Lorde's career))

Audre Lorde · 1984 (collecting essays and speeches from the 1970s and early 1980s)

Collection of fifteen essays and speeches · Black feminist thought / intersectional theory

"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house" — Lorde's 1984 collection of essays on race, gender, sexuality, age, and class as inseparable dimensions of identity and struggle

20% liberation-theology 15% postmodernism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 10% constructivism 5% phenomenology 5% existentialism 10% animism-relational-indigenous 10% ubuntu-african-communal-ontology 5% afrofuturism +7

#231

Tales of the Hasidim (Late (Buber's mature engagement with the Hasidic tradition))

Martin Buber · 1947 (The Early Masters); 1948 (The Later Masters); compiled over decades of Buber's engagement with Hasidism

Two-volume anthology of Hasidic stories with introductions · Twentieth-century Jewish renewal / Hasidic spirituality

The major Western anthology of Hasidic stories — Buber's lifelong work of recovering Hasidic spirituality for modern Jewish and broader religious life

20% jewish-philosophy-maimonidean 20% kabbalah-lurianic 10% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 10% liberal-theology 10% christian-personalism 10% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% phenomenology 5% process-philosophy 5% taoism 5% animism-relational-indigenous +7

#232

A Black Theology of Liberation (Early (the systematic founding text of the field))

James Cone · 1970 (the second of Cone's books and the systematic statement of the position announced in Black Theology and Black Power, 1969)

Systematic theological treatise · Black liberation theology

"God is black" — Cone's 1970 systematic theology, the founding text of black liberation theology

40% liberation-theology 15% reformed-calvinist-theology 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% christian-existentialism 5% liberal-theology 5% pragmatic-realism 5% dialectical-materialism 5% realism +5

#233

The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Late (Cone's major late book))

James Cone · 2011

Theological-historical book in six chapters · Black liberation theology

The cross of Christ and the American lynching tree as parallel sites of innocent suffering — Cone's late major work integrating theological symbolism with the historical record of racial violence

30% liberation-theology 15% evangelical-protestantism 10% reformed-calvinist-theology 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 5% catholic-thomistic 10% christian-existentialism 5% liberal-theology 5% pragmatic-realism 5% phenomenology 10% realism +7

#234

Gitanjali (Mid (the Nobel-winning collection))

Rabindranath Tagore · 1910 (Bengali original); 1912 (Tagore's own English prose translation)

Collection of 103 devotional poems / prose-poems · Bengali Hindu devotional / Brahmo Samaj philosophical poetry

"Where the mind is without fear" — Tagore's Nobel-winning 1910 collection of devotional poems addressed to the divine Beloved, the central source of his international fame

15% advaita-vedanta 10% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 15% liberal-theology 10% transcendentalism 5% samkhya 5% platonism-classical 5% neo-platonism 5% evangelical-protestantism 5% process-philosophy 5% animism-relational-indigenous 5% spinozist-pantheism 5% taoism 10% liberation-theology +10

#235

Sadhana: The Realisation of Life (Mid (the major philosophical prose statement))

Rabindranath Tagore · 1913 (the Hibbert Lectures, Harvard; published 1913)

Lectures in eight chapters · Bengali Hindu philosophical-religious thought / Brahmo Samaj

Sadhana — the realisation of life. Tagore's 1913 Harvard lectures presenting Vedantic-philosophical religious thought for Western audiences

30% advaita-vedanta 15% liberal-theology 15% transcendentalism 10% samkhya 5% sufism-wahdat-al-wujud 5% platonism-classical 5% neo-platonism 5% buddhism 5% process-philosophy 5% liberation-theology +7

#236

No Future Without Forgiveness (Late (the major reflective work after the TRC))

Desmond Tutu · 1999 (the personal-theological reflection on the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1995-98)

Theological-political memoir · South African ubuntu theology / Anglican liberation theology

Ubuntu and forgiveness — Archbishop Tutu's 1999 personal-theological account of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

35% ubuntu-african-communal-ontology 15% liberation-theology 10% evangelical-protestantism 5% catholic-thomistic 5% eastern-orthodox-christianity 10% christian-personalism 10% pragmatic-realism 5% animism-relational-indigenous 5% realism +6

#237

Nausea (Early (Sartre's first novel, before Being and Nothingness))

Jean-Paul Sartre · 1938

Novel in diary form · French existentialism / phenomenological-literary

Antoine Roquentin's diary in Bouville — the contingency of existence revealed through the famous chestnut-tree scene, the literary embodiment of early Sartrean existentialism

35% existentialism 20% phenomenology 15% absurdism 10% naturalism 10% nihilism 5% realism 5% postmodernism 8% continental-philosophy +5

#238

No Exit (Mid (alongside Being and Nothingness))

Jean-Paul Sartre · 1944 (first performed at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in May 1944)

One-act play with four characters · French existentialist theatre

"Hell is other people" — Sartre's most famous play, three characters in a hotel-room hell, the dramatic embodiment of his analysis of being-for-others

35% existentialism 15% phenomenology 15% absurdism 10% naturalism 10% nihilism 5% pragmatic-realism 5% postmodernism 5% realism 8% continental-philosophy +6

#239

Critique of Dialectical Reason (Late (Sartre's major late philosophical work))

Jean-Paul Sartre · 1960 (vol. I); vol. II unfinished, published posthumously 1985

Multi-volume systematic philosophical treatise · French existentialist-Marxism

Existentialism integrated with Marxism — Sartre's major late philosophical attempt to ground historical-materialist analysis in existentialist phenomenology

30% dialectical-materialism 25% existentialism 10% phenomenology 10% pragmatic-realism 5% liberation-theology 10% structuralism 5% realism 5% process-philosophy 8% continental-philosophy +6

#240

Crime and Punishment (Mid (the first of Dostoevsky's great late novels))

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky · 1866 (serialised in The Russian Messenger)

Novel in six parts and an epilogue · Russian realist novel / philosophical-psychological fiction

Raskolnikov's axe-murder and his slow psychological-spiritual reckoning — Dostoevsky's 1866 novel that opens the great late period

25% christian-existentialism 20% eastern-orthodox-christianity 15% existentialism 10% nihilism 5% absurdism 10% pragmatic-realism 10% realism 5% liberation-theology +5