…for inclusion in the our Catholic Fiction Reading List
The question of what makes a novel or short story “Catholic” is a debatable one. There could be no such thing as an exhaustive, let alone definitive, list of “Catholic fiction”. Therefore we simply set down our own criteria, and encourage readers to use the list as a resource. By all means, contact us if you have suggestions. We haven’t read all of these books ourselves (though we’re working on it) but have gleaned the titles from recommendations, articles and books on the history and criticism of Catholic fiction.
In keeping with Bl. Flannery’s definition that Catholic fiction is “a Catholic mind looking at anything”, the compilers of this list, though practicing Catholics themselves, have nonetheless opted to err on the side of inclusivity rather than doctrinal purity, in large part in order to encourage discussion of the subject from a more literary rather than doctrinal point of view. We are interested in how believers of every stripe, but especially Catholics, deal with religious (and secular) themes in fictional works, and will therefore likely draw a larger circle than some others would prefer.
With this in mind, all of the books on this list are either novels or collections of short stories, in any fictional genre, that meet one or more of the following (sometimes very personal) criteria:
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Stories with overtly Catholic themes from any serious, thoughtful point of view. For the purposes of this list, therefore, we will include writers like Mary Gordon and Andrew Greeley, who identify themselves as Catholics, but have dissented from one or more Church teachings, such as Humanae Vitae. We will also include non-Catholic and non-Christian authors, such as Franz Werfl and Mary Doria Russell, who write seriously on Catholic themes. We will not be including, however, authors like Dan Brown, Steve Barry or Philip Pullman, who display a penchant for what we might call “Catholic decor” (often useful for adding color and gravitas to otherwise fluffy material) while purveying goofy new syncretisms or outright anti-Catholicism.
- Stories from Catholic and Christian authors, which, while not dealing overtly with Christian themes, nonetheless 1) exhibit a sensibility or worldview informed by faith, 2) tell stories amenable to a Catholic reading, or 3) of special interest to Catholics. Obvious choices in this category would be J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.
- Stories by or about non-Catholics, which deal with important themes of faith in serious terms. In this category we would include writers like Dostoevsky, whose passionately Christian but sometimes anti-Catholic views may come across as tiresome (or humorous) for the Catholic reader, but whose stories are notwithstanding practically archetypal to the genre.
- And occasionally we’ll just have to throw in a great book or author (say, P.G. Wodehouse) for no other reason except that we think he/she shouldn’t be off anyone’s reading list.
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