Top 20 Essential Paintings for Theologians at "Faith and Theology"; or, to put it another way, Kim Fabricius's list of the Christ-themed paintings (and one sketch) that everyone should be able to recognize. Philistine I am, I only recognized half of them, and, faced with the painting, could have named the painter in only a handful. It would be a hard list to make, and the ones chosen are all great choices; but in any list like this there really should be something by Fra Angelico, either The Last Judgment (which is the usual favorite) or the Transfiguration (which would get my vote). Christ in Limbo, in which, as demons cower in the corner, Christ bursts the door of death to lead the patriarchs and prophets to glory, is pretty cool, too. Friar John the Angelic is the theological painter, and certainly should be on the list.
At the same weblog, there was an interesting post on essential (post-medieval) philosophy for theologians. Hume is rightly on the list, but the work should be either the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion or the Natural History of Religion; likewise, Kant is rightly on the list, but the work should be either the Critique of Practical Reason or (preferably) the Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone, which is a beautiful little book. My list would be, in no particular order:
1. Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion
2. J. H. Newman, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
3. David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
4. Immanuel Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone
5. Benedict Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
6. Soren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments
7. Jean-Luc Marion, God without Being
8. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
9. H. H. Price, Belief
10. S. L. Jaki, The Road of Science and the Ways to God
11. Iris Murdoch, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals
12. Martin Buber, I and Thou
13. Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity
14. Edith Stein, Finite and Eternal Being
15. Simone Weil, The Need for Roots
16. Jacques Maritain, Distinguish to Unite (a.k.a. The Degrees of Knowledge)
17. Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought
18. Blaise Pascal, Pensees
19. Pierre Duhem, German Science
20. George Berkeley, Alciphron
Several of these are off the beaten track, but in each case they are either (1) a more accessible and usable alternative to a better known work; or (2) are so much more useful for theologians than the standard philosophical curriculum that they need to be on a list like this.
UPDATE: fixed some typos.
