Kevin McCormick: Books That Make Us Human

by Kevin McCormick

The Divine Comedy—Dante Alighieri; The original sci-fi trilogy.

The Book of Psalms—King David, et al

Orthodoxy—G.K. Chesterton; England’s Funniest Home Theology!

The Lord of the Rings—J.R.R. Tolkien

To Kill a Mockingbird—Harper Lee

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men—James Agee; It is not surprising that many who praise Agee’s book see some kind of correlation between Agee’s unconventional literature and Roosevelt’s coinciding radical New Deal. It’s an easy exploit. But this is a desperate leap at best. While the plight of the southern sharecropper may be justification for heavy-handed government intervention to those so-inclined, Agee’s work is both more global in scope and more a deeply personal reflection than the leftist political tract it is sometimes claimed to be.  The highlight is his powerful meditation on the true nature and meaning of education.

Crime and Punishment & Brothers Karamozov—Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Haunting and real and redemptive.

Everything that Rises Must Converge—Flannery O’Connor; Theology presented through dark Southern humor.  Classic. Orthodox.  Pretty wild.

Collected Works—T.S. Eliot; Eliot’s is an amazing mind. A spiritual journal—from atheist to devout believer.

The Theology of the Body—Blessed John Paul II; Perhaps the greatest work of serial publication in the history of philosophy. Presented over the course of four years, these reflections from weekly audiences on the nature of divinity in human life and love—a true map for the new millineum and beyond.

“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” — G.K. Chesterton

For more of the Great Books and other Liberal Learning Books visit The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore.

Kevin McCormick is a professional classical guitarist and composer.  A graduate of the University of Notre Dame (BA, 1990), McCormick was named “College Poet of the Year,” a national honor recognizing the quality of his senior poem dealing with composer Arvo Part. McCormick holds graduate-level music degrees from Rome and Indiana University.  His website is: http://kevin-mccormick.com/KM/index.html