Catholic Cultural Literacy

Just as Catholics need to know their faith, so they also need immersion into the great cultural heritage of Catholic life. Catholic formation should be holistic, not simply engaging ideas but the living and organic tradition of Catholic life, entailing how to think, what to love, and how to live within the world. This includes the great intellectual, artistic, and cultural masterpieces of history and also the forms of Christian life throughout the centuries (how Christians lived and organized society).

Pope Benedict XVI described how learning doctrine is not enough as it must be situated within the living beauty of the reality of faith:

A serious problem for the Church today is the lack of knowledge of the faith, “religious illiteracy”, as the Cardinals described this situation last Friday. “Religious illiteracy” and with this illiteracy we are unable to grow, unity is unable to grow. We ourselves must therefore recover this content, as a wealth of unity, not a packet of dogmas and orders but a unique reality which is revealed in its depths and beauty.
Meeting with Priests of the Diocese of Rome, February 23, 2012

Catholics need initiation into Catholic culture, the living way of life of the Church and her members. As we draw people into the great treasure of the Catholic tradition, there are basic elements that we should transmit that include knowledge and the experience of key artifacts of Catholic culture. We could call the transmission of this knowledge and experience formation in Catholic cultural literacy.

The following general works are meant to guide us as we build literacy in Catholic culture. These are my suggestions as starting points for entering into the foundations of culture in different areas. Many of them can be found online in some format. I will look at each area in more depth on the blog, providing insights into key figures, events, and masterpieces of Catholic culture.

Here are some posts with places to start:

See also the Catholic Art page for recommendations on particular works of art to explore.

Works on Culture