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Posted at: 3:45 pm You may hear often either from a potential candidate or a man who is already a Mason and would like to expand his Masonic knowledge ask for suggestions as to what books they should read. AEdifico and I were at our lodge and a man who is pulling his 6 month introductory stint asked if there were any Masonic books that we would recommend. AEdifico said that he would not recommend any Masonic books right now, but will gladly lend him some titles once he was raised. This was to prevent the candidate from tainting his experience of the degrees, etc. I could see where AEdifico was coming from, but I thought that a cursory reading list of non-Masonic books would greatly benifit potential candidates as well as active members. So, here is my suggested reading list of non-Masonic books that I believe benifits a Mason in his capacity to think critically as well as his ability to appreciate literature (in no particular order) 1. The Greek Myths by Robert Graves or Bulfinch’s Mythlology 2. The Declaration of Independence and The U.S. Constitution 3. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri 4. Candide by Voltaire 5. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman 6. The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer 7. The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell 8. Psychology and Alchemy by Carl Jung 9. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 10. The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine 11. The Social Contract and Other Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 12. Ramueau’s Nephew and D’Alembert’s Dream by Denis Diderot 13. Common Sense by Thomas Paine 14. The Complete Works of Josephus by Josephus 15. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli 16. Animal Farm by George Orwell 17. Republic by Plato 18. Poetics and Rhetoric by Aristotle 19. Paradise Lost by John Milton 20. Alchemy and Mysticism by Alenxander Roob These books cover a wide range of topics, but I feel that they have benifited my Masonic education in some way. I purposfully left out The Bible, Torah, Koran, Analects, etc because I wanted to focus more on books that didn’t have an entire religion as its product, but this list will get your brain working. I also kept the list at 20 because there would be no point to list my entire library. So please comment with other suggestions because I am always looking for a good book to read! |
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December 18, 2007
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Great list! There are many more I would add as well, but one that jumps out right off the top of my head is Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. In my opinion, whoever wrote portions of our ritual was directly influenced by this work. This is especially apparent in the lecture of the first degree when the cardinal virtues are discussed.
Lots of food for thought in your list. If only more Masons would realize that Masonry is a lot broader of a topic than just things directly related to the Craft.
Comment by Prexy — December 18, 2007 @ 5:09 pm
Add: The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio, Euclid’s Window by Mlodinow, Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney, A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard….
I am glad that Emeraldi remembered this conversation. I think The Bard also has much to offer the ‘non-masonic’ portion of our lexicon, as well as some of the other classics. It never ceases to amaze me how little today’s Masons know about the classical education that our forefathers endured…and how we are just now starting to re-invent the wheel.
I think we have a lot of work ahead of us…
Comment by AEdifico — December 18, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
Prexy: Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll definitely have to pick that one up.
AEdifico: A Message to Garcia! DAMN, I forgot that one!
Comment by emeraldi42 — December 19, 2007 @ 12:34 am