List 1: Anthologies of Classic Storytelling in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
Anthologies of Classic Storytelling in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
Books with a high number of good stories in their collections
ORDER INFORMATION
All books may be ordered today from amazon.com. Simply click on Order line following each book
1. Walk in the Light & Twenty-Three Tales : by Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy is the master of the Russian Spiritual Short Story, drawing heavily on the spirituality of the Russian peasants who he admired and idealized. This is the largest gathering of his religious parables in one book. A must for lovers of sacred stories.)
2. Miriam's Tambourine : Jewish Folktales from Around the World by Howard Schwartz (Few contemporaries can match Schwartz' keen sense of the spiritual heart of Jewish storytelling. He is an excellent anthologist, and writes superb stories himself -- in the style of the classic tellers.)
3. The Little Flowers of Saint Francis by Raphael Brown. (This is the collection of legends and tales that forms the very heart of Franciscan Spirituality. Brown has collected the core stories and many stories not contained in other editions. His introductory essay is the best there is on the topic of Franciscan folklore and legends.)
4. Souls and Secrets : Hasidic Stories by Jozsef Patai (A Hungarian Jew who managed to take the smallest fragments of a Hasidic story and give them life as full blown tales with a deep moral and religious dimension.)
5. The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine (The medieval Dominican friar who "wrote the book" on the lives of the saints. He tells stories from Scripture and folklore around the unifying theme of the liturgical year. A classic that shaped 500 years of religious storytelling. Still good reading today. Highly recommended.)
6. Lives of the Saints by Alban Butler. (The classic collection for the English-speaking world. A good resource, arranged as an easy to use reference collection.)
7. The Blessed Trinity of Ireland by Lady Gregory (Augusta Gregory culls these fine short stories from her larger work of Irish stoirytelling. The Blessed Trinity are: St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Bridget.)
