Reading Lists · High School (9–12)

Eleventh Grade Reading List

Eleventh grade: the high Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, with Dante, Aquinas, Shakespeare and the Reformers.

Core

  1. The Divine Comedy · Dante Alighieri · grades 11–12Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.
  2. On the Incarnation of the Word · Athanasius of Alexandria · grades 11–12Athanasius's classic explanation of why God became man.
  3. City of God · Augustine of Hippo · grades 11–12Augustine on the two cities, best read in excerpts.
  4. Summa Theologica · Thomas Aquinas · grades 11–12Aquinas's method of question and answer, read in selections.
  5. Utopia · Thomas More · grades 9–12Thomas More's imagined island, a prompt for debate about society.
  6. Selected Sermons and Reformation Treatises · Martin Luther · grades 9–12Luther's key Reformation writings.
  7. Institutes of the Christian Religion · John Calvin · grades 11–12Calvin's systematic theology, read in selections.
  8. The Westminster Shorter Catechism · Westminster Assembly · grades 9–12The Reformed catechism in short questions and answers.
  9. Hamlet · William Shakespeare · grades 9–12Shakespeare's tragedy of conscience and action.
  10. Paradise Lost · John Milton · grades 11–12Milton's epic of the Fall.
  11. The Prince · Niccolo Machiavelli · grades 11–12Machiavelli's political handbook, read critically.

Stretch

For strong readers or extra time.

  • Don Quixote · Miguel de Cervantes · grades 10–12Cervantes's comic masterpiece, often read abridged.
  • Pensees · Blaise Pascal · grades 11–12Pascal's fragments in defense of the Christian faith.
  • King Lear · William Shakespeare · grades 11–12Shakespeare's darkest tragedy, for mature readers.
  • The Heidelberg Catechism · Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus · grades 9–12The Reformation catechism of comfort in Christ.

The sequence follows the general pattern of classical Christian schools: nursery rhymes, fables, fairy tales and Bible stories in the early grades; myths, Greek, Roman and medieval stories in the logic years; and the Great Books and theology in the rhetoric years. These are suggestions, not any publisher's or school's official list. Core titles are the main reading for the year; Stretch titles suit stronger readers or extra time. Each title sits within the grade range given on its library page; check a work's notes for content parents and teachers may want to know about.