The Church closes the liturgical year with the Solemnity of Christ the King. Pius XI instituted this feast in his 1925 encyclical Quas Primas. In that document, he unpacked the mystery of Christ’s kingship while acknowledging that only the liturgy, not his encyclical, could impress that mystery upon the minds and hearts of the faithful.

Here is a selection of five books that can help us unpack the mystery of Christ’s kingship and live the solemnity more deeply.

1. Quas Primas: Encyclical on the Institution of the Feast of Christ the King by Pius XI
2. The Church Speaks to the Modern World: The Social Encyclicals of Leo XIII edited by Étienne Gilson
3. The Metamorphoses of the City of God by Étienne Gilson
4. Pro Rege (vol. 1) (vol. 2) (vol. 3) by Abraham Kuyper
5. Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland

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