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hmmmm. ... im going through a bookshelf of the classics of western philosophy in recent months and days, I cant 'recommend' one thingor even much except the whole canon - or avoid it because it induces one to navel gazing

Anyway for me the 3 great 'synthesizers' of the rational and empirical were Aristotle, Aquinas, and Kant - merging of differing schools into a common thread. Kant is good for insomnia. I am about to attack "grouding for the metaphysics of morals' I trust the empiricists more than the 'rationalists'. Locke is good. The only modern work with enough clarity is A J Ayer's work - this is an attack on metaphysics from the posivitism/materialism's view. I have identified the 'chinks' and the strong points and want to compare vs Kant.

Existentialism is IMHO cr*p and mere proof of Chesterton's remarks about non-Christians believing in anything. From this I conclude that the only modernist philosophy worth anything is the materialist philosophy of the positivists.

Also, the utilitarians are wrong for reasons I can go into at length elsewhere. (think prisoner's dilemma test.)

As a retort to the quotes about mysticism, it is *not* correct to call mysticism the sole ("soul"? :-) ) source
of religious motivation and faith. Indeed religion has a
moral/ethical, and in primitive culture a factual/evidentiary motive and basis. Christian theology since the TIME OF ST AUGUSTINE has been informed by reason by incorporating the works of the ancient philosophers and adding to it. The modern philosophers are descendents of those ancient philosophers, sallying forth to ask and answer the same questions and build knowledge in different ways.

Also, consider that much of art and poetics is a form of mystic expression - the emotional/moral/feeling side of human experience and expression. there is more to human expression than pure reason.
Nevertheless, mysticism seeps in and makes claims
it cant support; when it does - when mysticism tries to sustitute for superior ways of knowing (like fact-based reason and evidence) it does harm. (see also my comment on marxism and freudianism).

The real enemy of orthodox Christianity is not reason and philosohpy, with which it has coexsited for 1500 years, but these baser forms of moral schemata.