Catholic
Showing 1276–1350 of 1503 results
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Rule Of Saint Benedict A Doctrinal And Spiritual Commentary
$44.95Add to cartAfter living the Rule and studying it for many years, the author introduces it to those who are encountering it for the first time. The relationship of Benedict’s Rule to other early monastic legistation is treated thoroughly but the book is designed for those who are seeking a guide for christian living in this `little rule for beginners’.
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Treasures From The Storeroom
$27.95Add to cartDo we really know about religion in the Middle Ages? Gary Macy suggests that what most people believe about the Church of the Middle Ages is actually wrong or founded on the perspective of one figure, Aquinas. Now, after two decades of research, Macy explores the truth about medieval religion and the Eucharist in Treasures from the Storeroom, an intriguing look into the forgotten areas of our Christian heritage. Using a wide range of original sources for these articles, Macy discusses such topics as theology, devotion, ecclesiology, and historical methodology.
This collection of eight essays provides an important backdrop to the plenary address, “The Eucharist and Popular Devotion,” presented at the 1997 national convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), since several themes raised in that address are actually summaries of the fuller arguments presented in these articles. By presenting them here as a whole in the form of a book, Macy offers readers a clearer, more systematic look at the themes raised in that address.
As comforting as it may be for today’s theologians (and others) to pick and choose from the past so that history conveniently leads to their own favorite conclusions, Macy suggests that the Church’s true tradition is diversity. Writing to fellow scholars, he offers Treasures from the Storeroom as a text for classroom use and as simply interesting reading.
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Ishmael Instructs Isaac
$34.95Add to cartJews, Christians, and Muslims trace their roots to Abraham and yet it is a shock to many Bible readers that some of the characters and stories in their sacred text are also found in the pages of Islam’s sacred text, the Qur’an. By exploring the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an in Ishmael Instructs Isaac, John Kaltner challenges Bible readers to think about their sacred book in new, exciting ways. In doing so, he leads all to a better appreciation of Islam.
After a brief overview of the text, themes, structure, and use of the Qur’an, Kaltner focuses on traditions that are shared with the Bible. He explains that the Bible and Qur’an contain many of the same themes, figures, and episodes. However, at times, there are significant differences in their descriptions of the same event or figure. By discussing such topics and figures as God, humanity, prophecy, creation, life after death, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mary, Kaltner examines the similarities and differences between the two texts. This comparative method allows readers to better appreciate both what is distinctive about Islam and what it shares with Judaism and Christianity.
Jews and Christians view Isaac as the son of Abraham in whom the family line continued. Muslims, on the other hand, view Isaac’s brother Ishmael as the rightful heir. This difference must not obscure what is held in common: a belief in the one God and a family-albeit distant-relationship.
Written for undergraduate and seminary courses on Islam, the Qur’an, comparative religions, inter-religious dialogue, world scriptures, and biblical interpretation, Ishmael Instructs Isaac is also a useful resource for discussion groups in churches, synagogues, and mosques.
Includes English translations of the Qur’anic texts discussed.
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Centered Living : The Way Of Centering Prayer
$17.99Add to cartThis look at the popular contemplative technique known as Centering Prayer is your key to a richer spiritual life. In easy-to-understand, non-technical language, internationally renowned author M. Basil Pennington combines testimonies of practitioners, updated guidelines, theological reflections, and helpful hints for teaching others in an exploration of all the essential information about Centering Prayer.
For millions of Christians worldwide, it is the experience of prayer rather than the words which constitute it that are most important. In its simplicity, Centering Prayer opens our hearts to God, cleanses the mind, and soothes the soul.
More than just a catalog of facts and practical suggestions, this book benefits even the most seasoned practitioner or teacher of Centering Prayer. However, the clarity of Father Pennington’s approach also enables newcomers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to develop a firm grasp of the practice.
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Spirituality Of Perfection
$29.95Add to cartThroughout this century the Epistle of James has been viewed consistently as a disjointed set of instructions. In A Spirituality of Perfection Patrick Hartin differs from this approach by showing that the “call for perfection” provides a unifying meaning for the epistle. Examining the concept of perfection against the background of the Graeco-Roman world, the Old Testament, and the Septuagint, Father Hartin shows that perfection provides a key to defining the spirituality of the Epistle of James.
Father Hartin shows how the notion of perfection plays a key role in the definition of God, as well as the way one is called “to be in the world.” He adopts a fresh approach toward understanding the categories of wisdom, eschatology, and apocalyptic as they illuminate the epistle’s advice. He allows James to be read in its own right, instead of through the eyes of other traditions, such as Paul, and shows that what James intends by perfection is different from our modern understanding-that the concept of perfection unlocks an important self-understanding in Christianity.
Just as every generation of believers aims at putting its faith into action, A Spirituality of Perfection culminates with the question: “What direction does the Epistle of James give Christians of the twenty-first century for putting their faith into action?”
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Does God Need The Church
$39.95Add to cartAre not all religions equally close to and equally far from God? Why, then, the Church? Gerhard Lohfink poses these questions with scholarly reliability and on the basis of his own experience of community in Does God Need the Church?
In 1982 Father Lohfink wrote Wie hat Jesus Gemeinde gewollt? (translated into English as Jesus and Community) to show, on the basis of the New Testament, that faith is founded in a community that distinguishes itself in clear contours from the rest of society. In that book he also described a sequence of events that moved directly from commonality to a community that was readily accessible to every group of people and was made legitimate by Jesus himself. Only later did Father Lohfink learn, within a new horizon of experience, that such a description is not the way to community. The story of the gathering of the people of God, from Abraham until today, never took place according to such a model.Today Father Lohfink states that he would not write Wie hat Jesus Gemeinde gewollt? the same way. The situation of belief and believers has undergone a shift: the question of the Church has become much more urgent. Church life is declining and the religions are returning, often in new guises.
In light of these shifts and the change in his own view of community, Father Lohfink inquires in Does God Need the Church? of Israel’s theology, Jesus’ praxis, the experiences of the early Christian communities, and of what is appearing in the Church today. These inquiries lead to an amazing history involving God and the world-a history that God presses forward with the aid of a single people and that always turns out differently from what they think and plan.
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Poor Therefore Rich
$29.95Add to cartFollowers of the way of Jesus Christ through two millennia have engaged in the joyful yet life-costing struggle of responding to the challenge of being transformed into his likeness. This further volume of Carthusian Novice Conferences offers the father-master’s words of instruction on poverty to the men who have been drawn to the Carthusian form of the Christian way.
As with all of us, ‘poverty’ operates on many levels, and one of the most remarkable qualities of these talks is that they range over the economic history as well as the more traditionally spiritual teaching of the Carthusian Order in its own struggle to seek Christ in simplicity and silence.
Like all Christians, the Carthusians find Jesus the great Exemplar of the poverty that is desirable and yet ‘costs not less than everything’; and once again we are reminded, with characteristic directness, of the source and fount of the desirable poverty – the total mutual self-giving of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.
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Gracias : A Latin American Journal
$18.00Add to cartIn this journal of his travels in Bolivia and Peru, Nouwen ponders the presence of God in the poor, the challenge of a persecuted church, the relation between faith and justice, and his own struggle to discern the path along which God is calling him.
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God Of The Oppressed
$26.00Add to cartIn his reflections on God, Jesus, suffering, and liberation, James H. Cone relates the gospel message to the experience of the black community. But a wider theme of the book is the role that social and historical context plays in framing the questions we address to God as well as the mode of the answers provided.
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Journeys On The Edges
$19.00Add to cartThomas O’Loughlin’s fresh and original introduction to Celtic spirituality begins by questioning the very notion of a distinctively “Celtic” spirituality. Brilliantly re-examining the original sources, he argues that there is one over-arching theme giving them a unity–the idea of being “on the edge”, both culturally and geographically.
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Modern Readers Guide To Dantes The Divine Comedy
$22.99Add to cartThe Divine Comedy has been a cornerstone of Western literature for the better part of a millennium. In this work, Joseph Gallagher brings the power and prestige of this medieval classic to a new generation of readers–taking them on a guided tour through heaven, purgatory, and hell.
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Ezra And Nehemiah
$44.95Add to cartEzra-Nehemiah has been neglected in biblical studies, but it is important as one of the few windows into the Persian period of Israel’s history, the setting for so much of the final shape of the Hebrew Bible. To know this period is to know what influenced these redactors. In Ezra and Nehemiah Gordon Davies provides that knowledge using rhetorical criticism, a methodology that reveals the full range and progress of the book’s ideas without hiding its rough seams and untidy edges.
The purpose of rhetorical criticism is to explain not the source but the power of the text as a unitary message. This approach does not look at plot development, characterization, or other elements whose roughness makes Ezra-Nehemiah frustrating to read. Instead, it examines the three parts of the relationship-the strategies, the situations, and the effects-between the speaker and the audience. Rhetorical criticism’s scrutiny of the audience in context favors the search for the ideas and structures that are indigenous to the culture of the text.Rhetorical criticism is interested in figures of speech as means of persuasion. Therefore, to apply it to Ezra-Nehemiah, Davies concentrates on the public discourse-the orations, letters, and prayers-throughout its text. In each chapter he follows a procedure that: (1) where it is unclear, identifies the rhetorical unit in which the discourse is set; (2) identifies the audiences of the discourse and the rhetorical situation; (3) studies the arrangement of the material; (4) studies the effect on the various audiences; (5) reviews the passage as a whole and judges its success. In the conclusion, Davies explains that Ezra-Nehemiah makes theological sense on its own terms, by forming a single work in which a range of ideas is argued.
Biblical scholars as well as those interested in literary criticism, communication studies, rhetorical studies, ecclesiology, and homiletics will find Ezra and Nehemiah enlightening.
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Petrine Ministry And The Unity Of The Church
$24.95Add to cartIn the context of the ecumenical dialogues which have taken place after the Second Vatican Council, few topics have generated as much discussion and reflection as that of the papacy. What has been the function of this service of unity? What are the foundations of its existence? What are its unrelinquishable elements which cannot change? What can be renewed in the manner in which the office is carried out?
John Paul II’s encyclical “On Commitment to Ecumenism” (Ut unum sint) inspired these essays originally presented at a symposium in Rome. In this encyclical the Bishop of Rome recognizes the difficulty that the Petrine office holds for many on the ecumenical journey and exhorts Church leaders and theologians to engage [him] in a patient and fraternal dialogue on his ministry. This symposium was the first attempt to begin this dialogue in Rome with theologians from many Christian traditions: the oriental and orthodox, the Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist and Free Church traditions.
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Making Faith Sense
$14.95Add to cartMaking faith-sense is a new term for an ancient practice. It is what the early Christians called mystical or wisdom theology: understanding life in the light of God’s participation recorded in the Gospels, recognizing the signs of God’s presence in everyday events and shaping one’s life accordingly. In Making Faith-Sense, Robert Kinast shows all who seek to unify their life experience around their belief in God how to follow that ancient practice. Drawing upon the award-winning process he has used with students for the ministry, Father Kinast explains how to make sense of family, work, and cultural experience from the perspective of Christian faith. Each chapter contains numerous real-life examples and practical guidelines that can be used privately or with a group.
Making Faith-Sense begins with a discussion of wisdom theology and its revival in modern times, highlighting “the turn to experience” that characterizes feminist, liberation, and enculturated theologies. The methods for making faith-sense embrace three main components: experience, reflection, and action. The first section describes what is meant by experience, the value of narrating it, how to analyze it, and what to pay attention to so that experience will reveal its theological meaning. The second section explains the role of reflection, its similarity to prayer, techniques for connecting experience to theological tradition, and the most useful theological resources for making faith-sense. The third section affirms the importance of putting reflection into practice, of ensuring that action flows from reflection, of planning and evaluating the effect of one’s practice, and of using practice as the starting point for continuing the process of making faith-sense. Examples from work, family, and cultural life are used throughout to provide illustrations of these general points. A concluding chapter summarizes the reemergence of practical theology since the 1980s as an effort of church communities to make faith-sense of their collective lives.
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Ladder Of The Beatitudes
$20.00Add to cartDrawing on stories from the lives of the saints, scripture, and everyday life, Jim Forest opens up the mysteries of the Beatitudes. These ancient blessings, with which Christ began his Sermon on the Mount, are all aspects of communion with God. As Forest shows, they are like rungs on a ladder, each one leading to the next. They appear at the doorway of the New Testament to provide an easily memorized summary of everything that follows, right down to the crucifixion (“Blessed are you who are persecuted”) and the resurrection (“Rejoice and be glad”).
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Marks Of The Body Of Christ
$21.99Add to cartMartin Luther once listed seven “marks” of the church-those defining ecclesial features that show where the true church is to be found. This volume brings together essays by Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Orthodox theologians, each analyzing one of the seven tradional marks of the church and discussing how it is found, or not found, in our various churches today.
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Community Of The Beautiful
$29.95Add to cartThe Community of the Beautiful is not simply an analysis of Balthasar’s theology; there exists a more personal and concrete reason for a reconsideration of the connection between God and the beautiful. The experience of a particular living ecclesial tradition, the Latin Church of the Americas, may be a guide to a world that lost its confidence in the religious dimensions of the beautiful.
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College Students Introduction To The Trinity
$14.95Add to cartWhere did the Holy Trinity originate as a doctrine? Why did this doctrine develop? How can Christians speak of God as three persons and also worship one God? This volume examines how the doctrine of the Trinity has been interpreted in Eastern Christianity, Western Chrsitianity, and by contemporary theologians, including feminists and process theologians.
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Women And The Value Of Suffering
$29.95Add to cartIs there a value to suffering for women? Is Christianity a religion that condones the victimization of women? Can Christians faith, who are called to hope in the midst of despair, respond to experiences of suffering in all their ambiguity and complexity? How can people proclaim the “good news” in the midst of radical suffering? Women and the Value of Suffering explores these questions and offers a critical summary of recent discussions of evil and suffering from a variety of women’s theological and spiritual perspectives. It incorporates the insights of feminist theory, cultural studies, biomedical research, psychology, theology, and spirituality. By exploring the complexity of suffering in our times, it reflects on how women of faith can come to terms with the enormity, diversity, and, at times, apparent senselessness of human suffering.
Chapter one introduces the search for meaning in suffering. Chapter two defines the experience of pain and suffering from current and historical perspectives. Chapter three surveys how women within a Christian context have spoken about suffering and how these expressions might be similar to or differ from the ways men theologize about suffering. Chapter four considers how an incorporation of a tragic vision of reality might enhance theological considerations on evil and radical suffering of women. Chapter five focuses on the role of Christian spirituality in responding to the experiences of women’s suffering. The conclusion provides a response to the question, is there a value to suffering for women, and incorporates the poem Rowing by Anne Sexton to convey that response.
Women and the Value of Suffering contemplates whether women can find value in their suffering-individually and effectively-so that they are empowered to work for change while acknowledging their need for and openness to God’s activating presence in transforming their suffering. Woman and the Value of Suffering shows that through suffering and despite all expectations to the contrary, people can come to an encounter with One who knows our suffering with love, grace, and even joy.
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Freedom Of Obedience
$24.95Add to cart‘The spiritual centre of the human person, the self’, writes the author, ‘maintains its fundamental identity for the whole of life on earth and is destined for participation in the eternal life of God… The person is not a succession of separate points at the mercy of the conditions of the moment. God has given us a share in his power as creator, and to create ourselves through our liberty, to go beyond ourselves towards absolute values’. These reflections by a Carthusian novice master for those training for the life of silent love show that in the obedience born of love, one responds to the all encompassing, deeply intimate and sustaining love of God.
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Venerable Bede
$26.95Add to cartFrom his remote Northumbrian monastery, Bede (673-735) exerted an enormous and enduring influence on the study of Scripture, history, mathematics, and Latin literature. This overview of his life and writings, first published in 1990, has now been revised in the light of the most recent scholarship. In it noted scholar Sister Benedicta Ward introduces Bede and analyzes his works and the traditions and events which gave form to his thought.
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Christ In The Gospels Of The Ordinary Sundays
$17.95Add to cartFather Brown discusses how a Gospel was formed and explains what is distinctive about each of the four Gospels. Then he fits the Sunday readings into an overall picture of each Gospel, showing how the Gospel shapes the narrative, its the theological emphases, and what it says to readers.
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Characters Of The Passion
$12.99Add to cartThis inspiring book by one of Christianity’s most prolific authors brings to life many of those who played important roles in the “Eternal Drama of the Cross.” This “journey” to Calvary dramatically introduces the reader to a deep and personal knowledge of faith.
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Let Justice Sing
$15.95Add to cartJustice has been an urgent concern of twentieth-century hymn writers, but are they the first to place such an emphasis on it? In Let Justice Sing, Paul Westermeyer offers an answer with the hope that it will stimulate dialogue, future studies, and an understanding of the past that can be applied to the present.
Let Justice Sing explores the content, context, and importance of justice within the “warp and woof” of hymnody. By analyzing these aspects and past hymnic repertoires, it suggests to the Church and others who wish to join the moral deliberation it presumes, that not only have Christians always sung about justice, but the message transcends the messengers.
The perspective and dialogue fostered by Let Justice Sing is directed to students in college or seminary courses where hymnody, Church music, or ethics is the topic; adults in forums or classes where questions about music and justice arise; and anyone with an interest in hymnody, justice, or the relationship between the two.
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Quilting And Braiding
$16.95Add to cart“Can a male savior save women?” In answering this profound question, and as a way of engaging women and men who seek a deeper understanding of the role of Jesus Christ in contemporary Christianity, Quilting and Braiding explores the Christologies of pivotal feminist theologians-Sallie McFague and Elizabeth Johnson-and examines the impact of feminist Christology on the field of theology.
For centuries scholars have studied, debated, and articulated their understanding of the life, message, and impact of Jesus Christ (incarnation and salvation). In Quilting and Braiding, Shannon Schrein examines critical questions arising from feminist thought that address these core Christian beliefs. She explores the constructivist Christology of McFague and the revisionist Christology of Johnson and examines how each makes use of language, particularly metaphor and analogy, in addressing the Christological concerns of women today.
Drawing its imagery from practices that have typically been a part of women’s heritage-quilting and braiding-this work forms a footbridge between tradition and contemporary concerns, bringing the study of Christology into the lives of God’s people.
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Book Of Margery Kempe
$19.00Add to cartThough a familiar name, little was known about the English mystic Margery Kempe (c. 1373-c. 1440) for hundreds of years except that she had an association with the great Julian of Norwich. This all changed in 1934 with the discovery of The Book of Margery Kempe in a library where it had lain hidden for four hundred years. Finding Margery’s own story was important not just because of the light it shed on her life, but it also turned out to be the first known autobiography in the English language. Even more intriguing to the experts of the day, this unique document was written by a woman.
But if anyone had expected to find her anything like her cloistered contemporary, Julian, they were in for something of a surprise. Far from being a typical holy woman, Margery Kempe was married and mother of fourteen children. Moreover, she had been a woman of substance, even running a large brewery for a time. After turning to religion, she traveled thousands of miles around the known world on pilgrimages to distant lands.
Beyond the circumstances of her life, what’s most compelling about the text is the inner Margery that emerges. Her account of spiritual awakening, far from being a blissful episode is instead full of conflict and recrimination. What good was this new way of life if it caused her such trouble? Was this really the only way to lead a holy life? Margery remained unsure of the answers. But her patience in her struggle is a wonder to behold, and an example for us today.
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Prayer Of Love And Silence
$24.95Add to cartCalm and spirituality-the true hallmarks of Carthusian writings-distinguish this book. The first part sets out the principles of the interior life; the second works out a method of prayer. There follow eleven sermons, originally given to monks in chapter, which illustrate this approach. The final portion discusses the complex doctrine of the Trinity: the extraordinary clarity. Broken into short chapters, the book is designed for personal reflection and meditation.
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Different Touch : A Study Of Vows In Religious Life
$34.95Add to cartThis work speaks of the challenges of religious life today where the essentials of Christian living and union with God are sought with a different touch. Reflecting on the history of religious life since the nineteenth century, Sister Judith comments on how each of the traditional vows shape the ongoing adult development of a religious, and she related these vows to current cultural and sociopolitical issues. A Different Touch is addressed both to those in religious formation and to congregations that are engaged in theological renewal.
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Mystical Theology : The Science Of Love
$24.00Add to cartFrom the earliest centuries there has existed a Christian theology of mysticism, defining the state which Bernard Lonergan called a “being in love with God.” St. John of the Cross wrote such a theology for the sixteenth century, calling it “the science of love.” Now, William Johnston, one of the great spiritual writers of our time, attempts to do the same for the twenty-first century.
In Part One of Mystical Theology Johnston surveys Christian mysticism through the centuries. Johnson shows that such a theology today must dialogue with modern science and with Eastern religions. Part Two provides this dialogue, where Johnston engages Einstein’s theories as well as Zen Buddhism. In Part Three, it becomes clear how the “science of love” is no longer an esoteric discipline for monks and nuns. In Johnston’s writing it becomes accessible to all modern people grappling with problems of sexuality, social justice, world peace, and the protection of the environment.
Mystical Theology is indispensable to all those seeking guidance as well as intellectual and historical foundations of the Christian mystical experience today.
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Mission In The New Testament
$30.00Add to cartMission in the New Testament articulates Scriptural teachings on mission from a contemporary American Evangelical standpoint, contributing a fresh statement of the biblical foundations of mission and serving as a catalyst for completion of the church’s universal mission in this generation. After investigating the historical background of the idea of mission in the Hebrew Scriptures, inter-testamental Judaism, the life of Jesus and the beginnings of the church, the book proceeds in a roughly canonical order through the New Testament. Essays analyze the works of Paul, the Synoptic Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the General Epistles, and Revelation. While well-versed in the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation, editors and contributors alike offer a cogent argument for recovering the “missional horizon” of the New Testament. They also emphasize that “mission” today can no longer be defined geographically and that non-Western churches are assuming major leadership roles in Christian world mission.
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Prayers For The Seasons Of Gods People Year C
$26.99Add to cartJust what the pastor ordered! Basing the entire worship service on readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, Hostetter creates calls to worship, invocations, declarations of pardon, and prayers of confession, thanksgiving, dedication, intercession, and commemoration. Useful in any denomination.
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Christian Social Witness And Teaching 2
$40.00Add to cartThe second volume of Rodger Charles’ two volume presentation of the Catholic Tradidition from Genesis to Centesimus Annus addresses the Modern Social Teaching of the Church from the reign of Pope Leo XIII. The encyclical Rerun Novarum(1891) was a response to the problems of liberal capitalism and the industrial revolution in the Western world. Leo’s successors were largely concerned with the ongoing problems of that programme, though Pius XI (1922-39) and more markedly Pius XII (1939-58) were also concerned with international problems. The years following the end of the Second World War demanded even more attention to these. Meanwhile many Western intellectuals doubted the viability of capitalism and some liberation theologians from the 1970s used Marxist social analysis as an integral part of their search for justice. As it happened, the 1980s brought about the collapse of real socialism and the resurgence of liberal capitalism. From the time of John XXIII (1953-63), the pastors of the Church have been responding to these new needs and with the advent of John Paul II, the controversies over liberation theology and the collapse of socialism, the pace of that response has quickened. Rodger Charles, Lecturer and Tutor in Moral and Pastoral Theology at Campion Hall, Oxford, has spent over thirty years researching, lecturing and writing in London, Oxford and San Francisco on the social teaching of the Church and its application. His book provides a masterly and an unrivalled introduction to this topic.
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Targum Pseudo Jonathan Deuteronomy
$99.95Add to cartThis volume on Deuteronomy represents the last volume of the Pentateuch in the Pseudo-Jonathan series. It includes the translation and notes of Pseudo-Jonathan of Deuteronomy as well a complete index. Many of the methods of translation unique to Pseudo-Jonathan noted in the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers volumes are also found in Deuteronomy. The editors of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Deuteronomy used a creative literary style that resulted in a text with a character independent of the other volumes. The question of when, where, and by whom the targum was composed is unanswerable. The present text of Pseudo-Jonathan is the result of much editing, reediting, copying, and recopying of the “original” manuscript. The only certain fact is the 16th-century date of the present manuscript.
Those interested in the Aramaic tradition of biblical interpretation, and students of Jewish studies will find Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Deuteronomy an invaluable resource.
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Trinity And The Paschal Mystery
$24.95Add to cartSomething quite extraordinary has happened in Catholic trinitarian theology in the last thirty years or so: the mystery of the Trinity is being approached by reflection on the paschal mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Astonishing though it may seem, the traditional Augustinian-Thomistic treatment of the trinity made no such direct reference to those Easter events, even though it was through them that Jesus’ disciples came to proclaim that Jesus is Lord and that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The redemptive significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection was clearly recognized, but not its revelatory significance.
But here, in a radically new development, the death and resurrection of Jesus is perceived to have properly “theological” meaning; it is not just redemptive but revelatory of God’s being. A startling revitalized trinitarian theology emerges. “So what does this development contribute to trinitarian theology?” And “Why has this extraordinary development arisen at this stage in the tradition?” The Trinity and the Paschal Mystery answers these questions and examines and assesses this new development in relation to the classical tradition of trinitarian theology and offers a meta-methodological perspective from which to understand it.
One of the few theologians who have pursued this innovative line of thought, Anne Hunt in The Trinity and the Paschal Mystery analyzes the works of four contemporary theologians. Franois Durrwell, C.SS.R., Ghislain Lafont, O.S.B., Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Sebastian Moore, O.S.B., have all written on this interconnection of the mysteries. Each expressed dissatisfaction with classical Latin trinitarian theology and sought a fuller, richer, and more adequate explication of the mystery. A vividly revitalized theology of the Trinity results, one that is constructed in a distinctly soteriological context. But the trinitarian theology which emerges is not only a soteriology. The triune God emerges with a distinctively “paschal character” when approached in this way and this profoundly affects an understanding of the divine perfections. Both aspects represent significant gains in the contemporary cultural and theological context.
The Trinity and the Paschal Mystery is not only significant on a systematic and methodological level, it is also timely. Recent trinitarian theologies (e.g., LaCugna, Johnson, Boff, Weinandy, Coffey) do not deal with the Trinity-paschal mystery connection. Orthodox theology has v
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Call To Holiness
$14.95Add to cartThe Charismatic Renewal of the church is now thirty years old. Appearing soon after the close of Vatican II, it has been one of a number of movements of the Spirit in the Church. After three decades, it seems appropriate to gather the wisdom within the Renewal to help guide its continued life. This document comes out of several years with leaders, theologians, and bishops associated with the Renewal from various national backgrounds.
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To Live Is To Pray
$15.99Add to cartCarmelite spirituality is a way of life that spells Freedom. Rooted in the experience of the desert mothers and fathers who sought God in solitude, it can accommodate many temperaments and approaches. The primary focus is on Finding the way of prayer that will bring you closest to God. This warm and engaging book introduces six great Carmelite Figures and their individual ways of prayer. Let Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, Therese of Lisieux and others help you discover the pathway to authentic spiritual growth.
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Season Of Light
$14.95Add to cartThe Season of Light is a guide for families, households, classrooms, communities, and parishes who wish to make the lighting of the Advent candles a daily prayer. For each day of the season, from the First Sunday of Advent until Christmas Day, The Season of Light offers a brief liturgy that is based on the structure of Vespers or Evening Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours: the lighting of the candles (the “lucernarium”), a reading from the Advent Scriptures, petitions and collect, and a final blessing.
The Advent wreath is one of the most enduring customs of the Christmas season. Rich in meaning, the four lights of the Advent wreath kindle “our blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13). It is a symbol of our faith: that light and life will triumph over darkness and death, that our hope in God’s providence and love will never leave us disappointed.
With this rich tradition in mind, Jay Cormier has structured the daily liturgies in The Season of Light as follows: “The Lucernarium,” the lighting of the candle(s); “The Word of God,” in which a lector reads a Scripture passage that reflects the Advent themes of joyful expectation and the restoration of justice and peace in the dawning of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World; and “Prayers,” in which the presider or leader offers petitions and all respond. Then the Lord’s Prayer is recited, and the final collect and the blessing (including a scriptural blessing and a table blessing before meals) are offered by the presider.
The structure and prayers in The Season of Light are offered as suggestions; adaptions are encouraged. For example, families may wish to make the intercessions an opportunity for spontaneous prayers offered by participants; groups with musical ability and leadership may want to incorporate hymns from the rich treasury of Advent and Christian hymnody; those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours regularly might consider including the Advent wreath custom with the psalms and prayers of the Hours.
Designed for all those who wish to make the Advent wreath a daily prayer and part of their Christmas observance and tradition, The Season of Light helps Christians celebrate that we are an Advent people: a people who live in the eternal hope and expectation of the ever-burning light of Jesus Christ.
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Need And Blessing Of Prayer
$24.95Add to cartA new translation of Father Rahner’s book on prayer.
Karl Rahner stands in a long line of great Christian theologians who were likewise great teachers of prayer. He has been called the voice of Vatican II, and is acknowledged as the rare theologian whose writings speak to the “ordinary” Christian.
In The Need and the Blessing of Prayer , Father Rahner views the human person as essentially one called to prayer. He also highlights prayer as the act of human existence, the great religious act. By encouraging people to “pray in the everyday”-to pray regardless of the desire or mood of the moment-Rahner’s theology of the prayer of everyday life challenges us to surrender ourselves to God so that God dwells at the very center of our lives.
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Cloister Walk
$16.00Add to cartAmazon.com
In the tradition of Thomas Merton, Kathleen Norris gives us an intimate look at how religious life fills a gap in the soul. Her poetic sensibilities internalize the monastery as a symbol of spirituality, with its sanctity and humor, questioning and uncertainty, rhythm and vigor. Beyond moral precepts and Bible stories, Cloister Walk is a very personal account of religion lived fully. It depicts a depth and beauty of spirituality in monastic life that has survived the vicissitudes of Roman Catholic politics and pomp.From Publishers Weekly
The allure of the monastic life baffles most lay people, but in her second book Norris (Dakota) goes far in explaining it. The author, raised Protestant, has been a Benedictine oblate, or lay associate, for 10 years, and has lived at a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota for two. Here, she compresses these years of experience into the diary of one liturgical year, offering observations on subjects ranging from celibacy to dealing with emotions to Christmas music. Like the liturgy she loves, this meandering, often repetitive book is perhaps best approached through the lectio divina practiced by the Benedictines, in which one tries to “surrender to whatever word or phrase captures the attention.” There is a certain nervous facility to some of Norris’s jabs at academics, and she is sometimes sanctimonious. But there is no doubting her conviction, exemplified in her defense of the much-maligned Catholic “virgin martyrs,” whose relevance and heroism she wants to redeem for feminists. What emerges, finally, is an affecting portrait?one of the most vibrant since Merton’s?of the misunderstood, often invisible world of monastics, as seen by a restless, generous intelligence. -
Spirituality Of The Diocesan Priest
$24.95Add to cartBeyond the dramatic drop in seminarians and the declining numbers of priests, beyond the sexual misconduct scandals shaking the confidence and trust once readily given to priests, a spiritual deepening and maturing is renewing the spirit and confidence of the diocesan priest. In this collection of essays, twelve priests (including four bishops) reflect on the spirituality of the diocesan priest from their personal and pastoral experience.
Have diocesan priests finally transcended the monastic and religious order spiritualities that have shaped their prayer and interior lives for centuries? Is a spirituality particular to the diocesan priest emerging precisely at a time when the priesthood is under such close scrutiny? The contributors-pastors, theologians, poets, and bishops-grapple with the maturing of the diocesan priest’s soul, touch the mystery of the priesthood, and unveil personal, often moving, dramas of grace.
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Lift Up Your Heart
$21.99Add to cart20 Chapters
Additional Info
In one of his most popular and best-selling books, the beloved Catholic prelate deftly strikes at the very heart and soul of humanity’s universal predicament: overcoming roadblocks to genuine spiritual peace and union with the Divine.This book was written to help all those who struggle to ascent beyond the mere human (ego) level and I-level of existence to reach the supernatural or Divine-level. With charity, logic, and unshakable faith, Sheen provides guidance in solving the problems caused by the tensions and stresses of living in a troubled modern world. This treasured classic contains simple, practical advice on identifying and overcoming conflicts associated with empty pleasure, character weakness, self-discipline, false beliefs, and the fear of “letting go.” Above all, the book offers enduring words of wisdom on grace, prayer and meditation, sanctifying the present moment, and making up for the past.
A brilliant analysis of the inner life, this book will affirm readers on their spiritual quest for a better life.
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Conspiracy Of Compassion
$15.95Add to cartPerhaps the greatest quality to develop in the new millennium is the practice of compassion. This beautifully written book is about cultivating compassion in the garden of the soul. Strengthening our inner resources for this sacred work, it calls us to follow Christ, to be “co-conspirators” in the sacred story of salvation. In the gentle murmur of God’s sacred breath, a conspiracy is born. It is a conspiracy of compassion.
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Perseverance In Trials
$24.95Add to cartChristian life, like life generally, is marked by trials. For this reason, the author has chosen the Book of Job as a primary text for reflection, although other passages of the Old and New Testaments are also offered for meditation.
The story of Job spoke to the Jewish people exiled in Babylonia, even as it speaks to us today. It inspires questions such as, Does suffering have meaning? Can human beings ask God to account for that suffering? It counters those questions by asking for belief in God’s ultimate justice and (humanly) incomprehensible wisdom.
In comments marked by spiritual and pastoral depth, Cardinal Martini, Archbishop of Milan, dwells on certain passages of Job that help shed light on the meaning of the mystery of the human person and the mystery of God. The reflections are gathered from retreat lectures given by the cardinal. When read in an atmosphere of prayer, these pages become a source of light, nourishment, strength, incentive, and consolation.
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Catholicity Of The Reformation A Print On Demand Title
$17.99Add to cartAs the title of this engaging book suggests, “catholicity” was the true intent of the Reformation. The Reformers did not set out to create what later came to be known as Protestant Christianity. Theirs was a quest for reformation and renewal in continuity with the “one holy catholic and apostolic church” of ancient times.
This informed and informative book continues the appeal of previous voices that have pointed out the catholic intention of the Reformation – such voices as those of Friedrich Heiler, Philip Schaff, and Paul Tillich, to name only a few – and calls the heirs of the Reformation, both pastors and churches, to be faithful to the evangelical and catholic elements of the great Christian tradition.
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College Students Introduction To Christology
$24.95Add to cartWhy did some people want Jesus dead, while others came to honor him as the Christ? What does it mean to say that “he was raised,” and how did this belief get started? What about the classical expressions of Jesus’ religious significance – “true God of true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father,” and “one person in two natures”? Where did they come from and what do they mean? Finally, what does belief in Jesus have to do with justice for the poor, the women’s movement, concern for the environment, and respect for other world religions? This book introduces the reader to the issues and questions that have given Christology, Christian reflection on Jesus’ religious significance, a whole new shape in recent years.
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What You Should Know About Angels
$7.99Add to cartArtists, writers, and musicians have attempted to capture for us a glimpse of what they might be like. Philosophers, theologians, and clergy have surmised about their deeper importance within our faith-life. Yet most people still feel that angels are a mystery.
The current popularity of angels is an enigma for many, including Sister Charlene Altemose. Like others, she asks, “Why is there a sudden interest in angels when the world seems so estranged from spiritual values?”
Whatever the reason for their magnetic appeal, Altemose sees this interest as an opportunity to rediscover the role angels play in our lives. She invites us to explore four avenues that inform and inspire us toward a more familiar rapport with angels:
Angels–A Mystery of Faith
Angels in Tradition and Theology
Angels in Human Imagination and Creativity
Angels in Prayer and Human Experiences -
Eucharist In The New Testament And The Early Church
$29.95Add to cartAs presented in the New Testament, the Eucharist is a source of both inspiration and guidance today. In The Eucharist in the New Testament and the Early Church, Father LaVerdiere examines what the New Testament tells us about the Eucharist and how the Eucharist provides an important experiential and theological resource for the gospel stories of Jesus’ life, ministry, passion and resurrection, as well as for the life and development of the Church.
Father LaVerdiere illustrates how the origins of the Eucharist coincide with the origins of the Church. The development of the Eucharist reflects the development of the early Church, as well as its creative theological and pastoral reflection. Through the lens of the New Testament it views the beginnings of both Church and Eucharist when the risen Lord appeared to the disciples at meals soon after Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection. He also looks beyond the New Testament and explores the ongoing development of Eucharistic theology and practice up to the mid-second century, ending with Justin Martyr, the first to describe the Eucharist to people who had no personal experience of it.
Father LaVerdiere focuses on the Eucharist in relation to ecclesiology, Christology, and liturgy. He begins by reflecting on how Christians referred to the Eucharist before it had a name, how names for the Eucharist came to be and their importance, how the Eucharist was celebrated at the very beginning, how liturgical formulas came to be, how these formulas brought out the riches of the Eucharist, and how the Eucharist related to different pastoral situations.
The concept of “triunity” the assembly, the Eucharist, and the Church guides this study. The Eucharist is the sacrament of the assembly, the sacrament of the Church’s life in the world. From the very beginning, there was no separating the three, nor are there separating references to the Eucharist from the letters, gospels, or other work in which the three appear. Here, Father LaVerdiere stresses that in order to know the Eucharist in the New Testament and the early Church, one has only to look at the composition and actual life of the Church. Thus, to know the Church, one has only to look at the way it celebrates the Eucharist.
Since most of today’s challenges concerning the Eucharist are similar to those experienced by the early Church, The Eucharist in the New Testament and the Early Church will be of great help to pastors, students, catechists and those i
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What Is Lonergan Up To In Insight
$29.95Add to cartMany consider Bernard Lonergan the outstanding Catholic philosopher of the twentieth century, and his Insight: A Study in Human Understanding (1957) is a brilliant but difficult work that has challenged innumerable readers. What Is Lonergan Up to in Insight? is an accessible introduction to the leading ideas of Lonergan’s massive and major achievement in which he focuses on the dynamics of scientific method.
Using Plato’s Myth of the Cave as the guiding metaphor, Father Tekippe, who studied under Lonergan, introduces readers to the main ideas of Lonergan’s magnum opus. He does not comment, summarize, nor substitute for Insight, but instead communicates faithfully Lonergan’s own leading inspirations. Having studied Lonergan for thirty years, Father Tekippe brings the reader into the intricacies of the inner mind.
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Mujerista Theology : A Theology For The 21 Century
$24.00Add to cartMujerista Theology is a comprehensive introduction to Hispanic woman’s liberation theology written from the heart and convictions of experience. Continually drawing on her Cuban roots, Isasi Diaz focuses on the life journey and struggles of Hispanic women as she develops a theology to support and empower their daily struggles for meaning. With her own life journey always firmly connected to the grassroots experience of Hispanic women and to the struggle for liberation, Isasi-Diaz is a major spokesperson for the continuing need for liberation theology today.
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In Pursuit Of Love Second Edition (Revised)
$46.95Add to cartWhile retaining the basic structure of the original book, this new edition has been thoroughly updated in light of some official Catholic documents and other theological writings dealing with sexual morality that have appeared since 1986. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals Veritatis splendor and Evangelium vitae, and the 1986 and 1992 statements of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on pastoral care of homosexuals and the issue of discrimination against them are among the more recent magisterial publications considered in this text.
This edition also contains several new sections: the misuses of sex (adultery, pornography, prostitution, sexual violence); four rationales for viewing a committed love relationship as the only appropriate context for sexual intercourse; marriage as a sacrament and marital sexuality and love as embodiments of commitment, intimacy, and passion; and public policy and the civil rights of homosexuals. This edition also includes an expanded discussion of topics such as sexism, sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/AIDS and the moral questions raised by new family-planning methods (Norplant, Depo-Provera), RU-486, postcoital hormonal interventions against pregnancy, the start of human life, and abortion.
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Papal Primacy : From Its Origins To The Present
$24.95Add to cartThrough the centuries, stories of popes and of the papacy from Catholic and non-Catholic perspectives, presented as biographies or as histories of an institution have boomed with the power of this often controversial office.
Whether as liberating truth which comes forth from the Church or as narrow perspective; whether as “Rock of the Church” or “stumbling-block,” primacy remains a reality at the heart of many ecclesiastical problems. Until now, a complete history of the primacy has been missing. Papal Primacy fills the void by providing a clear understanding of its history.
In this, the first complete history of the papal primacy, Schatz traces the development of the idea of a papacy as center of teaching and jurisdiction from its earliest Roman beginnings, through centuries of development, the great papal schism and the struggles over Conciliarism and Gallicanism, to the triumph of papal authority at Vatican I and beyond that to Vatican II and the growing realization that there are no “once and for all answers” to the Church’s questions. Papal primacy has grown with the Church, and it remains a reality embedded in the Church as a living community open to change.
Chapters focus on the development of the primacy in the first five centuries, different functions of unity in the East and the West; the papacy as the head of the Church and Christendom in the Middle Ages, and the primacy as confessional mark of identity in modern times.
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Romans
$69.95Add to cartWhile widely acknowledged as the single most influential document in Christian history, Paul’s Letter to the Romans has also attracted the most comment. Standing at the head of Paul’s writings in the New Testament and so eloquently delivering his Gospel, Romans has presented Paul to generations of readers: from Augustine in the fifth century, through the Reformation era, down to the present day.
This commentary adopts a literary-rhetorical approach, viewing the letter as an instrument of persuasion designed to transform readers through a celebratory presentation of the Gospel. Reflecting upon the fate of Jews and Gentiles, Paul wins his audience to a vision of a God who always acts inclusively. The God who, in the person of Israel’s Messiah (Jesus), has acted faithfully to include the Gentile peoples within the community of salvation, will not fail to see to the eventual inclusion of Israel as well. In the victory of grace displayed already in the risen humanity of Jesus, the original design of the Creator for human communities and for the world begins to come true.
The interpretation of Paul’s letter to Rome has accompanied and stimulated the path of Christian theology down to today. Romans touches upon virtually all main issues of Christian theology as well as presenting a rewarding introduction to Paul. Byrne facilitates full access to Paul and his Gospel through the letter, allowing Christians today to hear Paul’s voice as intelligibly and powerfully as it has spoken to past generations. Includes an updated bibliography and appendix.
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Jesus And The Other Names
$24.00Add to cartJesus and the Other Names brings together issues of liberation, theology and religious pluralism in order to suggest that the two are dependant on each other. The book proposes that Christians must revise and reaffirm their understanding of the uniqueness of Jesus and create dialogue with other world religions which can provide new insight into spirituality.
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1 Kings : Studies In Hebrew Narrative And Poetry
$69.95Add to cartThe narratives of Solomon and Jeroboam, of Elijah and Ahab, have fascinated readers for millennia. They are the principal foundation of our knowledge of the history of Israel during the early years of the divided monarchy, and their reliability and verifiability as historical sources have long been the subject of intense scholarly analysis and debate. But even apart from questions of historical authenticity, they are gripping stories of richly drawn characters caught up in the complex tale of Yahweh’s dealings with Israel: Solomon the wise is the builder of Yahweh’s Temple, yet he becomes an idolater; Jeroboam is chosen by Yahweh as king, yet he worships the golden calves; Elijah is a prophet second only to Moses, yet he tries to renounce his calling; and Ahab is the worst of Israel’s kings, yet shows traces of greatness. This study explores the narrative world created by the ancient Israelite author – the people who inhabit it, the lives they live and the deeds they do, and the face of God who is revealed in their stories.
