Bøker utgitt av University of Notre Dame Press

Jerry L. Walls cogently argues that some traditional views of hell are still defensible and can be believed with intellectual and moral integrity. Focusing on the issues from the standpoint of philosophical theology, he explores the doctrine of hell in relation to both the divine nature and human nature. He argues, with respect to divine nature, that some versions of the doctrine are compatible not only with God's omnipotence and omniscience, but also with a strong account of His perfect goodness. The concept of divine goodness receives special attention since the doctrine of hell is most often rejected on moral grounds. In addition, Walls maintains that the doctrine of hell is intelligible from the standpoint of human freedom, since the idea of a decisive choice of evil is a coherent one.

These 21 personal narratives answer the question of how each writer tries, sometimes but not always successfully, to be both a good Christian and a good lawyer. Reading about these real-life ethical dilemmas, conflicting loyalties, and personal difficulties should offer reassurance.

Jacques Maritain was one of the most profound and far-ranging thinkers in the wave of Thomism that gained momentum after World War I and crested just before Vatican II. His career makes manifest the intellectual, cultural, and spiritual liveliness of the pre-Conciliar period, and his thought is crucial to our understanding of the Church today. Art and Prudence highlights the social, political, and aesthetic achievements of the great French Catholic intellectual.In this collection of essays Ralph McInerny portrays Maritain as a devoted Thomist, convinced that faith could never be divorced from reason and that reason without faith was shallow and devoid of meaning. His eclectic tastes and penetrating intellect led him to scrutinize many topics, and although McInerny concedes that he cannot discuss all of Maritain 's ideas, he shows their inherent unity and underlying current of devotion.Taking as a starting point Maritain's Art and Scholasticism, Mclnerny investigates a number of Maritain's ideas. He explicates Maritain's paradoxical defense of the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, as well as the philosophical ramifications of the dispute over the common good. In addition, Mclnemy discusses Maritain's deployment of Thomistic doctrines into surprising new applications and pays tribute to the man as the best Thomistic writer on art in this century.

Since 1974 there has been a wave of democratization in the world, in particular in South America. This work examines some of the difficulties of constructing consolidated democracies and provides a critical examination of the major issues involved.

These research papers explore the creative interaction between evolutionary and molecular biology, philosophy and theology. They aim to support the engagement of constructive theology with the natural sciences and explore philosophical and theological elements in ongoing scientific research.

In Hidden Holiness, Michael Plekon challenges us to examine the concept of holiness. He argues that both Orthodox and Catholic churches understand saints to be individuals whose lives and deeds are unusual, extraordinary, or miraculous. Such a requirement for sainthood undermines, in his view, one of the basic messages of Christianity: that all people are called to holiness. Instead of focusing on the ecclesiastical process of recognizing saints, Plekon explores a more ordinary and less noticeable "e;hidden"e; holiness, one founded on the calling of all to be prophets and priests and witnesses to the Gospel. As Rowan Williams has insisted, people of faith need to find God's work in their culture and daily lives. With that in mind, Plekon identifies a fascinatingly diverse group of faithful who exemplify an everyday sanctity, as well as the tools they have used to enact their faith. Plekon calls upon contemporary writers-among them, Rowan Williams, Kathleen Norris, Sara Miles, Simone Weil, and Darcey Steinke-as well as such remarkable and controversial figures as Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day-to demonstrate ways to imagine a more diverse and everyday holiness. He also introduces four individuals of "e;hidden holiness"e;: a Yup'ik Alaskan, Olga Arsumquak Michael; the artist Joanna Reitlinger; the lay theologian Elisabeth Behr-Sigel; and human rights activist Paul Anderson. A generous and expansive treatment of the holy life, accessibly written for all readers, Plekon's book is sure to inspire us to recognize and celebrate the holiness hidden in the ordinary lives of those around us.

This work is an introduction to philosophical anthropology for students in a variety of disciplines, with emphasis on developing issues and problems with a phenomenological method, rather than presenting its material within a formal historical framework.

The Bible in the Latin West surveys the changes in the most important book in the western world, the Latin Bible. Dr. Gibson beings the survey in late antiquity, discussing the sumptuous volumes of the great senatorial houses of the fourth century and how they influenced the early great Bibles of northern Europe. The discussion then moves through the Carolingian period, with its increased interest in commentary to early vernacular versions, and goes on to reveal how in the eleventh and twelfth centuries the growing number of monastic and university readers made new demands on texts which led to the inclusion of glosses and other scholarly apparatus. Later, the combined influences of increased literacy and growing wealth among the population called for vernacular translations and devotional aids such as Books of Hours. Gibson completes the survey with a look at early printed Bibles. This is a useful volume for anyone being introduced to the firsthand study of texts and their transmission, as well as for graduate students in history, English, modern languages, classics, and religious studies, The Bible in the Latin West contains an introductory survey, 28 plates with facing descriptions and analyses, a glossary, and extensive bibliographic material.

A collection of 15 research papers exploring the implications of chaos and complexity in physical, chemical and biological systems for philosophical and theological issues regarding God's action in the world.

This volume of interdisciplinary essays focuses on the shifting points of intersection between the changing historical definitions of laity and sanctity. It features an examination of a series of individual lay "saints", in order to explore how these figures perceived their own lay status.

In this sourcebook, the editors bring together a varied selection of medieval documents on pastoral care. These materials - from administrative, theological, legal, historical and literary sources - are grouped thematically and offer a summary of the multifaceted lives of the parish clergymen.

This edition of the anonymously-authored, Middle English poem, "Pearl", is offered with a verse translation, Middle English text, and a commentary. On each page, the Middle English text is faced with a Modern English verse translation. The book is designed for classroom use, specialists and others.

This is a historical analysis of the Puerto Rican and Cuban American Catholic experience, beginning with their roots in the history of their homelands up to the closing of Vatican II. These people are difficult to assimilate into the Church as they do not see thenselves as permanently in the US.

An account of a personal journey exploring the evidence for, and implications of, human evolution. The author addresses spiritual questions on creation and the meaning of life, and reflects on the experience and effects on his thought of lecturing on controversial matters in American universities.

Alasdair MacIntyre is one of the few professional philosophers whose writings span both technical analytical philosophy and those general moral or intellectual questions that laymen often suppose to be the province of philosophy. This book attempts to expose this dichotomy and to link beliefs and moral theories with philosophical criticism.

Although scholarship has long recognized the centrality of the Trinity in the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, no sustained treatment of this theme has been published until now. In this insightful new book, The Trinitarian Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Brendan McInerny fills this gap, situating Balthasar's trinitarian theology in conversation with both the wider Christian theological tradition and his non-Christian intellectual contemporaries. Drawing from across Balthasar's extensive body of works, McInerny argues that Balthasar's vivid description of the immanent Trinity provides a way to speak of how "e;God is love"e; in himself, beyond his relationship to creatures. He then shows how Balthasar's speculation into the immanent Trinity serves as the substructure of his theology of deification. For Balthasar, what we say about the inner life of God matters because we are called to share in that very life through Christ and the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Finally, responding to the criticisms that Balthasar's speculations into the inner life of God are without warrant, McInerny argues that Balthasar's bold trinitarian claims are actually a vehicle for apophatic theology. Balthasar's vivid description of the triune God does not transgress the boundaries of theological discourse. Rather, it manifests God's ever-greater incomprehensibility through verbal excess, oxymoron, and paradox.

Matthew Briel examines, for the first time, the appropriation and modification of Thomas Aquinas's understanding of providence by fifteenth-century Greek Orthodox theologian Gennadios Scholarios. Briel investigates the intersection of Aquinas's theology, the legacy of Greek patristic and later theological traditions, and the use of Aristotle's philosophy by Latin and Greek Christian thinkers in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. A Greek Thomist reconsiders our current understanding of later Byzantine theology by reconfiguring the construction of what constitutes "e;orthodoxy"e; within a pro- or anti-Western paradigm. The fruit of this appropriation of Aquinas enriches extant sources for historical and contemporary assessments of Orthodox theology. Moreover, Scholarios's grafting of Thomas onto the later Greek theological tradition changes the account of grace and freedom in Thomistic moral theology. The particular kind of Thomism that Scholarios develops avoids the later vexing issues in the West of the de auxiliis controversy by replacing the Augustinian theology of grace with the highly developed Greek theological concept of synergy. A Greek Thomist is perfect for students and scholars of Greek Orthodoxy, Greek theological traditions, and the continued influence of Thomas Aquinas.

Making Market Women tells of the initial success and failure of a liberationist Catholic women's cooperative in central Ecuador. Jill DeTemple argues that when gender and religious identities are capitalized, they are made vulnerable. Using archival and ethnographic methods, she shares the story of the women involved in the cooperative, producing cheese and knitted goods for local markets, and places their stories in the larger context of both the cooperative and the community. DeTemple explores the impact of gender roles, the perception of women, the growing middle class, and the changing mode of Catholicism in their community. Although the initial success of the cooperative may have been due to the group's cohesion and Catholic identity, the ultimate failure of the enterprise left many women less secure in these ties. They keep their Catholic identity but blame the institutional church in some ways for the failure and are less confident in their ability as women to compete successfully in market economies. Because DeTemple examines not only the effects of gender and religion on development but also the effects of development, successful or unsuccessful, on the identities of those involved, this book will interest scholars of international development, religious studies, Latin American studies, anthropology, and women's studies.

Throughout this original and passionate book, Bob Pepperman Taylor presents a wide-ranging inquiry into the nature and implications of Henry David Thoreau's thought in Walden and Civil Disobedience. Taylor pursues this inquiry in three chapters, each focusing on a single theme: chapter 1 examines simplicity and the ethics of "e;voluntary poverty,"e; chapter 2 looks at civil disobedience and the role of "e;conscience"e; in democratic politics, and chapter 3 concentrates on what "e;nature"e; means to us today and whether we can truly "e;learn from nature."e; Taylor considers Thoreau's philosophy, and the philosophical problems he raises, from the perspective of a wide range of thinkers and commentators drawn from history, philosophy, the social sciences, and popular media, breathing new life into Walden and asking how it is alive for us today.In Lessons from Walden, Taylor allows all sides to have their say, even as he persistently steers the discussion back to a nuanced reading of Thoreau's actual position. With its tone of friendly urgency, this interdisciplinary tour de force will interest students and scholars of American literature, environmental ethics, and political theory, as well as environmental activists, concerned citizens, and anyone troubled with the future of democracy.

Engages Islam from deep within the Christian tradition by addressing the question of the prophethood of Muhammad. Anna Bonta Moreland calls for a retrieval of Thomistic thought on prophecy to view Muhammad within a Christian theology of revelation.

Pierre Manent is one of France's leading political philosophers. This first English translation of his profound and strikingly original book La loi naturelle et les droits de l'homme is a reflection on the central question of the Western political tradition.

In this original study, Joshua Brown seeks to demonstrate the fruitfulness of Chinese philosophy for Christian theology by using Confucianism to reread, reassess, and ultimately expand the Christology of the twentieth-century Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Taking up the critically important Confucian idea of xiao (filial piety), Brown argues that this concept can be used to engage anew Balthasar's treatment of the doctrine of Christ's filial obedience, thus leading us to new Christological insights. To this end, Brown first offers in-depth studies of the early Confucian idea of xiao and of Balthasar's Christology on their own terms and in their own contexts. He then proposes that Confucianism affirms certain aspects of Balthasar's insights into Christ's filial obedience. Brown also shows how the Confucian understanding of xiao provides reasons to criticize some of Balthasar's controversial claims, such as his account of intra-Trinitarian obedience. Ultimately, by rereading Balthasar's Christology through the lens of xiao, Balthasar in Light of Early Confucianism employs Confucian and Balthasarian resources to push the Christological conversation forward. Students and scholars of systematic theology, theologically educated readers interested in the encounter between Christianity and Chinese culture, and comparative theologians will all want to read this exceptional book.