Books by Ralph McInerny

In the course of his recollections, the author describes his childhood in Minnesota; his grammar school and seminary education, with his decision to leave the path toward ordination; his marriage to his beloved Connie and their active family life and travels; and his life as a fiction writer.

These essays comprise the reflections of eight thinkers on various aspects of the problems of modern thought and its attitude to religion. The book questions the assumption that humans prosper when their relation to God has been broken.

In these essays, first delivered as lectures at the University of Glasgow in 1999-2000, Ralph McInerny discusses natural theology. The first five lectures ask ""Whatever Happened to Natural Theology?"" and the other five lectures explore ""The Recovery of Natural Theology"".

Thomism is solidly based on the assumption that we know the world first through our senses and then through concepts formed on the basis of our sense experience. In this informally discursive introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas, Ralph McInerny shows how this basic assumption contrasts with dominant modern alternative views and is developed by Thomas into a coherent view of ourselves, of knowledge, and of God. McInerny first places Thomism in context within philosophical inquiry, discussing the relationship between philosophy and theology, and between modern and classical views of philosophy. He then describes the challenges Thomas faced with the introduction of Aristotle's works into the Christian West. The reader is subsequently guided through such key concepts as art, nature, causes, and motion and shown how Thomas used these concepts to resolve the problems presented by Aristotle. Each chapter is tied to a specific Thomistic text, providing a sample from a number of Thomas's works.