Books published by Gracewing

Janne Haaland Mátlary has devoted her life to questions of ethics and politics.This preoccupation has become extraordinarily relevant to many of the issues that dominate the contemporary political agenda; particularly in Europe where the debate over relativism, human rights and majority tyranny has become a vital concern to very many of its citizens. Combining academic research with an active political life as a diplomat serving both her native Norway and the Holy See, Janne Haaland Mátlary is able to offer us profound insights into the importance of human dignity and human rights in current politics. This book is essential reading for all who are concerned with issues of rationality, law, human rights, politics and religious freedom in European democracy today. As an academic, studying political science, her work has concentrated on security and foreign policy. She makes a strong case that foundations for human rights can be found through human reason, specifically, through retrieving and reanimating the classical tradition of rationalism that was once the pride of western civilization . She builds her analysis of politics with far more promising materials than the instrumental rationality and the radically individualistic concept of the person that have prevented the human rights movement thus far from reaching its full potential. Mary Anne Glendon, Harvard University Janne Haaland Matláry is Professor of International Politics in the Department of Political Science of the University of Oslo, Norway, and Senior Adjunct Researcher in Security Policy at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. She was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Foreign Minister) of Norway 1997-2000, representing the Christian Democratic Party in the Bondevik government. Her main academic fields are the European Union and international security policy. She has published very widely and played significant roles in a number of international and consultative bodies. In April 2007 she was awarded Il Premio San Benedetto. Her biographical narrative of conversion to the Catholic Church, Faith Through Reason, is also published by Gracewing.

Christians are called to proclaim 'the glorious liberty of the children of God' to all men and women in the world. With this in mind, the enclosure of cloistered nuns, the apparent renunciation of personal freedom in order to live within the walls of a monastery for the rest of one's life, is often regarded as a sign of contradiction. How can such a life be justified in view of the Gospel, which invites Christians to become a light to the world and to proclaim the good news to all peoples? This unique book, written by cloistered nuns themselves, provides answers to this and many other questions. Far from being an invention of the Middle Ages which was imposed on women by a male-dominated Church and society, enclosure was in fact freely chosen by nuns themselves from the very beginning and only later became an object of canonical legislation. Drawing on the riches of Christian traditions, this book examines enclosure from a biblical, historical, spiritual and theological perspective, showing how it aids the prayer-life and mission of cloistered nuns.Dom Jean Prou (1911-1999) was fifth Abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes and Abbot-President of the Solesmes Congregation from 1959 until his retirement in 1992. His high esteem for the vocation of enclosed nuns led to an invitation to oversee the international team of clostered Benedictine nuns from France, Canada and England who cooperated to write this book.

Interreligious dialogue is now seen as one of the most pressing needs of our times.However both this perception and active engagement in dialogue are both recent phenomena. From the beginning, many of the pioneers in this work have been drawn from the Catholic monastic tradition. This volume brings together a wide-ranging and engaging series of studies that witness to the depth of theological reflection that the contemporary Christian monastic and scholarly community are engaged in as the religious traditions seek to understand and relate to each other in a global context. Here are reflections on encounters with Buddhism, where the main efforts of monastic interreligious dialogue have been directed, with Hinduism, and with Islam (from St Francis to the Cistercian Martyrs of Algeria). As well as profiling the history and current witness of monastic interreligious dialogue, the volume also contains studies of the great pioneers of this work - Charles de Foucauld, Bede Griffiths, Henri Le Saux (Abhishiktananda), Louis Massignon and Thomas Merton.At a time when there is so much need for understanding among people belonging to different religion, may these studies stimulate that exchange at the deeper level which leads to an experience of harmony, and even of a certain unity. Our conflict-ridden world is longing for this. + Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, M. Afr., writing in the PrefaceContributors include: Peter Bowe, OSB ∙ Pierre de Bethune, OSB ∙ Eoin de Bhaldraithe, OSCO ∙ John Flannery ∙ Ian Latham, LBJ ∙ Jean Olwen Maynard ∙ Antony O'Mahony ∙ Steven Saxby ∙ Judson Trapnell ∙ Agnes Wilkins ∙

'If European history is a verdant plain, then Christianity is the river which flows through it. It is a river with various sources: Judaic tradition, oriental faiths, Greek philosophy, Roman law. And it has been broadened by incoming streams over two millennia - Celtic, Germanic, Salv, Finno-Urigc culture; Islam, humanism, Romanticism - embracing and re-directing them, but also being enriched and deepened by them . . .'The failure of the European Union's Constitutional Treaty has raised serious questions about the Continent's future. Christian churches are active in this debate, as social and cultural forces with influence and outreach. But questions are also being asked about the future of Christianity itself, in a region now deeply divided between competing outlooks and visions. Rethinking Christendom explores the background to today's discussions, drawing on views and perspectives from East and West. It shows how Christianity became the essential badge of European-ness, and the universal reference point for societies drawn together by external threats and internal aspirations.While some Europeans see Christianity as a means of liberation, others view it as a barrier to freedom. This book is a plea for a realistic and informed understanding of Christianity's past, present and future role - in a region where all faiths, worldviews and philosophies can and should coexist in a mutual creative harmony.Jonathan Luxmoore is an English freelance journalist and writer, covering church- related news in Europe for Catholic News Service, Ecumenical News International, as well as The Tablet and other newspapers.Jolanta Babiuch is a Polish lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, having previously taught at the Universities of London and Warsaw, where she was a co-founder of Transparency International. The couple have four children and live in Oxford and Warsaw. Their previous books include The Vatican and the Red Flag (1999).

Following the enormous social changes of the second half of the 20th century, the Church - in common with other institutions- began increasingly to question its own historic role and the role of its ordained clergy.In the wake of the growth of management consultancy in this period, and its application to all apects of social endeavour, many of the Church's leaders began to call for a new understanding of the role of the priest or minister, in which 'function' rather than theology would be given centre stage.In this groundbreaking study the author offers a devastating analysis of the growth of functionalism in the Church - a phenomenon which he attributes to a 'loss of nerve' on the part of a disproportionately powerful liberal establishment - and offers instead a programme for renewal based upon a return to theological and sacramental roots.In a Church that is confused by the increasingly alien culture that surrounds and is inimical to it, the priest must concentrate on a Kingdom-centred rather than World-centred theology, and seek for a sense of that which is perennially valid, rather than temporarily fashionable. Only by a return to the theology of the Church Fathers can a path be found away from anthropocentrism and towards theocentrism.Arthur Middleton has written that rare book, a short study that is at one and the same time a powerful critique and a positive statement of values. His work will be of immense value to all those involved in the ministry, as well as to laity who wish to gain an understanding of why things are the way they are, and how they could be improved in the future.Arthur Middleton is an Anglican priest in the diocese of Durham in England.

Dom Jeremy Driscoll offers a fresh approach both to theology and to the eucharistic celebration itself. He sets forth and develops here a method for the tasks of academic theology inspired by the eucharistic rite. There are studies of the foundational role of the liturgy for conceiving the identity of fundamental theology; a proposal for developing a curriculum on the basis of the shape of the eucharistic rite; historical studies on the relationship between liturgy and doctrine; and suggestions for catechesis, preaching and eucharistic adoration.Dom Jeremy writes:' for virtually all of my life as a monk and a theologian, and already from the time when I was a student, have found ongoing inspiration for my work in the regular celebration of the eucharist. To come back to it again and again, no matter from what particular theme I may have been studying, was to enter a context in which whatever I had learned was secured and deepened at a new level, a context in which I could enter the adoration that helped me express my love for what I was learning. To celebrate eucharist often confirmed what I had learned - not directly but by means of signs, symbols, ritual action, and a different kind of language . . .'Jeremy Driscoll was born in Moscow, Idaho, USA and has been a Benedictine monk of Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon since 1973. Author of three books and fifteen scholarly articles on Evagrius Ponticus and related aspects of Egyptian monasticism, he has also written widely on liturgical questions. He teaches at Mount Angel Seminary and at the Pontifical Atheneum of Saint' Anselmo in Rome.

The Sacrament of the Future is a contemporary examination of the theory and praxis of sacraments undertaken in the belief that a renewed understanding of them will shape the survival of the faith in the changed circumstances of the twenty-first century.This new perspective is the eschatological character of the sacraments: by retaining the tension between time and eternity in our present life, sacraments anticipate the future fulfilment of salvation in heaven. The association of the two classical treatises of Sacramental Theology and the doctrine of Last Things will alter our approach not only to the sacraments, but also to other important tenets of Christian theology.This book is the result of half a lifetime's work in presenting and critically analysing Karl Rahner's theological thought. Professor George Vass has not confined himself to the detailed exposition of the thought of his predecessor but, through a critical analysis of his views, tries to enter into dialogue with him.Professor Vass, Fellow of Heythrop College, University of London, and for twenty years holder of Karl Rahner's chair at the University of Innsbruck, entered the Society of Jesus in 1946, and obtained his qualifications in Philosophy and Theology at various European universities. He taught at Heythrop College, Oxon, and the University of London, before his call to the University of Innsbruck in 1976. In 1996 he became Professor Emeritus of the chair of Dogmatic and Ecumenical Theology. Since then he has been Parish Priest within the diocese of Tyrol, Austria.

CHRISTIANITY IN THE HOLY LAND has found its presence significantly challenged for much of the twentieth century and the whole of the first decade of the twenty-first, from war, interreligious and ethnic conflict, emigration, and a fragmented ecclesiology. As a sacred city Jerusalem has a global significance: for Muslims the Haram-al-Sharif is a symbol of victory; for Jews the Wailing Wall a symbol of loss; and for Christians the Holy Sepulchre a symbol of victory through loss. Theology and politics have interacted in this sacred story. Political theologies remain at least implicit in the histories of all major faith communities: Jewish, Christian and Muslim. For Christianity the Holy Land is not only of local significance, but is of importance to the identity of the two-and-a-half-billion-strong world community of churches which make up Christendom.The contributors to this volume have undertaken a wide-ranging historical, political and theological enquiry into the Christian presence in modern Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The chapters have an ecumenical, even interreligious, instinct and focus. The political landscape is ever changing and, while severely threatening the Christian presence in the Holy Land, continuously challenges and demands a Christian response. The primary responsibility for articulating this Christian response to the political and religious questions has in practice lain with the Christians of the Holy Land, however it cannot be solely their burden. This book bears witness to an ongoing theological reflection whilst its immediate concern in the contemporary significance of Jerusalem has a much wider significance. While bearing witness to an ongoing theological reflection, this book's immediate concern with the contemporary significance of Jerusalem has a much wider resonance. It covers a host of themes - Christianity in modern Jerusalem; contemporary Jewish-Israeli views on Christianity and Christians; Hebrew Catholicism in modern Israel; the Vatican, Israel, Palestinian Christians and Jerusalem; the Intifada and Palestinian Christian identity; Palestinian Christians and liberation theology; the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem - Church-State politics in the Holy Land; indigenisation and contextualisation - the example of the Anglican and Presbyterian Churches in the Holy Land; Jewish fundamentalism; Jewish-Muslim encounter; Jerusalem, the Holy City; a possible way to share Jerusalem in peace; and reflections on the future of Christianity in the Holy Land itself, from a Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.Contributors include:Anthony O'Mahony, David Mark Neuhaus SJ, Leon Menzies Racionzer, Drew Christiansen SJ, Leonard Marsh, Sotiris Roussos, Michael Marten, Nur Masalha, Rob Johnson, Charles H Miller, Bård Mæland, David Kitching, Archbishop Michel Sabbah.

Nightingale Square stands some way back from the noise of Balham High Road in South London. With its tall trees and pleasant late-Victorian houses, it is a reminder of an earlier Balham, a time when no local families owned cars, when people wore formal clothes for everyday wear, when no pop music blared in shops, when Queen Victoria ruled and London was the heart of a great empire. The church and school in the corner of the square have a direct link to those days. Built in the 1890s, Holy Ghost Church has been in daily use for over a hundred years. The first priests who served the parish were French, and many of the people who attended Mass were Irish. Today, over 1,000 people pour in and out of the church on a typical Sunday - some of them with family roots that link them to Africa, the West Indies, and many parts of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This is the story of a community and a church in a quiet corner of a busy London suburb, a story that spans two world wars and the massive social changes that marked the last years of the 20th century - a story that continues today. Joanna Bogle is an author, broadcaster and journalist. She writes for Catholic newspapers in Britain, America and Australia and broadcasts regularly with EWTN, the international Catholic television network. Her books include A BOOK OF FEASTS AND SEASONS with ideas on celebrating the Church's year, and several historical biographies including A HEART FOR EUROPE, a life of the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, written jointly with her husband, Jamie.

Father Nicholas Postgate is one of our best-loved martyrs whose lonely mission in the wilds of the North York Moors has captured the imagination of people of all faiths. Known as 'The Good Samaritan of the Moors' due to his generosity to all regardless of their status or religion, he walked around his huge 'parish' of Blackamoor, always declining the offer of a horse. He shared his food and clothes and visited people in remote areas to offer both spiritual and practical help, wanting to understand the plight of the poor and to empathise with them in every way. Most remarkably he began this work when he was more than sixty years old, and continued almost into his eighties. Although born in those moors, he attended the English College at Douai where he earned the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and then returned to England to work as a chaplain for wealthy families in great houses. That secret work took him to places far away from his beloved Blackamoor.Returning to the moors in the early 1660s, he embarked on a completely new role that was to earn him everlasting admiration. This work nourishing the Catholic faith came to the notice of Parliament just when the fabricated 'Popish Plot' of Titus Oates brought a return of the persecution of Catholics. A highly experienced Government agent, whose employer was alleged to have been murdered by Catholics, was ordered to hunt down, capture and prosecute Father Postgate. This book, the most comprehensive ever written about the martyr, relates that story and reveals previously unpublished information about Father Nicholas Postgate DD, Martyr of the Moors.

Sergei Bulgakov, born in Russia in 1871, was one of the principal Eastern theologians of the twentieth century. At the age of thirty he was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Kiev. After a crisis of faith, Bulgakov declared himself an unbeliever in 1888, but in a slow process he moved from Marxism to Idealism, and then from Idealism to a rediscovered Orthodoxy. By the time of the two Revolutions of 1917, Bulgakov was one of the best known Orthodox theologians in Russia. In 1918 he was ordained priest, and fled Moscow in danger of imminent arrest. Arriving in Paris in 1925 he was to live and work there until his death in 1944, his life inextricably bound up with the Russian theological institute, Saint-Serge, of which he was a founder member and subsequent professor, rector and dean.In this timely work, Aidan Nichols introduces the life and work of Bulgakov and provides a systematic presentation of his dogmatic theology.'The present book has appeared at exactly the right moment. Alike in Russia and in the West, we are witnessing a veritable "Bulgakov renaissance" . . . this is the first comprehensive and systematic survey of his theology in English.' Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia'As research on Bulgakov by Catholics and Protestants as well as Orthodox grows in volume, it is a great help to have this authoritative, comprehensive guide. I hope it will encourage further study and assimilation of one of the most searching and moving as well as one of the most complex of modern theological minds.' Dr Rowan Williams, Archibshop of CanterburyAidan Nichols, OP, is an English Dominican of Blackfriars, Cambridge. He has written thirty books, chiefly on aspects of Catholic theology and theological history, but also on Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism.

This book represents the fruits of many years of prayer, work and meditation by Fr Edwin Gordon. The first part - Upon This Rock - with a foreword by Canon Francis Ripley - provides a catechetical programme of instruction and is fully referenced to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is published together with a series of meditations with Our Lady on the Catholic truths made manifest in the Rosary, including the Luminous Mysteries. A Catechism of the Holy Rosary - with a preface by His Eminence Marcelo Cardinal Gonzalez Martin, the former Primate of Spain.The beauty of this book is that it is both food for the soul and the mind. The catechetical material is presented in such an appealing yet striking manner that the truths it contains are absorbed very easily - this is certainly not a dry catechetical text. But it also illustrates that despite modern educational trends, there is no substitute for a good knowledge of the teaching of the Church, and equally, that belief in the truths of Catholicism is not just a question of logical reasoning, it is also a matter of faith.Fr Edwin Gordon was born in Gibraltar, spending the duration of the Second World war in Tangiers, where he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. Moving to Bristol in 1945, he studied law at university and was ordained priest in 1962. Working as a priest in parishes for many years, he served in the 1970s as spiritual director of the English College at Valladolid, Spain. Fr Gordon became blind in the 1980s, continuing to run a small rural parish until his retirement in 2002. He has published many articles, given talks to students, conducted retreats and taught at Catholic summer schools.

The solemn beatification of Pope Pius IX in September 2000 celebrated the heroic virtue of one of the most influential figures of the nineteenth century.Born in 1792, Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti was elected Pope on June 16th 1846. His pontificate, the subject of this biographical study, lasted thirty-two years, the longest after that of St Peter himself.Elevated to the Papacy amid the historical backdrop of turmoil and revolution in Italy and Europe, he was also to play a central role in the drama of the Risorgimento that led to the creation of a united Italy.Publication of the English translation of Roberto de Mattei's acclaimed study of Pius IX marks the 150th anniversary of the Pope's solemn definition of the Dogma of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception.Roberto de Mattei holds the chair of Modern History at the University of Cassino (Rome), is vice president of the Italian C.N.R. (National Council for Research) and is well-known in Italy as a journalist and writer.

Illustrated throughout by the well-known Catholicartist and cartoonist John Ryan (inventor of CaptainPugwash), Catholic Trivia sets itself to reclaimthe hidden history of Catholicism in Britain. Manycommon words and expressions, place names, pubsigns, diseases and customs betray the deep influenceof the Catholic Church on our national consciousness,despite every attempt to root it out. Not without agleam in the eye, Mark Elvins reveals the origins ofsaluting the quarter deck and kissing the papal toe,of Charing Cross and Covent Garden, of kicking thebucket and going on the dole. From the sublime tothe ridiculous, he collects a treasury of informationwith a multitude of uses, for the conversationalist or thestudent of history, for the devout, the undevoutor the quiz-show host.There is a joy about being a Catholic - and this informativebook is a joyful and fascinating celebration of the sayingsand quirks derived from the Faith.

The Detour is a fascinating journey through eight worlds in seven chapters. Not strictly an autobiography, it provides glimpses of a Lancashire childhood in pre-war and wartime Leyland and the Roman Catholicism of that time and place. There follows the wider world of grammar school and the author's first contact with the Jesuits; and then that of the novitiate, which he aptly calls 'Out of this World', so surreal and strange does it now appear. He then contrasts the liberating world of Oxford, with its tutors and general openness, with the rigid spiritual, philosophical and theological worlds that belonged to what he calls 'Jesuitism'. After protracted studies he held responsible posts at Heythrop College for over ten years, where he played a major role in its move to become part of the University of London. After a further decade as Head of Theology and Religious Studies at the Roehampton Institute, Robert Butterworth is now enjoying married life in domestic retirement, cooking, studying Greek classical writers and exploring his new world of personal reflection, which has led him to propose some practical and challenging principles for the reinterpretation and revision of Roman Catholic tradition. The whole story makes for a riveting read, with a rare combination of elegance, depth and contemporary relevance.

God is: unconditional love, gratefully received, safely returned. The way in to the Trinity for anyone is a way in to the mystery of love, and the story turns out to have a happy ending. The mystery of the Trinity was revealed to us, not to stop us thinking, but to start us loving. "I have never read anything on the Trinity which is as life-giving as this book. The mystery, instead of appearing unintelligible and better left alone, remains mystery, but becomes something exciting, energizing, a source of life, the source of our own lives, which can never be exhausted by any amount of exploration" Gerard W Hughes SJ GeraldO'Mahony completed this book in his 50th year as a Jesuit, his 38th as a priest, and his 20th year as a retreat director and author working in Loyola Hall Jesuit Spirituality Centre in England.

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) exercised a seminal influence on British architecture in the nineteenth century, though, as he himself acknowledged towards the end of his short life, it was probably more through his writing than through his buildings that he had 'revolushioned the Taste of England'.Pugin's important theoretical and polemical texts contain little by way of autobiography or description and comment on his own architecture. For these we must turn to his journalism and pamphlets.In The Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England, he gives us some minutely detailed accounts with illustrations of his churches up to the year 1842. But his most revealing autobiographical writing is to be found in Some Remarks, published in 1850, which can be seen as essential for understanding the man and his collapse. It takes the story almost to the end of his life, includes an account of his conversion to Catholicism (1835), and describes many of the churches that he built between 1838 and 1850. Together they offer the most comprehensive contemporary guide to Pugin's architecture and a fascinating account of his campaign to revive the glories of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church in the context of the nineteenth-century Romantic Movement and the Catholic Revival.Never reprinted, Some Remarks is here presented in facsimile together with The Present State, and an introduction by the architectural historian and noted Pugin authority Dr Rory O'Donnell FSA - who has also written the introductions to the other volumes in this series of Pugin fascsimile editions.

This compelling biography, covering the early years of the life of St Josemaria Escriva, reads like a thriller. But it is much more than a breathtaking adventure. Here is the story of a fugitive priest at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, caught up in the bloodbath of the religious persecution in which 13 bishops, 4,184 diocesan priests, 2,365 priests and brothers of religious orders and 283 nuns were slaughtered. Through the personal and intimate notes of this priest, we experience the terror unfolding day by day. Amongst the chaos and horror there are vivid glimpses into the soul of a man searching for sanctity in a world that has gone mad. All the while, St Josemaria, after receiving a vision from God, was slowly, but surely, spreading one of the most important spiritual messages for our time: that holiness is not just for priests and nuns, but for everyone. For an ordinary man or woman a way to holiness can be found through daily work and the everyday duties of a Christian. Here is the fascinating story of St Josemaria Escriva's own work. Founding Opus Dei in 1928, he was a major contributor to the rediscovery of the apostolate of the laity in the Church. Born in 1902 in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees, his inspiration has now spread throughout the world. St Josemaria was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 6 October 2002. William Keenan is a journalist, playwright and novelist. He writes a regular column for the Catholic Herald and is the author of three mystery novels and numerous plays for BBC radio. His plays include Margaret Clitherow, the heroic story of the Catholic martyr from York, a young wife and mother crushed to death for her faith in the reign of Elizabeth I and now one of the canonized Forty Martyrs of England and Wales; and Fatima, which recounts the apparitions of Our Lady to the shepherd children.

Elizabeth I divided her episcopate at the outset of her reign between Geneva reformers and bishops who looked to the Fathers of the Early Church. Thereafter in the Church of England there would always be divines who were drawn to the orthodox East. Such men suffered mightily in the 17th century at the hands of the Puritans and then Whigs when these gained political power, and their suffering impelled them more and more to 'look to the east'.This book traces the fortunes of that quest, through the study of Greek texts, involvement in the intricate politics of the Near and Middle East, deprivation and isolation in the Nonjuror schism and finally the rejection by the Greek Patriarchs of requests for Orthodox Communion in the 1720s. It is a sad story involving much pain, but the steadfastness of the participants may have much to teach embattled churchmen today and inspire Orthodox readers to look with freah eyes at an attempt at unity whihc fialed as much through the weaknesses of the Orthodox Church at that time as from the inadequacies of those who wished to join them.

John Bradburne's life was a remarkable spiritual odyssey. After wartime service on the Indian sub-continent he became a perennial pilgrim, never at home in the world, not even in his native England. Restless wanderings led him through Europe to the Holy Land, to a succession of religious communities, and ultimately to Africa, where he met a violent death during the Zimbabwean war of independence in 1979. This astonishing account of his life among the lepers, and the astonishing events at his funeral, make it clear that here was a man marked with special charisma, who was marked out for sanctity. Since his death devotion to his memory has sprung up in southern Africa and elsewhere. Poet, mystic, hermit and vagabond, John Bradburne's life was a ceaseless quest for God.Fr John Dove SJ first met John Bradburne during the Second World War. He entered the Jesuits in 1949 and served the Zimbabwe mission for over thirty years.