Books published by University of Notre Dame Press

Tackles head on a fundamental question about Christian-inspired eschatology: Does it sanction, as theologically sacred or philosophically ultimate, the kind of 'last battles' between good and evil that provoke human beings to demonize and destroy The Other?

Contains essays that focus on the Frankish realms in the eight and ninth centuries. This volume also examines different methods and genres of historical writing in relation to the perceptions of time and chronology. It also explores the significance of Rome in Carolingian perceptions of the past.

Brings together more than one hundred treasures of the Baroque age from museum collections throughout the US Midwest. The volume presents a fascinating and representative selection of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French drawings in Midwestern repositories, offering new insights on many of these works of art.

In The Four Cardinal Virtues, Joseph Pieper delivers a stimulating quartet of essays on the four cardinal virtues. He demonstrates the unsound overvaluation of moderation that has made contemporary morality a hollow convention and points out the true significance of the Christian virtues.

This work investigates the distinctiveness of virtues as illuminated by Christian practise using a discussion of Aristotle's ethics with contemporary scholars. It contrasts non-Christian accounts of virtue with Christian accounts of key virtues, including obedience, hope, courage, and patience.

Benedict XVI's writing as priest-professor, bishop, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and now pope has shaped Catholic theological thought in the twentieth century. In Explorations in the Theology of Benedict XVI, a multidisciplinary group of scholars treat the full scope of Benedict's theological oeuvre, including the Augustinian context of his thought; his ecclesiology; his theologically grounded approach to biblical exegesis and Christology; his unfolding of a theology of history and culture; his liturgical and sacramental theology; his theological analysis of political and economic developments; his use of the natural law in ethics and conscience; his commitment to a form of interreligious dialogue from a place of particularity; and his function as a public, catechetical theologian.

This important philosophical reflection on love and sexuality from a broadly Christian perspective is aimed at philosophers, theologians, and educated Christian readers. Alexander R. Pruss focuses on foundational questions on the nature of romantic love and on controversial questions in sexual ethics on the basis of the fundamental idea that romantic love pursues union of two persons as one body. One Body begins with an account, inspired by St. Thomas Aquinas, of the general nature of love as constituted by components of goodwill, appreciation, and unitiveness. Different forms of love, such as parental, collegial, filial, friendly, fraternal, or romantic, Pruss argues, differ primarily not in terms of goodwill or appreciation but in terms of the kind of union that is sought. Pruss examines romantic love as distinguished from other kinds of love by a focus on a particular kind of union, a deep union as one body achieved through the joint biological striving of the sort involved in reproduction. Taking the account of the union that romantic love seeks as a foundation, the book considers the nature of marriage and applies its account to controversial ethical questions, such as the connection between love, sex, and commitment and the moral issues involving contraception, same-sex activity, and reproductive technology. With philosophical rigor and sophistication, Pruss provides carefully argued answers to controversial questions in Christian sexual ethics.

Apophasis has become a major topic in the humanities, particularly in philosophy, religion, and literature. This two-volume anthology gathers together most of the important historical works on apophaticism and illustrates the diverse trajectories of apophatic discourse in ancient, modern, and postmodern times.

This work is Maritain's masterpiece. Published as ""Distinguer pour unir, ou Les degres du savoir"" in 1932, the book proposes a hierarchy of forms of knowledge that culminates in mystical experience and that wisdom which is a gift of the Holy Ghost. His inspiration is St Thomas Aquinas.

The Summa Contra Gentiles is not merely the only complete summary of Christian doctrine that St. Thomas has written, but also a creative and even revolutionary work of Christian apologetics composed at the precise moment when Christian thought needed to be intellectually creative in order to master and assimilate the intelligence and wisdom of the Greeks and the Arabs. In the Summa Aquinas works to save and purify the thought of the Greeks and the Arabs in the higher light of Christian Revelation, confident that all that had been rational in the ancient philosophers and their followers would become more rational within Christianity. This exposition and defense of divine truth has two main parts: the consideration of that truth that faith professes and reason investigates, and the consideration of the truth that faith professes and reason is not competent to investigate. The exposition of truths accessible to natural reason occupies Aquinas in the first three books of the Summa. His method is to bring forward demonstrative and probable arguments, some of which are drawn from the philosophers, to convince the skeptic. In the fourth book of the Summa St. Thomas appeals to the authority of the Sacred Scripture for those divine truths that surpass the capacity of reason. The present volume is the second part of a treatise on the hierarchy of creation, the divine providence over all things, and man's relation to God. Book 1 of the Summa deals with God; Book 2, Creation; and Book 4, Salvation.

In Miserere Mei, Clare Costley King'oo examines the critical importance of the Penitential Psalms in England between the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. During this period, the Penitential Psalms inspired an enormous amount of creative and intellectual work: in addition to being copied and illustrated in Books of Hours and other prayer books, they were expounded in commentaries, imitated in vernacular translations and paraphrases, rendered into lyric poetry, and even modified for singing. Miserere Mei explores these numerous transformations in materiality and genre. Combining the resources of close literary analysis with those of the history of the book, it reveals not only that the Penitential Psalms lay at the heart of Reformation-age debates over the nature of repentance, but also, and more significantly, that they constituted a site of theological, political, artistic, and poetic engagement across the many polarities that are often said to separate late medieval from early modern culture.Miserere Mei features twenty-five illustrations and provides new analyses of works based on the Penitential Psalms by several key writers of the time, including Richard Maidstone, Thomas Brampton, John Fisher, Martin Luther, Sir Thomas Wyatt, George Gascoigne, Sir John Harington, and Richard Verstegan. It will be of value to anyone interested in the interpretation, adaptation, and appropriation of biblical literature; the development of religious plurality in the West; the emergence of modernity; and the periodization of Western culture. Students and scholars in the fields of literature, religion, history, art history, and the history of material texts will find Miserere Mei particularly instructive and compelling.

The topic of Shakespeare and religion is a perennial one, and the recent "turn to religion" in historical and literary scholarship has pushed it to the fore. Besides speculating about Shakespeare''s personal religious beliefs and allegiance, historians and literary critics writing about early modern England are reexamining the religious dynamics of the period and emphasizing the ways in which old, new, and emerging religious cultures coexisted in conflicting hybrid and unstable forms. The contributors to Shakespeare and Religion: Early Modern and Postmodern Perspectives deal with the topic of Shakespeare and religion from two points of view not always considered complementary--that of the historical approach to Shakespearean drama in its early modern contexts, and that of postmodern philosophy and theology. The first illuminates the culture-specific features of the plays, whereas the second emphasizes their transhistorical qualities and the relevance of the deep religious and philosophical issues surfacing in early modern culture to contemporary religious struggles and awareness. "Religion has assumed a surprising centrality in contemporary Shakespeare studies, generating an abundance of historical insights alongside a burgeoning interest in the spiritual possibilities of the plays for us today. This collection eschews either take on the field, preferring a more comprehensive view. It brings together nearly all the people one would most want to read on the topic, and the essays are notable for their lively seriousness. Here, the topic of Shakespeare and religion is a burning brand with which to illuminate the past and the present. A stimulating book"! -- Ewan Fernie, The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham "Shakespeare and Religion: Early Modern and Postmodern Perspectives is lively, provocative, and original, and sure to occupy an important scholarly place within ongoing efforts to reinterpret religion in Shakespeare''s works and world. The authors push scholarship on religion and Shakespeare past new historicism in productive, compelling directions." --Phebe Jensen, Utah State University "This collection brings together a distinguished body of scholars to consider Shakespeare''s treatment of religious issues, as read against his times and our own. Its essays offer innovative, sharp, and sometimes startling revaluations of familiar texts and topics, likely to capture the interest of students as well as academic researchers. The recent ''turn to religion'' in early modern literary studies, and the related move towards seeing Shakespeare as an author deeply engaged with religious matters, is powerfully exemplified in these pages." --Alison E. M. Shell, University College London

Water and the Word focuses on a genre of literature written for the education of the Carolingian clergy: Carolingian baptismal instructions. This literature has never been brought together and studied collectively in the context of the books in which it circulated. This comprehensive study has three major objectives. One is to describe the codices in which the baptismal instructions are found, in order to show with what other kinds of material the baptismal tracts were associated and where, how, and by whom these codices were intended to be used. Another is to bring together the baptismal texts and study them systematically. Finally, a third objective is to interpret the Carolingian Reform in light of the baptismal instructions and the manuscripts in which they were copied. Volume 1 of this two-volume set is devoted to analysis and interpretation of the material in volume 2. It is divided into three parts. The first part is concerned with the manuscript context of the baptismal instructions. In the second, the baptismal expositions themselves are analyzed. Part 3 of volume 1 offers some conclusions about the Carolingian Reform. Volume 2 contains the Latin text of sixty-six manuscripts.

Joseph A. Dane's What Is a Book? is an introduction to the study of books produced during the period of the hand press, dating from around 1450 through 1800. Using his own bibliographic interests as a guide, Dane selects illustrative examples primarily from fifteenth-century books, books of particular interest to students of English literature, and books central to the development of Anglo-American bibliography. Part I of What Is a Book? covers the basic procedures of printing and the parts of the physical book-size, paper, type, illustration; Part II treats the history of book-copies-from cataloging conventions and provenance to electronic media and their implications for the study of books. Dane begins with the central distinction between a "e;book-copy"e;-the particular, individual, physical book-and a "e;book"e;-the abstract category that organizes these copies into editions, whereby each copy is interchangeable with any other. Among other issues, Dane addresses such basic questions as: How do students, bibliographers, and collectors discuss these things? And when is it legitimate to generalize on the basis of particular examples? Dane considers each issue in terms of a practical example or question a reader might confront: How do you identify books on the basis of typography? What is the status of paper evidence? How are the various elements on the page defined? What are the implications of the images available in an online database? And, significantly, how does a scholar's personal experience with books challenge or conform to the standard language of book history and bibliography? Dane's accessible and lively tour of the field is a useful guide for all students of book history, from the beginner to the specialist.

In this volume of essays John Howard Yoder projects a vision of Christian social ethics rooted in historical community and illuminated by scripture. Drawing upon scriptural accounts of the early church, he demonstrates the Christian community's constant need for reform and change. Yoder first examines the scriptural and theoretical foundations of Christian social ethics. While personally committed to the "e;radical reformation"e; tradition, he eschews "e;denominational"e; categorization and addresses Christians in general. The status of Christian community, he argues, cannot be separated from the doctrinal content of beliefs and the moral understanding of discipleship. As a result, the Christian's voluntary commitment to a particular community, as distinct from secular society, offers him valuable resources for practical moral reasoning. From a historical perspective, Yoder reviews the efforts of sixteenth-century radical (or Anabaptist) reformers to return to the fundamental ethical standards of the New Testament, and to disengage the community, as a biblically rooted call to faith that does not imply withdrawal from the pluralistic world. Rather, radical commitment to Christianity strengthens and renews the authentic human interests and values of the whole society. His analyses of democracy and of civil religion illustrate how Christianity must challenge and embrace the wider world.

Unarguably, Jean-Luc Marion is the leading figure in French phenomenology as well as one of the proponents of the so-called ""theological turn"" in European philosophy. In this volume, Kevin Hart has assembled a stellar group of philosophers and theologians to examine Marion's work - especially his later work - from a variety of perspectives.

American-born Cardinal Aloisius Muench (1889-1962) was a key figure in German and German-American Catholic responses to the Holocaust, Jews, and Judaism between 1946 and 1959. He was arguably the most powerful American Catholic figure and an influential Vatican representative in occupied Germany and in West Germany after the war. In this carefully researched book, which draws on Muench's collected papers, Suzanne Brown-Fleming offers the first assessment of Muench's legacy and provides a rare glimpse into his commentary on Nazism, the Holocaust, and surviving Jews. She argues that Muench legitimized the Catholic Church's failure during this period to confront the nature of its own complicity in Nazism's anti-Jewish ideology. The archival evidence demonstrates that Muench viewed Jews as harmful in a number of very specific ways. He regarded German Jews who had immigrated to the United States as "e;aliens,"e; he believed Jews to be "e;in control"e; of American policy-making in Germany, he feared Jews as "e;avengers"e; who wished to harm "e;victimized"e; Germans, and he believed Jews to be excessively involved in leftist activities. Muench's standing and influence in the United States, Germany, and the Vatican hierarchies gave sanction to the idea that German Catholics needed no examination of conscience in regard to the Church's actions (or inactions) during the 1940s and 1950s. This fascinating story of Muench's role in German Catholic consideration-and ultimate rejection-of guilt and responsibility for Nazism in general and the persecution of European Jews in particular will be an important addition to scholarship on the Holocaust and to church history.

This text presents the findings of a theological consultation held in 1996, which discussed the future of the Christian Church. It describes how small communities can enrich the life of the Church by drawing together people of diverse cultures and economic situations for spiritual renewal.

This text focuses on what it means to be Jewish in America and the different positions held within the Jewish community on past and present church-state issues - whether Orthodox Jews in the military should wear yarmulkes while in uniform - and if Jewish prisoners have a right to Kosher food.

This work interprets the philosophy of Josiah Royce in terms of his mature ethics. It draws upon a range of his unpublished papers and lecture notes.

This work examines the natural rights philosophy as expressed in sources like the Declaration of Independence. It aims to counter contemporary confusion by offering an insightful study of the concept that dominated the mindset of the founding fathers of the United States.

The business world is often caricatured as a world where everyone knows the price, yet appreciates the value of nothing. It is the moral imagination that allows people to become aware of the dimensions of a situation. This text shows how society might learn to develop a sense of moral imagination.

This biography aims to fill a gap in the historical record of American Catholicism by presenting a portrait of Cardinal William Henry O'Connell and his significance in the Church and his times. It examines his cultural and symbolic leadership of New England's Catholic population.

Johann Baptist Metz is one of the most important Roman Catholic theologians in the post-Vatican II period, however there is no comprehensive overview of his theological career. This book fills that gap. It offers careful analyses and summaries of Metz's work at the various stages of his career, beginning with his work on Heidegger and his collaboration with Karl Rahner. It continues with his work in the nineteen-sixties when he moved off in a radically different direction to found a "e;new political theology"e; culminating in his seminal work, Faith in History and Society. Metz addresses themes ranging from the situation of the Church "e;after Auschwitz,"e; the future of religious life in the Church, and the relationship between religion and politics after the end of the cold war. J. Matthew Ashley covers all of Metz's writings along with his crucial relationships to figures like Karl Rahner, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin and the social critics of the early Frankfurt School. Interruptions shows that despite the dramatic turn in the nineteen-sixties there is an underlying continuity in Metz's thought. Ultimately, however, the underlying continuity in Metz's career is defined by a spirituality, a spirituality that is painfully yet hopefully open to the terrible suffering that characterizes our century, a spirituality founded in the Prophets, in Lamentations, and in the figures of Job and the Jesus of Mark's Gospel. This book shows how Metz has tried to find theological concepts adequate for expressing this spirituality--which he calls a "e;Mysticism of open Eyes"e; or of "e;suffering unto God"e;--and to work out its political implications. To this end the book has an opening chapter on the relationship between spirituality and theology, and a closing chapter that shows that the most fundamental difference between Rahner and Metz is rooted in the different Christian spiritual traditions out of which the two operate. Interruptions is essential reading for anyone interested in Spirituality and Mysticism and in their relation to political philosophy.

This is an analysis of how 16th- and 17th-century astronomers and theologians in Northern Protestant Europe used science and religion to challenge and support one another. It argues that these schemes can solve the enduring problem of how theological interpretation and investigation interact.

Garcilaso Inca de la Vega, a Peruvian mestizo and historian, envisioned Latin America as a multiethnic continent and advanced a humanist interpretation of New World history. In this collection of articles, central aspects of Garcilaso's life and work are reviewed.

A record of the papers presented, and the discussions arising from them, at the International Conference on the ""Fiore"". They deal with the arguments for and against the attribution of the ""Fiore"" to Dante.

For this second edition, Seymour has written a new introduction and has added a new retrospective essay.Ernst Cassirer: Scientific Knowledge and the Concept of Man by Seymour W. Itzkoff is currently one of the few books available in the English language that discusses the philosophy of twentieth-century German philosopher Ernst Cassirer. Itzkoff's study brings Cassirer's perspective directly into the contemporary debate over the evolution of human thought and its relationship to animal life. Further, Itzkoff places Cassirer directly in the context of recent philosophical thought, arguing for the importance of his Kantian perspective, a significance that is amply vindicated by the current interest in Cassirer's ideas.