Books published by University of Notre Dame Press

Looks at Samuel Beckett's mature theatrical work as a displaced theology of the icon. This work rejects conventional existentialist or nihilist interpretations of Beckett's work, arguing instead that beneath the text, in the depths of language and being, Beckett creates an absolutely irreducible, transcendent space.

Analyzes how the behavior of voters, parties, and the mass media in European Parliament elections affects domestic politics and how, in turn, domestic politics affects those behaviors. This book discusses election turnout and party choice, and the contract between the European Parliament and national elections.

The Danish theologian-philosopher K E Logstrup is known outside Europe for his ""The Ethical Demand"". This work contains excerpts, translated into English, from the numerous books and essays Logstrup continued to write throughout his life. It also festures essays that connect his ethics with political life.

Examines the structure, intention, and originality of K E Logstrup's ethics as a whole. This collection of essays is a companion to ""Beyond the Ethical Demand"", as well as to ""The Ethical Demand"". It also examines Logstrup's crucial concept of the ""sovereign expressions of life"" and his view of moral principles as a substitute for ethics.

This book of fifteen essays is presented in honor of one of the premier historians of medieval philosophy, Armand Maurer of the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies and the University of Toronto. The authors, internationally recognized scholars in the field of medieval philosophy and theology, are friends, colleagues, and students of Fr. Maurer. They are united in a common love of medieval thought and a common appreciation of philosophizing through the study of the history of philosophy. Their interests and methodologies, however, are diverse, and cover a range from Justin Marytr, who died during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, to Bartholomew Mastrius, a contemporary of Descartes.

In Deep Rhythm and the Riddle of Eternal Life, John S. Dunne examines the end of earthly life and the prospect of eternal life.

Experiencing the Afterlife provides an analysis of depictions of the afterlife written in Italy before the Divine Comedy by authors such as Uguccione da Lodi, Glacomino da Verona, and Bonvesin da la Riva. Manuele Gragnolati uses his readings of these poets to provide an interpretation of Dante's work.

Chronicles the life of a young American Catholic priest, Father Leopold Braun, who, as pastor of a small Catholic church near the Lubianka political prison in the heart of Moscow, witnessed Stalin's purges, the Soviet government's campaign against organized religion, and the destruction of World War II.

When After Virtue first appeared in 1981, it was recognized as a significant and potentially controversial critique of contemporary moral philosophy. Newsweek called it "e;a stunning new study of ethics by one of the foremost moral philosophers in the English-speaking world."e; Since that time, the book has been translated into more than fifteen foreign languages and has sold over one hundred thousand copies. Now, twenty-five years later, the University of Notre Dame Press is pleased to release the third edition of After Virtue, which includes a new prologue "e;After Virtue after a Quarter of a Century."e; In this classic work, Alasdair MacIntyre examines the historical and conceptual roots of the idea of virtue, diagnoses the reasons for its absence in personal and public life, and offers a tentative proposal for its recovery. While the individual chapters are wide-ranging, once pieced together they comprise a penetrating and focused argument about the price of modernity. In the Third Edition prologue, MacIntyre revisits the central theses of the book and concludes that although he has learned a great deal and has supplemented and refined his theses and arguments in other works, he has "e;as yet found no reason for abandoning the major contentions"e; of this book. While he recognizes that his conception of human beings as virtuous or vicious needed not only a metaphysical but also a biological grounding, ultimately he remains "e;committed to the thesis that it is only from the standpoint of a very different tradition, one whose beliefs and presuppositions were articulated in their classical form by Aristotle, that we can understand both the genesis and the predicament of moral modernity."e;

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.

The University of Notre Dame's Research Initiative on the Resolution of Ethnic Conflict explored three significant challenges of the postwar landscape. This work examines the dilemmas each of the three challenges presents for postwar reconstruction and the difficulties in building a sustainable peace in societies destabilized by deadly violence.

The Gloria Patri is a one-sentence prayer, where time and eternity are combined in a compressed expression of doxology, praise of God. This work examines the riches in this prayer: the philological, historical, and theological origins of Christian prayer itself, and the profound spiritual implications of the ""Gloria Patri"".

This title offers insight into the pitfalls and perils of travelling during medieval times. It is filled with the stories and adventures of those who hazarded hostile landscapes, elements, and people - out of want or necessity - to get from place to place.

Experiencing Dominion pushes contemporary literature on historical anthropology in a new direction by moving the discussion away from an emphasis on a simple polarity between hegemony and resistance, and instead focusing on the shared interactions between colonizers and colonized, rulers and ruled, foreigners and locals. In this important study, Gallant emphasizes contingency and historical agency, examines intentionality, and explores the processes of accommodation and, when warranted, resistance. In so doing, he reconstructs the world Britons and Greeks made together on the Ionian Islands during the nineteenth century through their shared experience of dominion.

This work of philosophical theology brings together Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives on the complex questions surrounding divine and human freedom. The author emphasises the common ground among the three traditions.

Was the Beowulf poet a Christian? Or was he a noble pagan with an outlook coloured by exposure to Christian thinking? This is but one of the fascinating topics discussed in this anthology of criticism on the early medieval masterpiece.

This collection of beautifully written essays encourages readers to seek personal transformation based on heightened consciousness and Christian spirituality. Beatrice Bruteau contends that this transformation will produce a profound sense of personal freedom, thus enabling individuals to commune with the Divine and with each other.

This collection of papers makes a step towards increased dialogue among philosophical liberals and their theological, sociological and legal critics. The text should be significant for those concerned with the place of religion within a liberal society.

This study offers an overview of Jewish conditions in medieval Western Christendom, and discusses the changing patterns of Christian-Jewish polemical confrontation during the 12th and 13th centuries. Dahan analyzes the common literary genres through which Christians attempted to convert Jews.

In this translation of Etienne Gilson's well known work L'esprit de la philosophie medievale, he undertakes the task of defining the spirit of mediaeval philosophy. Gilson asks whether we can form the concept of a Christian philosophy and, second, whether mediaeval philosophy is not precisely its most adequate historical expression.

In 1995 the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame hosted the first of the Theodore M. Hesburgh Lectures on Ethics and Public Policy. Stanley Hoffmann delivered two lectures on the problems of humanitarian intervention in international relations. This volume presents these lectures.

This volume examines Chile's political culture by considering its origin and the persistence of its ""grammar"", which the authors define as the ability of each member of society to function within social categories and rules. This ""grammar"", they believe, is what gives character to national culture.

The history of the Catholic University of Ireland has been overshadowed by its first rector, John Henry Newman. This work paints a portrait of CUI's history by focusing on the university itself and on the influence of Paul Cullen, archbishop of Armagh and then Dublin.

Traces the intellectual intermingling of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian traditions that made possible the medieval synthesis that served as the basis for Western theology. David Burrell shows how Aquinas's study of Ibn-Sina and Moses Maimonides affected the disciplined use of language when speaking of divinity and influenced his doctrine of God.

Considered the paradigm case of the troubled interaction between science and religion, the conflict between Galileo and the Church continues to generate new research and lively debate. Richard J. Blackwell offers a fresh approach to the Galileo case, using as his primary focus the biblical and ecclesiastical issues that were the battleground for the celebrated confrontation. Blackwell's research in the Vatican manuscript collection and the Jesuit archives in Rome enables him to re-create a vivid picture of the trends and counter-trends that influenced leading Catholic thinkers of the period: the conservative reaction to the Reformation, the role of authority in biblical exegesis and in guarding orthodoxy from the inroads of "e;unbridled spirits,"e; and the position taken by Cardinal Bellarmine and the Jesuits in attempting to weigh the discoveries of the new science in the context of traditional philosophy and theology. A centerpiece of Blackwell's investigation is his careful reading of the brief treatise Letter on the Motion of the Earth by Paolo Antonio Foscarini, a Carmelite scholar, arguing for the compatibility of the Copernican system with the Bible. Blackwell appends the first modern translation into English of this important and neglected document, which was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1616. Though there were differing and competing theories of biblical interpretation advocated in Galileo's time-the legacy of the Council of Trent, the views of Cardinal Bellarmine, the most influential churchman of his time, and, finally, the claims of authority and obedience that weakened the abillity of Jesuit scientists to support the new science-all contributed to the eventual condemnation of Galileo in 1633. Blackwell argues convincingly that the maintenance of ecclesiastical authority, not the scientific issues themselves, led to that tragic trial.

Nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, world-renowned Palestinian priest, Elias Chacour, narrates the gripping story of his life spent working to achieve peace and reconciliation among Israeli Jews, Christians, and Muslims. From the destruction of his boyhood village and his work as a priest in Galilee to his efforts to build school, libraries, and summer camps for children of all religions, this peacemaker's moving story brings hope to one of the most complex struggles of our time.

Chosen among Women: Mary and Fatima in Medieval Christianity and Shi`ite Islam combines historical analysis with the tools of gender studies and religious studies to compare the roles of the Virgin Mary in medieval Christianity with those of Fatima, daughter of the prophet Muhammad, in Shi`ite Islam. The book explores the proliferation of Marian imagery in Late Antiquity through the Church fathers and popular hagiography. It examines how Merovingian authors assimilated powerful queens and abbesses to a Marian prototype to articulate their political significance and, at the same time, censure holy women's public charisma. Mary Thurlkill focuses as well on the importance of Fatima in the evolution of Shi`ite identity throughout the Middle East. She examines how scholars such as Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi advertised Fatima as a symbol of the Shi`ite holy family and its glorified status in paradise, while simultaneously binding her as a mother to the domestic sphere and patriarchal authority. This important comparative look at feminine ideals in both Shi`ite Islam and medieval Christianity is of relevance and value in the modern world, and it will be welcomed by scholars and students of Islam, comparative religion, medieval Christianity, and gender studies.

This volume traces the ideological roots and political impact of Argentine right-wing nationalism as it developed in the 1930s and 1940s. The author focuses on the attempt by a brand of noncomformist intellectuals to shift the concept of Argentine nationalism to an integralist-populist incarnation.