You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Angels occupy a significant space in contemporary popular spirituality. Yet, today more than ever, the belief in the existence of intermediary spirits between the human and divine realms needs to be evangelized and Christianized. Angels and Demons offers a detailed synthesis of the givens of the Christian tradition concerning the angels and demons, as systematized in its essential principles by St. Thomas Aquinas. Certainly, the doctrine of angels and demons is not at the heart of Christian faith, but its place is far from negligible. On the one hand, as part of faith seeking understanding, angelology has been and can continue to be a source of enrichment for philosophy. Thus, reflection on the ontological constitution of the angel, on the modes of angelic knowledge, and on the nature of the sin of Satan can engage and shed light on the most fundamental areas of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. On the other hand, angelology, insofar as it is inseparable from the ensemble of the Christian mystery (from the doctrine of creation to the Christian understanding of the spiritual life), can be envisioned from an original and fruitful perspective.
Discusses natural law as a traditional but highly contested source of canon law.
This book studies medieval theories of angelology insofar as they made groundbreaking contributions to medieval philosophy. It centers on the period from Bonaventure to Ockham while also discussing some original positions by earlier thinkers.
Jan-Heiner Tück presents a work that explores the sacramental theology, lived spirituality, and Eucharistic poetry of the Church’s doctor communis, St. Thomas Aquinas. Although Aquinas’ Eucharistic poetry has long occupied an important place in the Church’s liturgical prayer and her repertoire of sacred music, the depth of these poems remains hidden until one grasps the rich sacramental theology underlying it. Consequently, Tück first offers a detailed but approachable primer of Aquinas’ theology of the sacraments, before diving deeply into the Angelic Doctor’s theology and poetry of the Eucharist. The Scriptural accounts stand at the heart of the systematic framework developed b...
This bilingual edition of the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (1625) provides English readers access to an influential textbook of Reformed Orthodoxy. Composed by four professors at the University of Leiden (Johannes Polyander, Andreas Rivetus, Antonius Walaeus, and Anthonius Thysius), it offers a presentation of Reformed theology as it was conceived in the first decades of the seventeenth century. From a decidedly Reformed perspective, the Christian doctrine is defined in contrast with alternative or diverging views, such as those of Roman Catholics, Arminians, and Socinians. The Synopsis responds to challenges coming from the immediate theological, social, and philosophical contexts. The disputations in this the third volume cover such topics as the sacraments, church discipline, the role of civil authorities, and eschatology. This volume also presents a thorough historical and theological introduction to the whole of the Synopsis.
This monograph deals with the philosophical approach of thirteenth-century masters to concrete, practical manifestations of 'quantum ad naturalia' in human lives in their commentaries on Aristotle’s works on natural philosophy, both his genuine works and those then considered genuine. It inquires into what they deemed worthy of philosophical debate regarding this topic and how they tackled it. The first of the two volumes describes the cultural surroundings, the scholars’ way of approaching the topic, and their discourses on the peculiarity (singularity, unity, consistency) of humankind and on its internal differentiation according to gender, stage of life, social stratification, and differences due to ethnic status or geographic (climatic) diversity. This is the first comprehensive source-based study of the subject; it draws heavily on unedited texts.
When confronted by a range of violent actions perpetrated by lone individuals, contemporary society exhibits a constant tendency to react in terms of helpless, even perplexed horror. Seeking explanations for the apparently inexplicable, commentators often hurry to declare the perpetrators as “evil”. This question is not restricted to individuals: history has repeatedly demonstrated how groups and even entire nations can embark on a criminal plan united by the conviction that they were fighting for a good and just cause. Which circumstances occasioned such actions? What was their motivation? Applying a number of historical, scientific and social-scientific approaches to this question, this study produces an integrative portrait of the reasons for human behavior and advances a number of different interpretations for their genesis. The book makes clear the extent to which we live in socially-constructed realities in which we cling for dear life to a range of conceptions and beliefs which can all too easily fall apart in situations of crisis.
Freedom is the key issue for both Karol Wojtyla and Immanuel Kant that connects the Polish with the German philosopher. This analysis aims to show the importance of Kant's ethics in the work of Karol Wojtyla. Kant's paradigm shift in the anthropological thought was revolutionary. The categorical imperative obliges each person to act morally and thus elevates them. It is the foundation of human dignity, not only for Kant but also for Wojtyla. Who is man? Is man free? Or is materialistic man determined and arrested in immanence? What should man do? Man is gifted with freedom. He is a person because he has the capacity to act. Wojtyla and Kant put special emphasis on a person's power of selfdetermination that reveals itself through the experience as a freely acting person. The realisation of the personal norm - the categorical imperative - was defined by both thinkers as a fulfilment of freedom. Freedom shall be fulfilled in the responsible act, which reveals the person's power of love.
What does it mean to be religious believers for people whose living conditions are defined by an increasingly secularized environment? Is the common distinction between faith and knowledge valid? The 21 essays cover approaches from various fields of the humanities. Some explore post-Kantian thoughts, discussing, i.a., American Pragmatism, M. Buber, M. Horkheimer, H. Putnam, J. Habermas, Ch. Taylor and variants of deconstruction, while other essays focus on ways in which the conflict between agnostics and seekers is addressed in US literary works, as in Fl. O’Connor, W. Percy, N. Hawthorne, J. Updike and in novels dealing with pandemics, for instance by L. Wright, E. M. Wiseman and R. Cook....
This volume provides a thorough introduction to three of the twentieth century’s most influential proponents of Aristotle’s moral philosophy. Arthur Madigan’s Contemporary Aristotelian Ethics examines the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, Martha Nussbaum, and Robert Spaemann in the context of twentieth-century Anglo-American moral philosophy. By surveying the ways in which these three philosophers appropriate Aristotle, Madigan illustrates two important points: first, that the most pressing problems in contemporary moral philosophy can be addressed using the Aristotelian tradition and, second, that the Aristotelian tradition does not speak with one voice. Madigan demonstrates that Aristoteli...