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"Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. Each generation inherits the task of shaping its own era, of guiding history to become a place where the dignity of every person is safeguarded, justice is promoted and fraternity is made possible."Thus begins the first encyclical of the first pope from the United States, written during the country's 250th anniversary and addressing a topic - artificial intelligence - whose industry is centered in the United States. Yet Pope Leo's message is for everyone of good will throughout the world, to remind them of the principles of Catholic social teaching, the grandeur of being human, and the dignity of work as signposts in navigating the challenges and opportunities of an economy shaped by AI.This handsome paperback version from The Catholic University of America Press, the publishers of the pope's doctoral thesis, will spark reflection and action upon Pope Leo's words.

The Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith. What can we say about the divine nature, and what does it mean to say that God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three persons who are one in being? In this book, best selling author Thomas Joseph White, OP, examines the development of early Christian reflection on the Trinity, arguing that essential contributions of Patristic theology are preserved and expanded in the thought of Thomas Aquinas.By focusing on Aquinas' theology of the divine nature as well as his treatment of divine personhood, White explores in depth the mystery of Trinitarian monotheism. The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God also engages with influential proposals of modern theologians on major topics such as Trinitarian creation, Incarnation and crucifixion, and presents creative engagements with these topics. Ultimately any theology of the cross is also a theology of the Trinity, and this book seeks to illustrate how the human life, death, and resurrection of Jesus reveal the inner life of God as Trinity.

In recent years, Thomistic thought has seen a noteworthy revival, especially in the domain of systematic and historical theology. This resurgence of interest in Aquinas' thought is beginning to significantly affect the shape of academic theology as well as ecumenical theology. Yet there exists no serious study of Thomistic Christology, especially in dialogue with major themes in modern Christology.The Incarnate Lord, then, considers central themes in Christology from a metaphysical perspective. Particular attention is given to the hypostatic union, the two natures of Christ, the knowledge and obedience of Jesus, the passion and death of Christ, his descent into hell, and resurrection. A central concern of the book is to argue for the perennial importance of ontological principles of Christology inherited from patristic and scholastic authors. However, the book also seeks to advance an interpretation of Thomistic Christology in a modern context. The teaching Aquinas, then, is central to the study, but it is placed in conversation with various modern theologians, such as Karl Barth, Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Ultimately the goal of the work is to suggest how traditional Catholic theology might thrive under modern conditions, and also develop fruitfully from engaging in contemporary controversies.The first part of the book, then, examines the ontology of the hypostatic union, the grace and human nature of Christ, the analogical similitude of the human and divine natures of Jesus, and the human knowledge and obedience of Christ. The second part of the book considers the obedient self-offering of Christ, his cry of dereliction, suffering and death, as well as his descent into hell, and physical resurrection. The conclusion of the book provides a systematic reflection on the nature of Christology as a theoretical and historical discipline.

This is above all a practical book. It discusses with a wealth of illustration and insight such subjects as the organization of the intellectual worker's time, materials, and his life; the integration of knowledge and the relation of one's specialty to general knowledge; the choice and use of reading; the discipline of memory; the taking of notes, their classification and use; and the preparation and organization of the final production.

Maximus the Confessor (d. 662), regarded by certain of his contemporaries as a sword of division, has become a bridge between East and West in our time. He lived at a time of theological and political upheaval, coming under intense scrutiny from imperial authorities in the final decades of his life. His conflict with Constantinople led him to engage in a theological and polemical campaign to equip his associates around the Mediterranean to respond to certain innovative doctrines. Maximus saw these new teachings as disconnected from the thought of the approved Fathers and theologically linked with prior heresies.This volume contains significant theological and polemical works— The Small Theological and Polemical Works, also known as the Opuscula, and the Dispute with Pyrrhus—refuting monenergism and monotheletism, the notions that Christ had only one activity or only one will. The Small Theological and Polemical Works are offered here for the first time in a complete English translation, built upon critical scholarship from the past century with key additions from Sergey Epifanovich included. Regarded as the most iconic work associated with Maximus, the famed Dispute with Pyrrhus, the deposed Patriarch of Constantinople, took place in Carthage in July 645. The record of this dialogue reflects Maximus’s mature Christology, while it is also a noteworthy prelude to his journey to Rome, where he worked with Pope Martin at the 649 Lateran Synod, uniting their voices and sealing their fates.

An annotated translation of Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in Deum presenting both the Latin text side-by-side with a new English translation which attempts to avoid the use of Latin cognates while remaining critically faithful to Bonaventure’s text. Using endnotes to open the text, Regis Armstrong opens each chapter from the perspective of historical theology referring the reader to authors prior to Bonaventure, e.g. Augustine, the Victorines, Philip the Chancellor, Avicenna, as well as first-and-second-generation Franciscan authors. While maintaining Bonaventure’s architectonic approach, Armstrong studies each chapter as Bonaventure does by focusing on its unique character, e.g. by means of cosmology, epistemology, biblical theology, mystical theology. In a same way, the translator attempts to explain his translation of certain cognates into Anglo-Saxon English by citing contemporary linguistic tools, e.g., Brepolis Latin Texts.

Multiple gods? Divinely mandated genocide? Rejection of an afterlife? If the Scriptures are the inspired and inerrant word of God that Christians claim them to be, how can they contain these things? For many believers in the modern age, traditional Christian answers to these challenges are no longer convincing. Though spiritually edifying, they are unable to account for the sheer scope and depth of problems raised through the advent of historical-critical scholarship.Following the lead of Pope Benedict XVI, in Dark Passages of the Bible Matthew Ramage weds the historical-critical approach with a theological reading of Scripture based in the patristic-medieval tradition. Whereas these two approaches are often viewed as mutually exclusive or even contradictory, Ramage insists that the two are mutually enriching and necessary for doing justice to the Bible’s most challenging texts.Ramage applies Benedict XVI’s hermeneutical principles to three of the most theologically problematic areas of the Bible: its treatment of God’s nature, the nature of good and evil, and the afterlife. Teasing out key hermeneutical principles from the work of Thomas Aquinas, Ramage analyses each of these themes with an eye to reconciling texts whose presence would seem to violate the doctrines of biblical inspiration and inerrancy. At the same time, Ramage directly addresses the problems of concrete biblical texts in light of both patristic and modern exegetical methods.

The Metaphysical Foundations of Love: Aquinas on Participation, Unity, and Union offers a systematic treatment of St. Thomas Aquinas’s account of the metaphysical relations of unity-to-union and unity-to-participation in God as the key structuring elements to the nature of love and friendship. In general, Aquinas identifies love as the source and summit of the life of each human being. Everything in the created realm issues forth from God’s creative love, and the ultimate end of all human persons is the greatest possible union with God. Aquinas contends that the love of friendship allows for the greatest union between two persons; thus, the greatest union with God takes the form of friendship with him.In addition to the grand metaphysical bookends of human existence, love also serves as the structuring notion of Aquinas’s anthropology and practical philosophy. He characterizes much of human life in terms of three basic love relations: love of God, love of self, and love of neighbor. Love of self derives from personal substantial unity. It is logically prior to love of neighbor and serves as a template for the latter. If a person loves himself rightly, he will love others rightly. On the other hand, if he relates to himself through a disordered love, he neither can relate to others rightly nor enter into a deep union with them. Moreover, due to a person’s metaphysical participation in God, a person loves himself properly only when he loves God more than himself. Thus, failing to love God appropriately entails an inability to relate to others with a fully developed love. Conversely, the love of God positions a person to relate to others with an authentic love and enter into the union of friendship with them. The volume concludes with a look at personal subjectivity in light of the previous analyses.

Why do students today find Greek and Latin so difficult and frustrating to learn? Perhaps the primary barrier preventing us from learning another language successfully is that we often subconsciously believe that English is the standard for the way languages must express ideas, and therefore we unwittingly try to fit the new language into the structure of English.This book seeks to break students out of ""English mode"" as soon as possible, at the very beginning of study. Rather than constantly relating Greek and Latin to English, the book starts with a big-picture discussion of what any language must do in order to facilitate communication. It then explains how Indo-European languages in general accomplish the tasks of communication, and how Greek and Latin in particular do so. Understanding Language includes major sections on the noun and verb systems of the classical languages. In both cases, the book deals first with function (what nouns and verbs must do) and then explains how the forms of Greek and Latin achieve the needed functions. As a result, the book helps to make the hard tasks of memorising forms and learning syntax easier and more enjoyable. Students gain a broad understanding of the way the classical languages work before they begin the details. This book gives students some of the conceptual benefits of studying two closely related languages, even if they are studying only one of them. Students do not need to be studying both Latin and Greek (or even to know the Greek alphabet) in order to profit from this book. Teachers may choose to have students read the entire book at the beginning of their study or to read sections at various points in the first year.

Plato’s Critique of Impure Reason offers a dramatic interpretation of the Republic, at the center of which lies a novel reading of the historical person of Socrates as the “real image” of the good. Schindler argues that a full response to the attack on reason introduced by Thrasymachus at the dialogue’s outset awaits the revelation of goodness as the cause of truth. This revelation is needed because the good is what enables the mind to know and makes things knowable. When we read Socrates’ display of the good against the horizon of the challenges posed by sophistry, otherwise disparate aspects of Plato’s masterpiece turn out to play essential roles in the production of an integrated whole.In this book, D. C. Schindler begins with a diagnosis of the crisis ofreason in contemporary culture as a background to the study of the Republic. He then sets out a philosophical interpretation of the dialogue in five chapters: an analysis of Book 1 that shows the inherent violence and dogmatism of skepticism; a reading of goodness as cause of both being and appearance; a discussion of the dramatic reversals in the images Socrates uses for the idea of the good; an exploration of the role of the person of Socrates in the Republic; and a confrontation between the “defenselessness” of philosophy and the violence of sophistry. Finally, in a substantial coda, the book presents a new interpretation of the old quarrel between philosophy and art through an analysis of Book 10.Though based on a close reading of the text, Plato’s Critique of Impure Reason always interprets the arguments with a view to fundamental human problems, and so will be valuable not only to Plato scholars but to any reader with general philosophical interests.

Origen composed at least thirty-two books of a commentary on the Gospel according to John, at the request of St. Ambrose of Milan. Of these, only nine books are extant in almost complete form, although we have selections of others persevered in other collections of the works of Origen. The commentary proceeds verse by verse, and is particularly notable for its emphasis on the spiritual meaning of the Gospel.This volume contains books 1,2,6, and 10, and fragments of books 4 and 5. Origen's main interest is the allegorical interpretation of the Gospel according to John, which makes this an important work in the study of Origen's mystical thought. A secondary interest is the refutation of Valentinian gnosticism. According to Eusebius, Ambrose had been a Valentinian before his conversion by Origen, and Origen refers to the Gnostic writer Heracleon regularly throughout the commentary in order to refute his views.Although the refutation of Heracleon may have been a stimulus for the composition of this work, Origen moved beyond this goal in order to present a commentary on the Gospel which would appeal to the growing number of educated Christians who wanted a scientific exegesis. The author's writing covers a wide range of historical, theological, philosophical and etymological topics, all focused on this Gospel of "spiritual food." "We might dare to say," Origen says as he begins his commentary, "that the Gospels are the first-fruits of all Scriptures, but that the first-fruits of the Gospels is that according to John. How great must be our understanding, that we may be able to understand in a worthy manner the word which is stored up in the earthen treasures of paltry language." The Spirit-led exegete can thus draw out of the words and symbols a higher level of insight. This "spiritual gospel" is the reality of which Christ's acts were symbols; it is the secrets hidden in the mysteries of Christ's words.

This volume contains what remains of Books 13-32 of Origen's Commentary on the Gospel according to John, and thus completes the publication of the first full English translation of this work that stands as the beginning of Christian scriptural exegesis. Ronald Heine introduces his translation with a discussion of the times and circumstances within which the commentary was composed. He also provides a survey of the major theological questions with which the commentary is concerned. These include Origen's thought on the nature of God, the person and work of Christ, his relation to the Father and to the created order, his teaching on the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection, and eschatology, and his ideas on the devil.Beginning with the conversation between Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well and ending with Christ's discourse to his disciples at the Last Supper, the commentary displays Origen's attention to the literal meaning of the passages but moves beyond them to try to grasp their spiritual significance, providing us with the opportunity to examine Origen's mystical thought. Origen also refutes the Gnostic reading of the Gospel presented by Heracleon, but this polemic is subordinate to his own investigation of the theological, philosophical, historical, and etymological questions raised by the Gospel.Because it treats many of the same passages of the Gospel of St. John for which St. Augustine provides a commentary in The Fathers of the Church, volume 88, this volume provides a worthy companion to it and invites a comparison of the thoughts of these two great exegetes upon what both regarded as the greatest of the Gospels.

Origen of Alexandria's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans is the oldest extant commentary on Romans (ca. 246). This volume presents the first English translation of the commentary, covering his exegesis of Rom 1:1 to 6:11. One of his longest and most mature works, it is the only commentary of Origen available in a coherent form from beginning to end. The work was originally composed in Greek in Caesarea, but only fragments of the archetype have survived. Fortunately, Origen's admirer Rufinus of Aquileia translated the work into Latin (ca. 406).Origen's exegesis predates the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius by 170 years; thus it offers a striking perspective on Romans. Opposition to Gnostic interpretations of Paul is an important characteristic of the commentary. Above all Origen defends the Church against the "doctrine of natures"―the belief that all human beings are born with unalterable natures, either good or evil, and thus bound for either salvation or damnation, and that their conduct during this life cannot alter their destiny. Origen successfully refutes this teaching, showing that freedom of will always abides in rational beings.Provoked by Marcion's repudiation of the Old Testament, Origen emphasizes the harmony between Gospel and Law. He highlights as one of Paul's main themes in Romans the transfer of religion from Judaism to Christianity, from the letter to the spirit, in terms both of salvation history and of the transformation of the individual. Origen claims that the key to unlocking Romans is understanding Paul's use of homonyms―identical expressions such as law, Jew, circumcision, death, etc., with divergent meanings.Books 6-10 of the commentary, presenting Origen's interpretation of Rom 6:12 to 16:27, will be the next volume published in the Fathers of the Church series.

This volume completes the first English translation of Rufinus's Latin version of Origen of Alexandria's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans and contains Origen's detailed exegesis of Romans 6:12-16:27. Origen's much neglected Commentary, which stands out in splendid isolation at the fountainhead of Greek and Latin exegesis, is now completely accessible to English readers.In Books 6-10 Origen carries through to completion his programme, begun in Books 1-5, of defending human freedom and of opposing the natural predestinarian doctrine of the sects founded by the Gnostic heretics Marcion, Valentinus, and Basilides. These schools relied heavily on texts from Paul, interpreted in isolation from the rest of Scripture, not only to deny free will but to support the doctrine that salvation is determined by the nature one receives at birth, whether good or evil. In contrast Origen clarifies passages in Romans by citations from Paul's other letters, from the Gospels, and from the Old Testament. He attempts to construct a coherent and unified ""biblical theology."" Origen views human beings as chosen or rejected by God deservedly; everyone has it within his own power whether he becomes a servant of God or of sin, a vessel of wrath or of mercy.Whether one sympathises with Origen's interpretations or finds them infuriating, it is difficult not to admire his concordance-like mind at work as he tackles the apostle Paul's greatest epistle. Readers will find interesting and thought-provoking discussions of all the important theological themes and terms of Romans: faith, hope, love, works, justification, election, law, Israel, Gentiles, Church, sin, death, flesh, body, glory, etc. The importance of these discussions is magnified by the fact that they stand alone in their detail and breadth and stem from the Church's most important theologian of the third century. Moreover, because Origen's work was productive in subsequent centuries in Rufinus's Latin translation, the Commentary is of outstanding importance for the history of New Testament exegesis.

Clement of Alexandria, a scholar who flourished around the turn of the third century, devoted this work to instructing Christian converts on the nature of the Christian life. Another of his books, the Protreptikos, was intended as an outreach to pagans, and this book, the Paidagogos (called here Christ the Educator), was to serve as a guide to Christian living for baptized individuals who were still young in the faith. A sober lifestyle of moderation and self-restraint should characterize every Christian, and Clement's thinking on ethics reveals the influence of Stoic philosophy.

As a result of the neo-patristic movement of the early twentieth century, the teachings of original sin and atonement as understood in the West were questioned and reformulated based on what was believed to be early Eastern Christian patristic thought. This new paradigm proposed that humanity inherited death and corruption, but not sin, from Adam and that the purpose of the Incarnation and salvific work of Christ was to restore humanity from death and corruption, but not an inherent sinfulness.In contrast to this popular and seemingly dogmatic paradigm and false dichotomy between Western and Eastern teaching on sin and atonement, this volume asserts that the writings of many Eastern fathers of the early fifth century incorporate many, if not the majority, of the terms and teachings behind what have been labeled as Western departures concerning original sin and atonement. Through a comprehensive analysis of the writings of Cyril of Alexandria and some of his contemporaries in the early fifth century East during the time of the Pelagian controversy, this book demonstrates that a central and consistent theme of their soteriology revolves around the sinfulness and guilt of all humanity that is rooted in Adam's sin by nature and is resolved only through recapitulation into the new root, the second Adam, the impeccable Christ. Christ's impeccability is necessary to correct the state of sinfulness and guilt in humanity through his incarnation and spotless sacrifice on the cross as a ransom and substitute on behalf of and in exchange of all to satisfy the divine justice and to restore humanity to its original state in the divine image.

Originally published in English in 1988, Joseph Ratzinger's Eschatology remains internationally recognized as a leading text on the ""last things""—heaven and hell, purgatory and judgment, death and the immortality of the soul. This highly anticipated second edition includes a new preface by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI and a supplement to the bibliography by theologian Peter A. Casarella.Eschatology presents a balanced perspective of the doctrine at the center of Christian belief- the Church's faith in eternal life. Recognizing the task of contemporary eschatology as ""to marry perspectives, so that person and community, present and future, are seen in their unity,"" Joseph Ratzinger brings together recent emphasis on the theology of hope for the future with the more traditional elements of the doctrine. His book has proven to be as timeless as it is timely.

According to 1 Cor 15.44 and 1 Cor 15.52, the human body “is sown an animal body, [but] it will rise a spiritual body” and “the dead will rise again incorruptible, and we will be changed.” These passages prompted many questions: What is a spiritual body? How can a body become incorruptible? Where will the resurrected body be located? And, what will be the nature of its experience? Medieval theologians sought to answer such questions but encountered troubling paradoxes stemming from the conviction that the resurrected body will be an “impassible body” or constituted from “incorruptible matter.” By the thirteenth century the resurrection demanded increased attention from Church authorities, not only in response to certain popular heresies but also to calm heated debates at the University of Paris. William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris, officially condemned ten errors in 1241 and in 1244, including the proposition that the blessed in the resurrected body will not see the divine essence. In 1270 Parisian Bishop Étienne Tempier condemned the view that God cannot grant incorruption to a corruptible body, and in 1277 he rejected propositions that a resurrected body does not return as numerically one and the same, and that God cannot grant perpetual existence to a mutable, corruptible body.The Dominican scholar Albert the Great was drawn into the university debates in Paris in the 1240s and responded in the text translated here for the first time. In it, Albert considers the properties of resurrected bodies in relation to Aristotelian physics, treats the condition of souls and bodies in heaven, discusses the location and punishments of hell, purgatory, and limbo, and proposes a “limbo of infants” for unbaptized children. Albert’s On Resurrection not only shaped the understanding of Thomas Aquinas but also that of many other major thinkers.

St. Justin Martyr is known as the outstanding apologist of the second century. While the Apostolic Fathers like St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Polycarp had addressed members within the Christian fold, St. Justin is considered to be the first prominent defender of the Christian faith against non-Christians and the enemies of the Church. The chief sources for the uncertain and meager chronological data of Justin's life are his own writings, the two Apologies and the Dialogue with Trypho. The circumstances leading up to his conversion are recorded in the first eight chapters of the Dialogue, and the events surrounding his death are reported in the Acta SS. Justini et Sociorum, an authentic source of the latter part of the second century. Historians place his birth in the beginning of the second century (ca. 100-110 A.D.) at Flavia Neapolis (today Nablus) in Samaria. Although St. Epiphanius calls him a Samaritan, and he himself refers to his people as Samarians, Justin was not Jewish in either race or religion. His family was rather of pagan and Greco-Roman anscestry. They had come as colonists to Flavia Neapolis during the reign of Titus (79-81 A.D.), the son of Flavius Vespasian (69-79), who had built this city and had granted its inhabitants the privileges of Roman citizens. Obviously, the parents of Justin had considerable means and could afford to give their son an excellent education in the pagan culture of the day. Young Justin had a keen mind, was inquisitive by nature and endowed with a burning thirst for learning. He tried to broaden his knowledge further by extensive travels. Driven by an inner urge and a profound inclination for philosophy, he subsequently frequented the schools of the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, and the Platonists. He set out to reach the truth; to gain a perfect knowledge of God was his greatest and only ambition. Dissatisfied with the Stoics and Peripatetics, he tells us of finding temporary peace in the philosophy of the Platonists: 'the perception of incorporeal things quite overwhelmed me and the Platonic theory of ideas added wings to my mind, so that in a short time I imagined myself a wise man. So great was my folly that I fully expected immediately to gaze upon God.'

Since the original publication of Duns Scotus on the Will and Morality in 1986, there has been a remarkable growth of interest in the thought of this early fourteenth-century Franciscan master. Allan B. Wolter's critically acclaimed book inspired much of the inquiry, and today it remains the standard source on Scotus' moral philosophy.This new edition of the book retains the introduction and English translations of the original thirty-four selections of texts from Scotus' writings on the will and morality. In addition to a substantially expanded bibliography, the volume includes a preface written by William A. Frank.

Thomas Aquinas possessed excellent knowledge of the commentaries of Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine. On the basis of this foundation, he produced his own commentary on the Gospel of John as part of his task as a Master of the Sacred Page. Considered a landmark theological introduction to the Fourth Gospel, these lectures were delivered to Dominican friars when Aquinas was at the height of his theological powers, when he was also composing the Summa theologiae. For numerous reasons, the Summa has received far more attention over the centuries than has his Commentary on the Gospel of John. However, scholars today recognize Aquinas's biblical commentaries as central sources for understanding his theological vision and for appreciating the scope of his Summa theologiae. The first English translation of Aquinas's Commentary on the Gospel of John by Fabian Larcher and James Weisheipl, originally published nearly two decades ago and long out of print, is available to scholars and students once again with this edition. Published in three volumes simultaneously, it includes a new introduction and notes pointing readers to the links between Aquinas's biblical commentary and his Summa theologiae. When a verse from the Gospel of John is directly quoted in the Summa theologiae, the editors note this in the Commentary. Aquinas's patristic sources, including Origen and Augustine, are carefully identified and referenced to the Patriologia Latina and Patrologia Graeca. The Commentary's connections with Aquinas's Catena Aurea are also identified. ""While the most significant aspect of the publication is Aquinas's text itself, the introduction and notes provide excellent aides to the reader and enrich the text. Daniel Keating and Matthew Levering contribute a clear and helpful introduction to the translation, providing brief but very useful explanatory notes about early writers and controversies.""--David M. Gallagher. The three volumes in the Commentary on the Gospel of John will be sold individually and as a set.

In recent years historians and theologians have focused considerable attention on the church of late antiquity. The Constantinian revolution of the early fourth century produced changes that would affect profoundly and permanently the fabric of traditional Greco-Roman society and early Christian spiritual life. This volume--the third of the works of the Iberian Fathers in the Fathers of the Church series--brings together writings from Pacian of Barcelona and Orosius of Braga, two notable Iberian authors and orthodox partisans of the turbulent late fourth and early fifth centuries.Pacian, bishop of Barcelona, was renowned in his own day for both his active ministry and his literary talents. Admired by St. Jerome as an author ""of restrained eloquence,"" Pacian produced several works, ranging from his correspondence with the Novatianist Sympronian to his thoughtful treatises on penance and baptism. Orosius, priest of Braga, was once considered noteworthy principally for his authorship of the universalist Seven Books of History against the Pagans and his student/mentor relationships with St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Jerome. But, in addition, in the two treatises translated here he furnishes mush insight into the contemporary heretical movements in Spain and the course of Peligian controversy.Included in this volume are Pacian's three letters to the Novatianist Sympronian, his tract on repentance and the rite of penance (On Penitents), and his sermon concerning baptism (On Baptism). Orosius's works included the Inquiry or Memorandum to Augustine on the Error of the Priscilliantists and Origenists and the apologetic Book in Defense against the Pelagians. Extensive notes and helpful introductions offer readers further guidance and detail.

This book will fill a gap in the current resources available to students of the Confessions in Latin. The scope, method, and intended readership will align not only in college Latin classrooms, but also by high school students who have completed their study of elementary Latin grammar; or by any non-specialist who would benefit from generous lexical and grammatical help in a first attempt to read the Confessions in Latin. Greek and Latin philology and classical education have long privileged classical pagan authors to the neglect of early Christian ones. This lack of attention is felt most keenly at the level of aids for intermediate students. While the Classics profession has begun to shift towards greater inclusion of Late Antique and early Christian authors, at least at the level of scholarly activity, the provision of corresponding aids for Classics students lags behind. The current AP Latin syllabus is a case in point: No opportunity is offered for the study of authors whose works comprise an enormous portion of the corpus of Latin literature and were, arguably, no less seminal to medieval and modern culture than the works of Virgil and Caesar.This book will thus serve as a vital educational tool for all persons engaged in studying and teaching the Confessions in Latin.

As a young priest, Robert Prevost was sent in 1981 to Rome to study church law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas (known as the Angelicum). There he earned a licentiate and composed a doctoral thesis, which made final in 1987. This is that thesis, the first book-length work composed by the man now known as Pope Leo XIV.Specifically, his study - drawing from sources in English, Italian, and Spanish and from medieval history and theology as well as canon law - focused on the role of the prior as the local superior in the Order of St. Augustine. In doing so, he describes a traditional notion of obedience in religious life - one based on love of the truth and growth in one's inner freedom to pursue holiness. At the center of his reflection are key ideas regarding the common good of the Church; the Eucharistic liturgy at the center of the life of the community; the role of hierarchy and consultation; and mutual respect for the diverse contributions of each person. Present in this text, moreover, is a far-reaching conception of the priesthood characterized by the triple munera: the priestly work of teaching, sanctification, and governance. Central to the whole volume is an Augustinian conception of the spiritual life that focuses on the inward work of grace, the primacy of the love of God, and inward conformity to Christ.The book's preface - composed by eminent theologian and present-day rector of the Angelicum, Fr. Thomas Joseph White, OP - helps frame the work for the wider public interested in it as a privileged window into the mind and heart of Prevost as a young priest, showing how its subject matter has implications for how one thinks about the life of the Catholic Church. There are clearly in this early work central themes regarding the life of Church, the apostolic tradition, and ecclesial authority in the service of the common good, that may well indicate directions and themes in the subsequent life and teaching of the author. Canonists will be drawn to Prevost's analysis of the Constitutions of the Augustinians in light of the then-newly promulgated Code of Canon Law. Historians and theologians alike may enjoy considering parallelisms that occur between this Augustinian vision of the prior and the subsequent unfolding of an Augustinian pontificate. Hopefully the publication of this work will lead to constructive debate about and comprehension of the relation of between the two.

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.Father Serge-Thomas Bonino is a renowned European theologian and highly regarded expert in Thomist thought, both philosophical and theological. He is the current Secretary of the International Theological Commission. To date very little of his work has been translated into English. This book is a comprehensive philosophical and theological investigation of angels and demons and is unquestionably the most comprehensive book on this neglected topic written since the Second Vatican Council.

An annotated translation of Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis in Deum presenting both the Latin text side-by-side with a new English translation which attempts to avoid the use of Latin cognates while remaining critically faithful to Bonaventure's text. Using endnotes to open the text, Regis Armstrong opens each chapter from the perspective of historical theology referring the reader to authors prior to Bonaventure, e.g. Augustine, the Victorines, Philip the Chancellor, Avicenna, as well as first-and-second-generation Franciscan authors. While maintaining Bonaventure's architectonic approach, Armstrong studies each chapter as Bonaventure does by focusing on its unique character, by means of cosmology, epistemology, biblical theology, and mystical theology. In the same way, the translator attempts to explain his translation of certain cognates into Anglo-Saxon English by citing contemporary linguistic tools like Brepolis Latin Texts. A brief introduction has been added which orientates readers to Bonaventure's life and issues in his text.

The presentation of the life and work of any great thinker is a formidable task, even for a renowned scholar. This is all the more the case when such a historical figure is a saint and mystic, such as Friar Thomas Aquinas. In this volume, Fr. Jean-Pierre Torrell, OP, masterfully takes up the strenuous task of presenting such a biography, providing readers with a detailed, scholarly, and profound account of the thirteenth-century theologian whose works have not ceased to draw the attention of both friend and foe! In this volume, Fr. Torrell, an internationally renowned expert on St. Thomas, speaks to neophytes and experts alike: for those new to Thomas's works, he paints an engaging human portrait of Friar Thomas in his historical context; for specialists, he provides a rigorous scholarly account of contemporary research concerning Thomas's life and work. This new edition of Fr. Torrell's widely-lauded text involved significant revision, expansion, and bibliographical updates in light of the latest scholarship. The Catholic University of America Press is pleased to present such an eminent specialist's mature synthesis concerning Friar Thomas Aquinas.