Sure to be the subject of much discussion, this book takes a look at the post Vatican II approach to liturgy through the eyes of a man who says the Church has lost much and gained nothing through the promulgation of the "Novus Ordo" Mass. An accomplished novelist and writer, German author Martin Mosebach gives a plea for a return to the preconciliar Latin Rite, giving a persuasive and compelling argument against what he sees as a jarring break in tradition. Yet there is another way to approach the Liturgy. In his foreword, Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., points out the difference between Mosebach's approach and "those who, like myself, the Adoremus Society, and--I think I can assert this with confidence--Pope Benedict XVI, advocate a rereading and restructuring of the liturgical renewal intended by the Second Vatican Council, but in light of the Church's two-thousand-year tradition."
In these essays, award-winning German novelist Martin Mosebach bears witness to the perennially "subversive" nature of full-blooded Catholicism. Despite the sins and escapades of her members, the Church still makes present in our midst an "incessant repetition of the Incarnation." This book opens our eyes and ears to this ongoing miracle.
In this wide-ranging and ambitious volume, Robert Royal, a prominent participant for many years in debates about religion and contemporary life, offers a comprehensive and balanced appraisal of the Catholic intellectual tradition in the twentieth century. The Catholic Church values both Faith and Reason, and Catholicism has given rise to extraordinary ideas and whole schools of remarkable thought, not just in the distant past but throughout the troubled decades of the twentieth century. Royal presents in a single volume a sweeping but readable account of how Catholic thinking developed in philosophy, theology, Scripture studies, culture, literature, and much more in the twentieth century. This involves great figures, recognized as such both inside and outside the Church, such as Jacques Maritain, Bernard Lonergan, Joseph Pieper, Edith Stein, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Romano Guardini, Karl Rahner, Henri du Lubac, Karol Wojtyla, Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar,Charles Peguy, Paul Claudel, George Bernanos, Francois Mauriac, G. K. Chesterton, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Christopher Dawson, Graham Greene, Sigrid Undset, J. R. R. Tolkien, Czeslaw Milosz, and many more. Royal argues that without rigorous thought, Catholicism - however welcoming and nourishing it might be - would become something like a doctor with a good bedside manner, but who knows little medicine. It has always been the aspiration of the Catholic tradition to unite emotion and intellect, action and contemplation. But unless we know what the tradition has already produced - especially in the work of the great figures of the recent past - we will not be able to answer the challenges that the modern world poses, or even properly recognize the true questions we face. This is a reflective, non-polemical work that brings together various strands of Catholic thought in the twentieth century. A comprehensive guide to the recent past - and the future.
"This book presents a philosophical portrait of human persons that depicts each way in which we are irreducible, with the goal of guiding the reader to perceive, wonder at, and love all the unique features of human persons. It builds this portrait by showing how claims from many strands of the Catholic tradition can be synthesized. These strands include Thomism, Scotism, phenomenology, personalism, nouvelle théologie, analytic philosophy, and Greek and Russian thought. The book focuses on how these traditions' claims are grounded in experience and on how they help us to perceive irreducible features of persons. This book also explores irreducible features of our subjectivity, senses, intellect, freedom, and affections, and of our souls, bodies, and activities"--
Terrence Malick's stunning film The Tree of Life is a modern Job story, an exploration of suffering and glory, an honest look at strife within a Texas family in the 1950s. In Shining Glory, Peter J. Leithart examines the biblical and theological motifs of the film and illuminates how Malick exploited the visual poetry of film to produce one of the most spiritually challenging and theologically sophisticated films ever made.
In clear language, Fr. Jackson reveals the rich theological meaning behind the art, architecture, words and gestures of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Rite of St. Gregory the Great. Immerse yourself in this simple guide to fully appreciate all that is the Traditional Latin Mass. This comprehensive book will help Catholics to appreciate ever more deeply the profound beauty expressed in the Mass.
Recent decades have been marred by pervasive Eucharistic abuse, from violations of liturgical norms and rubrics to practices that encourage irreverence and facilitate habitual sacrilege. The coronavirus crisis in 2020 has occasioned a further wave of sacramental manipulation, desacralization, and deprivation that has left almost no Catholic in the world unharmed. These disturbing ���signs of the times��� call for an unsparing reassessment of official and unofficial policies, practices, customs, and attitudes, along with fresh appreciation for ���creative minorities��� that are taking a different, more difficult, and more successful path to reverence. The Holy Bread of Eternal Life is a powerful and timely book by scholar Peter Kwasniewski that exalts the divine gift of the Blessed Sacrament, which can never be too much adored, too much loved, too much cared for, or too muc
In Signs of the Holy One, Uwe Michael Lang addresses crucial questions which are just now coming to the fore concerning the sacred liturgy. His point of departure is that the Catholic liturgy is a synthesis of elements, far more than just its texts—gesture, motion, architecture, art, music—and that these elements are integral to the solemn liturgy and not just incidental. They are aspects of the non-verbal language of the sacred; they are what makes the liturgy beautiful. His consideration of the beauty of the liturgy poses the problem that the modern notion of beauty is subjective, which makes it difficult to articulate criteria for what is beautiful. But sacred beauty has criteria for each of its principal elements; these are the subject of extended discussion of architecture, art, and music, showing why and how they contribute to the total liturgy. Pope Benedict XVI, who wrote extensively about the liturgy, said, “The greatness of the liturgy depends – we shall have to repeat this frequently – on its non-spontaneity". Modern man needs to learn that banality and repetitious "novelty" are no substitute for the sacred and are unable to induce any sense of meaning, purpose and peace. The yearning for the Transcendent is always felt within the human psyche and is rarely far from the surface, especially among young adults. A Church that forgets this is heading in the wrong direction.
Beginning with a personal recollection of the achievements of Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., by David L. Schinder, this work includes twelve essays by theologians who acknowledge a debt to Father Fessio and Ignatius Press. These twelve essays treat topics such as the Church as the mystical body, the liturgy, Christian apologetics in post-modern culture, public theology, analogy, Scriptural interpretation, marriage and the Trinity, theological dramatics, Pope Benedict XVI's sources, Tradition, and development of doctrine. Among the major 20th century figures treated in these essays are Hans Urs von Balthasar, Louis Bouyer, Henri de Lubac, Joseph Ratzinger, and Josef Pieper. The contributors hope that the topics of the essays represent a large swath of the interests of Father Fessio, from his early scholarly work on the Church, his commitment to liturgical renewal and Catholic catechesis, through his devotion to Ignatian spirituality and his appreciation for Thomistic philosophy, and his lifelong engagement with the theology of von Balthasar and Ratzinger.
