In everyday parlance, synthesis is synonymous with short. Here, Mauro Gagliardi uses synthesis as it has been applied to the Hypostatic Union in Christ: the “Synthetic Union” of the two natures in one Person. All of dogmatic theology is presented from this et-et (both-and), Christocentric approach in Truth is a Synthesis: Catholic Dogmatic Theology. The volume presents for beginners a comprehensive, organic view of the Catholic faith. Truth is a Synthesis spotlights, in a respectful yet clear way, the different views about Christian Dogmatics held by our separated brethren, both Protestant and Orthodox. As he explores the implications of the et-et nature of theology, Gagliardi reveals the underlying unity of both Fundamental and Dogmatic theology “Professor Gagliardi’s book is in every way a magnum opus, both from the qualitative and the quantitative standpoint.”—Cardinal Gerhard L. Müller
"This volume discusses the nature of theological science and the mystery of the Triune God; introduces the reader to classical Thomistic positions concerning the theological articulation of the Trinitarian mystery, including the topic of the divine missions, providing an important connection between the dogmatic portion of theology and its spiritual/moral concerns"--
Every discipline, including theology, requires a synthetic overview of its acquisitions and open questions, a kind of "topography" to guide the new student and refresh the gaze of specialists. In his Synthèse dogmatique, Fr. Jean-Hervé Nicolas, OP (1910-2001) presents just such a map of Thomistic theology, focusing on the central topics of Dogmatic Theology: The One and Triune God, Christology, Mariology, Ecclesiology, the Sacraments, and the Last Things. Drawing on decades of research and teaching, Fr. Nicolas synthetically presents these topics from a faithfully Thomistic perspective. While broadly and genially engaging the theological literature of the 20th century, he nonetheless remains deeply indebted to the Thomistic school that would have formed him in his youth as a theologian. This provides the reader with an unparalleled theological vision, masterfully bringing forth, at once, what is new and what is classical. Catholic Theology: A Dogmatic Synthesis is being published in English as a multi-volume work. In this volume, Fr. Nicolas takes up the raison d'être for the mission of the Holy Spirit: the work of sanctification in and through the Church, the mystical body of Christ and sacrament of salvation. In the ecclesiology articulated in this volume, he presents a theology of the Church that is at once wholly Thomistic and also faithful to the great themes of the Second Vatican Council, drawing especially from the works of Journet, Congar, and Bouyer, in critical dialogue with other theologians of his day. He then presents a complete and detailed sacramental theology, both concerning the nature of the sacraments in general, as well as concerning each sacrament in particular, carefully striving to balance positive and scholastic theology. Serving as a professor for decades, including at the University of Fribourg, Fr. Nicolas was at once a profound scholar and a masterful pedagogue. Gathering the work of a lifetime into a single pedagogical narrative, Fr. Nicolas's Catholic Theology: A Dogmatic Synthesis provides a resource for students and scholars alike. In view of the hyper-specialization of theology today, this series of volumes provides readers with a synthetic and sapiential overview of the fundamentals of dogmatic theology from a robust and profound Thomistic perspective.
This one-volume introduction to systematic theology draws deeply on the catholic and Reformed heritage to present the major doctrines of the Christian faith, displaying the power of theological retrieval for the church's renewal. Leading Reformed theologians, such as Kevin Vanhoozer, John Webster, Michael Horton, and Oliver Crisp, offer the "state of the question" on standard theological topics and engage in both exegetical and historical retrieval for the sake of theological analysis. The book represents the exciting new theological trajectory of Reformed catholicity.
Introduction to the Mystery of the Church is an ecclesiological survey presenting a doctrinal synthesis of the Church. The author's intention is to propose an overview of this mystery in connection with the entirety of the Christian mystery. The book is divided into two major parts, the first presenting the foundations in the Bible and the tradition up to our day, and the second being an explanatory proposal introducing the reader to the Church's definition and personality and concluding with an exposition of the four properties enunciated in the Creed (one, holy, catholic, and apostolic). The value of this way of proceeding is first and foremost in the proposal of a synthesis that allows one to situate each question in its rightful place, such study being oriented toward a better overall grasp of the subject. As the title suggests, the book is an introduction that should allow the reader to apprehend the mystery in its internal coherence in order subsequently, with the aid of other texts, to be able to enter more deeply into the study of one or other specific point. While this ecclesiology treatise is written from a Catholic point of view, an ecumenical perspective is often present, either through the presentation of divergent views from other Christian confessions or through the proposal for a theological convergence.
In Dust Bound for Heaven Reinhard Hütter shows how Thomas Aquinas's view of the human being as dust bound for heaven weaves together elements of two questions without fusion or reduction. Does humanity still have an insatiable thirst for God that sends each person on an irrepressible religious quest that only the vision of God can quench? Or must the human being, living after the fall, become a "new creation" in order to be readied for heaven? Hütter also applies Thomas's anthropology to a host of pressing contemporary concerns, including the modern crisis of faith and reason, political theology, the relationship between divine grace and human freedom, and many more. The concluding chapter explores the Christological center of Thomas's theology.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's election as Pope Benedict XVI brought a world-class biblical theologian to the papacy. There is an intensely biblical quality to his pastoral teaching and he has demonstrated a keen concern for the authentic interpretation of sacred Scripture. Here a foremost interpreter of Catholic thought and life offers a probing look at Benedict's biblical theology and provides a clear and concise introduction to his life and work. Bestselling author and theologian Scott Hahn argues that the heart of Benedict's theology is salvation history and the Bible and shows how Benedict accepts historical criticism but recognizes its limits. The author also explains how Benedict reads the overall narrative of Scripture and how he puts it to work in theology, liturgy, and Christian discipleship.
Although not well-known in the English-speaking world, Fr. Ambroise Gardeil, OP (1859-1931) was a Dominican of significant influence in French Catholic thought at the turn of the 20th century. Conservative theologians like Frs. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, Michel Labourdette, OP, Jean-Hervé Nicolas, OP and many others hailed him as a careful expositor of the supernaturality of faith, a defender of the theological nature of rational apologetics, and a spiritual master. The True Christian Life provides a thorough and stirring introduction to Fr. Gardeil's work in spiritual theology. The volume was originally published posthumously through the collaboration of Fr. Gardeil's nephew, Fr. Henri-Dominique Gardeil, OP and Jacques Maritain. Fr. Ambroise, prior to beginning work on his masterpiece on spiritual experience, La Structure de l'âme et l'expérience mystique, drafted nearly eight-hundred pages that would have set forth a full presentation of moral-ascetical theology. While drafting this massive work, his reflection on the soul's receptive capacity for grace led him to the two-volume study, La Structure, and he never was able to finish his original designs for a comprehensive study of the Christian moral-spiritual life. Soon after his death, his nephew gathered several essays from the Revue thomiste and Revue de Jeunes, along with a complete-but-unpublished study on prayer. Drafting a lengthy introduction on the basis of Fr. Ambroise's unpublished notes, Fr. Henri-Dominique assembled a volume of moral / spiritual theology that sets out the principles of many important themes: divinization through grace, Christian prudence /conscience, the virtue of religion, devotion, and prayer. In this volume, the reader will find a clear and rhetorically striking presentation of the central mysteries of the spiritual life, presented with stirring and beautiful rhetoric by a theological master from the Thomist tradition.
