Bøger af Aidan Nichols

Aidan Nichols has been contributing to theological literature since the beginning of the 1980s. Now in his seventy-fifth year, he looks back not only at his writings but at the three-quarters of a century of life from which they came. He explains how, despite a nominally Anglican background, his early sense of the transcendent was really of God in nature. Only through an experience in the Russian church in Geneva did he become a confessing Christian. Back home, where he was left a teenage orphan, he moved from Anglo-Catholicism into the Roman Catholic Church. After reading Modern History at Oxford, that led by a natural progression to becoming a Religious and a priest. In this book Nichols describes the wide variety of situations in which he has lived in Scotland, Norway, Rome, France, Ethiopia, and Jamaica, as well as England and the United States. Over the years, drawing on not only Catholic but also Orthodox and Anglican sources, he has produced a small library of books, touching on many areas of theology and culture while also seeking, at different times, to bind them together into a coherent unity, inspired by, principally, two great giants: Thomas Aquinas, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. For Aidan Nichols, the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI were a halcyon time. Things have been more difficult under the successor to these popes. He explains the problems he has encountered, both theoretical and practical, and his search for a resolution that is satisfactory both theologically and autobiographically. He ends his apologia with a raft of proposals for the stabilization and enrichment of ecclesial life in the decades to come.

Thomas Aquinas is one of the great figures in western thought, whose ideas continue to excert a powerful influence on theologians, contemporary writers and thinkers of very different backgrounds and traditions. This book is a lively and authoritative introduction to Aquinas, his life and thought and shows why many see him as a vital partner in contemporary debate about the future of Christianity.

A lively debate continues in the Roman Catholic Church about the character of the teaching provided by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Did it represent a decisive rupture with previous doctrine, or the continuation of its earlier message under new conditions? Much depends on whether the Council texts are read in the light of subsequent events, which shook and sometimes smashed the life, worship and devotion of traditional Catholicism - rather than considered for themselves, in their own right as documents with a prehistory that historians can know.In this work Dominican scholar and writer Aidan Nichols maintains that the Council texts must be interpreted in the light of their genesis, not their aftermath. They must be seen in the light of the public debates in the Council chamber, not the hopes (or fears) of individuals behind the scenes. On this basis, he provides a concise commentary on the eight most significant documents produced by the Council, documents which cover pretty comprehensively all the major aspects of the Church's life.Nichols describes the Council as a gathering where the Conciliar minority - guarded, prudent, and concerned for explicit continuity at all points with the preceding tradition - played a beneficial role in steadying the Conciliar majority, enthused as the latter was by the movements of biblical, patristic and liturgical 'return to the sources' and a desire to reach out to the world of the (then) present-day in generosity of heart. The texts that emerged from this often impassioned debate remain susceptible to a reading of a classically Christian kind. That is precisely what Nichols offers in this book.

The Church is a mystery. Believers who want to enter more deeply into that mystery will reflect on the Church's basic characteristics, the "marks of the Church" what it means for the Church to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Non-Catholics and nonbelievers looking to appreciate how Catholics regard the Church also will desire to understand these "marks". In this book, renowned Dominican theologian Fr. Aidan Nichols explores the Church's characteristics. Drawing on insights from four theological masters-Henri de Lubac, Jean Tillard, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Charles Journet-Nichols seeks to help Catholics and non-Catholics to "figure out" the Church, on at least a fundamental level. The four masters in question do not claim to exhaust the mystery of the Church, nor does Nichols. They do, however, assist the reader in going deeper into the mystery.To accomplish this goal, Nichols appeals to both the Scholastic tradition and authors influenced by the ressourcement movement in theology. In this way, he provides readers with a sense of Catholicism's breadth, which is at once orthodox and yet generously conceived.

One of the greatest Catholic minds of the twentieth century was a journalist, playwright, novelist, literary critic, poet, cartoonist, essayist, broadcaster, and even president of the Detection Club. But he was also a theologian. G. K. Chesterton, famous for defending Christian belief in his books Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man (the latter helped to convert C.S. Lewis) could not help thinking theologically even when he was making jokes and his writings illuminate the profoundest religious themes. In his hands, Christian truth is rescued from becoming a purely academic exercise. He gives us an "experience of the fullness and many-sidedness of the truth, in which the Christian can romp without a care" (Balthasar). In fact, like Lewis, Chesterton, who was one of the great converts of the twentieth century, draws us directly into an encounter with the Word of God, showing us the faith of the Church as most of us have never seen it before. No wonder Pope Benedict XVI tells us that "in every age the path to faith can take its bearings by converts." But Chesterton wrote so much literally millions of words in thousands of essays and books that the average reader may feel daunted. There has never been one book that introduces his thoughts on God and the Church ... until now, courtesy of the wise Dominican priest, Aidan Nichols. In these pages, Fr. Nichols has gathered the most powerful theological passages from the many works of Chesterton, and included his own concise explanations of the keen and sometimes surprising ways they illuminate the most profound questions ever asked by man. Readers new to Chesterton as well as his lifelong fans will delight in the fresh light he sheds here on the existence of God, the nature of man, the meaning of Christ, and the universal call to holiness, which in these pages rings out as loudly as it did when G.K. Chesterton first wrote these words over a century ago.

This accessible little book is a study of spiritual theology, and so a reflection on the spiritual life as found in Christianity. Christian spirituality embodies in personal living the biblical revelation received in the Church of the Fathers and transmitted to its successors in every age. Like everything else in Christian doctrine and practice, Christian spirituality depends on Scripture and Tradition-the two intrinsically inter-related ways in which that revelation is communicated. Using a fusion of sources-Catholic and Orthodox, Latin and Byzantine-Aidan Nichols breaks open Spiritual Theology through eight essential themes: the Word of God as Source; the Liturgy as the Context; Meditation and contemplation; Principles of Asceticism; Asceticism: monastic, lay, and 'pastoral'; Purification; Illumination; Union. Christian spirituality is biblical in its source, it is liturgical in its context, it is ascetical in its development, and it is mystical in its outcome. 'Mystical' is a strong word, but the Dominican school does not accept the opinion that this final issue of spirituality is extra-ordinary-in the words of Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, theologically speaking it is 'eminent, but normal'. These four adjectives-biblical, liturgical, ascetical and mystical-explain the structure of this present book and its content too.

When in 1993 Aidan Nichols revived the long-dormant idea of an Anglican Uniate Church, united with the See of Peter but not absorbed, the reaction of many was incredulity. The ideal of modern Ecumenism was, surely, the corporate reunification of entire Communions. This he roundly declared to be unrealistic, for the Protestant and Liberal elements in Anglican history (and Anglicanism's present reality) could never be digested by Roman stomachs. What was feasible was, rather, the reconciliation of a select body Catholic enough to be united, and Anglican enough not to be absorbed. Just over a dozen years later Pope Benedict XVI, responding to the petitions of various Anglican bishops, promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Apostolorum coetibus and the deed was done. The three 'Ordinariates' now established for 'Catholics of the Anglican Patrimony' in Britain, Australia and North America have been described as the first tangible fruit of Catholic Ecumenism. In this short book Nichols reflects on the historical, theological, and liturgical issues involved. He also shows the congruence of the new development with Benedict's wider thinking, and outlines a specific missionary vocation for reconciled Anglicans in England.

This Homiliary provides a comprehensive guide to doctrinally based preaching for the entire Church year, presented in the Dominican tradition: a preaching of Scripture which takes doctrine as guide to the clarification of the Bible's main themes. Doctrine is necessary to preachers because in its absence the Scriptural claims and themes do not easily hang together. The grace the Word imparts always has a reference to the Mystical Body which mediates all the grace that is given by Christ as the Head. So, precisely as a fruit of grace, preaching is necessarily related to ecclesial awareness. Doctrine ensures that preaching does not fall short of its true dimensions - expressing the biblical revelation, the faith of the Church. The second, third, and fourth volumes of Year of the Lord's Favour cover between them the Temporal Cycle of the Church of the Roman rite: this fourth volume furnishes texts for Weekdays through the Year; the second for the Privileged Seasons - Advent, Christmastide, Lent and Eastertide; the third for Sundays through the Year. Preaching about the lives of the saints provides the subject matter of the first volume of the Homiliary.

This Homiliary provides a comprehensive guide to doctrinally based preaching for the entire Church year, presented in the Dominican tradition: a preaching of Scripture which takes doctrine as guide to the clarification of the Bible's main themes. Doctrine is necessary to preachers because in its absence the Scriptural claims and themes do not easily hang together. The grace the Word imparts always has a reference to the Mystical Body which mediates all the grace that is given by Christ as the Head. So, precisely as a fruit of grace, preaching is necessarily related to ecclesial awareness. Doctrine ensures that preaching does not fall short of its true dimensions - expressing the biblical revelation, the faith of the Church. The second, third, and fourth volumes of Year of the Lord's Favour cover between them the Temporal Cycle of the Church of the Roman rite: this third volume furnishes texts for Sundays through the Year; the second for the Privileged Seasons - Advent, Christmastide, Lent and Eastertide; the fourth for Weekdays through the Year. Preaching about the lives of the saints provides the subject matter of the first volume of the Homiliary.

This Homiliary provides a comprehensive guide to doctrinally based preaching for the entire Church year, presented in the Dominican tradition: a preaching of Scripture which takes doctrine as guide to the clarification of the Bible's main themes. Doctrine is necessary to preachers because in its absence the Scriptural claims and themes do not easily hang together. The grace the Word imparts always has a reference to the Mystical Body which mediates all the grace that is given by Christ as the Head. So, precisely as a fruit of grace, preaching is necessarily related to ecclesial awareness. Doctrine ensures that preaching does not fall short of its true dimensions - expressing the biblical revelation, the faith of the Church. The second, third, and fourth volumes of Year of the Lord's Favour cover between them the Temporal Cycle of the Church of the Roman rite: this second volume furnishes texts for the Privileged Seasons - Advent, Christmastide, Lent and Eastertide; the third for Sundays through the Year; the fourth for Weekdays through the Year. Preaching about the lives of the saints provides the subject matter of the first volume of the Homiliary.

This Homiliary provides a comprehensive guide to doctrinally based preaching for the entire Church year, presented in the Dominican tradition: a preaching of Scripture which takes doctrine as guide to the clarification of the Bible's main themes. Doctrine is necessary to preachers because in its absence the Scriptural claims and themes do not easily hang together. The grace the Word imparts always has a reference to the Mystical Body which mediates all the grace that is given by Christ as the Head. So, precisely as a fruit of grace, preaching is necessarily related to ecclesial awareness. Doctrine ensures that preaching does not fall short of its true dimensions which expresses the biblical revelation, the faith of the Church. Preaching about the lives of the saints is a partial exception to these principles - every saint throws light on some aspect of the mystery of Christ and the Church - and provides the subject matter of the first volume of Year of the Lord's Favour. The second, third, and fourth volumes of the Homiliary cover between them the Temporal Cycle of the Church of the Roman rite: the second volume furnishes texts for the Privileged Seasons - Advent, Christmastide, Lent and Eastertide; the third for Sundays through the Year; the fourth for Weekdays through the Year.

Investigates Balthasar's early explorations of music and the other arts, before launching into a ramifying but controlled survey of his interpretations of major philosophers and literary figures in the European tradition from the early modern period until the 1930s.

Sergei Bulgakov, born in Russia in 1871, was one of the principal Eastern theologians of the twentieth century. At the age of thirty he was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Kiev. After a crisis of faith, Bulgakov declared himself an unbeliever in 1888, but in a slow process he moved from Marxism to Idealism, and then from Idealism to a rediscovered Orthodoxy. By the time of the two Revolutions of 1917, Bulgakov was one of the best known Orthodox theologians in Russia. In 1918 he was ordained priest, and fled Moscow in danger of imminent arrest. Arriving in Paris in 1925 he was to live and work there until his death in 1944, his life inextricably bound up with the Russian theological institute, Saint-Serge, of which he was a founder member and subsequent professor, rector and dean.In this timely work, Aidan Nichols introduces the life and work of Bulgakov and provides a systematic presentation of his dogmatic theology.'The present book has appeared at exactly the right moment. Alike in Russia and in the West, we are witnessing a veritable "Bulgakov renaissance" . . . this is the first comprehensive and systematic survey of his theology in English.' Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia'As research on Bulgakov by Catholics and Protestants as well as Orthodox grows in volume, it is a great help to have this authoritative, comprehensive guide. I hope it will encourage further study and assimilation of one of the most searching and moving as well as one of the most complex of modern theological minds.' Dr Rowan Williams, Archibshop of CanterburyAidan Nichols, OP, is an English Dominican of Blackfriars, Cambridge. He has written thirty books, chiefly on aspects of Catholic theology and theological history, but also on Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism.

This study contributes to the revival of a more full-blooded Marian teaching and attempts to take the path set by ressourcement theology in recovering the robust voice of witness to Mary. Aidan Nichols, OP, works through the biblical, patristic, and medieval sources and introduces readers to the robust scriptural and theological bases for the Churchs celebration of Mary. He argues for the crucial relevance of Mary in the theological articulation of the gospel, the celebration and practice of the liturgy, and the sacramental life of the Church.

A comprehensive study of the theological significance of Paul Claudel, a poet frequently cited by literary-minded theologians in Europe and theologically-minded poets (such as von Balthasar, de Lubac and Eliot). It illuminates how Claudel's synthesis of many dimensions remains an important way of practising poetry in the Christian tradition.

This study is an introduction to Catholic theology designed both for the theological student and for the general reader willing to make a certain effort. After introducing the idea of theology adn the virtues desirable in the budding theologian, the bulk of the book falls intro the five sections: (1) the tole of philosophy in theology; (2) the use of the Bible in theology; (3) the resources of tradition, liturgy and sacred art; Fathers, Councils and Creeds; the sense of the faithful; (4) two 'aids to discernment in short history of Catholic theology from the New Testament to the present day. The conclusion considers the features of pluralism and unity which should typify Catholic theology as a whole and suggests how unity may avoid becoming uniformity without pluralism becoming anarchy.

The author at the centre of this study, Russian priest-theologian Nikolai Nikolaevich Afanas'ev, was perhaps the most influential thinker about the Church Russia has produced. In Aidan Nichols's careful evaluation, he emerges as a key figure in the rapprochement of Christian East and West, and most notably of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

Presents a chronological account of Joseph Ratzinger's theology in its development since the 1950s. This book offers reference to books and articles produced by Joseph Ratzinger between 1986/1987 and his election as Pope in 2005. It includes two chapters devoted to Ratzinger's writings on Judaism, Islam and other religions.