Bøger udgivet af The Catholic University of America Press

Metaphysics is not often spoken of as a venue for dialogue about any-thing, let alone culture or religion, which are more readily associated with phenomenology or hermeneutics in contemporary thinking. This collection of essays, however, by the late Boston College philosopher Oliva Blanchette, maintains the absolute necessity of metaphysics as a prerequisite for examining any particular 'realm of being, ' in all areas of human inquiry, from the particular sciences to historical cultures and re-ligions. Blanchette proposes metaphysics as a fundamental and necessary level of intelligence presupposed in any exercise of judgment, discourse, or dialogue, among rational beings. At the same time, he defends the idea that dialogue is the first and most fundamental form in which such rea-soning takes place in human experience, on a radically intersubjective level through language. Metaphysics is not an abstraction removed from human experience. Rather, it is a science in its own right defining itself in relation to 'being as being', its subject matter, as it depends on all the particular scienc-es and bodies of knowledge. Firmly standing on the ground of human experience, and on the human person as primary analogate of being, it opens up an entire realm of questioning that the particular sciences and bodies of knowledge, operating in functional separation, cannot pose on their own, especially when they take, in a reductionist fashion, their own object to be the prime analogate. Metaphysics, in fact, insinuates itself into each and every particular science in exploring its own subject matter of 'being as being' in the an-alogical sense, advancing to more and more complex stages of analogy through dialogue among different spirits and cultures, and reaching its terminus in the transcendent aspect of spirit and religion. In this sense, metaphysics has much to say to theologians: without metaphysics, theol-ogy reduces to mere superstition.

What does episcopal fraternity and communio look like? This central question is explored through the erudition and experience of Archbishop Anthony Fisher, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia. Unity in Christ, based upon a series of addresses given to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at their Special Assembly in 2022, delves into the themes associated with episcopal unity. By surveying the Christian tradition, beginning with the scriptures and then through various pe-riods (Apostolic generation, patristic, scholastic, Vatican II, recent post Vatican II developments such as synodality) a coherent picture of epis-copal togetherness is presented. What becomes clear is that unity among Christ's disciples and their successors is not simply an ideal but rather a constitutive element of their office. They are called to love as Christ loved, expressed above all through genuine friendship with one anoth-er. The consequences of this fraternity and communio have implications in areas such as spirituality, preaching and fraternal correction, among others. This second feature, the implications of episcopal fraternity and communio, are explored through Archbishop Fisher's twenty years of ex-perience as a bishop of the Catholic Church. By providing concrete exam-ples of lived episcopal fraternity and communio, Fisher offers a glimpse into both the challenges and fruits of living out Christ's call that 'they might all be one' (Jn 17:21).

The Benedictine Beda Mayr, OSB (1742-1794) was one of the main figures of the German Catholic Enlightenment. He was not only the first Cath-olic to wrestle with the challenges of Reimarus and Lessing, but also the first to develop an ecumenical methodology for a reunion of the church-es. The text, translated from the German original for the first time, pres-ents a theologian, who intentionally went to the margins of orthodoxy in order to allow for more interconfessional dialogue. Mayr argued that Catholic theology should follow minority opinions for unsettled dogmat-ic questions, which would allow for easier union agreements with Prot-estant churches. Moreover, he suggested limiting ecclesial infallibility to directly revealed truths, thereby reducing the authoritative truth claims of conciliar or papal decisions. Although the study of Catholic Enlightenment is booming among historians and theologians, too few texts are available in reliable trans-lations. A major strength of this edition is not only that its introduction introduces the reader to the colorful landscape of eighteenth-century theological discussions, but also presents the entire text of Mayr's book (with the exception of its appendix) thereby allowing the reader to see the strengths and weaknesses of Enlightenment ecumenism. Mayr's Limited Infallibility was put on the Index of Forbidden Books, on which it remained until the 20th Century. It invites readers to a modern, non-scholastic way of theologizing for the sake of Christian unity.

Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629) is one of the foremost personalities of early modern Catholicism. As the founder of the "French school" of spiritual-ity, he has exercised a profound influence on the Church from the sev-enteenth century to the present day. Until now, however, very little of Bérulle's writings have been available in English. This volume provides the first complete English translation of his best-known work, first print-ed in Paris in 1623 and titled Discourses on the State and Grandeurs of Jesus, by the Ineffable Union of the Deity with Humanity, and the Submission and Servitude that Is Due Him and His Most Holy Mother in Response to This Wondrous State. Composed in his maturity, this work expresses Bérulle's theology of the Man-God, whose self-emptying has enabled us to become "capable" of God. In contrast to other spiritual writers who taught that mystical union with God follows the extinction of all sensory and conceptual awareness and all activity of willing, Bérulle's focus is on the faithful soul's partic-ipation in what he calls Jesus' "states," or inner dispositions. The state that Bérulle describes and honors supremely in this text is Jesus' state of self-emptying in the mystery of the Incarnation. In the hypostatic union, our humanity in Christ is lifted up to heaven, and Christ is the first fruit of humanity-made-divine, the "firstborn among many broth-ers." Through him we become children of God by adoption, participants in God's divine being. This is an outstanding translation, conveying not only the meaning but also the beauty and rhetorical features of the original. The Discourses will repay reading as a poignant source of personal devotion, a primary text of the Catholic Reformation, and a classic of spiritual theology.

In his monumental On Justice and Rights, the Jesuit Luis de Molina (1535- 1600) discussed the legal and ethical aspects of the Portuguese trade in African and Asian enslaved persons. Molina surveys, develops, and prob-lematizes the criteria necessary for the legitimate possession, sale, and purchase of human freedom. He insists that, even under legally valid slav-ery, persons who have sold or lost their freedom have inalienable rights as human beings, such as the freedom to make contracts, to marry, and even, under certain circumstances, to sue their owners in court. Molina also devotes attention to the ways in which slavery could be ended and whether and under what circumstances slaves had the right to escape from their owners. Well informed about the political structures and cus-toms of many peoples in Africa, as well as Japan, China, and India, Molina paints a vivid and detailed picture of Portuguese trade. He gives specific accounts of the origins and development of the slave trade, region by re-gion, and of the nature of the relationship between local rulers and the Portuguese kingdom. In doing so, he carefully describes the deception, coercion, and general indifference that pervades this trade regarding the rights to freedom of these people. It also attempts to identify the political, ecclesiastical, and market agents involved in this great injustice and their varying degrees of culpability. While Molina does not condemn slavery as a legal institution, the deeply flawed and even immoral behavior of sellers, buyers, regulators, and political rulers both in Portugal and in the slave-supplying regions that Molina denounces casts a heavy shadow on the morality of the trade.

Edith Stein's life and thought intersect with many important movements of life and thought in the twentieth century. Through her life and even-tual martyrdom, she gave witness to the primacy of truth and faith in the face of political totalitarianism, and in her philosophical works, she con-tributed to a synthesis of phenomenological thought with the thought of Aquinas, while also progressively advancing a compelling form of philosophical personalism. As a result, Stein represents one of the most important Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century and is a figure of growing fascination and devotion among believers and nonbelievers alike. The Personalism of Edith Stein is an investigation of Stein's mature phil-osophical anthropology, exploring her engagement with the thought of Aquinas and Thomism while maintaining the phenomenological mode of investigation. Through a careful examination of Stein's later works un-der the themes of human nature, the human individual, and the human being's relation to God, McNamara shows that Stein's mature personal-ism is considerably expanded and substantiated by her assimilation of key anthropological and metaphysical teachings of Aquinas and Thom-ism, and, conversely, that Stein significantly develops and deepens these same teachings through a phenomenological reconsideration of each from a personalist perspective. As a whole, the study reveals the profound accord between Stein's mature thought and the received teachings of Aquinas, while yet care-fully attending to the remaining differences between them. Ultimately, the author proposes that Stein imbues the teachings of Aquinas with a fundamental personalization such that her mature anthropology can be understood as a Thomistically informed personalism which represents a significant, original contribution to the anthropological dimension of the philosophia perennis.

Most of the literature concerning the momentous challenges facing Irish American Catholics in the first two decades of the twentieth century pay but scant attention to the role played in addressing them by the American Church. Among the myriad political, social, cultural and economic issues confronting Irish American Catholics none stand out as prominently as the unabated burden of combatting scurrilous attacks upon them by na-tivist forces, the task of proving themselves as loyal American citizens, and navigating the perilous waves in advancing the course of directing Irish American nationalism and the cause of Ireland's freedom. Patriotism is a Catholic Virtue ferrets out the impact the institutional Church played in affecting the course of action Irish American Catholics took regarding these three crucial missions. Whereas the task of con-fronting the assaults of nativism, seemingly the natural task for the insti-tutional Church, this study provides extensive evidence of the relentless defense of Catholic virtue conducted by diocesan newspapers. Similarly, the mission of promoting Catholics as loyal American citizens was largely left in the hands of the American hierarchy, its clergy, newspapers and Catholic societies and affiliates. Lastly, this book provides evidence that the Church may well have played the decisive role in guiding its Irish American faithful along paths that, while conservatively promoting Irish nationalism, did not jeopardize an "American First" policy for Catholics. All of this was accomplished in the crucible of an emerging worldwide war.

This monograph encompasses the first critical edition, translation, and historical study of a series of lectures from the cathedral school of No-tre-Dame, Peter Comestor's Glosses on the Glossed Gospel of John. Deliv-ered in Paris in the mid-1150s, Comestor's expansive lecture course on the Glossa ordinaria on the Gospel of John has survived in no fewer than seventeen manuscript witnesses, being preserved in the form of contin-uous transcripts taken in shorthand by a student-reporter (reportationes). The editor has selected the fifteen best witnesses to produce a critical edition and translation of the first chapter of Comestor's lectures on the Gospel of John. In addition to the text of the original lectures, the edition includes appendices containing accretions to the lecture materials added by Comestor and his students, as well as the corresponding text of the Glossa ordinaria from which Comestor lectured. The Latin text and translation of Peter Comestor's lectures are pre-ceded by a wide-ranging critical study of the historical and intellectual context of Peter Comestor's biblical teaching. This study begins with an outline of Comestor's scholastic career and known works, with a detailed introduction to his Gospel lectures and the relevant historiography. Sub-sequently, a survey is made of the intellectual landscape of Comestor's lectures: namely, the tradition of biblical teaching originating at the School of Laon, preserved in the Glossa ordinaria, and developed in the classroom by Peter Lombard and a succession of Parisian masters, nota-bly Comestor himself. The following section examines the portion of the lectures presented in this book, encompassing an overview of its contents and structure, a description of Comestor's teaching method and scholas-tic setting, a study of the text's sources, and a consideration of Comestor's participation and reception in the scholastic tradition. The final chapters contain a careful description of the manuscripts and editorial principles adopted in the Latin edition and translation.

In this volume, Fr. Francis Quoëx responds to Joseph Ratzinger's call for a renewed appreciation of liturgical rite. A student of Pierre Gy, OP, he brings to this study of Aquinas's liturgical theology a rare combination of expert knowledge of liturgical sources and history and the best of mod-ern historical-critical research guided by sound theological judgment. Fr. Quoëx frames his study with an overview of the problem of rite in modern theological-anthropological discourse, before turning to Aqui-nas' theory of worship in the treatise on the virtue of religion. He then explores Aquinas' doctrine on the cultic dimensions of the Eucharist and other sacraments in his sacramental theology more broadly, finishing with a close study of the mass commentary of the Tertia Pars Although there has been increasing attention to Thomas's treatment of religion as a virtue, none have approached him from an anthropolog-ical angle with a focus on the nature of liturgical rite, or fully exploited the perspectives of liturgical scholarship to shed light on sacramental theology. Quoëx's work, as the work of a Thomist, liturgist, and medi-evalist well versed in medieval liturgical development and in the genre of often-allegorical liturgical commentary, opens up this crucial but ne-glected facet of Aquinas' theological synthesis. Few books have been pub-lished on Aquinas's liturgical theology. Now that interest in Aquinas's vir-tue theory and sacramental theology is growing rapidly, Quoëx's studies are an invitation to further reflection on the topic of Aquinas's liturgical theology with its manifold ramifications for and connections with other theological topics in his Summa, including his theological anthropology, his soteriology, his treatment of the Old and New Laws, and his account of the virtue of religion in connection with the other virtues.

Venerable Fulton Sheen once famously said that "There are not one hun-dred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be - which is, of course, quite a different thing." What is the true under-standing of the mystery of the Church? In Lumen Gentium, the Church famously identifies herself as the sacrament of salvation, and various at-tempts have been made at developing an ecclesiology rooted in this idea. Another approach, nevertheless, prominent in the opening chapter of Lumen Gentium, is the relation of the Church to the Trinity in light of the divine missions, especially those of the Incarnation and Pentecost. Trinitarian Ecclesiology is an example of this approach to the mystery of the Church that places the divine missions at the head and the heart of the work. The order of Journet's work is based on the four causes of the Church. Journet situates the treatise on the hierarchy in its proper place as belonging to the efficient cause of the Church in order to treat the more central mystery of the Church in her formal and material causes, namely the sanctifying gift of fully Christic charity and its visible man-ifestation. While Journet's magisterial work may already be identified as a Trin-itarian Ecclesiology, recent research into the Trinitarian theology of St. Thomas Aquinas has deepened our understanding of his teaching, par-ticularly in the way that creatures can relate to the divine persons in the divine missions. With a clearer understanding of the relation of creatures to the divine persons rooted in grace and its effects, a deeper vision of the mystery of the Church emerges, one that sees the Church as the visible mission of the Holy Spirit, inseparably joined with the visible mission of the Son in the Incarnation. The Great Mystery of Christ and the Church is the unity of the visible missions of the Son and the Spirit who have been sent into the world for our salvation.

The Development of Dogma examines the nature of dogmatic statements and the causes of development. It devotes particular attention to the emergence of the form of dogmatic statements at the Council of Nicaea, but notes how this form is anticipated in the New Testament. It situates dogma and its development within the matrix of the great fundamental theological realities of Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium. Fr. Mansini examines at some length how the Church comes to recognize a develop-ment as a genuine development rather than as a distortion of the word of God. The Development of Dogma is especially valuable today for its discus-sion and defense of the philosophical presuppositions of dogma, which are often simply presupposed but should not be ignored in a complete account of development. These presuppositions touch on fundamental philosophical issues, including the nature of knowledge, the objectivity and trustworthiness of names, and the various logical forms employed in understanding how development is related to a closed revelation. The historicity of human knowledge is also addressed, and the role of dogma itself in heading off the extreme relativism the historical nature of man is supposed to imply for ecclesial faith and life. The Church's dogma about dogma enunciated at the First Vatican Council is also examined. The role of certain fundamental concepts in understanding the possibility of the irreformability of dogma it speaks of is expressly addressed--concepts in principle accessible to all human beings and that enable a trans-cultural, trans-temporal proposal and reception of revealed truth.

This volume is a tribute to Fr. John F. Wippel. Following the philosoph-ical order that Aquinas might have adopted "had he chosen to write a Summa metaphysicae"--an order that Wippel himself lays out in his Meta-physical Thought of Thomas Aquinas--these essays unfold new research on some of the most intriguing topics in Aquinas's metaphysics, from the most recent generation of scholars formed by Wippel's pioneering work. The contributors address the discovery of being qua being via sepa-ration (Gregory T. Doolan), propter quid metaphysical demonstrations (Philip Neri Reese), the origins of the controversies about the real distinc-tion between essence and esse (Mark Gossiaux), a defense of essence-re-alism as a key to the real distinction (David Twetten), the relationship of likeness and agency (Therese Scarpelli Cory), created form as act and potency (Stephen Brock), the variation of accidental forms (Gloria Frost), the possibility of angelic judgment (Francis Feingold), argumentation for the existence of God (Gaven Kerr), the propriety of "Qui Est" as a Divine Name (Brian Carl), 'Beauty' as a Divine Name (Michael Rubin), and God's application of creaturely powers to action (Jason Mitchell).

Cypres doctrine, which allows the purpose of a failing or impractical charitable gift to be changed, has been understood since the eighteenth century as a medieval canon law principle, derived from Roman law, to rescue souls by making good their last charitable intentions. The Uses of the Dead offers an alternate origin story for this judicial power, grounded in modern, secular concerns.

The time is ripe for renewed reflection about the American political tradition. This volume reintroduces readers to the conservative tradition of political and constitutional discourse. It brings together prominent political scientists and legal scholars, all of whom were influenced by the work of the eminent constitutional scholar George Carey.

Presents transcripts of KGB records concerning the policies of the Soviet secret police towards the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the Communist world, transcripts provided by KGB archivist and defector Vasili Mitrokhin, from the Second Vatican Council to the election of John Paul II.

"Makes a distinctive contribution to the field of family ethics...This clearly written and engaging text will provoke discussion in the classroom and among scholars of virtue ethics, as it challenges widely held theological claims about marriage and understandings of the good life." - Theological Studies

For those interested in careful, sober scholarship on the Subtle Doctor's treatment of semantic and logical issues connected with both Being and Time, Buckner and Zupko's translation and commentary will reward continual consultation.-History and Philosophy of Logic

Father Ignacio Gordon, SJ, taught canon law from 1960 until 1985 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, with a concentration on procedural law. Father Gordon's contribution to the question of ecclesiastical administrative justice was among those leading the novel and dynamic discussion about it in the 1960s and 1970s.

Focuses on a Greek text that was likely compiled in Constantinople, in 1105, for use in one of the monasteries located there. The book consists of a liturgical psalter, containing the fixed structure (the ordinary) in both the Greek original and in English translation, as well as a description of the hours themselves.