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This volume concludes the series of Peter Damian's Letters in English translation. Among Letters 151-180 readers will find some of Damian's most passionate exhortations on behalf of eremitic ideals. These include Letter 152, in which Damian defends as consistent with the spirit and the letter of Benedict's Rule his practice of receiving into the eremitic life monks who had abandoned their cenobitic communities. In Letter 153 Damian encourages monks at Pomposa to pass beyond the minimum standards established in the Rule of St. Benedict for the higher and more demanding eremitic vocation. In Letter 165, addressed to a hermit, Albizo, and a monk, Peter, Damian reveals as well the importance of monastic life to the world: because the integrity of the monastic profession has weakened, the world has fallen even deeper into an abyss of sin and corruption and is rushing headlong to destruction. Let monks and hermits take refuge within the walls of the monastery, he urges, while outside the advent of Antichrist seems imminent. Only from within their walls can they project proper examples of piety and sanctity that may transform the world as a whole. Damian was equally concerned to address the moral condition of the larger Church. Letter 162 represents the last of Damian's four tracts condemning clerical marriage (Nicolaitism). Damian's condemnation of Nicolaitism also informed his rejection of Cadalus, the antipope Honorius II (see Letters 154 and 156), who was said to support clerical marriage, and therefore cast him into the center of a storm of ecclesiastical (and imperial) politics from which Damian never completely extricated himself.

Abbo of Fleury was a prominent churchman of late tenth-century France - abbot of a major monastery, leader in the revival of learning in France and England, and the subject of a serious work of hagiography. This book presents a picture of this multifaceted man with an emphasis on his political alliances.

[O]ne finds precise and detailed analyses of some of the most important notions and principles in Aquinass metaphysics. . . . It presents a very careful and comprehensive explication of Aquinass texts on truth. . . . With this fine collection of essays John Wippel has once again put scholars of medieval philosophy in his debt. Specialists will find much to profit from in these essays; students new to the field will find in them a reliable and trustworthy guide to Aquinass metaphysical thought.Review of Metaphysics

Provies a major interpretive study of Heidegger's complex relationship to medieval philosophy. S. J. McGrath's contribution is historical and biographical as well as philosophical, examining how the enthusiastic defender of the Aristotelian-Scholastic tradition became the great destroyer of metaphysical theology.

In The Gods of Revolution, Christopher Dawson brought to bear, as Glanmor Williams said, "his brilliantly perceptive powers of analysis on the French Revolution.... In so doing he reversed the trends of recent historiography which has concentrated primarily on examining the social and economic context of that great upheaval."

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. This volume contains books 1, 2, 6, and 10, and fragments of books 4 and 5.

This revised edition presents the history of the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 15th century, not merely in terms of political events, but also through the art, literature, and thought of Byzantine society. It emphasizes the constant tension between continuity and change.

The Catholic and Manichaean Ways of Life is, like the Contra academicos (386) and the works of St. Augustine's later life against the Donatists and other heretics, the refutation of a redoubtable adversary whom he is determined to overthrow for the protection of his fellow Christians. Even a rapid glance at its contents is sufficient to show its character as a polemical work in which he contrasts one religious view of God, man and the world with another. In the first book, we are provided with a treatise on Christian morality, written, we must always bear in mind, by one received into the Church not two years before. It establishes that God is the Supreme Good. It shows the meaning of unions with him in charity. It explains the four cardinal virtues in terms of love, and particularly in terms of the love of God. Finally, it holds up for our admiration and emulation the Christian virtues of the religious, clergy, and laity. The way of life of the Catholic Church thus portrayed by Augustine embodies in his view a lofty ideal, but one that is livable by individuals in all states of life and in various stages of progress in virtue. The second book describes and refutes the teaching of the Manichaeans on the nature and origin of evil, their false ascetical practices, and their doctrines concerning the three symbols of the mouth, the hands, and the breast. In conclusion, Augustine denounces, on the basis of personal knowledge of first-hand reports, the scandalous conduct of the members of the Manichaean elect. Throughout this book, he is concerned, nor merely to expose the errors and excesses of the sect, including the shameful behavior and hypocrisy of certain of its leaders, but the absurdities and even depravity to which men are led by a way of life that is essentially unlivable. Whatever may be claimed for the austerities of the more sincere and ascetic members of the Manichaean sect, a religion that corrodes human nature and castigates its natural functioning as evil, cannot be good. Such is St. Augustine's ultimate judgment upon Manichaeanism, and he expresses it with eloquence and invective.

Working with more than one thousand unpublished autobiographical pages written by key rescuers, and with documents, letters, and interviews never before available, Patrick Henry reconsiders the Holocaust rescue of Jews on the plateau of Vivarais-Lignon between the years 1939 and 1944. Henry also carefully examines the general research of the last quarter century on rescue in that area of France.

Presents an examination of the philosophic recovery of the notion of participation in Thomistic metaphysics. This book explains Thomas' theological understanding of the notion of participation to show how humans are related to God.

In the autumn of A.D. 388, St. Augustine returned from Italy to northern Africa. Here in his native Thagaste he assembled a monastic community. When the brethren found their leader Augustine in a rare moment of leisure, they had no misgivings about putting questions to him on a variety of topics which he answered from the store of his vast knowledge. These questions together with the answers were later collected and assembled in a random order (ractions ). The English translation presented here affords the reader a rare opportunity to glimpse some of the topics that interested members of a community that eventually gave the early Church four bishops: Alypius of Thagaste, Severus of Milevis, Profuturus of Citra, and Possidius of Calama. Even though St. Augustine intended no specific sequence in this collection, four broad categories in the question and answer literary form are discernible. One category serves as Christian apologetic, e.g., against Arian and Manichaean errors. The second presents Augustine in the role of exegete of selected passages from both the Old and New Testaments. The third and fourth categories, containing the greater number of questions and answers, show Augustine the philosopher and theologian, a person of towering intellectual stature in western Christianity and one of the important "Founders of the Middle Ages." Though formulated between the years A.D. 388 and 395/97 and presented from the viewpoint of Neoplatonists, many topics, e.g., the cause of evil, sin and freewill, still have great relevance for the modern reader.

The present volume completes the presentation of the homiletic works of Caesarius begun in 1956. Following upon the "Admonitions" and the sermons on Scripture contained in the first two volumes, Volume III presents the seasonal sermons, those on feasts of saints, and six addressed to monks. There is added the translation of a sermon published in 1953 and known only by title to Dom G. Morin, upon whose edition (1937-1942) these volumes are based. An Appendix supplies additional notes relating to the sources of the sermons contained in Volumes I and II, as well as the Indices to all three volumes.As in the translation contained in Volumes I and II (FC 31, 47) moral counsel predominates. The sermons preached to the monks show a Caesarius who accommodates to those especially dedicated Christians an appeal for the avoidance of vices and the pursuit of virtue that more commonly he directs to layfolk. His fervid exhortation is not without its message to those men and women of today who will hear it.

Tertullian is a primary source for a modern understanding of the issues that once confronted - and still confront - Christians living in a non-Christian world. This volume undertakes a judicious pruning of the original texts and brings an accessibility to the important writings of Tertullian.

How can Christians both value their own faith and express their convictions about Christianity yet simultaneously respect the faith of other religions? J.A. DiNoia starts from the conviction that no answers can be forthcoming unless one acknowledges the profound differences among religions.

Religion and Culture was first presented by historian Christopher Dawson

Titus Flavius Clemens Alexandrinus (ca. A.D. 150-215) wrote the Stromateis, possibly the third work in his trilogy--the Protrepticus, the Paedagogus, and the Stromateis--to direct Christian Gnostics toward the third stage of philosophy--gnosis. For Clement the only true gnosis was that which presupposed the faith of the Church, that is, apostolic and divinely revealed. But for Clement the ideas of Greek philosophy were also a divine gift to mankind. All of his writings reflect this reconciliation of faith and knowledge.The full title of the Stromateis is Miscellanies of Notes of Revealed Knowledge in Accordance with the True Philosophy, and the word stromateis itself means a kind of patchwork quilt. Clement describes the work as a somewhat unorganized collection of flowers or trees that have grown together naturally. Of the eight books some are fragmented or incomplete, but all show Clement as philosopher, theologian, and biblical commentator.Books One to Three in this volume all revolve around the relation of Christian faith to Greek philosophy. In Book One Clement defends a philosophy as given by God, a "preparation paving the way for him who is perfect in Christ" (Strom. 1.5.28). In Book Two he defends faith against the philosophers as the way to truth. Book Three explores the question of Christian marriage or true gnosis, while refuting the religious and moral principles of the false gnosis, that is, fornication and adultery. Within this book is a unique and beautiful exposition of "two or three gathered together" as husband, wife, and child.Books One to Three of the Stromateis establish Clement's fundamental theology--a harmony of faith and knowledge that places Greek philosophy at the service of faith, which is, to Clement, more important than knowledge. Articulated in allegorical exegesis rather than literal interpretation, this interplay of philosophy and religion was the hallmark of the School of Alexandria. There Clement studied with Pantaenus and succeeded him as head of the school of catechumens. In order to establish the persecution of Septimius Severus, he took refuge in Cappadocia, where he died in A.D. 215, leaving his vast writings, his firmly held tenet that Greek philosophy and faith were not irreconcilable, and his method of allegorical interpretation to his student Origen, who formed it into a system.Clement's works, however, remain for scholars today the first examples of Christian scholarship--writings that harmonize Christian doctrine and secular philosophy--enriched by his own comprehensive knowledge of early Christian literature and secular education. This is the first English translation based on the new critical editions in SC (1951) and GCS (1972).

"[A] distinguished contribution. . . Hill brings a remarkable breadth of scholarship to his historical overview of classical Trinitarian theology. He reviews the biblical sources for the doctrine, traces its gradual development among the Latin and Greek fathers, and analyzes carefully the Trinitarian theology of Augustine and Aquinas."--The Journal of ReligionAmong the doctrines and symbols of Christianity perhaps none has been as subject to theological neglect as that of the Trinity. Recently, however, there have been stirrings in the theological world seeking to remedy this neglect. The present volume, a historical and systematic investigation of the doctrine of the Trinity, is intended as one contribution to this renewed theological discussion of the trinity of God. In the first part, the author examines the New Testament matrix of an emerging trinitarianism, the shaping of the tradition by the Greek fathers, and the systematization of the doctrinein Augustine and medieval Scholasticism. The second part explores the post-Enlightenment understanding of the Trinity in Schleiermacher and Hegel and the twentieth-century interpretation of Barth, Tillich, Rahner, Pannenberg, Moltmann, Muhlen, Whitehead, and others.The historical and critical parts lay the foundation for the third part of this study, a contemporary reinterpretation of the Trinity which complements Aquinas's metaphysical concept of "person" with psychological and subjective dimensions brought out by contemporary thinkers. The result of the rethinking of the Trinity is an understanding of God not as self-enclosed Absolute but as self-communicating personal deity. William J. Hill, O.P., is Professor Emeritus of Theology at The Catholic University of America. He received his S.T.D. degree from the University of St. Thomas (Angelicum), Rome, and has taught at the Dominican House of Studies of Washington, D.C. He has written numerous articles on theology and religion, and is author of Knowing the Unknown God.

Dedicated to medieval canon law expert Kenneth Pennington, this work discusses the contribution of medieval church law to the origins of the western legal tradition. Subdivided into four topical categories, these essays cover the entire range of the history of medieval canon law from the sixth to the sixteenth century.

Augustine's Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees and On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book represent the first two of five explanations of the beginning of the Book of Genesis that he undertook between 388 and 418. In the first, a commentary on Genesis 1-3, Augustine counters the ignorant and impious attacks against Scripture by the Manichees, with whom he was a "hearer" for nine years. The second would have been a hexaemeron, a commentary on the six days of creation, but, as Augustine admits, his inexperience in scriptural exegesis collapsed under the weight of the burden, "and before I finished one book, I gave up the labor that I could not sustain."Although Augustine agrees that many things in Scripture may seem absurd to the unlearned, he holds that they can produce great pleasures once they have been explained. It was this tenet, realized in his spiritual rather than corporeal interpretation of Scripture, that led him to counter the impious attacks the Manichees used to attract those who sought a more intellectual understanding of God over and against an anthropomorphic view. Augustine's brilliant assimilation of Christian revelation and the intellectual faith of the Neoplatonic circle around Ambrose in Milan gave rise to his "spiritual" interpretation of Genesis 1-3 in the Two Books on Genesis against the Manichees. In On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis: An Unfinished Book, Augustine succeeds in presenting an ad litteram interpretation for twenty-five verses before arriving at the difficult verse on man's having been made to God's image and likeness. At this point he breaks off because, in the words of John O'Meara, "it either tended to blasphemy or could not be reconciled with the Catholic faith." Perhaps because he later writes that he considers his literal attempt to interpret Genesis a failure, the texts herein translated have become today, in light of modern scriptural studies, fascinating and invaluable examples of Augustine's developing thought on significant philosophical and theological issues in the interpretation of Genesis.

Presenting a commentary on the Octateuch, this work adopts the format of question and answer. It allows the expositor to focus attention on particularly challenging passages that could give rise to misunderstanding.

St. Augustine (354-430), greatest of the Church Fathers, continues to exercise a unique and profound influence upon the intellectual history of the West after more than fifteen hundred years. Pioneer in the theology of Grace and in a psychological understanding of the Trinity, his impact upon subsequent theological speculation, Protestant as well as Catholic, has been unrivaled. The timeless and timely character of his teaching is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the documents of the Second Vatican Council where the African Bishop is cited more frequently than any other Father or Doctor of the Church. "Founder of Christian philosophy", his principles and method have largely inspired the rise of such diversified currents of contemporary thought as existentialism, philosophic spiritualism, and personalism. The three works included in the present volume range over a period of some forty years, from Augustine's days as a neo-convert and priest to the closing years of his life as Bishop, and offer representative examples of his rich and versatile genius as Christian pedagogue, philosopher, and theologian.

This volume offers a comprehensive portrait of St. Augustine (354-430) drawn from the breadth of his writings and from the long course of his career. One chapter is devoted to each of his masterpieces (Confessions, On the Trinity, and City of God) and one