William Short summs up the Franciscan tradition as 'chaotic and intuitive, creative and affectionate, radical and obedient', and shows it to be as appealing a way of life today as in the past. He focuses on St Francis of Assisi and St Clare, the Franciscan founders, offers an historical introduction to the Order before illuminating their vision and reflects on key themes of the Incarnation, poverty as a way to God, suffering and healing, and of creation - humanity and nature in harmony. The book forms a bridge between contempoary concerns and the wisdom of the past.

These diary entries written by Dorothy Day in 1948 provide an intimate look into Day's personal life as well as essential background for understanding the Catholic Worker movement, which she founded. In this book, Day writes about all facets of her life. Yet whether describing her visits to her daughter's farm or the writings of the saints, a common theme emerges, namely, the gifts of God's love and our need to respond to them with personal and social transformation. The concerns of the Catholic Worker movement are no less vital in our day: the disenfranchised poor, the benefits of the meaningful work, the significance of family, the dangers of increasing commercialism and secularism, the decline of moral standards, and the importance of faith. Available for the first time since it was originally published, this edition includes a foreword by Michael O. Garvey and an introduction by Mark and Louise Zwick that gives an overview of Day's early life and her commitment to the Catholic worker movement.

Jesuits traces the growth of the Society of Jesus into Christendoms most powerful order. This multibiography is history with a human face, a story of remarkable individuals who flourished and struggled through changing times into the modern age. In this magisterial account, Jean Lacouture portrays the sweep of five hundred years of world history, from the dungeons of the Vatican to the jungles of South America to the royal courts of Europe and Asia. Jesuits: A Multibiography is history with a human face, the fascinating tales of men of the spirit who participated in the actions and passions of the modern world, a world bursting its seams. Be all things to all men, said the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola, to his followers. Go and set the world ablaze! The often picaresque story takes us to the Paris of Rabelais, where Ignatius, with a handful of his fellow students, formed what would become the Society of Jesus. We follow Francis Xavier to Japan and Matteo Ricci to China. We watch as the Society grows into Christendom's most powerful order, and as the Black Legend of a calculating, Machiavellian Jesuitry leads to its abolition in 1773 (it was restored forty years later). We see the great characters of history and culturePascal, Voltaire, Frederick the Great, Catherine the Greatplay their parts. One of Jean Lacouture's most poignant portraits is of the twentieth century's most famous and beloved Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a scientist-priest whose humanistic conclusions put him at odds with the Church. Lacouture's wide-ranging narrative illuminates Pope John XXIII's reforms and the Jesuit-inspired liberation theology movements in Central and South America. With the papacy of John Paul II, a riveting drama unfolds as the Jesuits are brought under new constraints.

After living the Rule and studying it for many years, the author introduces it to those who are encountering it for the first time. The relationship of Benedict's Rule to other early monastic legislation is treated thoroughly but the book is designed for those who are seeking a guide for christian living in this little rule for beginners'.

25 presentations on the spiritual life, with four major talks by H.H. the Dalai Lama.>

Made doubly marginal by their gender and by their religion, American nuns have rarely been granted serious scholarly attention. Instead, their lives and achievements have been obscured by myths or distorted by stereotypes. Placing nuns into the mainstream of American religious and women's history for the first time, Spirited Lives reveals their critical impact on the development of Catholic culture and, ultimately, the building of American society. Focusing on the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, one of the largest and most diverse American sisterhoods, Carol Coburn and Martha Smith explore how nuns directly influenced the lives of millions of Americans, both Catholic and non-Catholic, through their work in schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other social service institutions. Far from functioning as passive handmaidens for Catholic clergy and parishes, nuns created, financed, and administered these institutions, struggling with, and at times resisting, male secular and clerical authority. A rich and multifaceted narrative, Spirited Lives illuminates the intersection of gender, religion, and power in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. |Reveals the critical impact of nuns on the development of Catholic culture and American society between 1836 and 1940. Focusing on the sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet, this book shows how nuns directly influenced millions of Americans through their work in schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other social service institutions.

Since they seem to require a very centralized conception of the Church and its administration, the decrees of Vatican I are often taken to pose problems both for ecumenical dialogue and for discussion within the Catholic Church. Hermann Pottmeyer, however, shows that the centralist interpretation of Vatican I is neither the binding nor the correct interpretation. He undertakes a careful examination both of the historical conditions that gave rise to the conception of the pope as an absolute monarch and of the Council documents themselves. Moreover, in the documents of Vatican II he finds the foundation for a vision of papal ministry understood within the context of a Church conceived in terms of "communion." This ecclesiology of communion formulated at Vatican II, taken together with a correct interpretation of the teachings of Vatican I, points the way beyond a centralist understanding of the papacy and offers the framework for a new dialogue on papal primacy.

Contributors to this volume, all members of the Princeton Theological Seminary faculty, address the various exegetical, interpretive, and practical issues pertaining to the issue of homosexuality in the church. These include the ordination of homosexuals and the blessing of homosexual unions, as well as broader issues dealing with liturgical and theological language about God and the role of the church in a pluralistic society. The contributors speak of these various issues as theological educators, ministers, and committed Christians. They ask, What do the scriptures say about homosexuality and related issues? How should the scriptures inform our theological reflection? and How do we live faithfully in regard to this matter? And like the Christian community at large, the contributors are not of one mind on any of these issues; many times they are in considerable disagreement. Homosexuality and Christian Community will help to guide churches and individuals engaged in theological reflection about the place of homosexuals in the church.

In What to Expect in Seminary, Virginia Samuel Cetuk looks at the various facets of theological education -- the call to ministry, classroom learning, community life, field education, financial realities, time-management challenges -- through the lens of spiritual formation. In each chapter she challenges readers to view the particular topic as an avenue to spiritual growth instead of as an obstacle to the same. Offering readers the conceptual tool of reframing, she draws upon psychology, Scripture, and her many years' experiences in theological education to help readers see both the challenges and the rich opportunities of theological education related to ministry and spiritual formation.

The rich and varied heritage of Dominican spirituality is here portrayed in the lives and teaching of three outstanding reprentatives - the positive way of Thomas Aquinas, the negative way of Meister Eckhart and the mystical-prophetic way of Catherine of Siena. By concentrating on these figures, who perhaps most clearly embody the outstanding features of Dominican spirituality, Richard Woods makes the lives and contibutions of their many sisters and brothers stand out in sharper relief.

Inspiring moments in Franciscan life where everything is transformed.

This important new book covers the time between Paul's conversion in Damascus and his arrival in Antioch, set against a detailed background of the early Christian world, the church in Damascus to which Paul was introduced on his conversion, the methods of the first Christian mission, the situation in Arabia during Paul's first mission, the mission territory in Tarsus and Cilicia to which he then moved, and the nature of the church in Antioch. Martin Hengel once more challenges the overly skeptical assessments of the New Testament record and provides powerful support for his position on Paul.

Now available in paperback, Tracy K'Meyer's book is a thoughtful and engaging portrait of Koinonia Farm, an interracial Christian cooperative founded in 1942 by two white Baptist ministers in southwest Georgia. The farm was begun as an expression of radical southern Protestantism, and its interracial nature made it a beacon to early civil rights activists, who rallied to its defense and helped it survive attacks from the Ku Klux Klan and others.

Based on over fifty interviews with current and former Koinonia members, K'Meyer's book provides a history, of the farm during its period of greatest influence. K'Meyer outlines the conceptual flaws that have troubled the community, but she finds that Koinonia's enduring effect as a social movement -- including Millard Fuller's founding of Habitat for Humanity, prompted by a 1965 visit to the farm -- is far more meaningful than its internal conflicts. For anyone in search of a hardy strain of Christian progressivism in the Bible Belt, reading K'Meyer's book is an inspiring and intellectually fulfilling experience in its own right.

John Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, challenges the church to have an impact on the community at large. Drawing from his experience at Fourth Presbyterian, he explores the specific ways the church intersects the life of the community. He vigorously affirms the Reformed tradition's unique strengths and heritage, as well as its ongoing relevance in today's world. To Buchanan, mainline churches have an obligation to be in the world, and their effectiveness requires that they not abandon their traditions. Churches need to steer a course that allows them both the ability to maintain a singular way in the world and a creative response to questions of meaning, hope, vocation, and values.

Impelling Spirit is a book about Jesuit spirituality as seen in its origins. As such it responds to the challenge of Vatican II that the appropriate renewal of religious life demands a return to the sources of Christian life and the spirit and aims of the founders of an institute. The instrument the author employs is a 1539 document Ignatius and his companions drafted for Pope Paul III as an apostolic letter addressed to themselves; this document - long neglected and largely unknown - clearly reveals how they understood themselves and their way of life. It demonstrates that the spirit and aims of the Society, though radical in 1539, were also deeply rooted in the Christian tradition.

The Irish temperament--individualistic, poetic, and deeply loyal to family--produced great and learned saints and a unique monastic literature before the Norman Invasion. The isolation of the island allowed the development of traditions different from those of either Britain or the continent. These graceful translations of Irish monastic rules and spiritual maxims, along with samples of Irish litanies and poetry from the early Celtic monastic world, convey the spirituality of the Isle of Saints from the sixth to eighth centuries. This book will be warmly welcomed not only by academics and monastics but also by those many lay people who are increasingly looking to Celtic Christianity to deepen their own faith and prayer. It makes accessible a whole range of important material from monastic rules to short poetic quatrains nd those magnificent litanies which still have the power to move us deeply. This is a book which will touch a wide readership at many different levels.

A Monk's Confession is the first completely new English translation of Guibert of Nogent's remarkable memoirs in over seventy years. Written around the year 1115, they offer an unparalleled look at the life of a monk in the Middle Ages. Guibert, who lived his entire life in northern France, called these memoirs his book of monodiae, or solitary songs. Many scholars consider them the first Latin autobiography in the West after Augustine's Confessions.

Readers will be stirred and surprised by Guibert's intense preoccupation with the sinfulness of his soul, his visions of demons and necromancy, and his frank struggle to come to terms with his sexuality. But Guibert is also a valuable witness to his age. In addition to his personal history, his memoirs give a brief chronicle of the abbey of Nogent--where he served as abbot for some twenty years--and a vivid account of the bloody uprising of the Laon Commune in 1112. His observations give precious insight into education, monastic life, and the beginnings of the great medieval towns.

Paul J. Archambault's translation successfully renders Guibert's Latin--at times stylish, at times rustic--into lively, modern English. He consulted Edmond-Rene Labande's authoritative 1981 Latin edition with French translation. He provides a complete introduction and annotation that help situate Guibert within the history and literature of the Middle Ages while permitting readers to judge for themselves how to interpret this fascinating voice from the past.

This book offers a comprehensive panorama of modern Roman Catholic ecclesiology as it springs from the vision proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium. The author's central thesis is an ecclesiology built around the notion of communio: all members of the Church should be able to carry out their respective responsibilities toward the Church at all levels (pastors, bishops, the entire Church). The Church needs the honest experiences of the faithful in the world in order to recognize and to meet the demands of the times by drawing on its ongoing tradition together with the work of the Holy Spirit. From this emerges the need to re re-think of the universal Church as a community of local churches. Questions concerning the scriptural basis for the Church are handled in an exegetical section. Next a systematic treatment deals with the nature of the Church, its structures (communities and offices; the structure of its offices), and the Church's duties (evangelization; the relations between Church and society). Dr. Garijo-Guembe emphasizes the systematic description of important moments in the history of dogma. From this foundation the author takes up questions directed by the Orthodox and the Churches of Reformation toward the Roman Catholic Church and attempts to answer them.. A rich bibliography-international in its authorship and ecumenical in their confessional backgrounds-rounds off each chapter.

Writing shortly after Aelred of Rievaulx died on 12 January 1167, Walter Daniel, his secretary and fellow monk, has created the picture of Aelred which endures to this day. We come to know a man of 'charity and astonishing sanctity', an ailing abbot whose monks sat chatting around his bed. Only in passing do we glimpse the ambitious young steward at the court of King David of Scotland, the ecclesiastical diplomat and political counselor who moved easily in royal and episcopal circles, or the canny property manager who guided his monasteries to prosperity. From Walter's pen we have a gentle, loving, ascetic abbot who offered spiritual guidance to his monks through conversation and to a wider audience through the treatises he composed, and who died a holy death. The reaction the Life provoked suggest that some contemporaries outside Rievaulx entertained a different picture of the abbot of Rievaulx. Whether motivated by simple dislike, by envy, or by dissatisfaction at a hastily informal 'canonization', the critics stung the indignant Walter to response. Perhaps they, like Walter, viewed as irreconcilable and struggled to keep apart two worlds which Aelred himself integrated and brought together.

Isle of the Saints recreates the harsh yet richly spiritual world of medieval Irish monks on the Christian frontier of barbarian Europe. Lisa Bitel draws on accounts of saints' lives written between 800 and 1200 to explain, from the monks' own perspective, the social networks that bound them to one another and to their secular neighbors.

Between the deep valley which contains the Jordan river and the Dead Sea, and the hill country of Judea, in which Jerusalem and Bethlehem are situated, lies a narrow stretch of desert which evokes memories of great Biblical ascetics - Elijah and John the Baptist. The empty landscape and scriptural associations drew Christian ascetics in the third century. The new edition of this work by Cyril of Scythopolis provides perhaps our best source of information on the Palestinian monastic movement from AD 400-600. He gives a history not only of holy monks, but also of the Palestinian Church at the height of its power and prestige.

These essays by six scholars of international standing - David Ford, Colin Gunton, Daniel Hardy, Werner Jeanrond, Richard Roberts, and Christoph Schw