Abraham argues that a theological imagination can expand the contours of postcolonial theory through a reexamination of notions of subjectivity, gender, and violence in a dialogical model with Karl Rahner. She questions of whether postcolonial theory, with its disavowal of religious agency, can provide an invigorating occasion for Catholic theology.

This is a fresh look at the impact of the English Reformation at parish level. It provides a perceptive exploration of the role of the Catholic priesthood in the church and in the life of the community. Using a wide range of contemporary sources, Dr Marshall demonstrates how the practical consequences of the Reformation undermined the fragile modus vivendi that had sustained the late medieval system.

Pope Francis is determined to transform the Catholic Church. The first Pope born in South America, Francis was elected at a time when the world was weary of the Vatican. He has been able to inject new enthusiasm for the Church and win many admirers. Beneath his smile and warm nature, there is a man who wants the Church to go back to its core values of social justice and caring for the poor and vulnerable around the world. Pope Francis - Two Years of Change is a chronicle of just what he has been able to do so far. Follow Pope Francis' story as he becomes one of the most respected figures in the world today.

How did Catholicism sound in the early modern period? What kinds of sonic cultures developed within the diverse and dynamic matrix of early modern Catholicism? And what do we learn about early modern Catholicism by attending to its sonic manifestations? Editors Daniele V. Filippi and Michael Noone have brought together a variety of studies - ranging from processional culture in Bavaria to Roman confraternities, and catechetical praxis in popular missions - that share an emphasis on the many and varied modalities and meanings of sonic experience in early modern Catholic life. Audio samples illustrating selected chapters are available at the following address: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5311099. Contributors are: Egberto Bermudez, Jane A. Bernstein, Xavier Bisaro, Andrew Cichy, Daniele V. Filippi, Alexander J. Fisher, Marco Gozzi, Robert L. Kendrick, Tess Knighton, Ignazio Macchiarella, Margaret Murata, John W. O'Malley, S.J., Noel O'Regan, Anne Piejus, and Colleen Reardon.

Justice Blindfolded gives an overview of the history of "justice" and its iconography through the centuries. Justice has been portrayed as a woman with scales, or holding a sword, or, since the fifteenth century, with her eyes bandaged. This last symbol contains the idea that justice is both impartial and blind, reminding indirectly of the bandaged Christ on the cross, a central figure in the Christian idea of fairness and forgiveness. In this rich and imaginative journey through history and philosophy, Prosperi manages to convey a full account of the ways justice has been described, portrayed and imagined. Translation of Giustizia bendata. Percorsi storici di un'immagine (Einaudi, 2008).

The specific concern in What We Hold in Trust comes to this: the Catholic university that sees its principal purpose in terms of the active life, of career, and of changing the world, undermines the contemplative and more deep-rooted purpose of the university. If a university adopts the language of technical and social change as its main and exclusive purpose, it will weaken the deeper roots of the university's liberal arts and Catholic mission. The language of the activist, of changing the world through social justice, equality and inclusion, or of the technician through market-oriented incentives, plays an important role in university life. We need to change the world for the better and universities play an important role, but both the activist and technician will be co-opted by our age of hyper-activity and technocratic organizations if there is not first a contemplative outlook on the world that receives reality rather than constructs it. To address this need for roots What We Hold in Trust unfolds in four chapters that will demonstrate how essential it is for the faculty, administrators, and trustees of Catholic universities to think philosophically and theologically (Chapter One), historically (Chapter Two) and institutionally (Chapters Three and Four). What we desperately need today are leaders in Catholic universities who understand the roots of the institutions they serve, who can wisely order the goods of the university, who know what is primary and what is secondary, and who can distinguish fads and slogans from authentic reform. We need leaders who are in touch with their history and have a love for tradition, and in particular for the Catholic tradition. Without this vision, our universities may grow in size, but shrink in purpose. They may be richer but not wiser.

This is the first book-length study to investigate the place of lay Catholic women in modern Irish history. It analyses the intersections of gender, class and religion by exploring the roles that middle-class, working-class and rural poor women played in the evolution of Irish Catholicism and thus the creation of modern Irish identities. The book demonstrates that in an age of Church growth and renewal, stretching from the aftermath of the Great Famine through the Free State years, lay women were essential to all aspects of Catholic devotional life, including both home-based religion and public rituals. It also reveals that women, by rejecting, negotiating and reworking Church dictates, complicated Church and clerical authority. Irish women and the creation of modern Catholicism re-evaluates the relationship between the institutional Church, the clergy and women, positioning lay Catholic women as central actors in the making of modern Ireland. -- .

The unifying centre of Nicholas J. Healy's book is an analysis, in dialogue with the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas, of Balthasar's understanding of the analogy of being. This discussion of analogy is framed by an interpretation of Balthasar's trinitarian eschatology. Healy shows that the ultimate form of the end, and thus the measure of all that is meant by eschatology, is given in Christ's eucharistic and pneumatic gift of himself - a gift that simultaneously lays bare the mystery of God's trinitarian life and enables Christ to 'return' to the Father in communion with the whole of creation.

The Call to Read is the first full-length study to situate the surviving oeuvre of Reginald Pecock in the context of current scholarship on English vernacular theology of the late medieval period. Kirsty Campbell examines the important and innovative contribution Pecock made to late medieval debates about the roles of the Bible, the Church, the faculty of reason, and practices of devotion in fostering a vital, productive, and stable Christian community. Campbell argues that Pecock's fascinating attempt to educate the laity is more than an effort to supply religious reading material: it is an attempt to establish and unite a community of readers around his books, to influence and thus change the ways they understand their faith, the world, and their place in it. The aim of Pecock's educational project is to harness the power of texts to effect religious change. Combining traditional approaches with innovative thinking on moral philosophy, devotional exercises, and theological doctrine, Pecock's works of religious instruction are his attempt to reform a Christian community threatened by heresy through reshaping meaningful Christian practices and forms of belief. Campbell's book will be of interest to scholars and students of medieval literature and culture, especially those interested in fifteenth-century religious history and culture.

This new series, Research on Religion and Education, will examine the important role that religion continues to play in education at all levels, elementary, secondary and tertiary and in all venues, public, private, and parochial schools. A central focus of the series will identify the place of religious schools in maintaining the identity of sponsoring faith communities and the impact these communities have on the school. Other topics will examine differing educational philosophies of religious schools including the non-Christian schools, the appropriate role of religion in public schools, and the impact of religion on the lives of students in higher education. This series will study the impact that religion has on education and education has on religion.

Jerry L. Walls, the author of books on hell and heaven, completes his tour of the afterlife with a philosophical and theological exploration and defense of purgatory, the traditional teaching that most Christians require a period of postmortem cleansing and purging of their sinful dispositions and imperfections before they will be fully made ready for heaven. He examines Protestant objections to the doctrine and shows that the doctrine of purgatory has been construed in different ways, some of which are fully compatible with Protestant theology. In particular, while purgatory has often been understood as matter of punishment in order to make satisfaction for sins that have not been fully remitted, it can also be seen as the completion of the sanctification process, an account of the doctrine that is fully consistent with the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith. Purgatory assumes not only continuity of personal identity but also gradual moral and spiritual growth between death and resurrection. Different theories of personal identity are examined and assessed in light of these assumptions. Walls also shows that the traditional doctrine of purgatory is not understood as a second chance for salvation, but goes on to argue that it should be modified to allow for postmortem repentance. He concludes with an examination of C.S. Lewis's writings on purgatory, and suggests that Lewis can be a model for evangelicals and other Protestants to engage the doctrine of purgatory in a way that is true to their theology.

During the three decades from 1945 to 1975, the Catholic Church in West Germany employed a broad range of methods from empirical social research. Statistics, opinion polling, and organizational sociology, as well as psychoanalysis and other approaches from the "psy sciences," were debated and introduced in pastoral care. In adopting these methods for their own work, bishops, parish clergy, and pastoral sociologists tried to open the church up to modernity in a rapidly changing society. In the process, they contributed to the reform agenda of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Through its analysis of the intersections between organized religion and applied social sciences, this award-winning book offers fascinating insights into the trajectory of the Catholic Church in postwar Germany.

In Introduction to Mariology, Fr. Manfred Hauke provides a synthesis of Mariology and the biblical fundaments and development of Marian doctrine. While it works as a comprehensive introduction suitable for courses on the subject, it is in reality a panoramic view on the entire Marian doctrine, and as such will be essential for the theological formation of seminarians, priests, theologians, and all kinds of educated Catholics. With an unparalleled bibliographic citation of Marian literature across a dozen languages, it is also a perfect gateway to further research on the subject. It begins with Biblical doctrine, which is important especially for the dialogue with Protestant denominations: Catholic Mariology can be traced in its "embryonic" state already in Holy Scripture. From there Hauke presents a historical overview of the whole development of Marian doctrine, before developing further historical details in the subsequent chapters dedicated to systematic issues. The first systematic step approaches the figure of Mary through her role in the mystery of the Covenant between God and redeemed humanity; her being "Mother of God" and companion of the Redeemer is the "fundamental principle." Then the four established Marian dogmas are presented: divine maternity, virginity, Immaculate Conception (in a chapter on Mary's holiness more broadly), and bodily Assumption. A close look is given to maternal mediation which includes a part dedicated to the "Mater Unitatis". A stand alone chapter is dedicated to Marian apparitions; authentic apparitions are presented as a part of prophetic charisma. The last chapter presents the basics on Marian devotion which culminates in the consecration to Mary (as a response to her maternal mediation). Already available in Spanish, Italian, Portugese, and Korean, this landmark work is published here for the first time in English.