This collection of mostly original essays by scholars and Catholic Worker activists provides a systematic, analytical study of the emergence and nature of pacifism in the largest single denomination in the United States: Roman Catholicism. The collection underscores the pivotal role of Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker movement in challenging the conventional understanding of just-war principles and the American Catholic Church's identification with uncritical militarism. Also included are a study of Dorothy Day's preconversion pacifism, previously unpublished letters from Dorothy Day to Thomas Merton, Eileen Egan's account of the birth and early years of Pax, the Catholic Worker-inspired peace organization, and in-depth coverage of how the contemporary Plowshares movement emerged from the Catholic Worker movement.

Contemporary scholarship recognizes in Maximus the Confessor a theologian of towering intellectual importance. In this book Adam G. Cooper puts to him a question which from the origins of Christian thought has constituted an interpretative crux for catholic Christianity: what is the place of the material order and, specifically, of the human body, in God's creative, redemptive, and perfective economies? While the study builds upon the insights of other efforts in Maximian scholarship, it primarily presents an engagement with the full vista of Maximus's own writings, providing a unique contribution towards an intelligent apprehension of this erudite but often impenetrable theological mind.

Catholicism is generally over-institutionalized and over-centralized in comparison to other religions. However, it finds itself in an increasingly interrelated and globalized world and is therefore immersed in a great plurality of social realities. The Changing Faces of Catholicism assembles an international cast of contributors to explore the consequent decline of powerful Catholic organisations as well as to address the responses and resistance efforts that specific countries have taken to counteract the secularization crisis in both Europe and the Americas. It reveals some of the strategies of the Catholic Church as a whole, and of the Vatican centre in particular, to address problems of the global era through the dissemination of spiritually progressive writing, World Youth Days, and the transformation of Catholic education to become a forum for intercultural and interreligious dialogue. The volume also reflects on the adaptation of Catholic institutions and missions as sponsored by religious communities and monastic orders.

The latest book from veteran O'Neillian Edward L. Shaughnessy, Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility examines a major aspect of the playwright's vision: the influence of his Catholic heritage upon his moral imagination. Critics, aware of O'Neill's early renunciation of faith at the age of fifteen, have been inclined to overlook this presence in his work.

However, Shaughnessy does uncover evidence that O'Neill retained the impress of his Irish Catholic upbringing and acculturation. Shaughnessy advances this analysis with examples from the O'Neill canon, including several of the key plays (Long Day's Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh, Mourning Becomes Electra), as well as some of the lesser-known works (Welded and Days Without end).

Down the Nights and Down the Days: Eugene O'Neill's Catholic Sensibility offers a fresh and thought-provoking look at the life and work of this nation's most internationally honored playwright.

The essays in this volume offer a critique of From Unity to Pluralism: The Internal Evolution of Thomism by Gerald McCool, SJ. Twelve philosophers in this collection analyse key aspects of McCool's interpretation of Aquinas, which stands opposed to the motivating ideals found in One Hundred Years of Thomism: Aeterni Patris and Afterwards, a symposium published in 1981 to celebrate the centenary of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Aeterni Patris.

A Companion to Colette of Corbie presents a collection of essays offering new historical and religious perspectives on the life, career, and influences of this little-studied fifteenth-century saint. Colette of Corbie, a contemporary of Joan of Arc, established an important reform movement in the Franciscan order; founded numerous monasteries for women in Burgundy, France, and the Low Countries; and had connections with high ranking Burgundian and French noble families. Essays in this volume draw upon many relatively unknown primary sources and add significantly to the scholarship on this important religious figure. Contributors are: Anna Campbell, Joan Mueller, Andrea Pearson, Jane Marie Pinzino, Monique Somme, Ludovic Viallet, and Nancy Bradley Warren

In the decades following the Second Vatican Council, Catholic liturgy became an area of considerable interest and debate, if not controversy, in the West. Mid-late 20th century liturgical scholarship, upon which the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council were predicated and implemented, no longer stands unquestioned. The liturgical and ecclesial springtime the reforms of Paul VI were expected to facilitate has failed to emerge, leaving many questions as to their wisdom and value. Quo vadis Catholic liturgy? This Companion brings together a variety of scholars who consider this question at the beginning of the 21st century in the light of advances in liturgical scholarship, decades of post-Vatican II experience and the critical re-examination in the West of the question of the liturgy promoted by Benedict XVI. The contributors, each eminent in their field, have distinct takes on how to answer this question, but each makes a significant contribution to contemporary debate, making this Companion an essential reference for the study of Western Catholic liturgy in history and in the light of contemporary scholarship and debate.

As in Europe, secular nation building in Latin America challenged the traditional authority of the Roman Catholic Church in the early twentieth century. In response, Catholic social and political movements sought to contest state-led secularisation and provide an answer to the 'social question', the complex set of problems associated with urbanisation, industrialisation, and poverty. As Catholics mobilised against the secular threat, they also struggled with each other to define the proper role of the Church in the public sphere. This study utilizes recently opened files at the Vatican pertaining to Mexico's post-revolutionary Church-state conflict known as the Cristero Rebellion (1926-1929). However, looking beyond Mexico's exceptional case, the work employs a transnational framework, enabling a better understanding of the supranational relationship between Latin American Catholic activists and the Vatican. To capture this world historical context, Andes compares Mexico to Chile's own experience of religious conflict. Unlike past scholarship, which has focused almost exclusively on local conditions, Andes seeks to answer how diverse national visions of Catholicism responded to papal attempts to centralize its authority and universalize Church practices worldwide. The Politics of Transnational Catholicism applies research on the interwar papacy, which is almost exclusively European in outlook, to a Latin American context. The national cases presented illuminate how Catholicism shaped public life in Latin America as the Vatican sought to define Catholic participation in Mexican and Chilean national politics. It reveals that Catholic activism directly influenced the development of new political movements such as Christian Democracy, which remained central to political life in the region for the remainder of the twentieth century.

In Orthodoxy, Gilbert K. Chesterton explains how and why he came to believe in Christianity and more specifically the Catholic Church's brand of orthodoxy. In the book, Chesterton takes the spiritually curious reader on an intellectual quest. While looking for the meaning of life, he finds truth that uniquely fulfills human needs. This is the truth revealed in Christianity. Chesterton likens this discovery to a man setting off from the south coast of England, journeying for many days, only to arrive at Brighton, the point he originally left from. Such a man, he proposes, would see the wondrous place he grew up in with newly appreciative eyes. This is a common theme in Chesterton's works, and one which he gave fictional embodiment to in Manalive. A truly lively and enlightening book!

A Survey of Catholic History in Modern Japan discusses Japanese Catholic history from the Meiji period (1868-1912) to the present. The aim of this highly original book is to consider the relevance of Japanese Catholics to political and cultural circumstances in modern and contemporary Japan.