Is it possible to capture, in brief, the fundamental changes that affected the role of religion within modern Western society? For a long time, many scholars would have answered that question in the positive; most of them would certainly have counted increasingly tolerant attitudes towards forms of religion that were once been regarded as unacceptable, as being one of those central features. In the light of the current revision of the established 'truths' concerning modern religion, it is now possible to once again address the wide-spread belief that modernity meant the gradual victory of more 'liberal' religious attitudes without running the risk of being accused of only dealing with commonplaces. Was modernity only dominated by growing tolerance? And if so, what were the forces that prompted that development? What was the nature of that sentiment? This book approaches these questions by studying the popular Protestant British view of John Henry Newman between the time of his secession 1845 and his death in 1890. It draws on a wide range of sources with a particular focus on the newspaper and periodical press. It argues that changes in popular attitudes were integral parts of the internecine religious disputes of, above all, the 1850s and 1860s. A tolerant discourse came henceforth to live side by side with traditional Protestant rhetoric. Nevertheless, and in spite of expanding horizons, accepting attitudes became an effective vehicle for expressing a sense of Protestant superiority.

"The Understanding of Faith" (1974) is certainly Schillebeeckx's most incisive English publication on theological hermeneutics. It contains his principal ideas on this subject, in which he progressively evolved the hermeneutic thinking that he was to apply in due course in his famous Jesus books. The book centres on two issues: how should the Christian message of God's kingdom be read in our day and age, and can a present-day interpretation of that message still be considered Christian? In short, what are the possibilities and limits of the understanding of faith in our modern age? Of course, hermeneutics as such was not new to Christian theology. Exegetes had been exploring interpretive processes for some time. Schillebeeckx's innovation was to extend hermeneutic thinking to the possibilities and limits of interpreting the entire Christian tradition, including its definition in systematic theology. Inspired by the early Jurgen Habermas's 'new critical theory', Schillebeeckx also expands criticism of ideology in various directions. This was to influence generations of theologians after him, right up the present day.

In With Eyes and Ears Open: The Role of Visitors in the Society of Jesus, twelve historians examine important visitations in the history of the Society. After a thorough investigation of the nature and role of the "visitor" in Jesuit rules and regulations, ten visitations of missions and provinces-from Peru in the sixteenth century, to Ireland in the seventeenth, to the Zambesi mission and Australia in the twentieth-are considered. Visitors, appointed by the superior general in Rome, surveyed the situation for fidelity to the Jesuit way of life, resolved any problems, and recommended future paths, often to the disapproval of Jesuit hosts. One contribution concerns the canonical visitation of the non-Jesuit Francis Saldanha da Gama in 1758, which resulted in the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal in 1759.

This is a unique selection of Edward Schillebeeckx' collection, translated into English here for the first time. This is a collection of essays from one of the most eminent Catholic theologians of the late 20th century. Edward Schillebeeckx Collected Works bring together the most important and influential works of the Dutch Dominican and theologian Edward Schillebeeckx (1914-2009) in a reliable edition. All translations have been carefully checked or revised, some texts are presented in English for the first time. The page numbers of earlier editions are included. Each volume carries a foreword by an internationally renowned Schillebeeckx expert. This edition makes Schillebeeckx available for a new generation of scholars and students.