Thomas O'Loughlin focuses on such issues as the immanence and transcendence of God, the notion of creation, the relation between the individual and community, the heroic ideal of Christian life, and notions of death and resurrection.

One of the significant developments in scholarship in the latter half of the twentieth century was the awareness among historians of ideas, historians of theology, and medievalists of the importance of the Christian scriptures in the Latin Middle Ages. In contrast to an earlier generation of scholars who considered the medieval period as a 'Bible-free zone', recent investigations have shown the central role of scripture in literature, art, law, liturgy, and formal religious education. Indeed, to understand the Latin Middle Ages one must understand the value they placed upon the Bible, how they related to it, and how they studied it. However, despite the new emphasis on the Bible's role and the place of exegesis in medieval thought, our detailed understanding is all too meagre - and generalisations, often imagined as valid for a period of close to a millennium, abound. How the Scriptures were used in one pursuit (formal theology for example relied heavily on 'allegory') was often very different to the way they were used in another (e.g. in history writing was interested in literal meanings), and exegesis differed over time and with cultures. Similarly, while most medieval writers were agreed that there were several 'senses' within the text, the number and nature varied greatly as did the strategies for accessing those meanings. This collection of fifteen articles, concentrating on the early Latin middle ages, explores this variety and highlights just how patchy has been our understanding of medieval exegesis. We now may be aware of the importance of the Bible, but the task of studying that phenomenon is in its infancy.

What is the point of the Lectionary? What are the problems and opportunities that it presents to those who use it? What are its strengths and weaknesses as an aid to worship? How can it be used and communicated most effectively today? These are among the key questions that Thomas O'Loughlin explores in this stimulating and much-needed guide.

The Didache is one of the earliest Christian writings, earlier than most of the documents that make up the New Testament. It provides practical instructions on how a Christian community should function, and offers unique insights into the way the earliest Christians lived and worshipped. In this highly readable introduction, Thomas O'Loughlin tells the intriguing story of the Didache, from its discovery in the late nineteenth century to the present. He then provides an illuminating commentary on the entire text, highlighting areas of special interest to Christians today, and ends with a fresh translation of the text itself.

A valuable resource for enhancing liturgical understanding. What is the point of the Lectionary? What are the problems and opportunities that it presents to those who use it? What are its strengths and weaknesses as an aid to worship? How can it be used and communicated most effectively today? These are among the key questions Thomas O'Loughlin addresses in this stimulating and much needed liturgical guide to the design, history, theology, and purposes of the Lectionary.

The only true apostle of Ireland who more or less converted the country the single-handed? or A Christian bishop from the embattled edge of a crumbling empire? All that can really be known of Patrick comes from his authentic writings - the Confessio and the Epistola (Address to the Soldiers of Coroticus). Thomas O'Loughlin's engaging yet scholarly reflections on these fifth-century texts lead us into a greater understanding of the mind of Patrick, the man, believer and missionary.

Discipleship - that being a Christian is about learning and discovering, acting and responding, choosing and collaborating - is both a primordial Christian theme and a re-discovery of the mid-twentieth century. But how does one discover its meaning? For some it means programmes - like turning out a product, ignoring the individuality of each's path. Others emphasize the group, forgetting that every community's richness is valuing its members' diversity. Is discipleship the way of the loner and community-ignoring? But social beings learn discipleship in communities. Community is not simply the club of like-minded individuals but should model a new way of being. To uncover what discipleship means, we must read the New Testament with the awareness that how we see the world of the early Jesus followers is radically different from the inherited theological underpinning of many churches. Discipleship and Society in the Early Churches takes our historical awareness seriously, and examines what biblical, historical, and archaeological research can tell us about discipleship today.

The "Didache" (or "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles") is one of the earliest Christian writings, compiled between 50 and 70 CE. Thus, it probably predates the four Gospels. It offers a unique glimpse into how some of the earliest Christian communities lived and worshiped.
This accessible volume offers an introductory guide to this important text, including a new translation and a commentary highlighting areas of interest to Christians today. It is an essential resource for readers interested in history, Scripture, and liturgy in Christianity's earliest period.

More than half a century after its introduction into the Easter liturgy, the rite of the washing of feet on Holy Thursday goes to the heart of what it means to take part in Christian liturgy-as well as to live a Christian life. In Washing Feet: Imitating the Example of Jesus in the Liturgy Today, Thomas O'Loughlin explores the significance of mutual foot washing in early Christian communities and in the rituals of churches today. Washing Feet is a sound and engaging combination of liturgical theology, historical exploration, and practical pastoral guidance. Clergy, liturgy committees, and RCIA leaders involved in Holy Week liturgies will find this a useful and accessible resource for understanding how this practice is a key to how ordinary Christians understand the nature of the church and their relationship to others within their particular communites.

Theological reflection upon the Eucharist is dominated by two paradigms: One approach interprets the Eucharist almost exclusively in theological terms, shaped by Scholasticism and the Reformation. Most discussions about the nature of the Eucharist, Eucharistic presence or the role of the priest follow these categories, even if they come in modern disguise. The other reads the Eucharist as an event which can be explored empirically. O'Loughlin develops a new understanding of the Eucharist. This can be done by looking afresh at the historical evidence and bringing it in dialogue with modern theology. In the past decades, historical research and new discoveries have changed our view of the origins and the development of the Eucharist. By bringing history into a fruitful dialogue with sacramental and liturgical theology, he shows not only ways how theology and practice can be brought closer together again, but also how current ecumenical divisions can be overcome. His book makes an important contribution to eucharistic theology, both for individual church traditions as well as for ecumenical dialogues.

Fergus Kerr, OP is one of the foremost Catholic theologians of his generation. His works are widely read by specialists and students in the UK, North America and across the world. His 'Theology after Wittgenstein' is regarded as a seminal work in philosophical theology. His 'After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism' and 'Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians' are two of the finest student-focussed introductions to their topics currently available. The essays in this collection cover the two key areas of Kerr's contribution: the relationship between theology and philosophy, focusing particularly on Thomism; and twentieth century Catholic thought. These themes provide the volume's coherence. A key strength of this volume lies in the stature of its contributors. These include the Canadian Catholic philosopher and Templeton-laureate Charles Taylor, Stanley Hauerwas, John Milbank, David Burrell and Denys Turner. A number of younger contributors, representing the influence of Kerr over several generations, are also represented.

Adomnan, ninth abbot of Iona, wrote his book, On Holy Places (De Locis Sanctis), in the closing years of the seventh century. It is a detailed account of the sites mentioned in the Christian scriptures, the overall topography, and the shrines that are in Palestine and Egypt at that time. It is neatly broken into three parts: Jerusalem, the surrounding areas, and then a few other places. The whole has a contemporary and lively feel; and the reader is then not surprised when Adomnan says he got his information from a Gallic bishop name Arculf. Things then get interesting for the more one probes, the book the amount of information that could have been obtained from Arculf keeps diminishing, while the amount that can be shown to be a reworking of written sources increases. We then see that Adomnans book is an attempt to compile a biblical studies manual according to the demands of Augustine (354-430) - one of which was that there had to be an empirical witness. Thus, Adomnan wrote the work and employed Arculf as a literary device. However, he produced the desired manual which remained in use until the Reformation. As a manual we can use it to study the nature of scriptural studies in the Latin world of the time, and perceptions of space, relics, pilgrimage, and Islam. While a study of how the work was used by others, transmitted, reworked (for example by the Venerable Bede) brings unique light onto the theological world of the Carolingians.

Theological reflection upon the Eucharist is dominated by two paradigms: One approach interprets the Eucharist almost exclusively in theological terms, shaped by Scholasticism and the Reformation. Most discussions about the nature of the Eucharist, Eucharistic presence or the role of the priest follow these categories, even if they come in modern disguise. The other reads the Eucharist as an event which can be explored empirically. O'Loughlin develops a new understanding of the Eucharist. This can be done by looking afresh at the historical evidence and bringing it in dialogue with modern theology. In the past decades, historical research and new discoveries have changed our view of the origins and the development of the Eucharist. By bringing history into a fruitful dialogue with sacramental and liturgical theology, he shows not only ways how theology and practice can be brought closer together again, but also how current ecumenical divisions can be overcome. His book makes an important contribution to eucharistic theology, both for individual church traditions as well as for ecumenical dialogues.

Fergus Kerr, OP is one of the foremost Catholic theologians of his generation. His works are widely read by specialists and students in the UK, North America and across the world. His Theology after Wittgenstein is regarded as a seminal work in philosophical theology. His After Aquinas: Versions of Thomism and Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians are two of the finest student-focussed introductions to their topics currently available. The essays in this collection cover the two key areas of Kerrs contribution: the relationship between theology and philosophy, focusing particularly on Thomism; and twentieth century Catholic thought. These themes provide the volumes coherence. A key strength of this volume lies in the stature of its contributors. These include the Canadian Catholic philosopher and Templeton-laureate Charles Taylor, Stanley Hauerwas, John Milbank, David Burrell and Denys Turner. A number of younger contributors, representing the influence of Kerr over several generations, are also represented.

2020 Catholic Press Association first place award, ecumenism or interfaith relations In November 2015, Pope Francis called on theologians to explore whether normal Catholic practice should be changed to allow Christians, belonging to other churches, to share fully at the table when they take part in a Eucharist celebrated by Catholics. Thomas O'Loughlin provides his contribution to that challenge in this volume. He argues that the various ways of thinking about what we are doing in the liturgy should lead us to see intercommunion as enhancing our participation in the mystery of the Church and the mystery we celebrate. Learn more and watch Professor Tom O'Loughlin's interview with the Aqueduct Project, discussing Eating Together, Becoming One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ySkMzHtkMU

One of the significant developments in scholarship in the latter half of the twentieth century was the awareness among historians of ideas, historians of theology, and medievalists of the importance of the Christian scriptures in the Latin Middle Ages. In contrast to an earlier generation of scholars who considered the medieval period as a 'Bible-free zone', recent investigations have shown the central role of scripture in literature, art, law, liturgy, and formal religious education. Indeed, to understand the Latin Middle Ages one must understand the value they placed upon the Bible, how they related to it, and how they studied it. However, despite the new emphasis on the Bible's role and the place of exegesis in medieval thought, our detailed understanding is all too meagre - and generalisations, often imagined as valid for a period of close to a millennium, abound. How the Scriptures were used in one pursuit (formal theology for example relied heavily on 'allegory') was often very different to the way they were used in another (e.g. in history writing was interested in literal meanings), and exegesis differed over time and with cultures. Similarly, while most medieval writers were agreed that there were several 'senses' within the text, the number and nature varied greatly as did the strategies for accessing those meanings. This collection of fifteen articles, concentrating on the early Latin middle ages, explores this variety and highlights just how patchy has been our understanding of medieval exegesis. We now may be aware of the importance of the Bible, but the task of studying that phenomenon is in its infancy.

Thomas O'Loughlin examines the theological framework within which St. Patrick presented his experiences and considers how the Celtic lands of Ireland and Wales developed a distinctive view of sin, reconciliation, and Christian law which they later exported to the rest of western Christianity. He looks at writers like Adomnan of Iona and at Muirchu, who reflected on the meaning of the conversion of his people two centuries earlier. He surveys how they approached liturgy, sacred time, and the Last Things. By examining well-known texts such as the Voyage of St. Brendan, the Stowe Missal, and the Book of Armagh from the standpoint of formal theology, the book brings familiar texts to life in a new way.

When Vatican II provided (to universal astonishment) that worship might be conducted in the vernacular, there immediately arose the question for English-speakers: What will our vernacular language of liturgy be like? In the event the Church devised a process by which an 'International Commission on English in the Liturgy' (ICEL) drafted translations, and they were then approved by the appropriate authorities in Rome. Thus the first official texts in English came into force in 1973 and became the accustomed texts of two generations of worshippers. Then in 2001 the Vatican 'Instruction', Liturgiam Authenticam, set out a new set of principles for translation, not least that the language should be more 'Latinate' and should not steer too near to texts used by other denominations. A new ICEL was appointed, next texts were drafted and sent to Rome for vetting and approval, and finally new authorized English-language texts came into force in September 2011. Much of the reaction to the new texts, whether from ordinary worshippers, journalists, theologians or English scholars, has been adverse. So at an early stage Thomas O'Loughlin, convened a study day with invited speakers, including both Roman Catholics and Anglicans, in Spring 2012. Now, at the request of the Alcuin/GROW Joint Editorial Board, Thomas O'Loughlin has edited the papers to give them more permanent form. The result is a valuable critical resource enunciating principles of translation and bringing the new liturgical texts under careful professional scrutiny.