What is "A Law of Nature"? It's a question that's vexed philosophers and scientists ever since Descartes first coined the term. Fr. Andrew Younan explores it in this insightful book. After carefully reviewing the positions of Humeans and Anti-Humeans, he employs the philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas to argue for an essentialist understanding. His study leads him back to the beginnings of modern science and then forward to quantum mechanics. The philosophical account of how the laws of nature arise from observed regularities in the world is followed by a theological discussion of the nature and action of the Lawgiver."-from the foreword by Michael J. Dodds, OP To borrow a phrase from Galileo: What does it mean that the story of the creation is "written in the language of mathematics?" This book is an attempt to understand the natural world, its consistency, and the ontology of what we call laws of nature, with a special focus on their mathematical expression. It does this by arguing in favor of the Essentialist interpretation over that of the Humean and Anti-Humean accounts. It re-examines and critiques Descartes' notion of laws of nature following from God's activity in the world as mover of extended bodies, as well as Hume's arguments against causality and induction. It then presents an Aristotelian-Thomistic account of laws of nature based on mathematical abstraction, necessity, and teleology, finally offering a definition for laws of nature within this framework.

This book contains short reflections on what were traditionally called 'Onyatha d-Basalyqe, the "Basilica Responsories," which is the name given to the "Proper," that is, specifically-chosen, hymns for Evening Prayer of each of the Sundays and Feast Days of the Chaldean Liturgical year. The purpose of these reflections is to reveal to the faithful of the Chaldean Church, or anyone interested in its spirituality, the great richness of that tradition, to show the depth of the theology contained in these hymns, and most of all to bring about a true devotion in the hearts of the reader, which is the purpose of all liturgy and all meditation. Thus there is a translation of these hymns for each Sunday and many major Feasts, accompanied by a meditation that helps explain the meaning of the hymn to the lay person with basic Catechetical education.

This is a comprehensive Grammar of the Chaldean "Neo-Aramaic" Language. The rationale of this book is a combination of a "pure grammar" and a "pedagogical" one, where as much as possible grammatical forms are presented completely (for example, that of the Adjective or the Present Tense Verb), but with the progressive learning of a student in mind, especially in the selection of Vocabulary and Exercises. The 2000-Word Dictionaries at the end of the book, as well as the selections of Literature in the Chaldean language, are intended to be useful for one learning, though not in any sense comprehensive.

Two theses are presented in this book. First, that there is an overarching "School of Thought" in Mesopotamia, consistent in its basic tenets, from ancient times to the late middle ages, and that this "Mesopotamian School" is fundamentally realistic as opposed to idealistic. Second, that the Christology of Theodore of Mopsuestia, as read as an expression of this School, is orthodox by the Chalcedonian standard. Included in the Appendices are complete translations of Mar Narsai's 16th and 35th Metrical Sermons, on human nature and the Trinity, respectively, as well as of his "Dialogue Between the Watcher & Mary."