The Bible on the Question of Homosexuality addresses the hotly debated topic of whether the Bible condemns homosexuality by a close reading of the biblical texts without taboo or prejudice, without personal or church interpretation. The authors--three Christian exegetes, two Catholic and one Protestant--are interested in discovering what the Bible says about homosexuality. They take seriously the world from which the biblical text emerges, and discuss the hermeneutical challenges raised by scripture. They deal with the full range of issues raised by homosexuality in the Bible including Jesus' own sexual orientation and his relationship with the Beloved Disciple. Their conclusions are modest though their comprehensive overview is significant. Innocent Himbaza begins the work by looking at the entire range of Old Testament texts and examining the often-cited discussions of homosexuality: Sodom and Gomorrah, the outrage at Gibeah (Judges 19), the relationship between Jonathan and David, and the relationship between Saul and David. Next Adrien Schenker addresses the question: Why did the Law of Moses forbid homosexual relations (Leviticus 18 and 20)? Schenker also examines such issues as the death penalty for those caught in homosexual relationships within the proper historical context and the significance of these Levitical passages within the perspective of biblical theology. ,p>The third and final section of the book looks at homosexuality within the New Testament. Jean-Baptiste Edart first examines the Pauline texts (1 Corinthians 6 and 1Timothy 1; Romans 1). He then examines Jesus and the healing of the centurion's slave in Luke 7, Jesus' relationship with the Beloved Disciple, Jesus' attitude toward homosexual acts, and finally the commandment of love. Though many books are available on the topic of homosexuality and the Bible, most advance a particular ideology. This book, while not a moral treatise on homosexuality, intends only to clarify, without a predetermined interpretation, what the Bible actually says on the subject.

"This magnificent work has all the beauty of a late career book written by a master who speaks about his area of expertise simply and wisely. This is not a heavily detailed and footnoted argument. It is a book about the virtues and passions by someone so steeped in the thought of Aquinas that he can approach his topic creatively and boldly, and yet still be firmly rooted in the Angelic Doctor's thought." - Theological Studies "This was the last book written by the respected Belgian Dominican moral theologian Servais Pinckaers before his death in 2008will be of interest to the libraries of major seminaries and to academic libraries with moral theology collections." - Catholic Library World "This is an accessible treatment of a complex subject from an undisputed master of the field. Less a scholarly work than a profound, personal reflection on a topic of perennial significance. Recommended." - Choice "[Passions and Virtue] is brief, and printed in a small format. Each short chapter is divided into smaller sections, and given a subtitle. This means that it is read profitably in shorter sections, interspersed with longer periods of reflection on the content, keeping an eye on the overall thread of the bookan important addition to the Pinckaers English-language canon. One can hope that it will be read by a wider audience, and will serve as a means of introducing his other works to the uninitiated, and that his thought will become accepted as essential reading in seminaries and places where Catholic theology is taught and studied. To this end, the more material available in English the better." - New Blackfriars

In this concise new volume by the acclaimed author of the biography of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Jean-Pierre Torrell brings his expertise to bear on Aquinas's ""Summa Theologiae"". Readers will turn to this book again and again for a brief and popular introduction to Aquinas's masterpiece - it's content; it's historical, literary, and doctrinal settings; and it's lasting significance. Torrell begins with an expert account of Aquinas's life and then turns his attention to the overall structures and specific content of the ""Summa"". He considers the literary and doctrinal context of the ""Summa"", situating the work within the overall literary corpus of the Angelic Doctor and examining Aquinas's Christian, Greek, Jewish, and Arab sources. The second half of the book surveys the history of the ""Summa's"" influence from Aquinas's death in 1274 through the twentieth century. Torrell traces the fate of Aquinas's ""Summa"" from its slow start, through the eventual emergence of Thomism, and finally to its widespread acceptance. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed the ultimate triumph of Aquinas's work with the encyclical Aeternis patris and, in the wake of Vatican II there has been renewed interest in its content and method. This book is a masterpiece of concision and completeness. It will be of considerable interest to readers seeking to understand and appreciate the content, method, and impact of the ""Summa"" and the man who wrote it.