Servais Pinckaers, O.P., is one of the preeminent Catholic moral theologians of his generation. His highly acclaimed works, among them The Sources of Christian Ethics, offer a thoroughly Thomistic and contemporary vision of the Christian moral life. They reflect the philosophical and spiritual prowess of a moral theologian who is estranged neither from philosophical ethics nor from dogmatic theology, neither from Scripture nor from spirituality.
The first collection of its kind available in any language, this volume features the twenty most significant essays written by Pinckaers since his highly praised Sources. The essays offer profound reflections that are only possible by a contemporary moral theologian who knows the thought of Aquinas from lifelong study. Rather than taking a simply historical approach to Aquinas, Pinckaers seeks the basis of the intelligibility of the moral life, providing rich spiritual and theological insights along the way. He plumbs the depths of fundamental moral theology in these essays, where he treats Thomistic method and the renewal of moral theology, beatitude and Christian anthropology, moral agency, and passions and virtues, as well as law and grace. Such a detailed treatment of key issues in fundamental moral theology and Christian philosophical anthropology will certainly demand attention from every theologian and advanced student interested in Aquinas and in a virtue approach to Christian ethics.
Pinckaers's work has been an important source for the revival of interest in virtue-oriented moral theology in recent years and will continue to be a major source for debates over the place of Scripture and the Holy Spirit in moraltheology.
John Berkman is Associate Professor of Moral Theology and Area Director of Moral Theology/Ethics at The Catholic University of America. Craig Steven Titus is Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Ethics and Moral Theology at the University of Fribourg and Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences. The essays are translated by Sr. Mary Thomas Noble, O.P., Craig Steven Titus, Michael Sherwin, O.P., and Hugh Connelly.

The distinctive contribution that Christianity makes to investigations of culture and science is that of a coherent vision of truth - a unifying truth that takes flight on the two wings of faith and reason. Against methodological reductionism, philosophical nihilism, and postmodern skepticism, such a vision affirms that the unity of truth is ultimate and personal and that science and culture participate therein according to their own geniuses.""On Wings of Faith and Reason"" provides reasons for a unified vision of truth, while giving examples of the roles that faith and reason play in scientific activities and cultural expressions. Contributing authors from the fields of medicine, ethics, philosophy, and theology argue that Christianity makes a difference, not only in providing an understanding of the ultimate origin and end of the human person, but in contributing to practical applications. Christianity offers assurance about the course of scientific and cultural inquiry, while encouraging creative expression and personal excellence in its execution.Against fideists, it is argued that reason has a differentiated role to play in Christian efforts and theological investigations. Against rationalists, it is argued not only that faith builds up reason without making it a-rational or irrational, but also that it is a source of knowledge, the denial of which restricts not only our passive reception and active observation of reality, but also our creative responses to it. The image of two wings affirms that faith and reason exercise distinct roles, not the same role, in a unified flight of knowledge. It refutes the idea that isolated one-dimensional theories of truth will satisfy.The contributors are Jude Dougherty, Kevin L. Flannery, John Haas, Peter Kreeft, Richard John Neuhaus, Edmund Pellegrino, and Robert Sokolowski.

The contribution of Christian intelligence to western culture is widely recognized by those committed to the scholarly pursuit of truth, concerned for the welfare of the nation, and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of the permanent achievements of the West. The dignity of the human person and the place of the human person in society, the western polis, have in large part been developed in the context of a Christian culture that continues to offer insights for the development of the human person. This book addresses the place of faith and values in the secular state. Renowned specialists in a wide range of disciplines - philosophy, jurisprudence, psychology, and theology - discuss how the person and the polis are guided by ethics and religion, and how liberty and transcendence interact in human aspirations. The contributors are Hadley Arkes, Romanus Cessario, Robert P. George, Michael Novak, Daniel N. Robinson, Kenneth Schmitz, and Paul C. Vitz. The authors enter into a constructive conversation in an attempt to attain a deeper understanding of the human person through the integration of insights from practical wisdom and Christian faith. The book advances the cause of the human person and society by synthesizing the genuine contributions of the human sciences with an openness to spiritual sources of understanding and practice. Such intelligent dialogues between the sciences, philosophy, and religion - about human dignity and beatitude, moral responsibility and values, law and custom, community and institutions - contribute potent means for nourishing the person and constructing the polis with the insights of reason strengthened by the surety of faith and Christian intelligence.

Western culture and art were not born of unknown parents. Christianity, while receiving its mother tongues and its first canonical texts within Hebrew and Greco-Roman civilizations, has provided its own major contributions to the art and culture of the last two millennia. In this volume, scholars of international reputation, clerics and lay, Catholic and Protestant have reflected on how Christians have dialogued with diverse cultures and religions, even as they forged directions unique to the Gospel.The contributors of ""Christianity and the West"" scrutinize past achievements in order to face the postmodern secularization of western society and the globalization of communication, trade, and travel that claim a right to experimentation, free from long-standing values and detached from communities where the quality of culture and art makes a difference. It is argued that the creative manifestations of culture express the genius of human agents, authors, and artists, but they find their acid test in relationship with the flourishing of human persons and society. However, a human social standard is assured by a divine one. Culture risks becoming destructive when the aesthetic is severed from sources of faith and reason about human origins and ends.In order to face this risk, the present volume explores the interaction between Christianity, art, and culture in the West, especially in fine art and architecture, theatre and cinema, literature and politics. It demonstrates that Christianity has served as a living memory for humanity, above all, concerning the unity of the physical and spiritual dimensions that constitute the human person and culture.