No other part of the Hebrew Scriptures, aside from the Psalter and sections of the prophet Isaiah, captured the interest and aroused the attention of the early Church as did the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. Augustine of Hippo, the early Latin Church's profoundest scholar, devoted three treatises to these chapters. The first two -- On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees and his Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis -- are early works. The third and longest -- The Literal Meaning of Genesis -- was produced at the height of Augustine's maturity and has been ranked with his Confessions, The Trinity, and The City of God. The range, depth and genius of Augustine's thought, which begin to appear in the two earlier writings, are on full display in the third. This volume brings these three works together for the first time in English and provides a valuable and comprehensive introduction to each one.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

The Works of St. Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century initiated by the late Fr. John Rotelle, OSA has made available to the Englishspeaking world an unprecedented number of Augustines works formerly available only in Latin. There has been an explosion in Augustinian scholarship throughout the last five decades. Until recently, the secondary literature tended to focus on Augustines major treatises the Confessions, The Trinity, Teaching Christianity, and the City of God, the works commonly available in modern language translation. Now a plethora of lesser known works including his sermons and letters has provided new insight into this complex and talented theologian. The eleven volumes of Augustines popular sermons (Sermones ad populum) including the recently discovered Dolbeau sermons expertly translated by Fr. Edmund Hill (19101997) in clear, contemporary English showcase Augustine the brilliant speaker and engaging preacher of the Word and have proven an indispensable resource for contemporary scholarship. Peter Brown and other leading Augustine scholars have turned to the sermons as an indispensable source to nuance and reappraise their earlier positions. Hills translation and extensive notes have received many accolades by scholars but professors have clamored for a one volume anthology in paperback form that would be affordable to students and that could be used as required texts in teaching undergraduates, graduate students and seminarians. Fr. Doyle has undertaken that task and has carefully chosen an anthology that is representative of the bishops finest preaching on a wide range of subjects including God, Christ, sin, grace, conversion, martyrdom, sacraments, marriage, wealth, poverty, Christmas, Easter and living the Christian life. Students and preachers alike will discover Augustines masterful interpretation of the Word of God and creative skills in engaging the people of God by using the finest rhetorical skills available to his time based on the principles taught by Cicero. To engage Christians the preacher must first capture their attention (delectare) in order to teach (docere) fundamental saving truths to persuade (flectere) them to live a life of discipleship and put into practice such high ideals. Essential Sermons will include mostly whole sermons with a brief introduction but in some cases powerful excerpts from lengthy homilies that would have been impossible to incorporate in a one volume work. Fr. Doyle has written a concise Introduction to Augustines preaching and has included a table of themes for easy and convenient consultation.

The Summa Theologiae ranks among the greatest documents of the Christian Church, and is a landmark of medieval western thought. It provides the framework for Catholic studies in systematic theology and for a classical Christian philosophy, and is regularly consulted by scholars of all faiths and none, across a range of academic disciplines. This paperback reissue of the classic Latin/English edition first published by the English Dominicans in the 1960s and 1970s, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, has been undertaken in response to regular requests from readers and librarians around the world for the entire series of 61 volumes to be made available again. The original text is unchanged, except for the correction of a small number of typographical errors.