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A comprehensive and compelling account of the life and work of Pope
John Paul II. When the Holy Father first asked George Weigel to
write his biography he said: "You have the interior disposition to
do this...you know my mind". In this the only account of his life
to be written with the Pope's co-operation, a remarkable and unique
person is revealed. Drawing on unique access to Vatican papers and
based on extensive interviews with the Pope himself, George Weigel
draws together the two main strands of the ministry of the head on
the Catholic Church. Others have written about the Pope as a
political figure, but none with so much privileged information. The
spiritual side, however, has largely been neglected by commentators
and observers alike. This authoritative and complete biography
examines the driving forces of the Pope's Christian faith and his
dramatic reform of the papacy for the modern world. It looks at his
philosophical position, prophetic outlook, his profound
understanding of human freedom and his work for unity. The book
explores his challenge to the sexual revolution, his concern for
young people and his dialogue with science. For those of all faiths
and none, Witness to Hope will make a powerful impact on every
reader.
A leading Catholic intellectual explains why the teachings of the
Second Vatican Council are essential to the Church's future-and the
world'sThe Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was the most
important Catholic event in the past five hundred years. Yet sixty
years after its opening on October 11, 1962, its meaning remains
sharply contested and its promise unfulfilled.In To Sanctify the
World, George Weigel explains the necessity of Vatican II and
explores the continuing relevance of its teaching in a world
seeking a deeper experience of freedom than personal willfulness.
The Council's texts are also a critical resource for the Catholic
Church as it lives out its original, Christ-centered evangelical
purpose.Written with insight and verve, To Sanctify the World
recovers the true meaning of Vatican II as the template for a
Catholicism that can propose a path toward genuine human dignity
and social solidarity.
The Catholic Church may be the most controversial institution in the world. Whether the question is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the relationship of Catholicism to other religious communities, the meaning of freedom, the use and abuse of sex, the dignity of human life from conception until natural death, or the role of women, the Catholic Church has taken challenging positions that some find inexplicable, even cruel. In The Truth of Catholicism, George Weigel, author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, explores these perennial questions and more, showing Catholicism and its controversies from "inside" the convictions that make those controversies not only possible but necessary. The truths of Catholicism then come into clearer focus as affirmations and celebrations of human life and human love, even as they challenge us to imagine a daring future for humanity and for ourselves.
The Lord's Prayer contains mysteries generally overlooked by most
Christians. For the Fathers of the Church, such mysteries or
"difficulties"-many of which continue to puzzle modern
scholars-marked divinely inspired points for prayer and reflection.
Saints Cyprian of Carthage, Augustine of Hippo, Peter Chrysologus,
Maximus the Confessor and others grappled with the hidden meanings
behind these questions and the fruits of their efforts can inspire
contemporary readers. In Mysteries of the Lord's Prayer John Gavin,
SJ explores eight mysteries of the Lord's prayer in light of the
early Church's wisdom: How can human beings call God "Father"?
Where is God the Father? How can God grow in holiness? Was there
ever a time when God did not rule? Are there limitations to God's
will? Why should we seek bread? Can we make a deal with God? Does
God tempt us? Without ignoring the insights of contemporary
exegesis, this volume demonstrates that the responses of the
Fathers to these questions have continuing relevance. Not only did
they understand the issues surrounding linguistic, textual, and
theological difficulties, but they also grasped the nuances of
Christ's words as illuminated by the scriptures as a whole. They
provide an interpretation that challenges the mind and transforms
the heart. Mysteries of the Lord's Prayer offers the general
reader, as well as scholars, a chance to rediscover a prayer that
unites Christians throughout the world. It also includes appendices
to aid those who wish to explore the Fathers' writings on their own
for a deeper encounter with the wisdom of the early Church.
In The Irony of Modern Catholic History, acclaimed Catholic scholar
George Weigel offers a bold reinterpretation of the Church's
history since the nineteenth century, completely overturning
conventional wisdom about the relationship between Catholicism and
modernity. For much of the nineteenth century, both secular and
Catholic leaders assumed that the Church and the modern world were
locked in a battle to the death. The triumph of secular
modernity-democracy, liberalism, mass education, religious
freedom-would finish the Church as a consequential player in world
history, and it would lead inevitably lead to the death of
religious conviction. But today the Catholic Church is far more
vital, and far more consequential, than it was 150 years ago, when
Pope Pius IX retreated into the Vatican, forced to surrender the
Italian lands the popes had ruled for centuries. And even in
today's modern world, secularism is the exception, not the rule. In
The Irony of Modern Catholic History, Weigel reveals how the
encounter with modernity, rather than killing Catholicism,
ultimately made the Church more coherent and less defensive. While
previous histories of Catholicism posit modernity as the sole
protagonist and Catholicism as a reactive force, Weigel asserts
that Catholicism was a protagonist in this drama in its own right.
He introduces readers to a remarkable cast of churchmen,
intellectuals, and public figures whose actions drive both
Catholicism and modernity forward - from the revolutionary Pope Leo
XIII (1878-1903) to the still-disputed work of the Second Vatican
Council to the close collaboration of Pope John Paul II and Pope
Benedict XVI. Weigel highlights two great ironies: the first is
that modernity has led Catholicism to rediscover its own
evangelical or missionary essence. And the second is that
Catholicism, long derided as the antithesis of the modern project,
has developed intellectual tools that can help rescue modernity
from deconstructing itself into an incoherence today. A richly
rendered, deeply learned, and powerfully argued account of two
centuries of profound change in the Church and the world, The Irony
of Modern Catholic History ultimately reveals how Catholicism
offers the twenty-first century truths-about the inherent dignity
and value of every human being, about our moral obligations and
responsibilities-essential for our survival and flourishing.
In a time of remarkable but selective amnesia in the West reflected
perhaps most dramatically in the denial of the Christian roots of
Europe in the first drafts of the European constitution,
""Understanding Europe"" is as relevant today as it was on its
first appearance in 1952. Christopher Dawson wrote of the
uneasiness that characterized twentieth-century Western
civilization in the aftermath of two disastrous global conflicts
and the attempt to build a new secular civilization on impersonal
economic forces. He desired a unified Europe, but one unified by a
common Christian religion.Recognizing the emphasis on economic
utility and mass productivity in European culture, Dawson argued
that a renewed study of Christian faith and culture was essential
in order to recover the deeper sense of European unity. In
""Understanding Europe"", Dawson expresses a desire for Europe to
rediscover and renew its foundational Christian sources in order to
recover a deeper sense of integrity.This edition includes an
introduction by George Weigel. Other volumes in the Works of
Christopher Dawson series include ""The Making of Europe"",
""Medieval Essays"", and ""Progress and Religion"".
In this remarkable exploration of the Catholic world, prominent
Catholic author and papal biographer George Weigel offers a
luminous collection of letters to young Catholics, not-so-young
Catholics, and curious souls who wonder what it means to be
Catholic today. Weigel takes readers on an epistolary tour of
Catholic landmarks,from Chartres Cathedral to St. Mary's Church in
Greenville, South Carolina from the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to
G.K. Chesterton's favourite pub in Oxford and from the grave of a
modern martyr in Warsaw to the Sistine Chapel. Weaving together
insights from history, literature, theology, and music, Weigel
illuminates the beliefs that give Catholicism its distinctive
texture and explores the theological importance of grace, prayer,
vocation, sin and forgiveness, suffering, and,most
importantly,love. Revised and updated with five new tour stops,"
Letters to a Young Catholic will inspire not only the young
generation of Catholics whose World Youth Day celebrations have
launched an era of renewal for the Church, but also the faithful,
the doubtful, and the searchers of every age.
With unprecedented cooperation from John Paul II and the people who
knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers
a groundbreaking portrait of the Pope as a man, a thinker, and a
leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world
politics- and changed the course of history. The man born Karol
Jozef Wojtyla played a crucial yet underrated role in some of this
century's most momentous events. This includes the fall of
communism, the Holy See/Israel negotiations of 1991-92, the
disintegration of the Nicaraguan, Chilean, and Paraguayan regimes
during the 1980s, and the unprecedented papal visit to Cuba.
Witness to Hope explains how it is that this "man from a far
country," as he describes himself to the Roman crowds on the night
of his election, did all of that, and what his accomplishments
might portend for the future of both the Church and the world.
George Weigel, a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy
Center, is a Roman Catholic theologian and one of America's leading
commentators on issues of religion and public life. He has been
writing about the Pope since the first days of his pontificate, and
became good friends with him. He is the author or editor of
fourteen books, including The Final Revolution: The Resistance
Church and The Collapse of Communism. "A tremendous achievement." -
The Washington Post
A preeminent authority on the Catholic Church and papal biographer
describes what he learned from chronicling the life of Pope John
Paul II In Lessons in Hope, George Weigel tells the story of his
unique friendship with St. John Paul II. As Weigel learns the pope
"from inside," he also offers a firsthand account of the tumult of
post-Vatican II Catholicism and the Cold War's endgame, introducing
readers to the heroes who brought down European communism. Later,
he shows us the aging pope grappling with the post-9/11 world order
and teaching new lessons in dignity through his own suffering. A
deeply humane portrait of an eminent scholar learning a saint,
Lessons in Hope is essential reading for anyone seeking a fuller
understanding of a world-changing pope.
With an unsettled Middle East, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups
actively plotting against America and its allies, and spillover
from religious conflict in Muslim countries spreading instability
and violence worldwide, George Weigel's "Faith, Reason, and the War
Against Jihadism" is an acute analysis of one of the most dynamic
forces in world politics today - Islamist jihadism. After tracing
the complex historical and theological roots of the jihadist
movement, Weigel offers a comprehensive strategy for defeating
jihadism and supporting those forces within Islam that seek a
Muslim accommodation with religious freedom, the separation of
religious and political authority in the state, and other key
accomplishments of political modernity. Above all, Weigel insists,
the West must take seriously the religious origins and rationale of
jihadism if it is to meet the challenge posed by men of violence
who claim to act in the name of God.
Essential reading in a time of momentous political decisions,
"Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism "is a clarion call for
a new seriousness of debate and a new clarity of purpose in
American public life.
Why do Europeans and Americans see the world so differently? Why do
Europeans and Americans have such different understandings of
democracy in the twenty-first century? Why is Europe dying,
demographically? In "The Cube and the Cathedral," George Weigel
offers a penetrating critique of "Europe's problem" and draws out
its lessons for the rest of the democratic world. Contrasting the
civilization that produced the starkly modernist "cube" of the
Great Arch of La Defense in Paris with the civilization that
produced the "cathedral," Notre-Dame, Weigel argues that Europe's
embrace of a narrow and cramped secularism has led to a crisis of
civilizational morale that is eroding Europe's soul and failing to
create the European future. Even as thoughtful Europeans and
Americans wrestle with these grave issues, many European political
leaders continue to insist-most recently, during the debate over a
new European constitution-that only a public square shorn of
religiously informed moral argument is safe for human rights and
democracy. The most profound question raised by "The Cube and the
Cathedral" is whether there can be any true "politics"-any true
deliberation about the common good, and any robust defense of
freedom-without God. George Weigel makes a powerful case that the
answer is "No"-because, in the final analysis, societies and
cultures can only be as great as their spiritual aspirations.
With a challenging foreword by Richard John Neuhaus on Christians
as "resident aliens" of any earthly city, the book will interest
those who wish to think more closely about the Christian
contribution to social questions after the fall of communism, as it
explores and critically examines a century of Catholic reflection
and argument on human freedom, the just society, and the
international order.
The annual Lenten pilgrimage to dozens of Rome's most striking
churches is a sacred tradition dating back almost two millennia, to
the earliest days of Christianity. Along this historic spiritual
pathway, today's pilgrims confront the mysteries of the Christian
faith through a program of biblical and early Christian readings
amplified by some of the greatest art and architecture of western
civilization.In Roman Pilgrimage , bestselling theologian and papal
biographer George Weigel, art historian Elizabeth Lev, and
photographer Stephen Weigel lead readers through this unique
religious and aesthetic journey with magnificent photographs and
revealing commentaries on the pilgrimage's liturgies, art, and
architecture. Through reflections on each day's readings about
faith and doubt, heroism and weakness, self-examination and
conversion, sin and grace, Rome's familiar sites take on a new
resonance. And along that same historical path, typically
unexplored treasures,artifacts of ancient history and hidden
artistic wonders,appear in their original luster, revealing new
dimensions of one of the world's most intriguing and multi-layered
cities.A compelling guide to the Eternal City, the Lenten Season,
and the itinerary of conversion that is Christian life throughout
the year, Roman Pilgrimage reminds readers that the imitation of
Christ through faith, hope, and love is the template of all true
discipleship, as the exquisite beauty of the Roman station churches
invites reflection on the deepest truths of Christianity.
Fr. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai, a native of Cameroon, has written a
fresh, exciting new study of the lifelong engagement of Josef
Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, with the German Enlightenment
and its contemporary manifestations and heirs. Contemporary
European disdain for organized religion and the rise in secularism
on that continent has deep roots in the German Enlightenment. To
understand contemporary Europe, one must return to this crucial
epoch in its history, to those who shaped the European mind of this
era, and to a study of the ideas they espoused and propagated.
These ideas, for good or for ill, have taken hold in other parts of
the modern world, being incarnated in many minds and institutions
in contemporary society and threatening to enthrone a disfigured
rationality without faith or a sense of Transcendence. Ratzinger's
extraordinary and sympathetic understanding of the sources of
contemporary secularism equipped him to appreciate the gains of the
Enlightenment, while still being a fierce critic of the losses
humanity has suffered when reason falsely excludes faith. Fr.
Agbaw-Ebai's account reveals Ratzinger, in relation to his various
interlocutors, to be the truly "enlightened" one because he
demonstrates a truly balanced understanding of the human mind. To
be truly rational one must be able to hold to faith and reason
both, reason informed by faith in Jesus Christ. A particular merit
of this book is Agbaw-Ebai's presentation of Ratzinger's treatment
of the German Enlightenment's greatest contributors: Kant,
Nietzche, Hegel and Habermas, among others. In the postscript
George Weigel characterizes what this study accomplishes in the
larger framework of scholarship. "[Ratzinger's] position remains
too often misunderstood, and sometimes deliberately misinterpreted,
throughout the whole Church. And to misunderstand, or misinterpret,
Ratzinger is to misunderstand or misinterpret both the modern
history of theology and the Second Vatican Council." Agbaw-Ebai
masterfully positions Ratzinger correctly in the history of ideas,
and exhibits why Ratzinger will be remembered as one of its main
players. Pure rationalists and true believers are equally indebted
to him.
The Catholic Church is on the threshold of a bold new era in its
history. As the curtain comes down on the Church of the
16th-century Counter-Reformation, it rises on the Evangelical
Catholicism of the third millennium: a way of being Catholic that
will send the faithful into mission territory every day--a
territory increasingly defined by spiritual boredom and aggressive
secularism. In "Evangelical Catholicism," Catholic theologian
George Weigel proposes a program of faith-based reform that
confronts these challenges head on. An urgent call to arms,
"Evangelical Catholicism" reminds Catholics of the evangelical
vocation into which they were baptized and of the joy and courage
that comes from living on this side of the Resurrection.
The twentieth century will forever be marked by the horrific event
of the Shoah. As a young man, the future John Paul II witnessed
this horror during the Nazi occupation of Poland. His pontificate
achieved a number of groundbreaking steps in the Catholic Church's
relationship with the Jewish people. This book both reflects upon
John Paul II's achievements, and seeks to continue the theological
and philosophical dialogue that he cherished. By examining together
the words and deeds of John Paul II, eminent Jewish and Catholic
scholars exemplify in this volume the dialogue that John Paul
fostered. Together, Jews and Catholics can encourage each other in
the tasks of knowing the Creator, living a life worthy of the
created dignity that human beings possess, and defending the
vulnerable among us. As Dostoevsky warned before the horrors of the
twentieth century, without God, anything is permitted. Following in
the footsteps of John Paul II, we discover that our search for
meaning and truth is one that needs to be undertaken arm-in-arm.
Contributors include Hadley Arkes, David G. Dalin, Robert P.
George, Matthew Levering, Bruce Marshall, David Novak, Michael
Novak, Gregory Vall, and George Weigel.
The twentieth century will forever be marked by the horrific event
of the Shoah. As a young man, the future John Paul II witnessed
this horror during the Nazi occupation of Poland. His pontificate
achieved a number of groundbreaking steps in the Catholic Church's
relationship with the Jewish people. This book both reflects upon
John Paul II's achievements, and seeks to continue the theological
and philosophical dialogue that he cherished. By examining together
the words and deeds of John Paul II, eminent Jewish and Catholic
scholars exemplify in this volume the dialogue that John Paul
fostered. Together, Jews and Catholics can encourage each other in
the tasks of knowing the Creator, living a life worthy of the
created dignity that human beings possess, and defending the
vulnerable among us. As Dostoevsky warned before the horrors of the
twentieth century, without God, anything is permitted. Following in
the footsteps of John Paul II, we discover that our search for
meaning and truth is one that needs to be undertaken arm-in-arm.
Contributors include Hadley Arkes, David G. Dalin, Robert P.
George, Matthew Levering, Bruce Marshall, David Novak, Michael
Novak, Gregory Vall, and George Weigel.
George Weigel's bestselling biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness
to Hope, set the standard by which all portraits of the modern
papacy are now measured. With God's Choice, he gives us an
extraordinary chronicle of the rise of Pope Benedict XVI as well as
an unflinching view of the Catholic Church at the dawn of a new
era.When John Paul II lapsed into illness for the last time, people
flocked from all over the world to pray outside his apartment. He
had become a father figure to millions in a world bereft of strong
paternal examples, and those millions now felt orphaned. After more
than twenty-six years of John Paul II's guidance, the Catholic
Church is entering a new age, with its bedrock traditions intact
but with pressing questions to address in a rapidly changing world.
Beginning with the story of John Paul's final months, God's Choice
offers a remarkable inside account of the conclave that produced
Benedict XVI as the next pope, drawing on George Weigel's unrivaled
access to this complex event.Weigel also incisively surveys the
current state of the Church around the world: its thriving
populations in Africa, Latin America, and parts of the
post-communist world; its collapse in western Europe; its continued
struggles in Asia; and the vibrancy of many aspects of Catholic
life in the United States, even as the Church in America struggles
to overcome its recent experience of scandal.Reflecting on John
Paul II's greatness, drawing on firsthand interviews to paint an
intimate portrait of the new Pope, and boldly assessing the
Church's current condition, God's Choice is an invaluable book for
anyone seeking to understand the Catholic future and the larger
human future the Church will help to shape.
When sexual scandals rocked the American Catholic Church, many
observers and faithful alike called on the church to abandon its
tenets on the vocation of the priesthood and sexuality outside
marriage-to, in effect, become more Protestant. Acclaimed
theologian and best-selling author George Weigel saw the crisis
differently: as a crisis of fidelity to the true essence of
Catholicism. In this well-reviewed book that touched a chord with
so many practicing Catholics, Weigel examines the scandal in the
context of church history, and exposes the patterns of dissent and
self-deception that became entrenched in seminaries, among priests,
and ultimately among the bishops who failed their flock by thinking
like managers instead of apostles.But, Weigel reminds us, in the
Biblical world a "crisis" is also a time of great opportunity, an
invitation to deeper faith. With honesty and critical rigor, Weigel
sets forth an agenda for genuine reform that challenges clergy and
laity alike to lead more integrally Catholic lives. More than just
a response to recent failures, The Courage to Be Catholic is a
bracing, forward-looking call to action, and a passionate embrace
of life lived in faith.
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