Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), mathematician, physicist, inventor, and religious thinker was a man at odds with his time. The optimism of the Enlightenment and the belief among philosophers and scientists that the universe was both discoverable and rational made them feel invincible. Reason alone, declared the intellectuals, could discover a God of natural religion that was to replace the God of traditional Christianity. Pascal, on the other hand, was not so confident. In his Pensees, he wrote, "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread." For Pascal, the universe was full of a mystery that went far beyond the powers of reason. Blaise Pascal: Reasons of the Heart, the latest addition to Eerdmans LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHY series, captures Pascal's life and times with a chronicle narrative based on the published sources and Pascal's own works. Marvin O'Connell takes readers on an eloquent journey into Pascal's world, showing the passion that drove the man and the radical spirituality he sought in his own heart. In the process, O'Connell also illumines the social, political, and religious intrigue of seventeenth-century Paris, especially the winner-take-all struggle between the Jesuits and the Jansenists, with whom Pascal himself was allied. Written in an enjoyable style accessible to all, this meticulously researched biography will acquaint readers with the life and thought of Blaise Pascal, a remarkable human being and luminous Christian thinker.

This is the first narrative history of the Archdiocese of St. Paul, from 1840 to 1962. Historian Marvin R. O'Connell brings to life the extraordinary labors and accomplishments of the French priests who came to the upper midwest territory during the first half of the nineteenth century. Over the next fifty years a flood of settlers, primarily Irish and German Catholics, filled up the land. In 1850 Rome created a new diocese centered in the village of St. Paul, and in 1851 French priest Joseph Cretin was named its first bishop.O'Connell's lively account stresses the social, economic, and political context in which the Catholic Church in Minnesota grew and evolved. He vividly illuminates the personalities of the bishops who followed Cretin, Thomas Grace (1859-84) and John Ireland (1884-1918). Ireland inherited a sophisticated system of churches, schools, orphanages, and hospitals, staffed by orders of religious men and women. Ireland built upon this legacy, founding colleges for men and women, a major seminary, and cathedrals in both St. Paul and Minneapolis. Ireland's successors, Austin Dowling (1919-30) and John Gregory Murray (1931-56) were not as colorful as Ireland, although Murray was immensely popular. William Brady is the final archbishop covered in this book, serving from 1956 to 1961 when he died unexpectedly from a heart attack. O'Connell ends his narrative In 1962, soon after the death of Archbishop Brady and a few months before the first session of Vatican II.

"With a sweeping overview, cogent detail, and witty insight, Marvin O'Connell tells the stories of the people who built the Archdiocese of St. Paul: men of energy, grace, vision, and not a little political skill; scoundrels and scalawags on a fluid frontier; women religious who made possible the schools and hospitals that nurtured the faithful; families who built churches through deep faith and painful sacrifice. We see these real people, with personalities and passions and flaws, leaving enduring marks on Minnesota's landscape. This is a grand tale on a grand scale."--Ann Regan, author of "Irish in Minnesota""Marvin O'Connell's magisterial "Pilgrims to the Northland" provides a detailed, colorful, and readable history of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul. Deeply researched, O'Connell's revealing history breathes life into the challenges, disappointments, and triumphs of generations of Catholics who built modest frontier chapels, thriving ethnic churches, and sprawling suburban parishes to serve the spiritual needs of a diverse people. Readers will savor a narrative rich in the ambiance of Catholic culture and in deft portraits of memorable figures, including ascetic pioneer pastors, assertive women religious, rascal priests, and visionary leaders. From Augustin Ravoux's Dakota language catechism to Virgil Michel's legendary Liturgical Press and Louis Gales's Catechetical Guild and "Catholic Digest, " Minnesota Catholics practiced their faith and wrote about it. This is an essential interpretation of Catholicism in the Upper Midwest in the years before Vatican II. O'Connell's delightful prose makes history more absorbing than fiction " --Anne Klejment, University of St. Thomas "Fr. O'Connell's "Pilgrims to the Northland "offers an account of the Archdiocese of St. Paul from its earliest beginnings to the years just preceding the Second Vatican Council. O'Connell does history as it should be done, taking account of the great deeds and the great personalities but also the less successful moments and the less admirable personalities who are also a part of the story. Overall, this is a well-researched, thoroughly engaging and beautifully written treatment of its subject." --Scott Wright, University of St. Thomas, author of "Gather Us In: A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis"

This sweeping volume offers the definitive account of the life and labors of Edward Sorin, founder of the University of Notre Dame. Born in the west of France in 1814, Sorin was ordained in 1838 and joined the newly founded Congregation of Holy Cross shortly thereafter. In 1841, Father Sorin, along with six Holy Cross brothers, was sent to establish a mission in Indiana. After a year's service in the Vincennes diocese's fledgling parochial schools, Sorin was offered a tract of land in the diocese's northernmost section -- on the condition that a college be situated there. Father Sorin and his companions arrived at the lakeside property, located near the south bend of the St. Joseph River, in November 1842.

The next year, the state of Indiana granted a charter to what Sorin proudly and reverently called the University of Notre Dame du Lac. In its early days, Father Sorin's "university" was composed of a few log shacks and a handful of half-educated brothers, only a few of whom could speak English. There was no money and hardly any students.

But Father Sorin, by sheer willpower, was determined that his university would prosper. Marvin O'Connell writes, "So confident was he in his own powers, so sure of the ultimate righteousness of his goals, so deep his faith that God and the Virgin Mary had summoned him to America to accomplish this great work, that no obstacle could confound him. He was capable of duplicity, pettiness, and even ruthlessness. But for sheer courage, and for the serene determination that courage gives birth to, he was hard to match."

Little by little, Notre Dame evolved in its curriculum and pedagogical standards. At the same time, another evolution was takingplace. Sorin came to America as a missionary first and an educator second. What began in Sorin's mind as an institution that could monetarily support the work of the Holy Cross mission, instead took center stage in a way that Sorin could never have anticipated. Flexible as always though, he readily adapted to this changing reality and began the development of the Notre Dame we know today.

Edward Sorin is a lively, colorful history of the man who overcame great odds to found and grow one of the world's premier Catholic institutions of higher learning.

Here for the first time, the compelling story of the Catholic Modernists is presented as a chronological narrative of events, with special emphasis placed upon the persons involved, their interrelations and opinions. Through a study of the participants, Marvin O'Connell traces the emergence of Modernism and the controversies related to it, offers a careful examination of the movement's multiple causes and ramifications, and places the events within the political, social, and intellectual context of the time. Rather than analyze the phenomenon called Catholic Modernism or argue one side or the other, the author tells the story of the Modernists themselves. These intellectuals - scripture scholars, philosophers, apologists, priests, and laypersons - were bound together by a mutual concern that the Church could not survive the challenges of the modern world unless it brought its teaching and its constitution into line with contemporary thought. They offered unconventional solutions to the religious questions of the day, solutions they were convinced would reform and revivify their church.

A narrative history of Oxford Movement, whereby a group of Anglican intellectuals, notably Newman, Pusey, Keble and Froude, attempted to restore to the Victorian Church of England the character of "primitive Christianity". Many of the inherent principles, such as Apostolic Succession, were seen to be exemplified by the Catholic Church. Newman later joined the Church of Rome, and the Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism has its origins in this movement.