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Contemporary readers, who wonder at the British and American knack
for misguided adventure, will enjoy these three essays on Custer,
the Titanic, and the onset of World War I. The American adventures
in Iraq and Afghanistan have finally wound down after incurring
enormous costs. One wonders if we have forgotten the lessons of
history, and in particular of World War I? It is far easier to
enter into armed conflict than it is to withdraw the troops and
heal the wounds. The Soldier, the Builder, and the Diplomat
consists of rapier-like literary thrusts into the lives of General
George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Andrews (the builder of the
Titanic), and Edward Grey (British Foreign Secretary before World
War I. However spectacular their failures, it's generally agreed
that these men (or, in the case of Edward Grey, the men around him)
could have avoided disaster except for arrogance - a flaw that has
long characterized the imperial ambition of leaders from both
countries. One shudders to think where such a mentality will take
us in a nuclear age. Steven Schlesser's readable study is more than
entertainment or scholarship, it is a plea for balance, probity,
and reason in an era when a single fit of arrogance by a world
leader can devastate hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings
and imperil the very project of civilized human existence on this
planet. It's difficult to overstate the importance of The Soldier,
the Builder, and the Diplomat.
Enthusiasm for the operas of composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
flourished in fin-de-siecle France, fed by fascination for the
medieval history and literature that inspired his work. By the
1890s, ""pilgrimages"" to Wagner's burial city of Bayreuth,
Germany, home of a regular festival of his work, were a rite of
passage for musicians and the upper crust. French admirers promoted
Wagner's ideas in journals such as La Revue wagnerienne, launched
in 1885. These writings fueled a mystique about Wagner, his music,
and his beliefs. Philosopher Marcel Hebert developed his Religious
Experience in the Work of Richard Wagner (1895) from this
background of sustained popular interest in Wagner, an interest
that had intensified with the return of his operas to the Paris
stage. Newspaper debates about the impact of Wagner's ideas on
French society often stressed the links between Wagner and
religion. These debates inspired works like Hebert's, intended to
explain the complex myth and allegory in Wagner's work and to
elucidate it for a new generation of French spectators. Hebert's
discussion of Wagner, written for a popular audience, might seem an
anomaly in light of his better-known academic philosophical
writings. Yet Wagner's use of myth and symbol, as well as his
ability to write musical dramas that evoked emotional as well as
cognitive response, resonated with Hebert's symbolist approach to
dogma, and the appeal to religious experience characteristic of
Modernist thinkers in general. By writing about Wagner to discuss
these themes, Hebert caught the interest of the educated readership
who shared his concern about the clash of ancient faith and modern
thinking, and who were receptive to his argument that both could be
reconciled through his revisionist approach. Thus, Hebert turned
Wagner and his work into a vehicle for popularizing the Modernist
vision of framing religion through experience as well as knowledge.
Pope John XXIII prayed that the Second Vatican Council would prove
to be a new Pentecost. The articles gathered here appeared
originally in a series solicited by and published in Theological
Studies (September 2012 to March 2014). The purpose of the series
was and remains threefold: * To commemorate the 50th anniversary of
the Second Vatican Council * To help readers more fully appreciate
its significance not only for the Catholic Church itself but also
for the entire world whom the Church encounters in proclamation and
reception of ongoing revelation * In their present form, to help
readers worldwide engage both the conciliar documents themselves
and scholarly reflections on them, all with a view to appropriating
the reform envisioned by Pope John XXIII. Contributors: Stephen B.
Bevans, SVD; Mary C. Boys, SNJM; Maryanne Confoy, RSC; Massimo
Faggioli; Anne Hunt; Natalia Imperatori-Lee; Edward Kessler; Gerald
O'Collins, SJ; John W. O'Malley, SJ; Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator,
SJ; Ladislas Orsy, SJ; Peter C. Phan; Gilles Routhier; Ormond Rush;
Stephen Schloesser, SJ; Francis A. Sullivan, SJ; O. Ernesto
Valiente; Jared Wicks, SJ
For 40 years a battle has been waged over Vatican II between
conservatives and liberals, between those who want to go "back to
the sources" and those who champion "the spirit of the council."
Benedict XVI is clearly one of those who started out as a liberal
only to end up in the conservative camp. "Vatican II: Did Anything
Happen?" is clearly on the side of those who think something
unprecedented happened, that a genie was let out of the bottle that
will never be stuffed back.Comprised mainly of a collection of
articles, mostly but not all from Theological Studies, that are
without qualification some of the best analysis of the council ever
written, this book is a long overdue look at one of the most
controversial and revolutionary chapters in the history of the
Catholic Church.
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