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.