Based in the riches of Christian worship and tradition, this brief, eloquently written introduction to Christian thinking and worldview helps readers put back together again faith and reason, truth and beauty, and the fragmented academic disciplines. By reclaiming the classic liberal arts and viewing disciplines such as science and mathematics through a poetic lens, the author explains that unity is present within diversity. Now repackaged with a new foreword by Ken Myers, this book will continue to benefit parents, homeschoolers, lifelong learners, Christian students, and readers interested in the history of ideas.

What is a good education? What is it for? To answer these questions, Stratford Caldecott shines a fresh light on the three arts of language, in a marvelous recasting of the Trivium whereby Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric are explored as Remembering, Thinking, and Communicating. These are the foundational steps every student must take towards conversion of heart and mind, so that a Catholic Faith can be lived out in unabashed pursuit of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Beauty in the Word is a unique contribution to bringing these bountiful aspects of the Real back to the center of learning, where they rightfully belong. If your concern is for the true meaning of education for your children, here is the place to begin.

"Those responsible for new initiatives in Catholic schooling have a chance to recreate the inner spirit of education and not just its outer frame. They will not easily find a programme more inspirational than the one presented here." - Aidan Nichols

"Stratford Caldecott offers a rare combination of intelligence and profound vision, yet combines this with accessibility and luminous transparency." - Catherine Pickstock

This is the time for a new politics, a new economics. Not As the World Gives, drawing on the Church's two millennia of reflection on the Gospel, especially in the encyclicals from Rerum Novarum to Centesimus Annus, shows us the nature of society by showing us ourselves. We are beings created to give and receive -- called to "walk towards the true freedom that Christ taught us in the Beatitudes," as Pope Francis expressed it.

There is no peace without justice, but neither can there be justice without love. Far from being an impractical dream, Catholic social doctrine can transform the way we work, the way we govern, and the way we treat the natural world. What emerges from this sequel to the author's The Radiance of Being is a vision of integration and wholeness, a society both divine and human, and a "humanism open to the absolute."

"There has never been a newer, bolder thinker than Coventry Patmore (or one who was a greater artist at the same time), and he has done more than anyone else to open, finally, the immense domains of Religion to Art."--Paul Claudel

Published just a year before his death, these essays and aphorisms were the final flowering of Coventry Patmore's extraordinary vision.

The writers of the 19th-century Catholic Literary Revival, of whom Patmore was an outstanding representative, were in search of the whole of reality, and awoke a renewed appreciation of the importance of symbols as a vehicle of metaphysical and doctrinal truth. As Stratford Caldecott indicates in his Foreword to this volume, "many of these truths concern the relation between man and woman, and here Patmore] anticipates in many respects the Theology of the Body of Pope John Paul II--a theology grounded in the Trinity, and based on the analogies between the love of the soul for God, the love of God for mankind, and the love between man and woman."

The transfiguring power of love, both human and divine, is the theme that runs right through The Rod, the Root, and the Flower. Herbert Read compared it to Pascal's Pensees, and Caldecott adds that "here we see a fullness of Catholic wisdom that is not exceeded by any other representative of the Revival, and one that speaks to our age as much as it did to his own, opening vistas within the Word of God that remain incompletely explored even today."

We need a new kind of mystic, writes Fr. Robert Wild; and in The Tumbler of God, he presents a spiritual portrait of G.K. Chesterton that convincingly shows why he is precisely the kind of new mystic we need. Chesterton s mysticism was grounded in an experiential knowledge that existence is a gift from God, and that the only response is a spirituality of gratitude and praise for the unveiled beauty of creation. "What was his secret ? It was to love the splendor of the real, and to live in adulthood the innocence and wonder of the child who sees everything for the first time. The Gospel tells us we must become again like little children in order to enter the kingdom. Chesterton shows us how.

One of the best books I have ever read on Chesterton. --Dale Ahlquist

A book that speaks openly of what is, in the end, the most important thing about him: his friendship with God. --Stratford Caldecott

A ground-breaking examination of G.K. Chesterton. --Mark Sebanc

Robert Wild s fascinating perspective is a welcome addition to the enlivening field of Chestertonian studies. --Chris Chan

An exploration, made with deep and affectionate familiarity with GKC s writings, of what is meant by the word mystic . --Francis Phillips, The Catholic Herald

The Radiance of Being offers nothing less than a portrayal of the full glory of Catholic tradition. From an initial engagement with the insights of the natural sciences emerges a spiritual vision of the metaphysical depth and dimension of mystery to the cosmos, allowing the reader's mind to awaken to the coherence, beauty, intensity of life, and depth of structure of the natural world--the holiness of creation and all contained therein.

Conversant with Islam, Buddhism, non-dualist traditions, as well as myriad mystical elements and esoteric currents within Christianity, the author builds a brilliant symphonic work whose master theme is the Trinity. To the urgent questions asked--in response to the crises besetting the modern world--about the nature of reality and the meaning of existence, of what it means to be human, Stratford Caldecott puts forward a clear and compelling answer in language accessible to all: Being is radiant because it is a gift, not only from the Trinity, but also within the Trinity itself; and, in the end, the meaning of existence is love.

"Stratford Caldecott is a great English visionary and a man of supreme courage. In short compass, this profound book, like no other, points the way forward for theology."--Catherine Pickstock

"This wonderful new book is truly prophetic."--John Milbank

"The Radiance of Being is an outstanding achievement and a major contribution to the serious Catholic literature of our time."--Wolfgang Smith

"Stratford Caldecott's latest book is a true adventure of both mind and soul. Highly recommended "--Conor Cunningham

"The Radiance of Being is a beautiful collection of essays."--Tracey Rowland

"This is a wonderful book by an agile thinker on a theme of great importance."--David L. Schindler

"The author of The Radiance of Being is one of the most important living exponents of Catholic metaphysics"--Adrian Walker (from the Foreword)

Digging deep into J. R. R. Tolkien's spiritual biography--his religious scholarship and his love of both Christian and pagan myth--Stratford Caldecott offers a critical study of how the acclaimed author effectively created a vivid Middle Earth using the familiar rites and ceremonies of human history. And while readers and moviegoers alike may appreciate the fantasy world of "The Hobbit" and the""Lord of the Rings trilogy, few know that in life, Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic and that the characters, the events, and the general morality of each novel are informed by the dogmas of his faith. Revised and updated, this acclaimed study of Tolkien's achievement--previously released as "Secret Fire" in the UK--includes commentary on Peter Jackson's film adaptations and explores many of the fascinating stories and letters published after Tolkien's death.

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!

In the year after his graduation from Exeter College, Oxford, the great mythopoeic work for which he would become famous was already germinating in Tolkien's mind. In August 2006 the College offered a week of seminars and papers by leading international specialists on Tolkien's Exeter years, the influence of the Great War, the healing power of his narrative, and its relevance to religious and linguistic studies, comparative mythology, and history. Priscilla Tolkien, C.S. Lewis's secretary and friend Walter Hooper, Tolkien's friend the Jesuit priest Robert Murray SJ, and grandson Simon Tolkien attended as special guests, representing the family and those who knew Tolkien personally. The conference was intended to encourage the growth of Tolkien Studies through international and interdisciplinary collaboration. The papers from this conference have been selected, edited, and supplemented by other essays on complementary themes especially for this volume, in order to reveal the dynamic growth of Tolkien Studies around the world. This book explores the spiritual, poetic, personal, and academic sources of inspiration for what is widely regarded as the greatest book of the twentieth century.

Recent years have seen an unprecedented period of reform in the public worship of the Catholic Church. Controversy over liturgical reform was focused in England by an international conference in 1996, which led to the formation of a Liturgy Forum and the issuing of the Oxford Declaration on Liturgy. This book represents all the key elements from that important conference.