Fr. H. Drake Library (St. Paul's College): Library

An innovative and insightful exploration of the passionate early life of Socrates and the influences that led him to become the first and greatest of philosophersSocrates: the philosopher whose questioning gave birth to the ideas of Western thought, and whose execution marked the end of the Athenian Golden Age. Yet despite his pre-eminence among the great thinkers of history, little of his life story is known. What we know tends to begin in his middle age and end with his trial and death. Our conception of Socrates has relied upon Plato and Xenophon - men who met him when he was in his fifties and a well-known figure in war-torn Athens. There is mystery at the heart of Socrates' story: what turned the young Socrates into a philosopher? What drove him to pursue with such persistence, at the cost of social acceptance and ultimately of his life, a whole new way of thinking about the meaning of existence? In this revisionist biography, Armand D'Angour draws on neglected sources to explore the passions and motivations of young Socrates, showing how love transformed him into the philosopher he was to become. What emerges is the figure of Socrates as never previously portrayed: a heroic warrior, an athletic wrestler and dancer - and a passionate lover. Socrates in Love sheds new light on the formative journey of the philosopher, finally revealing the identity of the woman who Socrates claimed inspired him to develop ideas that have captivated thinkers for 2,500 years.

"This book is a wonderful introduction to one of history's greatest figures: Marcus Aurelius. His life and this book are a clear guide for those facing adversity, seeking tranquility and pursuing excellence." --Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of The Obstacle is the Way and The Daily Stoic The life-changing principles of Stoicism taught through the story of its most famous proponent. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was the last famous Stoic philosopher of the ancient world. The Meditations, his personal journal, survives to this day as one of the most loved self-help and spiritual classics of all time. In How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, cognitive psychotherapist Donald Robertson weaves the life and philosophy of Marcus Aurelius together seamlessly to provide a compelling modern-day guide to the Stoic wisdom followed by countless individuals throughout the centuries as a path to achieving greater fulfillment and emotional resilience. How to Think Like a Roman Emperor takes readers on a transformative journey along with Marcus, following his progress from a young noble at the court of Hadrian--taken under the wing of some of the finest philosophers of his day--through to his reign as emperor of Rome at the height of its power. Robertson shows how Marcus used philosophical doctrines and therapeutic practices to build emotional resilience and endure tremendous adversity, and guides readers through applying the same methods to their own lives. Combining remarkable stories from Marcus's life with insights from modern psychology and the enduring wisdom of his philosophy, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor puts a human face on Stoicism and offers a timeless and essential guide to handling the ethical and psychological challenges we face today.

The Singular Voice of Being reconsiders John Duns Scotus's well-studied theory of the univocity of being in light of his less explored discussions of ultimate difference. Ultimate difference is a notion introduced by Aristotle and known by the Aristotelian tradition, but one that, this book argues, Scotus radically retrofits to buttress his doctrine of univocity. Scotus broadens ultimate difference to include not only specific differences, but also intrinsic modes of being (e.g., finite/infinite) and principles of individuation (i.e., haecceitates). Furthermore, he deepens it by divorcing it from anything with categorical classification, such as substantial form. Scotus uses his revamped notion of ultimate difference as a means of dividing being, despite the longstanding Parmenidean arguments against such division. The book highlights the unique role of difference in Scotus's thought, which conceives of difference not as a fall from the perfect unity of being but rather as a perfective determination of an otherwise indifferent concept. The division of being culminates in individuation as the final degree of perfection, which constitutes indivisible (i.e., singular) degrees of being. This systematic study of ultimate difference opens new dimensions for understanding Scotus's dense thought with respect to not only univocity, but also to individuation, cognition, and acts of the will.

In Charles E. Curran's latest book, Diverse Voices in Modern US Moral Theology, he presents the diverse voices of US Catholic moral theologians from the mid-twentieth century to the present. The book discusses eleven key individuals in the development and evolution of moral theology as well as the New Wine, New Wineskins movement. This diversity, which differs from the monolithic understanding of moral theology that prevailed until recently, comes from the diverse historical circumstances or Sitz im Leben of the authors. Each of these theologians developed her or his approach in light of these circumstances and in response to shifts in the three audiences of moral theology--the Church, the academy, and the broader society. By exploring this diversity, Curran recognizes the deep divisions that exist within Catholic moral theology between the so-called "liberal" and "conservative" approaches and acknowledges the need for greater dialogue between them, providing a deeper understanding of the methods and approaches of these significant figures.  This new book from a major figure in the field will be an important resource for students and scholars of US Catholic moral theology and for anyone seeking to understand the current state of moral theology in America today.

Populism and religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Mile Babić ; translated into English by Desmond Maurer -- Populism and religious nationalism in India / Francis Gonsalves -- The nationalisation of the central Islamic reference point: Islam and populism in the history of Turkey / Dilek Sarmis ; translated by Christopher Lawrence -- Religious populism: the new avatar of political crisis / François Mabille ;translated by Christopher Lawrence -- Masculinist populism and toxic Christianity in the United States / Susan Abraham -- The 'people of God' and its idols in the 'one and other' testaments: how sacred scripture challenges populist rhetoric / Marida Nicolaci ; translated by Patricia Kelly -- 'Bridges not barriers': the potential of Christian hope to counter right-wing populism / Andreas Lob-Hüdepohl ; translated by Francis McDonagh -- Right-wing populism and Catholicity: an ecclesiological reflection / Franz Gmainer-Pranzel ; translated by Francis McDonagh -- The paradoxes of populism and the church's contribution to democracy: some hypotheses / Carmelo Dotolo ; translated by Patricia Kelly -- Summer of shame: American Catholics and the latest wave of abuse crisis / Cathleen Kaveny -- Listening to the conversation: after the Synod of Bishops Meeting on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment / Bruno Cadoré ; translated by Francis McDonagh.

Religious freedom has become an emblematic value in the West. Embedded in constitutions and championed by politicians and thinkers across the political spectrum, it is to many an absolute value, something beyond question. Yet how it emerged, and why, remains widely misunderstood. Tracing the history of religious persecution from the Fall of Rome to the present-day, Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama provide a novel explanation of the birth of religious liberty. This book treats the subject in an integrative way by combining economic reasoning with historical evidence from medieval and early modern Europe. The authors elucidate the economic and political incentives that shaped the actions of political leaders during periods of state building and economic growth.

What drove U.S. Catholics in their arduous quest, full of twists and turns over more than a century, to win an American saint? The absence of American names in the canon of the saints had left many of the faithful feeling spiritually unmoored. But while canonization may be fundamentally about holiness, it is never only about holiness, reveals Kathleen Sprows Cummings in this panoramic, passionate chronicle of American sanctity. Catholics had another reason for petitioning the Vatican to acknowledge an American holy hero. A home-grown saint would serve as a mediator between heaven and earth, yes, but also between Catholicism and American culture. Throughout much of U.S. history, the making of a saint was also about the ways in which the members of a minority religious group defined, defended, and celebrated their identities as Americans. Their fascinatingly diverse causes for canonization--from Kateri Tekakwitha and Elizabeth Ann Seton to many others that are failed, forgotten, or still under way--represented evolving national values as Catholics made themselves at home. Cummings's vision of American sanctity shows just how much Catholics had at stake in cultivating devotion to men and women perched at the nexus of holiness and American history--until they finally felt little need to prove that they belonged.

Catholics constitute the largest religious community in the United States. Yet most American Catholics have never known a time when their church was not embroiled in controversies over liturgy, religious authority, cultural change, and gender and sexuality. Today, these arguments are taking place against the backdrop of Pope Francis's progressive agenda and the resurgence of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. What is the future of Catholicism in America? This volume considers the prospects at a pivotal moment. Contributors--scholars from sociology, theology, religious studies, and history--look at the church's evolving institutional structure, its increasing ethnic diversity, and its changing public presence. They explore the tensions among members of the hierarchy, between clergy and laity, and along lines of ethnicity, immigration status, class, generation, political affiliation, and degree of religious commitment. They conclude that American Catholicism's future will be pluriform--reflecting the variety of cultural, political, ideological, and spiritual points of view that typify the multicultural, democratic society of which Catholics constitute so large a part.

A groundbreaking history of how Africans in the French Empire embraced both African independence and their Catholic faith during the upheaval of decolonization, leading to a fundamental reorientation of the Catholic Church. African Catholic examines how French imperialists and the Africans they ruled imagined the religious future of French sub-Saharan Africa in the years just before and after decolonization. The story encompasses the political transition to independence, Catholic contributions to black intellectual currents, and efforts to alter the church hierarchy to create an authentically "African" church. Elizabeth Foster recreates a Franco-African world forged by conquest, colonization, missions, and conversions--one that still exists today. We meet missionaries in Africa and their superiors in France, African Catholic students abroad destined to become leaders in their home countries, African Catholic intellectuals and young clergymen, along with French and African lay activists. All of these men and women were preoccupied with the future of France's colonies, the place of Catholicism in a postcolonial Africa, and the struggle over their personal loyalties to the Vatican, France, and the new African states. Having served as the nuncio to France and the Vatican's liaison to UNESCO in the 1950s, Pope John XXIII understood as few others did the central questions that arose in the postwar Franco-African Catholic world. Was the church truly universal? Was Catholicism a conservative pillar of order or a force to liberate subjugated and exploited peoples? Could the church change with the times? He was thinking of Africa on the eve of Vatican II, declaring in a radio address shortly before the council opened, "Vis-à-vis the underdeveloped countries, the church presents itself as it is and as it wants to be: the church of all."

Proposing an open-ended systems approach to ecclesiology, with the goal of sustaining the relevance and--paradoxically--the permanence of the church, Bracken synthesizes the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead to produce his novel Trinitarian argument, which is grounded in the language of process theology and a continually evolving universe.

In this unprecedented introduction to Byzantine monasticism, based on the Conway Lectures she delivered at the University of Notre Dame in 2014, Alice-Mary Talbot surveys the various forms of monastic life in the Byzantine Empire between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. It includes chapters on male monastic communities (mostly cenobitic, but some idiorrhythmic in late Byzantium), nuns and nunneries, hermits and holy mountains, and a final chapter on alternative forms of monasticism, including recluses, stylites, wandering monks, holy fools, nuns disguised as monks, and unaffiliated monks and nuns. This original monograph does not attempt to be a history of Byzantine monasticism but rather emphasizes the multiplicity of ways in which Byzantine men and women could devote their lives to service to God, with an emphasis on the tension between the two basic modes of monastic life, cenobitic and eremitic. It stresses the individual character of each Byzantine monastic community in contrast to the monastic orders of the Western medieval world, and yet at the same time demonstrates that there were more connections between certain groups of monasteries than previously realized. The most original sections include an in-depth analysis of the challenges facing hermits in the wilderness, and special attention to enclosed monks (recluses) and urban monks and nuns who lived independently outside of monastic complexes. Throughout, Talbot highlights some of the distinctions between the monastic life of men and women, and makes comparisons of Byzantine monasticism with its Western medieval counterpart.

One of the threads uniting the work of Cardinal Avery Dulles over five decades has been his desire to give a clear and authentic answer to the question: What is the Church supposed to be doing? Dulles received his doctorate in theology in 1960 from the Gregorian University and began teaching at Woodstock as the Second Vatican Council was about to take place-an exciting time to be starting out as a theologian! Forming the Church in the Modem World shows how powerfully the Council shaped Dulles's career and writing. Several theologians examine and comment on aspects of his theology and demonstrate how important his ideas were in forming our current understanding of church and theology. Book jacket.

In 1919, the Jesuit scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote a major essay, "The Spiritual Power of Matter," which shaped his understanding of the role of struggle and conflict in evolution-whether in the material or on the spiritual plane. For Teilhard, who labored to integrate the insights of evolution with his Catholic faith, and who experienced ongoing conflicts with authorities in the church, these insights continued to play out in the rest of his life. Focusing on the meaning of his seminal essay for Teilhard's life, Kathleen Duffy explores the major struggles that he experienced in his roles as scientist, priest, mystic, friend, and member of the church.

The period from 1959–1972 was the crucial years during which the French priest, paleontologist, and writer Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's writing and thought significantly impacted the spiritual thought of the United States. During this time his writings first became available in North America; indeed, over five hundred works concerning him were published in the US during these years.
America's Teilhard: Christ and Hope in the 1960s is a study of the reception of Teilhard in the United States during this period and contributes to an awareness of the thought of this important figure and the impact of his work. Additionally, it further develops an understanding of U.S. Catholicism in all its dimensions during these years, and provides clues as to how it has unfolded over the past several decades. Susan Sack argues that the manner and intensity of the reception of Teilhard's thought happened as it did at this point in history because of the confluence of the then developing social milieu, the disintegration of the immigrant Catholic subculture, and the opening of the church to the world through Vatican II. Additionally, as these social and historical events unfolded within U.S. culture during these years, the way Teilhard was read, and the contributions which his thought provided changed. This book considers his work as a carrier at times for an almost Americanist emphasis upon progress, energy and hope; in other years his teleological understanding of the value of suffering moves to center. Additionally, the stories of numerous persons – scientists, theologians, politicians, and scholars – who became involved in the American Teilhardian effort are detailed.
Finally America's Teilhard notes that in the end, it has been Teilhard's attempts to leap the interstice between the secular and the sacred, particularly in terms of Christology, that remain of value today. It is those which most had, and which continue to have impact upon U.S. Catholic theology.

Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 marked a watershed in post-Cold War European history and brought East-West relations to a low. At the same time, by selling this fateful action in starkly nationalist language, the Putin regime achieved record-high popularity. This book shows how, after the large-scale 2011-13 anti-Putin demonstrations in major Russian cities and the parallel rise in xenophobia related to the Kremlin's perceived inability to deal with the influx of Central Asian labour migrants, the annexation of Crimea generated strong "rallying aroundthe nation" and "rallying around the leader" effects. The contributors to this collection go beyond the news headlines to focus on overlooked aspects of Russian society such as intellectual racism and growing xenophobia. These developments are contextualised with an overview of Russian nationalism: state-led, grassroots and the tensions between thetwo.