Download or read book Distinctively Catholic written by Daniel Donovan and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Catholicism...is a living community of faith, a community with its own distinctive rituals and structure, its own patterns of individual and collective religious life, " writes distinguished theologian Daniel Donovan. What is unique about the Catholic experience of Christianity? What features set it apart from other Christian religions? Donovan explores these questions and more here, offering readers the fruit of his experience from a lifetime of theology and teaching.In eight chapters, Donovan draws attention to certain emphases and characteristics of Catholicism which have influenced and continue to influence the way in which Catholics experience and think about their faith. These include: sense of community; the historical dimension of Catholicism; the objective nature of faith; liturgy and sacraments; ordained ministry; and tension between universal and particular. A final chapter reflects on all the themes and relates them to the concrete experience of individual Catholic believers.
Download or read book In the Fullness of Faith written by Hans Urs Von Balthasar and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2012-08-20 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtually every aspect of Catholicism which is controversial within the Church or a stumbling block to non-Catholic Christians is treated in this book. Rather than avoiding what is most glaringly un-modern or what is most criticized by non-Catholics, Balthasar reviews these elements one by one, and shows how they are rooted in the central Christian mysteries and the commonly accepted tradition. What is specifically Catholic is not defended polemically, but described in such a way that others can see, even from their own point of view, the inner consistency with the mystery affirmed by all. Here is a form of thought which is truly ecumenical precisely because it is fully Catholic. "We are not only interested in those aspects of the mystery of the Roman Catholic Church which set her apart from the other Christian communities, but also to show how often they are central beliefs by describing what is specifically Catholic in such a way that the partner in dialogue can see, even from his own standpoint, the inner consistency." - Hans Urs von Balthasar
Download or read book Authentically Black and Truly Catholic written by Matthew J. Cressler and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the contentious debates among Black Catholics about the proper relationship between religious practice and racial identity Chicago has been known as the Black Metropolis. But before the Great Migration, Chicago could have been called the Catholic Metropolis, with its skyline defined by parish spires as well as by industrial smoke stacks and skyscrapers. This book uncovers the intersection of the two. Authentically Black and Truly Catholic traces the developments within the church in Chicago to show how Black Catholic activists in the 1960s and 1970s made Black Catholicism as we know it today. The sweep of the Great Migration brought many Black migrants face-to-face with white missionaries for the first time and transformed the religious landscape of the urban North. The hopes migrants had for their new home met with the desires of missionaries to convert entire neighborhoods. Missionaries and migrants forged fraught relationships with one another and tens of thousands of Black men and women became Catholic in the middle decades of the twentieth century as a result. These Black Catholic converts saved failing parishes by embracing relationships and ritual life that distinguished them from the evangelical churches proliferating around them. They praised the “quiet dignity” of the Latin Mass, while distancing themselves from the gospel choirs, altar calls, and shouts of “amen!” increasingly common in Black evangelical churches. Their unique rituals and relationships came under intense scrutiny in the late 1960s, when a growing group of Black Catholic activists sparked a revolution in U.S. Catholicism. Inspired by both Black Power and Vatican II, they fought for the self-determination of Black parishes and the right to identify as both Black and Catholic. Faced with strong opposition from fellow Black Catholics, activists became missionaries of a sort as they sought to convert their coreligionists to a distinctively Black Catholicism. This book brings to light the complexities of these debates in what became one of the most significant Black Catholic communities in the country, changing the way we view the history of American Catholicism.
Download or read book Catholic Spiritual Practices written by Colleen M. Griffith and published by Paraclete Press. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the maestro advise the young violinist? There is a story of a young violinist who had an audition at Carnegie Hall. As she hurriedly exited the subway, she was momentarily disoriented. To her relief, she saw an old man with a violin under his arm and thought that surely he would know. “Sir, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?” she asked. “Practice,” he said, with a grin. It’s the same way with Catholic spirituality–growing in faith is all about practice. This collection by today’s most respected Catholic writers offers a compendium of these practices, traditional and contemporary, that can enable us to sustain and grow a vibrant spiritual life. This must-have volume will quickly become a trusted companion for an entire lifetime of engagement with the beauty and richness of the Catholic faith. Contents: Catholic Spirituality in Practice / Colleen M. Griffith Practices of Prayer The Lord’s Prayer / N. T. Wright Praying with the Saints / Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ The Jesus Prayer / Joseph Wong, OSB, CAM Intercessory Prayer / Ann Ulanov and Barry Ulanov Centering Prayer / Joseph G. Sandman The Rosary/ Thomas H. Groome Liturgy of the Hours / Elizabeth Collier Praying with Images / Colleen M. Griffith Everyday Prayers / Compiled by Thomas H. Groome Practices of Care Living the Sacramental Principle / Esther de Waal Practicing Hospitality / Ana María Pineda, RSM Practicing Forgiveness / Marjorie J. Thompson Family Life as Spiritual Practice / Wendy M. Wright Día de los Muertos / Alex Garcia-Rivera Practicing Care for the Environment / United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Practices of Spiritual Growth The Ignatian Examen / Dennis Mamm, SJ Spiritual Direction / Kathleen Fischer Retreats / Anne Luther Lectio Divina / Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM Discernment / David Lonsdale Eucharistic Adoration / Brian E. Daley, SJ The Angelus / Thomas H. Groome Stations of the Cross / Thomas H. Groome Fasting / Joan Chittister, OSB Thanksgiving after Communion / Thomas H. Groome Spiritual Practice Goes Digital / Barbara Radtke Conclusion: Keep on Practicing, You’ll Get Better at It / Thomas H. Groome
Download or read book Heart of the World Center of the Church written by David L. Schindler and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2001-09 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality written by Louis J. Cameli and published by Ave Maria Press. This book was released on 2012-07-31 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality: New Paths to Understanding, Rev. Louis Cameli, nationally renowned pastoral leader and priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, presents the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality with insight, new possibilities for spiritual care, and a vision for greater hospitality within the Church. Is the sexuality of homosexually inclined persons a blessing or a curse? Does it lead a person to God or away from God? Can a homosexual person be a good Catholic? With humility and pastoral sensitivity, Cameli offers hope to the many who feel alienated from the Church because of these questions. Taking his cue from Pope Benedict’s call to “express the teaching pastorally, theologically, and intellectually in the context of today’s studies of sexuality and anthropology,” he provides a deeper understanding of the Church’s theological language and stresses that while the Church is a teacher, it must also be a learner.
Download or read book To Change the Church written by Ross Douthat and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs in a book that is “must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of the West and the future of global Christianity” (Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option). Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In his “concise, rhetorically agile…adroit, perceptive, gripping account (The New York Times Book Review), Ross Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies. “A balanced look at the struggle for the future of Catholicism…To Change the Church is a fascinating look at the church under Pope Francis” (Kirkus Reviews). Engaging and provocative, this is “a pot-boiler of a history that examines a growing ecclesial crisis” (Washington Independent Review of Books).
Download or read book A Vision of Hope written by and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reviews the benefits of Catholic education in Massachusetts, and offers recommendations to help these schools increase student enrollment. It includes nine chapters from a range of authors; a foreword by George Weigel, author of an international bestselling two-part biography of Pope St. John Paul II; and an introduction from former Ambassadors to the Holy See Raymond Flynn and Mary Ann Glendon. The book contends that Catholic schools in Massachusetts must focus on the characteristics that make them academically successful and distinguish them from traditional public schools, but must also seek new models and governance structures that will help them achieve financial sustainability. At the same time, barriers to public support of the schools should be eliminated. Catholic schools in Massachusetts deliver high test scores, high college attendance and graduation rates. The majority of elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Boston are in urban areas and disproportionately serve poor and minority families. Parents of all faiths and beliefs are also drawn to the unrelenting focus on achievement, classic liberal arts education, discipline and values that are part of a Catholic education. Despite these outstanding results, the number of Catholic schools in Boston has fallen from 225 in 1942 to 124 in 2020. Twenty have closed since 2015 and another 10 have shuttered during the pandemic, with a disproportionate impact on poor and working-class communities. Catholic educators are developing new models to address these challenges, and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue was an important step toward invalidating so-called Blaine Amendments to the constitutions of Massachusetts and many other states that prohibit public money from flowing to religious schools. The book includes a proposal for a tax credit scholarship program for Massachusetts that would likely have been impermissible prior to Espinoza.
Download or read book Evangelical Catholicism written by George Weigel and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Catholic Church is on the threshold of a bold new era in its two-thousand year history. As the curtain comes down on the Church defined by the 16th-century Counter-Reformation, the curtain is rising on the Evangelical Catholicism of the third millennium: a way of being Catholic that comes from over a century of Catholic reform; a mission-centered renewal honed by the Second Vatican Council and given compelling expression by Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. The Gospel-centered Evangelical Catholicism of the future will send all the people of the Church into mission territory every day -- a territory increasingly defined in the West by spiritual boredom and aggressive secularism. Confronting both these cultural challenges and the shadows cast by recent Catholic history, Evangelical Catholicism unapologetically proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the truth of the world. It also molds disciples who witness to faith, hope, and love by the quality of their lives and the nobility of their aspirations. Thus the Catholicism of the 21st century and beyond will be a culture-forming counterculture, offering all men and women of good will a deeply humane alternative to the soul-stifling self-absorption of postmodernity. Drawing on thirty years of experience throughout the Catholic world, from its humblest parishes to its highest levels of authority, George Weigel proposes a deepening of faith-based and mission-driven Catholic reform that touches every facet of Catholic life -- from the episcopate and the papacy to the priesthood and the consecrated life; from the renewal of the lay vocation in the world to the redefinition of the Church's engagement with public life; from the liturgy to the Church's intellectual life. Lay Catholics and clergy alike should welcome the challenge of this unique moment in the Church's history, Weigel urges. Mediocrity is not an option, and all Catholics, no matter what their station in life, are called to live the evangelical vocation into which they were baptized: without compromise, but with the joy, courage, and confidence that comes from living this side of the Resurrection.
Download or read book Roman but Not Catholic written by Jerry L. Walls and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a clearly written, informative, and fair critique of Roman Catholicism in defense of the catholic faith. Two leading evangelical thinkers in church history and philosophy summarize the major points of contention between Protestants and Catholics, honestly acknowledging real differences while conveying mutual respect and charity. The authors address key historical, theological, and philosophical issues as they consider what remains at stake five hundred years after the Reformation. They also present a hopeful way forward for future ecumenical relations, showing how Protestants and Catholics can participate in a common witness to the world.
Download or read book Same Words Different Worlds written by Leonardo De Chirico and published by Inter-Varsity Press. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics share a common orthodoxy, as promoted by initiatives such as Evangelicals and Catholics Together? Or do the profound differences between Evangelical and Catholic theology and how they view the doctrines of Christ, the Church and salvation mean they actually hold to very different gospels? Same Words, Different Worlds explores whether Evangelicals and Catholics have the same gospel if they have core commitments that contradict. It lays out how the words used to understand the gospel are the same but differ drastically in their underlying theology. With keen insight, Leonardo de Chirico looks at various aspects of Roman Catholic theology - including Mary, the intercession of the saints, purgatory and papal infallibility - from an Evangelical perspective to argue that theological framework of Roman Catholicism is not faithful to the biblical gospel. Only by understanding the real differences can genuine dialogue flourish. Same Words, Different Worlds will deepen your understanding of the differences between Evangelical and Catholic theology, and how the Reformation is not over in the church today.
Download or read book Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States written by Massimo Faggioli and published by Bayard. This book was released on 2021-01-20 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful examination of the role of Catholicism in U.S. politics and in the life of Joseph R. Biden . After a dramatic election amid a raging pandemic, racial violence, economic collapse and historic national divisions that have threatened our democracy, Joe Biden succeeds Donald Trump as the 46th President of the United States. For Catholics, this is a momentous occasion in US public life, as he is the second Catholic to be elected to the nation's highest office, joining John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In 2021, Joe Biden becomes president in a very different situation than Kennedy's America. Today, Catholics play a much broader and more visible role in the public life of our country, and the triangle of relations between the White House, the Vatican, and the US Catholic Church is an essential dimension for understanding the political and religious urgency of this moment in our history. In this ground-breaking book, historian and theologian Dr. Massimo Faggioli provides an insightful overview of Catholicism in US politics, and its place as an anchor in the life of the man elected to lead the country at a decisive crossroads, an unprecedented moment in US history.
Download or read book A Brief Liberal Catholic Defense of Abortion written by Daniel A. Dombrowski and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Catholic church has always opposed abortion, but -- contrary to popular belief -- not always for the same reasons. This tightly argued, historically grounded study sets out to demonstrate that a "pro-choice" stance, now held by a significant minority of Catholics, is as fully justified by Catholic thought as an anti-abortion view, and may even be more compatible with Catholic tradition than the current opposition to abortion espoused by many Catholics and most Catholic leaders. A Brief, Liberal, Catholic Defense of Abortion argues that the current Catholic anti-abortion stance is justified neither by modern embryology nor by ancient church teachings. Combining up-to-date information on fetal development with a thorough grasp of the works of the church's early thinkers, Daniel A. Dombrowski and Robert Deltete expose crucial contradictions between the early and the modern church's views of abortion. Returning to the writings of two pillars of early Christian thought, Sts. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, the authors show that abortion was originally condemned by the church on the grounds of perversity, since it nullified the only permissible reason for sexual relations: procreation. Only in more recent times has the view arisen of abortion as indefensible on the ontological grounds that human personhood begins at the moment of conception. The authors demonstrate that the early church's view of fetal development -- delayed hominization, in which the fetus is endowed with a human soul only when it achieves a physical human body -- is diametrically opposed to the current anti-abortion stance. In fact, the authors show, the insistence on immediate hominization that provides thefoundation for the current "pro-life" view stems from two seventeenth-century scientific misconceptions -- preformationism and the homunculus -- that have since been thoroughly discredited. By considering the history of Catholic thought in its relation to the history of science, Dombrowski and Deltete bring a new level of detail and focus to the abortion debate. Their thoughtful, measured argument provides a fresh perspective that will benefit participants on all sides of the controversy.
Download or read book It s Dangerous to Believe written by Mary Eberstadt and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Eberstadt, “one of the most acute and creative social observers of our time,” (Francis Fukuyama) shines a much-needed spotlight on a disturbing trend in American society: discrimination against traditional religious belief and believers, who are being aggressively pushed out of public life by the concerted efforts of militant secularists. In It’s Dangerous to Believe, Mary Eberstadt documents how people of faith—especially Christians who adhere to traditional religious beliefs—face widespread discrimination in today’s increasingly secular society. Eberstadt details how recent laws, court decisions, and intimidation on campuses and elsewhere threaten believers who fear losing their jobs, their communities, and their basic freedoms solely because of their convictions. They fear that their religious universities and colleges will capitulate to aggressive secularist demands. They fear that they and their families will be ostracized or will have to lose their religion because of mounting social and financial penalties for believing. They fear they won’t be able to maintain charitable operations that help the sick and feed the hungry. Is this what we want for our country? Religious freedom is a fundamental right, enshrined in the First Amendment. With It’s Dangerous to Believe Eberstadt calls attention to this growing bigotry and seeks to open the minds of secular liberals whose otherwise good intentions are transforming them into modern inquisitors. Not until these progressives live up to their own standards of tolerance and diversity, she reminds us, can we build the inclusive society America was meant to be.
Download or read book What is Reformed Theology written by R. C. Sproul and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Do the Five Points of Calvinism Really Mean? Many have heard of Reformed theology, but may not be certain what it is. Some references to it have been positive, some negative. It appears to be important, and they'd like to know more about it. But they want a full, understandable explanation, not a simplistic one. What Is Reformed Theology? is an accessible introduction to beliefs that have been immensely influential in the evangelical church. In this insightful book, R. C. Sproul walks readers through the foundations of the Reformed doctrine and explains how the Reformed belief is centered on God, based on God's Word, and committed to faith in Jesus Christ. Sproul explains the five points of Reformed theology and makes plain the reality of God's amazing grace.
Download or read book Pope Peter written by Joe Heschmeyer and published by Catholic Answers Press. This book was released on 2020-06-20 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Philosophy of Tolkien written by Peter Kreeft and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2009-09-03 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While nothing can equal or replace the adventure in reading ; Tolkienಙs masterwork, The Lord of the ; Rings, Peter Kreeft says that the journey into its ; underlying philosophy can be another exhilarating ; adventure. Thus, Kreeft takes the reader on a voyage ; of discovery into the philosophical bones of Middle earth. ; He organizes the philosophical themes in The Lord of the ; Rings into 50 categories, accompanied by over 1,000 ; references to the text of Lord.Since many of the great ; questions of philosophy are included in the 50-theme ; outline, this book can also be read as an engaging ; introduction to philosophy. For each of the philosophical ; topics in Lord, Kreeft presents tools by which they can be ; understood. Illustrated.
