Eerdmans Catholic Thought Collection (12 vols.)

An invaluable historical record and a moving personal confession.

—Publishers Weekly

A Protestant theologian strongly committed to ecumenical Christian understanding, Mark Powell offers here a perceptive critical review of the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, by studying in depth the approaches taken to it by four major Catholic thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His treatment is clear, lively, and fair-minded, and it should be welcomed by both Catholics and Protestants as a careful and constructive contribution to contemporary discussions of religious epistemology.

—Brian Daley, Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame

It has been a long time since a Protestant theologian in the English-speaking world took up the topic of papal infallibility and gave it the kind of serious attention it deserves. Papal infallibility is intrinsically interesting and has been a critical ecumenical issue over the last century. Mark Powell rightly locates the doctrine of papal infallibility within the epistemology of theology before providing a sensitive overview of the various ways in which it has been conceived and elaborated. Throughout this work, Powell is sensitive, accurate, and irenic. His own substantial evaluations and final conclusions are carefully stated and defended. The result is a splendid book—indispensable reading for all future treatments of this topic.

—William J. Abraham, Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies, Southern Methodist University

Mark Powell’s lucid and insightful study makes an important contribution to current discussions of religious epistemology and ecumenical dialogue on religious authority. In bringing the insights of canonical theism to bear on the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility, Powell highlights the essentially epistemic function of this teaching and shows its weaknesses in fulfilling this role. But this work is not just for Roman Catholics. Protestants too have quested futilely for certainty of knowledge and indisputability of interpretation. Powell’s criticisms of Catholic efforts to bypass these problems apply equally to Protestant strategies. And his constructive proposal for discerning and maintaining Christian identity—that is, canonical theism—pertains to Protestants as much as to Roman Catholics. This book begs to be followed by a study of how an infallible and perspicuous scripture functions in Protestant theology.

—Ron Highfield, professor of religion, Pepperdine University

In recent years, many Protestant theologians have made their way from Protestant denominations to the Roman Catholic Church. While there are various motives for this move, among them is surely a growing frustration with the hermeneutical and theological chaos now rampant within Protestantism. Over against this chaos is the promise of doctrinal unity and stability secured by an authoritative teaching office known as the magisterium. However, within Catholicism itself, the magisterium raises as many questions as it answers. In a thorough and lively examination of the doctrine of papal infallibility, Mark Powell brings these questions into the full light of day. For Protestants disillusioned with sola scriptura, this volume offers a probing and sobering account of an alternative solution to the problems of doctrinal disunity and instability in Western Christianity.

—Jason E. Vickers, professor of theology and Wesleyan studies, United Theological Seminary

Some teachers are all theory and some are all practice. John Dear has the ability to be both. Some teachers are very orthodox and some open new ground. John Dear puts the two together knowing they are the same.

—Richard Rohr, author, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See

John Dear not only talks about Jesus but also lives Jesus—radical, loving, nonviolent Jesus. He prisms Jesus through his own life and brings us into the adventure.

—Sister Helen Prejean, author, Dead Man Walking

For evil to prevail requires only that good people sit on the sidelines and do nothing. Fr. John Dear is compelling all of us to stand up and take responsibility for the suffering of humanity so often caused through selfishness and greed.

—Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus, Cape Town, South Africa

Dear has the gift to capture the social gospel as Jesus and the apostles proclaimed it. His writing is in the tradition of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Jean Vanier, and Daniel Berrigan.

—J. Christoph Arnold, founder, Breaking the Cycle

The Second Vatican Council spoke of the need for a Christ-centered, innovative, nonlegalistic approach to moral theology. This volume fulfills that need. Composed by a group of young Catholic scholars, it presents ‘the good life’ in light of Christ’s teaching and traditional theological concepts. After considering foundational concepts in a realistic perspective, it applies these concepts to various aspects of daily life, such as life in community, consumerism, family life, war and peace, and bioethics. Remarkably unified in content and purpose, Gathered for the Journey will serve well as a comprehensive textbook for college students, or as a reference work for anyone interested in learning more about friendship with God. As a moral theologian nearing the end of his career, my overwhelming reaction to this presentation is hope for the future of Catholic moral science.

—Kevin O’Rourke, OP, lecturer, Neiswanger Institute, Loyola University Chicago

This collection offers the important voices of emerging young scholars who bring fresh perspectives on a traditional discipline. They show that ‘moral theology’ is as much about a way of life as about analysis of problems. Readers of Gathered for the Journey will see what it takes to energize Catholic teaching for a new generation. The originality of the contributions makes them essential reading for the scholar; their timeliness and practicality match them perfectly to classroom use.

—Lisa Sowle Cahill, J. Donald Monan Professor, Boston College

Pitstick’s book is a challenge to those who regard Balthasar as an entirely trustworthy theologian, ranking with the greatest masters of the Tradition. She subjects his understanding of Christ’s descent into hell to a searching critique and shows it to be seriously at odds with the teaching of the fathers and Doctors of the Church.

—John Saward, associate lecturer, Blackfriars, Oxford University

This severe, but forcefully argued, study will have to be borne in mind in all future assessment of Balthasar’s theological doctrine.

—Aidan Nichols, John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer, Oxford University

Alyssa Pitstick gives no quarter. She notes instances in which Balthasar, in her view, misrepresents scriptural, patristic, and magisterial texts and simply ignores aspects of the tradition inconvenient to his argument. . . Pitstick has thrown down a gauntlet that other theologians should not ignore. . . . Thanks to Pitstick, a new and lively debate over Balthasar’s achievement is almost certainly under way.

—Richard John Neuhaus, First Things

An impressive book. Pitstick has had the courage to challenge a major theological reputation head on, and has done so with great skill. The result is the most sustained and detailed criticism of Balthasar’s theology yet published in English, and a work of acute argument in its own right.

—New Blackfriars

After a decade of provocative publications, Jean Porter has marshaled her arguments into a cohesive natural law theory that addresses the concerns and biases marking the twenty-first century. With a nod to both medieval scholasticism and the present-day natural sciences, Porter presents her theory as providing a theological foundation and framework for understanding morality, the virtues, ethical norms, moral progress, and happiness. Along the way she engages the relevant works of philosophers and theologians, both Catholic and Protestant. With a clear, amiable voice she maps out where she stands in the assembly of her colleagues. In doing so, she takes on a bit of the persona of Thomas Aquinas, who, while offering his own proposals, always anticipated the response of his own contemporaries. Porter’s own Summa on the natural law is mature, comprehensive scholarship at its best.

—James F. Keenan, SJ, The Founders Professorship in Theology, Boston College

The theology that emerges from Porter’s work is that rare mixture of robust doctrine and generosity and toleration grounded on that robustness. . . .This is a book of the highest rank, both in scholarly and intellectual terms.

—The Times Literary Supplement

A clearly written, tightly argued constructive work of theological ethics which makes a genuine contribution to the natural law tradition, extending it in theologically fruitful ways.

—Reviews in Religion & Theology

I know of no American theologian whose thought is more interesting, profound, and original than that of David L. Schindler. In this stunning book Schindler takes up a wide range of topics, including religious freedom, liberalism and neo-conservatism, the nature of the Church’s worldly mission, the death of God in the academy, and gender and the future of Western civilization. To each he brings a communion ecclesiology that upsets conventional understandings. This is the kind of book that sets one back on one’s heels, pondering and rereading.

—Glenn W. Olsen, professor of history, University of Utah

This theological study is a superbly intelligent work, a book that will be read and reread by anyone wishing to discover the deepest sources of the contemporary cultural crisis. Because every society embodies certain theological assumptions about life, theology offers the key to understanding a society in crisis. Schindler unmasks the assumptions of the dominant liberal culture and subjects these assumptions to a badly needed theological critique. He demonstrates convincingly that the substance of liberal freedom is the source of the culture of death. At the same time, his searching analysis of the hidden weaknesses of Anglo-American liberalism represents an impressive attempt to identify and to rescue the authentic achievements of the liberal experiment. A profoundly disturbing and yet oddly exhilarating book.

—Ian Boyd, CSB, editor, The Chesterton Review

Heart of the World, Center of the Church is one of the most important books to be published since Vatican II. . . . It establishes David Schindler as the American Balthasar.

—Mark and Louise Zwick, editors, Houston Catholic Worker

In our century the Catholic Church has succeeded in throwing down the ramparts that defended her from the world. It was a dangerous move, but Schindler shows that it was a risk worth taking. On foundations laid by Balthasar, Schindler has here begun the task of building a new structure for theology: an open road to authentic human liberation.

—Stratford Caldecott, director, Center for Faith & Culture, Westminster College, Oxford

Seized by the beauty of reality, David Schindler is too alive in the depths of truth to look back and realize how groundbreaking his own explorations are. These essays by authors eminent in their own right excel at the challenging mission of showing exactly how far he has penetrated the two greatest questions: how do I relate to God, and how do I relate to other human beings? The result is ample proof for why David Schindler should be considered one of the most important theologians in the Church today. Being Holy in the World is a philosophical observatory: the revelation of how full, complex, ordered, and infinite the world is, can take one’s breath away.

—Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight, Knights of Columbus

This is a wonderful book, full of profound commentary on the thinking of David L. Schindler. . . Schindler is the most remarkable American theologian of all those who have explored the communio emphases on God as love and as Trinity. Among these, contributing to this book, are Schindler’s son, David C. Schindler, Adrian J. Walker, Michael Hanby, and Fr. Antonio López. Like Schindler himself, these scholars make important contributions to our understanding of the significance of communio theology for interpreting the Christian and American experience.

—Glenn Olsen, professor of history, University of Utah

For many years we have all appreciated Dr. Martin’s considerable contributions to the mission of the Church. Now he gives us a profound doctrinal foundation for understanding and implementing the ‘new evangelization.’ This is a shot in the arm for bishops, priests, and laity as we respond to the Holy Father’s call.

—Timothy Cardinal Dolan, archbishop of New York

Dr. Ralph Martin’s Will Many Be Saved? contributes significantly to a richer understanding of our faith, helps restore confidence in the gospel message, and engenders a desire to share the truth of Christ’s message. An important contribution to the pastoral strategy of the ‘new evangelization.’

—Donald Cardinal Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, D.C.

Martin clarifies a doctrinal point that has been often obscured but must be recovered as a necessary foundation for the ‘new evangelization.’ This is a uniquely important book.

—Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago

Provides a refreshing reminder of the undiminished urgency and validity of the missionary mandate of Jesus to his followers to evangelize.

—Peter Cardinal Turkson, president, Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice

These penetrating reflections will compel us to reassess our pastoral approach to the preaching of the gospel in our present circumstances. An important book.

—J. Augustine Di Noia, OP, archbishop, Vatican City