Seeker of Truth, Justice, Knowledge, Wisdom and Universally Applicable Truth Teacher of Intellectual and Spiritual Enlightenment No Theological or Cultural Boundaries From Blind Faith to Knowledge Faith Love, Life, Health, Success, Happiness, Religion, Intelligent Design, America (a Christian Nation), and Enlightened Christianity

This study examines the motivations and doctrinal coherence of the Commentary on the Elements of Theology of Proclus written by Berthold of Moosburg, O.P. († c. 1361/1363). It provides an overview of Berthold’s biography and intellectual contexts, his manuscript remains, and a partial edition of his annotations on Macrobius and Proclus. Through a close analysis of the three prefaces to the Commentary, giving special attention to Berthold’s sources, it traces the Dominican's elaboration of Platonism as a soteriological science. The content of this science is then presented in a systematic reconstruction of Berthold’s cosmology and anthropology. The volume includes an English translation of the three fundamental prefaces of the Commentary. The publication of this volume has received the generous support of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ERC Consolidator Grant NeoplAT: A Comparative Analysis of the Middle East, Byzantium and the Latin West (9th-16th Centuries), grant agreement No 771640 (www.neoplat.eu). "This is, indeed, a precious insight into the spirit of Berthold’s philosophical thinking. Overall, the monograph’s ambition seems to be both to represent a starting point for new readers interested in Berthold, and to stress the philosophical value of the Commentary: both goals are most certainly reached." -Giuseppe Thomas Vitale, Thomas-Institut der Universität zu Köln, Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 89.2

In 1571, Diego Ortiz, an Augustinian friar, was executed in the neo-Inca state of Vilcabamba (Peru). His killing, and the events surrounding it, marked the final destruction of the Inca Empire by the Spanish and the definitive imposition of a new order on the continent of the Americas. Ortiz’s story was recorded by the chronicler and fellow Augustinian, Antonio de la Calancha, in his Corónica moralizada (1638). He describes Ortiz’s missionary work and recounts his often-fractious relationship with the emperor Titu Cusi Yupanqui before turning to his martyrdom, the destruction of Vilcabamba by the Spanish, and the capture and execution of the last Inca emperor Tupac Amaru. Calancha’s account, meanwhile, exposes a very different way of viewing history from the one we are used to today as it simultaneously describes a teleological narrative while telescoping time into a single moment of creation—the instant time itself was created. This bilingual, critical edition is the first English language translation of Calancha’s account and the introductory essays contextualise these events by discussing the conquest and evangelisation of Peru, and Inca politics of state, while also drawing out this radically different way of conceptualising human history—the collapse of time.

It has always been understood that the central claim of Christianity—that Jesus born of Mary is the Son of God—is as much a declaration of the mystery of the human as it is the mystery of God; just as the claim that in virtue of this identity he is the Christ who restores, and more, transforms, the created order, intensifies the mystery of the human even further. When the age of revolution was followed by the age of science, and the effort to shape the environment by technology was joined by an injunction to shape societies and economies, and class conflicts became part of world conflicts, the question about the human emerged as a crisis in the meaning of being human. Yet the Catholic mind, preoccupied like every other with the crisis, has conducted its reflection within a tradition of Christian humanism, insisting on the mystery and the tragedy, and still the dignity, of the human. This collection of essays by thirteen Catholic scholars of philosophy, theology, and political thought investigates a range of topics from human sexuality and marriage to moral freedom and responsibility in a pluralistic society, while demonstrating that the Gospel, passed on in an ecclesial tradition, entered into through a sacramental tradition, remains the one radical source of confidence in the quest for human truth.

This book seeks to answer the question, "What is holiness?" What do we talk about when we talk about holiness? We might describe many things as holy, but as Socrates says, what is "the essential aspect, by which all holy acts are holy?" Sanctum Sanctorum gives an account of the holy from within the Christian participatory tradition, and argues that holiness is included in a special category of divine names that Christian metaphysics calls "transcendentals" (which are five: being, one, truth, goodness, and beauty). Moreover, holiness stands in a hierarchical relationship to the other five transcendentals, as the culmination or concentration of the rest. Only by understanding holiness as the "head" of the transcendentals, as "the" transcendental, can one account for all the complexity the idea of the holy conjures. Therefore, holiness is the transcendental of the transcendentals. It adds the aspect of reverence to existence and, as such, it is constituted by the formula sanctum sanctorum (Holy-of-holies) which extends from the divine nature through the triune life to all creation.

Life is one of our most basic concepts, and yet when examined directly it proves remarkably contradictory and elusive, encompassing both the broadest and the most specific phenomena. We can see this uncertainty about life in our habit of approaching it as something at once scientific and mystical, in the return of vitalisms of all types, and in the pervasive politicization of life. In short, life seems everywhere at stake and yet is nowhere the same. In After Life, Eugene Thacker clears the ground for a new philosophy of life by recovering the twists and turns in its philosophical history. Beginning with Aristotle’s originary formulation of a philosophy of life, Thacker examines the influence of Aristotle’s ideas in medieval and early modern thought, leading him to the work of Immanuel Kant, who notes the inherently contradictory nature of “life in itself.” Along the way, Thacker shows how early modern philosophy’s engagement with the problem of life affects thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze, Georges Bataille, and Alain Badiou, as well as contemporary developments in the “speculative turn” in philosophy. At a time when life is categorized, measured, and exploited in a variety of ways, After Life invites us to delve deeper into the contours and contradictions of the age-old question, “what is life?”

Volume 2 of Matthias Joseph Scheeben’s Handbook of Catholic Dogmatics treats the Doctrine about God. It consists of perennially important topics such as the natural knowledge of God, analogical discourse about God, the divine perfections, and the trinitarian nature of God. Especially notable is Scheeben’s identification of God’s absolute beauty as a discrete attribute. His treatment of the divine life (intellect and will) is similarly rewarding and serves as the transition point to the Trinity of persons. Scheeben’s treatise on the Trinity begins with an overview of Magisterial definitions as well as a survey of the development of the doctrine of the Trinity in the Ante-Nicene Patristic tradition. What follows is another noteworthy aspect of Scheeben’s theology proper. His careful treatment of the Spirit’s procession enables a fruitful attempt at reconciling the divergent Western and Eastern Patristic conceptions thereof that underlie later disputes about the Filioque.

This work is a guide to the life, thought and activities of Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), the great fifteenth-century philosopher, theologian, jurist, author of mystical and ecclesiastical treatises, cardinal and reformer. It is intended not only for advanced scholars, but also for beginners and those simply curious about a man who has been called 'one of the greatest Germans of the fifteenth century' and a 'medieval thinker for the modern age'. The book provides a series of detailed but readable essays on ideas, persons, and places, a work developed over the course of nearly three decades. First, it contains articles on the important events and concepts that affected Cusanus--philosophical, religious, intellectual and political. Then it turns to his precursors and contemporaries, both friendly and critical. These include philosophers, theologians, politicians, and canon lawyers. And third, the book follows the footsteps of the man from Kues and examines various sites where he lived, studied, or visited. Because the author has also visited many of these sites, he can contribute personal observations to enliven the journey. To add to the book's usefulness as a resource and reference tool, each entry is followed by a bibliography containing both recent and older works. The purpose of the volume is to gain a greater appreciation of Cusanus and his legacy by striving for a total view of his thought and experience instead of narrowly focusing on specific philosophical, theological or intellectual ideas, or certain periods of his activities in isolation from other facets of this compelling figure.