A fully developed biblical perspective of work and leisure finds the holistic balance missing from today in Puritan enjoyment of both as important to life.

Probing study of how literature can redeem the revelatory, redemptive powers of language. In this probing look at Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz and the stories of W. G. Sebald, Redeeming Words offers a philosophical meditation on the power of language in literature. David Kleinberg-Levin draws on the critical theory of Benjamin and Adorno; the idealism and romanticism of Kant, Hegel, Hölderlin, Novalis, and Schelling; and the nineteenth- and twentieth-century thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida. He shows how Döblin and Sebald—writers with radically different styles working in different historical moments—have in common a struggle against forces of negativity and an aim to bring about in response a certain redemption of language. Kleinberg-Levin considers the fast-paced, staccato, and hard-cut sentences of Döblin and the ghostly, languorous, and melancholy prose fiction of Sebald to articulate how both writers use language in an attempt to recover and convey this utopian promise of happiness for life in a time of mourning.

Providing a metaphysical grounding for liturgical participation, this book argues that “active participation” in the liturgy must be understood principally as our participation in God’s act, particularly in the act of Christ, and only secondarily as our ritual involvement. Utilizing Neoplatonist philosophy, Kjetil Kringlebotten proposes that this should be understood in terms of theurgy, which is the human participation in divine action, which finds its consummation in the incarnation of Christ. Without the incarnation all acts will remain extrinsic and imposed but acts can become real and intrinsic precisely because the incarnation makes possible true union with the divine, a metaphysical union-in-distinction, without confusion, because this union is not extrinsic. Through union with Christ, as the one common focus of the divine-human relation, we can have true union with God and may offer true worship. In order to make sense of active participation, then, we need to understand theology in theurgic terms, where theurgy is understood not as a mechanical “coercion” of God but as a participation in His act, in creation and through Christ as the true theurgist, the “master theurgist,” Whose work transforms our act and the liturgy.

Many people nowadays are confused about the topic of heaven, skeptical about it, or think it beyond description. This book argues that, without venturing into the esoteric or fanciful, we can know more about heaven than we think. Did you know, for instance, that heavenly rest will be exciting and dynamic? That we will be overwhelmed and transformed by the beauty of God? That we will dance with the Trinity, sing with the angels, and enjoy the delightful company of the saints (including the saints we have known and loved on earth)? The book will deal with what we will be doing in the Holy City and in the magnificence of the new creation, and what it means to say that we will feast at the heavenly banquet. If you want answers to these questions, at once inspired by Christian tradition and modern insight, and presented in a fresh and compelling manner, this book is for you. It is written not only for theologians and specialists but also for inquiring Catholics and other Christians seeking to deepen their understanding of life after death. It will serve theology students, seminarians, clergy, religious educators, and parish study groups. Readers willing to invest time and energy in the book will find their view of heaven deepened and expanded.

Are you puzzled by the nature and system of Aidan Nichols's theological contribution? Are you looking for a way to renew your appreciation for Nichols's theological activity? Do you want to clarify your understanding of Nichols's anthropological view? Father Engoulou Paul discusses these and many others interesting matters in this book. He carefully analyzes the different layers on which Nichols posits his philosophical and theological principles of order. He explains historically each foundational step from which Nichols draws his public doctrine of man and God. He arrives at the conclusion that man arrives at a self-knowledge and the knowledge of God, to the extent that he makes use of practical, liturgical, and rational concepts and forms embedded in Philosophy, theology, and visual art. Designed to be primarily a scholarly treatment of God's evidences into personal, communal nature of man, and the meaning of his life-work, this book is also a critical treatment of secularism and its attendants: liberalism, relativism and positivism.

Perhaps the most persistent question in human history is whether or not there is a God. Intelligent people on both sides of the issue have argued, sometimes with deep rancor and bitterness, for generations. The issue can't be decided by another apologetics book, but the conversation can continue and help each side understand the perspectives of the other. In this unique book, atheist John Loftus and theist Randal Rauser engage in twenty short debates that consider Christianity, the existence of God, and unbelief from a variety of angles. Each concise debate centers on a proposition to be resolved, with either John or Randal arguing in the affirmative and the opponent the negative, and can be read in short bits or big bites. This is the perfect book for Christians and their atheist or agnostic friends to read together, and encourages honest, open, and candid debate on the most important issues of life and faith.

The doctrine of the Incarnation was wellspring and catalyst for theories of images verbal, material, and spiritual. Section I, “Representing the Mystery of the Incarnation”, takes up questions about the representability of the mystery. Section II, “Imago Dei and the Incarnate Word”, investigates how Christ’s status as the image of God was seen to license images material and spiritual. Section III, “Literary Figurations of the Incarnation”, considers the verbal production of images contemplating the divine and human nature of Christ. Section IV, “Tranformative Analogies of Matter and Spirit”, delves into ways that material properties and processes, in their effects on the beholder, were analogized to Christ’s hypostasis. Section V, “Visualizing the Flesh of Christ”, considers the relation between the Incarnation and the Passion.