Carl E. Olson's Blog, page 338

The Divine Will and Human Freedom: A Thomistic Analysis

The Divine Will and Human Freedom: A Thomistic Analysis | Dr. Kevin G. Rickert | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

The unity of divine and human wills, as well as human freedom, are vital to Aquinas' theology.

At the center of Nietzsche's rejection of Christianity is the idea that Christianity involves an attack upon the human will. In The Antichrist he says the following: "The Christian conception of God…is one of the most corrupt conceptions of the divine ever attained on earth. It may even represent the low-water mark in the descending development of divine types.… God as the declaration of war against life, against nature, against the will to live! … God—the deification of nothingness, the will to nothingness pronounced holy!"

In this passage, and in much of his work, Nietzsche is reacting against a version of Christianity in which the human will, human individuality, human personality and human greatness is crushed. In his vision of Christianity, individual human persons are transformed into herd animals that no longer have any power, because they no longer exercise their individual wills.

This brand of Christian anthropology, which Nietzsche sees as a threat to the human will, has presented itself in a variety of theological doctrines that have arisen in the history of Christianity. Perhaps the most famous is the heresy known as Quietism. According to the Quietists, a Christian advances in holiness by diminishing the individual will, eventually eliminating it and allowing the divine will to take its place. After all, Jesus told his followers to pray, "Thy will be done," and as he went to the cross, he said to the Father, "Not my will, but yours be done." Some seventh-century theologians, seeing Jesus as the perfect exemplar of this negation of the human will, asserted that Jesus did not himself employ an individual human will but acted completely with the divine will. This heresy is known as "Monothelitism."

In Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI sets out to clarify some of the common misconceptions of the day about the loving relationship between God and human beings. He explains that a mature love of God involves a unification of the divine will and the human will. Like many other Christian authors, he states the case in a manner, which if taken out of context, sounds somewhat like the heretical statements of the Quietists. The Pope says, "God's will is no longer for me an alien will…but it is now my own will."2 If this passage were taken to mean that the human will is eliminated or shut down and replaced by the divine will, it would seem to be the core doctrine of the Quietists. As we shall see, Pope Benedict XVI's position, like that of St. Thomas Aquinas, is far from the doctrine of the Quietists.

For Christian theologians who seek a comprehensive vision of the human person, it is important to determine whether or not there can be a coherent anthropology that preserves the integrity of the human will and yet is compatible with Christian doctrine. At the same time, it is important to ask whether or not there can be a rational interpretation of Christianity that does not entail the diminution of the human will that characterizes the Quietists and that so infuriated Nietzsche.

St. Thomas Aquinas is one theologian who put forth a view of the human person in which the individual will is considered a fundamental part of human nature. Unlike Nietzsche's notion of Christianity, St. Thomas' conception of Christianity sees the exercise and development of the will as an essential part of human perfection. As St. Thomas sees it, God created us in his image, with intellect and will. As an effect of sin, our wills are weak, but it is not God's intention that they remain weak. As a part of our path to salvation, we are called to strengthen our wills, and as a part of our ultimate happiness, our wills are to become perfected—to become like God's will.

Read the entire article at HPRweb.com...

New: "What Is Dogma?" by Charles Cardinal Journet

Now available from Ignatius Press:

What Is Dogma?

by Charles Cardinal Journet

Translated by Mark Pontifex, O.S.B. | Introduction by Robert W. Nutt

Dogma is one of those words. Many people see dogma as a bad thing-as the unreasonable, unthinking adherence to a belief, even in the face of contrary evidence. But when the Catholic Church presents some of her teachings as dogmas, she does not mean that these tenets are irrational or to be thoughtlessly embraced. Dogma is the bedrock of truth, an inexhaustible feast for the mind, not an impediment to thinking. Why? Because dogmas rest on the Word of God, Truth Himself, who can neither deceive nor be deceived, and who wants his Word to be known.

The great theologian Charles Journet explores the meaning of dogma in his classic work What is Dogma? In what sense are dogmas an object of faith? How do reason and faith relate to dogmas? How are dogmas both essentially unchangeable and yet open to development? Are dogmas accessible only in learned theological language or are there common-sense ways of understanding them?

Journet addresses these and other important questions. He also discusses examples of dogmatic development: the dogmas of the Trinity, of Christology, and of Mariology. And he explores the relationship of dogma and mystical contemplation. In short, Journet shows why "dogma" is a subject of which Catholics need not be afraid.

Charles Cardinal Journet (1891-1975) was a well-known and highly respected 20th Century theologian. He greatly contributed to theology before and after the Second Vatican Council, for which he was a theological consultant. Pope Paul VI named him a cardinal in 1965.

Among his most famous works is his multi-volume The Church of the Word Incarnate, a single-volume, updated edition which is available in his Theology of the Church.

20% off new and best-selling books and films for Lent

Offer ends Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 12:00 midnight EST.
These prices are available online only through Ignatius.com

20% off New and Best Selling Books & Films for Lent

During Lent we should strive to deepen our relationship with Jesus. Ignatius Press has selected a number of titles, all at 20% off, that will help deepen our relationship with Christ during this reflective season.

Click here for a listing of books and films on sale.

New: "Padre Pio Under Investigation: The Secret Vatican Files"

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Padre Pio Under Investigation: The Secret Vatican Files

by Francesco Castelli (translated by Lee and Giulietta Bockhorn)

Preface by Vittorio Messori

On June 14, 1921, a priest knocks at the convent in San Giovanni Rotondo. He is in his early forties and wears a simple cassock, but he is no ordinary priest. He is Bishop Raffaello Carlo Rossi, future cardinal and the Apostolic Visitor sent by the Holy Office to investigate secretly Padre Pio.

The Bishop Inquisitor remains with the Capuchin Brothers for eight days, interrogating and recording depositions. He also interviews Padre Pio himself and examins the mysterious wounds of Christ that he bears on his body.

After gathering all the evidence, the Inquisitor sketches his own evaluation of Padre Pio, which includes his reasons for believing that the stigmata are of divine origin. He sends his report and the depositions to Rome, where they stay buried for nearly a century. Now, forty years after the saint's death, these exceptional documents are published in their entirety, thanks to the skillful research of Father Francesco Castelli.

The documents in this book reveal every aspect of Padre Pio's life from his amazing supernatural gifts to his health. In his depositions, he admits, under oath, to the phenomenon of bi-location and to other supernatural charisms, and for the first time tells the detailed story of his stigmatization. Also included are letters from his spiritual father and a chronology of his life.

339 pages | Illustrated with black and white photos.

Father Francesco Castelli is the historian for the Cause of Beatification of Pope John Paul II and a Professor of Modern Church History at the Romano Guardini Institute of Religious Sciences in Taranto, Italy. He is a contributor to many publications, and has recently discovered and published Karol Wojtyla's third letter to Padre Pio.

Ratzinger, the defender of orthodoxy, vs. Küng, the theological celebrity

The opening of a great column by Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute:

Western Europe is considered a religiously-barren place these days. The reality, however, is more complex. Books written by two Catholic theologians recently rocketed up Germany's best-seller list. That testifies to Europe's on-going interest in religious matters. But the books' real importance lies in their authors' rather different visions of Catholicism's purposes and future – and not just in Europe, but beyond.

One of the theologians is Benedict XVI. The other is the well-known scholar Fr. Hans Kung. His text, Can the Church Still Be Saved?, was published the same week as volume two of Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth.

Though usually viewed as polar-opposites, Benedict and Kung have led curiously parallel lives. Both are native German-speakers. They are almost the same age. For a time, both taught at the same university. During the Second Vatican Council, they served as theological advisors with reputations as reformers.

More-attuned participants at Vatican II, however, immediately noticed differences between Kung and the-then Fr. Joseph Ratzinger. One such person was the Jesuit Henri de Lubac – a French theologian who no-one could dismiss as a reactionary.

In his Vatican II diaries, de Lubac entered pithy observations about those he encountered. Ratzinger is portrayed as one whose powerful intellect is matched by his "peacefulness" and "affability." Kung, by contrast, is denoted as possessing a "juvenile audacity" and speaking in "incendiary, superficial, and polemical" terms.

Fr. de Lubac, incidentally, was a model of courtesy his entire life. Something about Kung clearly bothered him.

After Vatican II, Ratzinger and Kung took very divergent roads. Ratzinger emerged as a formidable defender of Catholic orthodoxy and was eventually elected pope. Kung became a theological celebrity and antagonist of the papacy.

Now both men are in the evening of their earthly days. What, many wonder, occupies their minds at this time of life? In this regard, Jesus of Nazareth and Can the Church still be saved? are quite revealing.

Read the entire essay, "Benedict XVI, Hans Kung and Catholicism's Future".

Let's see: You don't believe God exists. And you're angry with him. Huh...

"Why Are More College Students Becoming Atheists?" asks HigherEdMorning.com:

The number of atheist student groups on college campuses has doubled in the past two years. The question is: Why? There are currently more than 250 non-theistic student groups at U.S. colleges and universities, according to AlterNet.org.

Just last year, there were only 159 such organizations, reports DailyOrange.com.

So are a growing number of students turning away from religion and toward atheism – or have they just become more vocal about it?

"There are just genuinely more and more non-religious Americans, and that's something that's even stronger among younger generations," Jesse Galef, communications director of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), tells the Daily Orange.

The focus of the SSA is to "promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics," according to its website.

Galef says each college group has about 25 to 30 members, and such groups have formed in all but six states.

He points to the popularity of the New York Times bestseller "The God Delusion" by Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins as playing a role in influencing college students.

Or could it be tied to a growing anger at God among young people?

When college students were studied, atheists and agnostics felt angrier at God than students who were believers, says Julie Exline, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University.

Because being angry with a Being you believe doesn't exist is a perfectly rational stance, right? As Chesterton rightly noted, "If there were not God, there would be no atheists." Modern atheists, wrote Archbishop Fulton Sheen, are "always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion--he would be incapable of such a resentment if God were only a myth." This isn't (believe it or not!) meant to be dismissive of such anger, but to note that a reasonable person who finds himself angry at God might want to mull the question, "Why am I angry at Someone who doesn't exist?" In doing so, he might well find that his perception of who God is (or isn't) is faulty and skewed.

But there is much more to it, as this recent post on the CNN site demonstrates. Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., in his excellent book, Faith and Certitude, wrote, "Unfounded doubt arises from our woundedness. ... The problem is deeper than intellect. It lies in the affective-volitional level. Crises of faith, for example, are seldom chiefly an intellectual matter. They can be complex and are always implicated to a greater or lesser degree with emotion and will." It's not surprising, then, that many people—especially younger people—flirt with or adamantly express some form of atheism in a culture that is essentially ruled and driven by emotion and will.

The state of this cultural wasteland and its affect upon religious belief is the focus of Daniel Mahoney's WSJ review of French social theorist Olivier Roy's new book, Holy Ignorance. Mahoney writes:

[Roy] begins by noting that religion, though still obviously an important part of modern society, has been relegated to the private sphere, becoming mostly an "interior" search for spiritual well-being. In such a world, "faith communities" of every stripe increasingly withdraw from the broader culture, defending their doctrinal purity against the onslaught of coarse secular trends, what Mr. Roy calls "neo-paganism." This withdrawal, though understandable, is a danger in itself. "Faith without culture," Mr. Roy says, "is an expression of fanaticism."

If by "faith" he means "religion", I would agree, believing that true religion—Catholicism—is the basis for real culture. As Josef Pieper demonstrated well in his classic work, Leisure: The Basis of Culture, culture without faith also results in fanaticism, essentially a culture of boredom, malaise, and death:

Culture depends on its very existence on leisure, and leisure, in turn, is not possible untless it has a durable and consequently living link with the cultus, with divine worship. ... Separated from the sphere of divine worship, of the cult of the divine, and from the power it radiates, leisure is as impossible as the celebration of the feast. Cut off from the worship of the divine, leisure becomes laziness and work inhuman. (pp. 15, 68)

The materialist/atheist life, in other words, becomes increasingly and incredibly horrible precisely because it is meaningless. And one of the best ways to seek escape from that relentless, oppressive meaninglessness of things is to pursue a life of perpetual distraction, entertainment, pleasure, and technologically-enhanced hedonism. But this simply serves as a sort of cheap bandage for the wounds, which eventually erupt in painful and not-so-rational cries against (pick one) God, society, parents, existence, reality. Tragically, such wounded souls not only often miss the answer—divine worship and love of God—they usually see religion as either (at best) a side attraction or (worse) a cause of their pain, most often because religion represents "repression" and "moralism" and "backward thinking". Mahoney concludes his review by writing:

"Holy Ignorance" ends with a profound set of questions: How can religion be passed along to children when it is no longer a reliable part of the culture they will inherit? What hold can religion have on the souls of human beings when it increasingly becomes a "consumer" choice—or, as Mr. Roy emphasizes, an intensely personal, inward experience—and when people dispose of the faith of their fathers as they might dispose of clothes that are no longer fashionable? The tendency of modern society to trivialize the most important decision a human being can make is arguably a far greater threat to the integrity of faith than secularization ever was.

Which leads me, finally, to one of my favorite passages from the texts of the Second Vatican Council:

In her loyal devotion to God and men, the Church has already repudiated and cannot cease repudiating, sorrowfully but as firmly as possible, those poisonous doctrines and actions which contradict reason and the common experience of humanity, and dethrone man from his native excellence.

Still, she strives to detect in the atheistic mind the hidden causes for the denial of God; conscious of how weighty are the questions which atheism raises, and motivated by love for all men, she believes these questions ought to be examined seriously and more profoundly.

The Church holds that the recognition of God is in no way hostile to man's dignity, since this dignity is rooted and perfected in God. For man was made an intelligent and free member of society by God Who created him, but even more important, he is called as a son to commune with God and share in His happiness. She further teaches that a hope related to the end of time does not diminish the importance of intervening duties but rather undergirds the acquittal of them with fresh incentives. By contrast, when a divine instruction and the hope of life eternal are wanting, man's dignity is most grievously lacerated, as current events often attest; riddles of life and death, of guilt and of grief go unsolved with the frequent result that men succumb to despair.

Meanwhile every man remains to himself an unsolved puzzle, however obscurely he may perceive it. For on certain occasions no one can entirely escape the kind of self-questioning mentioned earlier, especially when life's major events take place. To this questioning only God fully and most certainly provides an answer as He summons man to higher knowledge and humbler probing.

The remedy which must be applied to atheism, however, is to be sought in a proper presentation of the Church's teaching as well as in the integral life of the Church and her members. For it is the function of the Church, led by the Holy Spirit Who renews and purifies her ceaselessly, to make God the Father and His Incarnate Son present and in a sense visible. This result is achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and mature faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly and to master them. Many martyrs have given luminous witness to this faith and continue to do so. This faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by penetrating the believer's entire life, including its worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward justice and love, especially regarding the needy. What does the most reveal God's presence, however, is the brotherly charity of the faithful who are united in spirit as they work together for the faith of the Gospel and who prove themselves a sign of unity.

While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which all alike live; such an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue. Hence the Church protests against the distinction which some state authorities make between believers and unbelievers, with prejudice to the fundamental rights of the human person. The Church calls for the active liberty of believers to build up in this world God's temple too. She courteously invites atheists to examine the Gospel of Christ with an open mind.

Above all the Church knows that her message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart when she champions the dignity of the human vocation, restoring hope to those who have already despaired of anything higher than their present lot. Far from diminishing man, her message brings to his development light, life and freedom. Apart from this message nothing will avail to fill up the heart of man: "Thou hast made us for Thyself," O Lord, "and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee."

The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown. (Gaudium et spes, 21-22)

Here is a list of books available from Ignatius Press that address skepticism and atheism:

• The Drama of Atheist Humanism by Henri de Lubac
• God and the Ways of Knowing by Jean Cardinal Danielou
• Theology and Sanity and A Map of Life by Frank Sheed
• Orthodoxy by G.K Chesterton
• Faith and Certitude by Thomas Dubay, S.M.
• God Is No Delusion: A Refutation of Richard Dawkins by Thomas Crean, O.P.
• C.S. Lewis' Case for the Christian Faith by Richard Purtill
• Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensees and Philosophy 101 by Peter Kreeft
• Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Fr. Ronald Tacelli, S.J.
• The Belief of Catholics by Monsignor Ronald Knox
• Chance or the Dance? A Critique of Modern Secularism by Thomas Howard
• Divine Madness: Plato's Case Against Secular Humanism by Josef Pieper
• Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger
• Truth and Tolerance by Joseph Ratzinger
• A History of Apologetics by Avery Cardinal Dulles

Benedict XVI: "St. Lawrence of Brindisi teaches us to love Sacred Scripture..."

From Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, 23 MAR 2011 (VIS) - In his general audience this morning, Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis to St. Lawrence of Brindisi (born Giulio Cesare Rossi, 1559-1619), a Doctor of the Church.

  The saint, who lost his father at the age of seven, was entrusted by his mother to the care of the Friars Minor Conventuals. He subsequently entered the Order of Capuchins and was ordained a priest in 1582. He acquired a profound knowledge of ancient and modern languages, thanks to which "he was able to undertake an intense apostolate among various categories of people", the Pope explained. He was also an effective preacher well versed not only in the Bible but also in rabbinic literature, which he knew so well "that rabbis themselves were amazed and showed him esteem and respect".

  As a theologian and expert in Sacred Scripture and the Church Fathers, Lawrence of Brindisi was an exemplary teacher of Catholic doctrine among those Christians who, especially in Germany, had adhered to the Reformation. "With his clear and tranquil explanations he demonstrated the biblical and patristic foundation of all the articles of faith called into question by Martin Luther, among them the primacy of St. Peter and his Successors, the divine origin of the episcopate, justification as interior transformation of man, and the necessity of good works for salvation. The success enjoyed by St. Lawrence helps us to understand that even today, as the hope-filled journey of ecumenical dialogue continues, the reference to Sacred Scripture, read in the Tradition of the Church, is an indispensable element of fundamental importance".

  "Even the lowliest members of the faithful who did not possess vast culture drew advantage from the convincing words of St. Lawrence, who addressed the humble in order to call everyone to live a life coherent with the faith they professed", said the Holy Father. "This was a great merit of the Capuchins and of the other religious orders which, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contributed to the renewal of Christian life. ... Even today, the new evangelisation needs well-trained, zealous and courageous apostles, so that the light and beauty of the Gospel may prevail over the cultural trends of ethical relativism and religious indifference, transforming the various ways people think and act in an authentic Christian humanism".

  Lawrence was a professor of theology, master of novices, minister provincial and minister general of the Capuchin Order, but amidst all these tasks "he also cultivated an exceptionally active spiritual life", the Pope said. In this context he noted how all priests "can avoid the danger of activism - that is, of acting while forgetting the profound motivations of their ministry - only if they pay heed to their own inner lives".

  The Holy Father then turned his attention to another aspect of the saint's activities: his work in favour of peace. "Supreme Pontiffs and Catholic princes repeatedly entrusted him with important diplomatic missions to placate controversies and favour harmony between European States, which at the time were threatened by the Ottoman Empire. Today, as in St. Lawrence's time, the world has great need of peace, it needs peace-loving and peace-building men and women. Everyone who believes in God must always be a source of peace and work for peace", he said.

  Lawrence of Brindisi was canonised in 1881 and declared a Doctor of the Church by Blessed John XXIII in 1959 in recognition of his many works of biblical exegesis and Mariology. In his writings, Lawrence "also highlighted the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers", the Pope said.

  "St. Lawrence of Brindisi", he concluded, "teaches us to love Sacred Scripture, to become increasingly familiar with it, daily to cultivate our relationship with the Lord in prayer, so that our every action, our every activity, finds its beginning and its fulfilment in Him".

Read more about St. Lawrence of Brindisi here.

Annulment Nation: A Special Report

Annulment Nation | Jeff Ziegler | Special for Catholic World Report

The United States, with 6 percent of the world's Catholics, accounts for 60 percent of the Church's annulments.

Apart from the papacy, few doctrines divide the Catholic Church from non-Catholic ecclesial communities as does the doctrine of the indissolubility of a consummated Christian marriage. Eastern Orthodox Christians are permitted three marriages; King Henry VIII's desire to remarry helped lead to the formation of the Anglican Communion. Martin Luther permitted divorce in the cases of adultery, desertion, failure to fulfill conjugal duties, and "where husband and wife cannot get along together."

The Catholic Church holds that the teaching of Jesus Christ is clear: husband and wife "are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.… Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery" (Mark 10:8-12).

Thus, in 1563, the Council of Trent decreed that

if anyone shall say that the Church has erred in having taught, and in teaching that, according to the teaching of the Gospel and the Apostles, the bond of matrimony cannot be dissolved, and that neither party—not even the innocent, who has given no cause by adultery—can contract another marriage while the other lives, and that he, or she, commits adultery who puts away an adulterous wife, or husband, and marries another; let him be anathema.

In our own time, Pope John Paul II taught that "it is a fundamental duty of the Church to reaffirm strongly…the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage" (Familiaris Consortio, 1981). He affirmed the discipline of "not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried," adding that

reconciliation in the sacrament of penance, which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.

Declarations of nullity

While most New Testament passages on marriage make no exception for divorce, our Lord says in St. Matthew's Gospel that "whoever divorces his wife, except for porneia (unchastity), and marries another, commits adultery." Catholic exegetes have debated the meaning of porneia for centuries, with the Navarre Bible explaining that "it is almost certain that the phrase refers to unions accepted as marriage among some pagan peoples, but prohibited as incestuous in the Mosaic Law and in rabbinical tradition. The reference, then, is to unions radically invalid because of some impediment.… They had never in fact been joined in true marriage."

This explanation speaks to the development of the annulment, the declaration by Church authorities that a putative marriage never truly existed because of reasons such as consanguinity or lack of consent. In the West, popes and bishops were declaring marriages invalid in the early Middle Ages, with Pope St. Gregory VII beginning to systematize ecclesiastical court procedures in the 11th century.

Read the entire piece on www.CatholicWorldReport.com...

New from Ignatius Press: "Toward The Gleam: A Novel" by T. M. Doran

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Toward The Gleam: A Novel

by T. M. Doran

Between the two world wars, on a hike in the English countryside, Professor John Hill takes refuge from a violent storm in a cave. There he nearly loses his life, but he also makes an astonishing discovery - an ancient manuscript housed in a cunningly crafted metal box. Though a philologist by profession, Hill cannot identify the language used in the manuscript and the time period in which it is was made, but he knows enough to make an educated guess - that the book and its case are the fruits of a long-lost, but advanced civilization.

The translation of the manuscript and the search for its origins become a life-long quest for Hill. As he uncovers an epic that both enchants and inspires him, he tracks down scholars from Oxford to Paris who can give him clues. Along the way, he meets several intriguing characters, including a man keenly interested in obtaining artifacts from a long-lost civilization that he believes was the creation of a superior race, and will help him fulfill his ambition to rule other men. Concluding that Hill must have found something that may help him in this quest, but knowing not what it is and where it is hidden, he has Hill, his friends at Oxford, and his family shadowed and threatened until finally he and Hill face off in a final, climatic confrontation.

A story that features a giant pirate and slaver, a human chameleon on a perilous metaphysical journey, a mysterious hermit, and creatures both deadly and beautiful, this is a novel that explores the consequences of the predominant ideas of the 20th Century.

"As this intriguing story unfolds, readers will be asked to reconsider what we thought we knew and loved so well. Flashes of recognition will occur as famous figures appear, identified only by their first names. As the plot develops, a vast landscape of drama emerges, reaching across time, probing the reasons behind the rise and fall of civilizations, our own and also another that we have considered to be myth-or fiction. The author's whimsical sense is a fine one, though he does not show his hand too early on. His wisdom is fully evident throughout. This is a dark mystery tale, a gripping adventure, and in its own unique way a comedeia, plunging us into the war in the heavens and the wars for souls. Ingeniously inventive, it is startling, moving, horrifying at times, and ultimately consoling." 
- Michael D. O'Brien, Author, Father Elijah: An Apocalypse

"Thomas Doran's wonderful mystery novel, Toward the Gleam, takes readers on a fantastic adventure with a man who in uncovering a manuscript from a long-lost civilization, sets out on a life-long quest to uncover its meaning and origins. In the process, he is confronted by remarkable creatures, unforeseen dangers and hidden realities. This is a book richly imaginative, intriguing and metaphysical, exploring many vexing questions of the modern era and enduring truths to be discovered in the process."
-David J. Theroux, Founder and President, C.S. Lewis Society of California

"The works of Tolkien and Lewis continue to inspire new generations of writers, most of whom are not worthy to bask in the reflected glory of their mentors. T. M. Doran is a noble and notable exception. Towards the Gleam rises above the level of parody or pastiche to reach the heights that few writers have achieved. Although it basks in the reflected glory of The Lord of the Rings and conveys inklings of That Hideous Strength, it does not merely reflect the light that Tolkien and Lewis have shone; it refracts it in exciting new directions, toward the gleam of the glorious light that is the source of all great literature." 
- Joseph Pearce, Author, Tolkien: Man and Myth

T.M. Doran, formerly an Adjunct Professor at the University of Detroit School of Engineering, has a Master of Science Degree from Purdue University. This book is the culmination of 25 years of exploring the history and ideologies of the 20th Century, along with a lifelong passion for the mystery genre. He has been a contributing writer for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, New York Times, and the Detroit Free Press.

Pope's "purpose is to make it easier for the reader to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ..."

Mark Brumley, President of Ignatius Press, talks to ZENIT about Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection:

ZENIT: In what way should this text be read? As a meditational companion for Lent? A scholarly presentation?

Brumley: There is something for everyone in this book.

Certainly, this is a great book for anyone to read for Lent, especially for Holy Week.

Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians will find a presentation of the final week of the Lord's earthly life from which all can benefit and grow closer to Christ.

Believers who meditate on what Benedict says about the key moments in Holy Week will find their reading of the Gospel accounts transformed and deepened.

Unbelievers will be challenged to reassess their assumptions about Jesus of Nazareth.

Scholars can benefit from reading the book because the Pope has some profound interpretations of the Gospels and his basic method -- integrating faith and historical reason -- is the next step in the development of fruitful study of the Bible. It's the direction scholarship needs to move if it intends to remain relevant.

ZENIT: Benedict XVI likens his work to St. Thomas Aquinas' theological treatise on the mysteries of the life of Christ. What are the relevant points of comparison that can help us understand the Pope's purpose in writing this book?

Brumley: Just to be clear: Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two isn't really a theological treatise.

The Holy Father likens his book to St. Thomas' treatment of the mysteries of the Lord's life, but the style and mode of presentation are very different. The goal of both treatments is to help the reader understand the meaning of the various mysteries of the Lord's life.

In Benedict's case, though, his purpose is to make it easier for the reader to have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ through reflection on the biblical message.

St. Thomas is trying systematically to reflect on the mysteries of the life of Christ to provide an overall synthesis of theology. That goal presupposes that the reader already has personal knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Read the entire interview at ZENIT.org. For more by Mark about the book, listen to my hour-long interview with him: