Illuminating Unity

Fifty years ago, Dei Verbum called Catholics to reflect on the inherent unity of the "one table of the word of God and the body of Christ." Drawing from a variety of ancient and modern insights, the author proposes a fresh view of word and sacrament as interrelated facets of God's one enduring revelation. Like a table with four sides, the unity of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist can be seen from the viewpoints of prophecy, pneumatology, language, and sacramentality. Grounded in Catholic systematic theology, the author extends the conversation to ecumenical reflection and implications for communities of faith.

Everyone dreams of a better life. All the things you’ve ever wanted — happiness, loving relationships, well-being, abundance, and peace of mind — are all qualities of enlightenment, a way of embracing our fullest potential that seemed unavailable to us, until now. For thousands of years, the secret to enlightenment has remained hidden in the distant reaches of the Himalayas, deep in wisdom impenetrable to all but the most dedicated seekers. For the first time in history, The Backdoor to Enlightenment burns the rules and barriers that have hindered our understanding and reveals the keys to immediate, profound realization to the rest of the world. Blending centuries-old texts with contemporary wisdom, readers of any faith can bypass the traps and limitations of modern life and achieve lasting peace every day. More than just a heartfelt story of mystery and discovery, this revolutionary work stands out as a smart, clear guide, showing step-by-step how you can use these astonishing truths to transform every aspect of your life. There might not be a shortcut to your dreams, but there is a Backdoor!

This book analyzes and contextualizes Auerbach’s life and mind in the wide ideological, philological, and historical context of his time, especially the rise of Aryan philology and its eventual triumph with the Nazi Revolution or the Hitler Revolution in Germany of 1933. It deals specifically with his struggle against the premises of Aryan philology, based on völkisch mysticism and Nazi historiography, which eliminated the Old Testament from German Kultur and Volksgeist in particular, and Western culture and civilization in general. It examines in detail his apologia for, or defense and justification of, Western Judaeo-Christian humanist tradition at its gravest existential moment. It discusses Auerbach’s ultimate goal, which was to counter the overt racist tendencies and völkish ideology in Germany, or the belief in the Community of Blood and Fate of the German people, which sharply distinguished between Kultur and civilization and glorified völkisch nationalism over European civilization. The volume includes an analysis of the entire twenty chapters of Auerbach’s most celebrated book: Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, 1946.

The Perfection of Freedom seeks to respond to the impoverished conventional notion of freedom through a recovery of an understanding rich with possibilities yet all but forgotten in contemporary thought. This understanding, developed in different but complementary ways in the German thinkers Schiller, Schelling, and Hegel, connects freedom, not exclusively with power and possibility, but rather most fundamentally with completion, wholeness, and actuality. What is unique here is specifically the interpretation of freedom in terms of form, whether it be aesthetic form (Schiller), organic form (Schelling), or social form (Hegel). Although this book presents serious criticisms of the three philosophers, it shows that they open up new avenues for reflection on the notion of freedom; avenues that promise to overcome many of the dichotomies that continue to haunt contemporary thought--for example, between freedom and order, freedom and nature, and self and other. The Perfection of Freedom offers not only a significantly new interpretation of Schiller, Schelling, and Hegel, it also proposes a modernity more organically rooted in the ancient and classical Christian worlds.