St augustine's press us (343 résultats)

Paperback. Etat : New. The late Pope John Paul II's words and life have inspired millions of people. Here, in one handy and easy-to-use guide, are some of the most memorable and inspiring quotes encompassing all of John Paul's long life, grouped around principal categories such as human love, creation, suffering, human life/Gospel of life, the person, time and eternity, faith and reason, love of country, and many more, plus a careful, detailed subject index and quotable-line index. Many people who follow the Pope as an inspiring speaker do not know of his philosophical writings, and many who know him mainly through the reading of his wide-ranging and crystalline encyclicals do not know of any of his personal writings and poetry. Here gathered for all his admirers is a collection that will inspire and provoke, encourage and comfort. St. Augustine's Press's new LifeGuide Series will offer collections of the most memorable thoughts from some of the most inspiring authors in history. Some will be new translations (and, if so, will feature the original languages as well as English), some will be English-only, but all will present the thoughts and words that have changed the lives of millions. Bound in a small, convenient size, LifeGuides will all be very reasonably priced to make them attractive, enduring gifts. …

Paperback. Etat : New. The Fall and Other Poems.

Paperback. Etat : New. In ordinary conversation, including among the 'educated,' the word 'sin' rarely gets mentioned except when one is trying to be coy or facetious. As Thomas Mann once said, 'sin' is nowadays 'an amusing word used only when one is trying to get a laugh.' But this small work will interpret sin in its true - that is, serious - meaning. What will emerge from its analysis is the discovery that the concept of sin can still serve to unlock the mystery of existence, at least for a thinking that wants to press down to the very foundations. In this work Pieper brings Plato, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas into a living dialogue with T. S. Eliot, Andre Gide, even with Jean-Paul Sartre. As he shows in this powerful work, none of these writers leaves any doubt that the fact of sin is central: It is the willful denial of one's own life-ground, a denial that alone rightly bears the name 'sin.' Paradoxically, this reality is both willed and yet also pre-given, that is, both adventitious and yet somehow innate to our existence - a paradox which, next to the mystey of existence itself, is the most impenetrable mystery of all.…

Paperback. Etat : New. In this stimulating and still-timely study, Josef Pieper takes up a theme of paramount importance to his thinking - that festivals belong by rights among the great topics of philosophical discussion. As he develops his theory of festivity, the modern age comes under close and painful scrutiny. It is obvious that we no longer know what festivity is, namely, the celebration of existence under various symbolsPieper exposes the pseudo-festivals, in their harmless and their sinister forms: traditional feasts contaminated by commercialism; artificial holidays created in the interest of merchandisers; holidays by coercion, decreed by dictators the world over; festivals as military demonstrations; holidays empty of significance. And lastly we are given the apocalyptic vision of a nihilistic world which would seek its release not in festivities but in destruction.Formulated with Pieper's customary clarity and elegance, enhanced by brilliantly chosen quotations, this is an illuminating contribution to the understanding of traditional and contemporary experience.…

Paperback. Etat : New. Can there be universal moral principles in a culturally and religiously diverse world? Are such principles provided by a theory of natural law? Jacques' response to both questions is "yes".These essays, selected from the writings of one of the most influential philosophers of the past hundred years, provide a clear statement of Maritain's theory of natural law and natural rights. Maritain's ethics and political philosophy occupies a middle ground between the extremes of individualism and collectivism. Written during a period when cultural diversity and pluralism were beginning to have an impact on ethics and politics, these essays provide a defense of natural law and natural right that continues to be timely.The first essay introduces Maritain's theory of connatural knowledge -- knowledge by inclination -- that lies at the basis of his distinctive views on moral philosophy, aesthetics, and mystical belief. The second essay gives Maritain's principal metaphysical arguments for natural law as well as his account of how that law can be naturally known and universally held.The third essay in this collection explains the roots of the natural law and shows how it provides a rational foundation for other kinds of law and for human rights. In the fourth essay, reflecting his personalism and integral humanism, Maritain indicates how he extends his understanding of human rights to include the rights of the civic and of the social or working person.…

Paperback. Etat : New. "As Alasdair MacIntyre notes in the preface, the work of Pinckaers attracted strongand fully justified notice in this country with the publication in English of his TheSources of Christian Ethics. As Pinckaers himself notes in the text, excellently translatedby Michael Sherwin, the interest should in no way be limited to RomanCatholics. Morality recasts the earlier book in an argument that is both lower andupper case 'catholic,' and is accessible to readers and teachers outside the limitedcircle of moral theologians and academic ethicists. Pinckaers contends thatChristian morality is not first of all about obligations but about happiness, understandingthat the happiness of union with God is our natural destiny made possibleby grace. The Sermon on the Mount is at the center of an approach to moralitythat turns on the distinction between 'freedom for excellence' and 'freedom ofindifference,' the former understood as human flourishing and the latter as a 'neutral'capacity to choose between controversies. The proposal of Morality is thoroughlyChrist-centered, humanistic, and faithful to the magisterial teaching of theChurch. Warmly recommended."First Things  "If you want to have the experience of reflecting on Catholic morality as thoughyou were reading about it for the first time, treat yourself to Father ServaisPinckaers' Morality: The Catholic View. He has recovered the classical view of themoral life as the quest for happiness and has presented it with disarming simplicity.Bringing us back to the Sermon on the Mount and Romans 12-15, the writingsof Augustine and Aquinas, and the theme of natural law, he has freed those textsfrom the layers of legalism which has hidden their liberating, spiritual powers formoral living. By distinguishing freedom of indifference from freedom for excellence,he has restored a wise vision of freedom. No one has shown better the roleof virtues as building blocks for morality. Catechists need to read this book."Rev. Alfred McBride, O.Praem., Professor of Homilectics and Catechetics at BlessedPope John XXIII Seminary, Weston, Massachusetts "Father Pinckaers has given us a masterful exposition of Christian living. The clarityand brevity of his presentation - captured well by the translator - make this bookideal for classroom and parish use.     "Readers will find the historical and systematic observations very informative."Romanus Cessario, St. John's Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts.…

Paperback. Etat : New. No better guide over the thousand-year period called the Middle Ages could be found than Josef Pieper. In this amazing tour de monde medievale, he moves easily back and forth between the figures and the doctrines that made medieval philosophy unique in Western thought. After reflecting on the invidious implications of the phrase "Middle Ages," Pieper turns to the fascinating personality of Boethius whose contribution to prison literature, The Consolation of Philosophy, is second only to the Bible in the number of manuscript copies. The Neo-Platonic figures - Dionysius and Eriugena - are the occasion for a discussion of negative theology. The treatment of Anselm of Canterbury's proof of God's existence involves later voices, e.g., Kant. Like other historians, Pieper is enamored of the twelfth century, which is regularly eclipsed by accounts of the thirteenth century. Pieper does justice to both. His account of the rivalry between Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux is masterful, nor does he fail to give John of Salisbury the space he deserves. The account is broken by the gradual replacement of the synthesis of faith and reason that had been achieved in the early Middle Ages by a new one that made use of Aristotle. Pieper gives a thorough and lively account of the struggle between Aristotelians and anti-Aristotelians, and the famous condemnations that put the effort of Saint Thomas Aquinas at risk. But the Summa theologiae is regarded by Pieper as the unique achievement of the period. If the early centuries, the medieval period, can be seen as moving toward the thirteenth and Thomas's unique achievement, subsequent centuries saw the decline of scholasticism and theappearance of harbingers of modern philosophy. The book closes with Pieper's thoughts on the permanent philosophical and theological significance of scholasticism and the Middle Ages. Once again, wearing his learning lightly, writing with a clarity that delights, Josef Pieper has taken the field from stuffier and more extended accounts.…

Paperback. Etat : New.

Paperback. Etat : New. Leszek Kolakowski shows how Henri Bergson sought to reconcile Darwin's theory with his own beliefs about the nature of the universe. Bergson believed that time could be thought of in two different ways: as an abstract measuring device used for practical purposes, or as 'duree', the "real" time we actually experience. He also held that all matter is propelled by an internal 'elan vital', or life-drive, and that the life of the universe is constantly creative and unpredictable. On the basis of these ideas he constructed a system of thought that embraced his views on memory, matter, conscousness, movement, religious morality, and the nature of laughter. His pantheistic and dynamic vision of the universe, which emerged at a time of crisis in Western intellectual life, was symptomatic of the struggle between a rigid scientific derminism and the Christian tradition of a divine creation.…

Paperback. Etat : New. The global pandemic has levied a heavy toll on humanity, but in its wake appears a great opportunity. Amidst what he calls a crisis of modernity, Giulio Maspero points to a phenomenon that can be seen in plain sight. "The absence of personal relationships highlighted by the health crisis exposes the consequences of the modern matrix, which, having lost its Christian element, now risks transforming itself into a digital matrix, substantially configuring itself as a technognosis."    Without Trinitarian framework ancient and new idols emerge, as the Covid-19 tragedies have shown. Yet post-pandemic must be a moment of clarity and realism, as we can see how necessary it is that humanity place itself in relation to something beyond. The post-modern journey, however, must be in the spirit of Christian humanism or else any so-called progress will no longer be unable to speak authentically of our humanity. That is to say, the relational dimension of human life will be erased right along with the other ills that plague our earth.…

Paperback. Etat : New. What is influence and why might real influencers be those whose names we no longer remember? Ken Weisbrode embarks on an exploration to trace the most powerful strands of cultural and intellectual influence, and demonstrates it might not be what we think it is. "The influencer is a person who made an art of absence in the trade of cultural and sometimes political capital. The ones in this book represent a range of vocations, from politics to diplomacy to novel-writing, but almost all were cultural entrepreneurs. They were not puppet masters, gray eminences, unsung heroes, or Svengalis--although one or two have been portrayed thus. Rather, their influence is spread by virtue of their willful disappearance, of its perpetuation of a new language and cultural standard, and of their many conscious and unconscious imitators. The reason they had such influence was precisely because a part of their method was to be less visible in order to watch their ideas, habits, and styles proliferate without their names necessarily being affixed. [.] Yet, to understand such a modus operandi is necessary today when the proliferation of social media influencers are squandering cultural capital so quickly by the simultaneous promotion of their products, above all, themselves.".…

Paperback. Etat : New. The global pandemic has levied a heavy toll on humanity, but in its wake appears a great opportunity. Amidst what he calls a crisis of modernity, Giulio Maspero points to a phenomenon that can be seen in plain sight. "The absence of personal relationships highlighted by the health crisis exposes the consequences of the modern matrix, which, having lost its Christian element, now risks transforming itself into a digital matrix, substantially configuring itself as a technognosis."    Without Trinitarian framework ancient and new idols emerge, as the Covid-19 tragedies have shown. Yet post-pandemic must be a moment of clarity and realism, as we can see how necessary it is that humanity place itself in relation to something beyond. The post-modern journey, however, must be in the spirit of Christian humanism or else any so-called progress will no longer be unable to speak authentically of our humanity. That is to say, the relational dimension of human life will be erased right along with the other ills that plague our earth.…

Paperback. Etat : New. Dakin Matthews is an acclaimed actor, whose relationship with the stage and lyrical performance has made him keenly aware of the splendor and meaningfulness of Thomas Aquinas' often overlooked verse. The 'songs of Aquinas' are treasuries of theological wisdom but also serve to stir the mind to participate in prayer with as much zeal as the heart and mouth. Matthews offers an introduction to Aquinas and his main objectives for writing, and then relates the more serious theological treatises to the style and purposes of his verse. It is a full but never overwhelming immersion in Thomistic thought, as well as a brilliant guide to Medieval Latin and the art of translation.       Matthews' particular attention is given to "Lauda Sion," and he breaks it down, verse by verse, providing an analysis of the Latin text and commentary on its poetic structure, but also illuminates the doctrinal references to Aquinas' other scholarly works and Scripture. His approach is both technical and intermittently personal, and as such this book might serve as a two-week source of daily meditations.              The Alleluias of the Mind is a wonderful contribution to the body of Thomistic commentary and will appear before the close of the 750th anniversary of the death of Thomas Aquinas. It is also a wonderful complement to the year devoted to Eucharistic revival in the American Catholic Church.…

Paperback. Etat : New. David Lowenthal transposes present society onto that in the novel, 1984, and illustrates "how the quest for a perfect society led instead to the worst--in the course of revolting against which the true ends of life are established." It is more than suspicion: the year 2021 is 1984. What many understand by instinct, Lowenthal here articulates in clear terms using the political prophesy of this no longer futuristic literature. To be one without truthful unity? This is the picture of human brotherhood ushering in the only thing worse than inequality--enslavement.  There is no positive political message in 1984, argues Lowenthal, but there is positive moral message that is nearly always overlooked by commentators. "Through the movement of the novel, Orwell tries to impress on the passions, hearts and minds of his readers the most valuable lessons concerning the right and wrong way to live. With the decline of Christianity's influence in forming the moral sense of the West and the concomitant increase in power hunger, wielding instruments born of modern enlightenment, what mankind most needed was moral guidance, conveyed not abstractly, through philosophy, but in such a way as to grip the whole soul."  But can Orwell be trusted as a guide to the goodness in human nature? Lowenthal says he can be, and more. He gives us a sketch of the intellectual process that compels Orwell to ultimately outgrow Marxism, his detection and rejection of totalitarian regimes (above all in Communism), and in what way the principles of liberalism of his day were given warning labels by a writer who was not a formally educated political philosopher. Laced with relativism, any current of thought that does not acknowledge the proper ends of man will be effaced by the next master of the masses. Lowenthal echoes Orwell when he says, "we have abandoned inculcating good citizenship, higher ideals and a sense of personal worth in the schools, encouraging instead an aimless low-level conformist 'individuality' just waiting to be harnessed together and directed. Given these conditions, can we be sure we have left the conditions to the horrors of 1984 far behind as mere fiction?" Orwell and Lowenthal are unlikely co-collaborators, unless one perceives how much alike in their exhortations to fellow man they are. The steady tenor of their hard warning is made possible by a hope-soaked confidence that, in utter sobriety, is repulsed by anything that threatens human freedom and dignity. This book is required reading for anyone who believes in the return of socialism. Indeed, any recent university graduate should be debriefed by Lowenthal before entering the real world.…

Paperback. Etat : New. "As Alasdair MacIntyre notes in the preface, the work of Pinckaers attracted strongand fully justified notice in this country with the publication in English of his TheSources of Christian Ethics. As Pinckaers himself notes in the text, excellently translatedby Michael Sherwin, the interest should in no way be limited to RomanCatholics. Morality recasts the earlier book in an argument that is both lower andupper case 'catholic,' and is accessible to readers and teachers outside the limitedcircle of moral theologians and academic ethicists. Pinckaers contends thatChristian morality is not first of all about obligations but about happiness, understandingthat the happiness of union with God is our natural destiny made possibleby grace. The Sermon on the Mount is at the center of an approach to moralitythat turns on the distinction between 'freedom for excellence' and 'freedom ofindifference,' the former understood as human flourishing and the latter as a 'neutral'capacity to choose between controversies. The proposal of Morality is thoroughlyChrist-centered, humanistic, and faithful to the magisterial teaching of theChurch. Warmly recommended."First Things  "If you want to have the experience of reflecting on Catholic morality as thoughyou were reading about it for the first time, treat yourself to Father ServaisPinckaers' Morality: The Catholic View. He has recovered the classical view of themoral life as the quest for happiness and has presented it with disarming simplicity.Bringing us back to the Sermon on the Mount and Romans 12-15, the writingsof Augustine and Aquinas, and the theme of natural law, he has freed those textsfrom the layers of legalism which has hidden their liberating, spiritual powers formoral living. By distinguishing freedom of indifference from freedom for excellence,he has restored a wise vision of freedom. No one has shown better the roleof virtues as building blocks for morality. Catechists need to read this book."Rev. Alfred McBride, O.Praem., Professor of Homilectics and Catechetics at BlessedPope John XXIII Seminary, Weston, Massachusetts "Father Pinckaers has given us a masterful exposition of Christian living. The clarityand brevity of his presentation - captured well by the translator - make this bookideal for classroom and parish use.     "Readers will find the historical and systematic observations very informative."Romanus Cessario, St. John's Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts.…

Paperback. Etat : New. Where Did I Come From? Where Am I Going? How Do I Get There? is a complete course on Catholicism, featuring concise, reader-friendly, relevant prose. Straight answers are tailored for today's generation. Topics addressed include: Can I know anything? Can I know what God is like? How am I really in the image and likeness of God? What about my conscience? Am I a gift to others? What about my freedom? Is any sexual activity OK before marriage? Do we have to keep Grandma on a feeding tube forever?     This book adapts a wildly successful high-school curriculum developed by Charles E. Rice, who taught for years at an Indiana high school in addition to his storied career at Notre Dame Law School. This classroom-tested curriculum has had life-changing effects. Rice's students, who took the course in the late 1970s and early 1980s, credit this course for keeping them Catholic, while their peers turned to Zen, politics, or drugs in their search for ultimate meaning.    Rice, with the valuable assistance of co-author and philosopher Theresa Farnan, updates this curriculum by incorporating the Catechism and the personalist philosophy of John Paul II into the timeless wisdom of the Church. Today's young Catholics admire the faith more than ever, but need clear answers about what it is and who they are. The straight answers found in this book are a sure antidote to the confusion of the culture of death.    The revised second edition contains expanded material from Pope Benedict XVI, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other sources. The second edition, as did the first, has received the Imprimatur from Most Rev. John M. D'Arcy, bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend. The second edition has also received from the Office for the Catechism of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a Declaration of Conformity, certifying that it is in conformity with the Catechism.    The second edition is therefore included in the USCCB's Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and is officially approved for use in Catholic schools and educational programs.…

Paperback. Etat : New. Romano Guardini described Rainer Maria Rilke as the "poet who had things of such importance to say about the end of our own age [and] was also a prophet of things to come." The complexity of Rilke is, then, "highly relevant to modern Man." Decades after Guardini's assessment, the reader who rediscovers Rilke will find a depth of mind and soul that display a profundity the post-modern reader only thinks he possesses.  In an expanded collection of Rilke's sonnets, Rick Anthony Furtak not only makes this lyrical masterpiece accessible to the English reader, but he proves himself a master of sorts as well. His introduction that elaborates on Rilke's marriage of vision and voice, intention and enigma, haunted companionship and abandonment is a stand-alone marvel for the reader. Furtak's praised translation of Sonnets to Orpheus (University of Chicago Press, 2008) is surpassed in this much broader collection of verse that also includes the original German text. It is Furtak's great achievement that Rilke resonates with the contemporary reader, who uncertain and searching wants to believe that the vision of existence can mirror much more than his own consciousness. In his feat of rendering Rilke in English, contextualizing the philosophical meanings of verse, and presenting literary romanticism, Furtak provides a formidable contribution to the vindication of true poetic voice. …

Paperback. Etat : New. This is the first-ever French-English edition of La Rochefoucauld's Réflexions, ou sentences et maximes morales, long known in English simply as the Maxims. The translation, the first to appear in forty years, is completely new and aims - unlike all previous versions - at being as literal as possible. This involves, among other things, rendering the same word - for example, amour-propre as "self-love" - as consistently throughout as good sense allows. This also means that the translators have made every effort to maintain La Rochefoucauld's word order. This allows the reader the best vantage point for viewing La Rochefoucauld's dramatic and paradoxical juxtapositions of words and ideas, juxtapositions of the utmost importance to understanding his thought. Despite the translation's concern with literalness, careful attention has been paid to the nuances of the literary character of the Maxims. In addition, this work contains a series of detailed indices that will greatly aid the reader in finding just the right maxim, and an updated version, in English, of the original French index of the work.At the heart of La Rochefoucauld's Maxims lies the attempt to disclose the great disparity between the exaggerated self-estimation of men and women and their actual condition. As La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) unremittingly unmasks various pretenses, heelaborately exposes the complexity of motives which underlie and inform human conduct: whereas many endeavor to reveal a unity in plurality, La Rochefoucauld endeavors to reveal a plurality in unity. Playful, yet serious, humorous, ironic yet direct, poetic yet philosophical, the Maxims penetrate to themes at the center of reflection and judgment about the human situation. Worthy of study at any time, the Maxims are especially relevant in the strange times in which we live.This edition includes the 504 maxims of the definitive, fifth edition of 1678, along with 137 other maxims which were either withdrawn from earlier editions or published posthumously. In addition to the maxims, La Rochefoucauld's self-portrait and Cardinal de Retz's portrait of La Rochefoucauld are also included.…

Paperback. Etat : New. "Poetry is language at play. In New Songs of Innocence S.J. Hodson is hard at work in this playground teasing us with syllabic verse ("Beside Himself with Calm"), haiku stanzas ("A Cougar Strolled By"), sonnet, ("Sonnet for Miriam"), and villanelle ("A Poet's Dark Night of the Soul"). He relishes the natural rhythm of speech and knows how to polish it metrically. He rhymes in wonderfully complex ways, combining end rhyme, internal rhyme, slant rhyme, sight rhyme and the unexpected sudden break from rhyme. But poetry isn't just play, however clever. Language is a serious matter. It's not working unless it opens us up to our world. Beauty is at once at odds with and requires truth. In this ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy, S.J. Hodson comes down squarely on both sides. At its best poetry teaches without preaching. If Blake's Songs of Innocence calls established religion into question to recover wonder at the religious spirit that gives birth to it, Hodson's New Songs of Innocence means to call into question science, the established religion of our time, to wonder again at what gives birth to it, the scientific spirit. [.] [Hodson] writes not so much to please his audience as to tease and teach his audience-and what a pleasure it is to be taught this way. Making poetry is for him serious-a way to think, a way to wonder. But he is also masterful at playfully seducing others to wonder. If 'philosophy begins in wonder,' these poems are invitations to philosophize. S.J. Hodson is one of the most interesting and talented poets of his generation, and yet he remains known to only a very few. In New Songs of Innocence, we are graced with his first published book of poetry. We should be thankful and hope it will not be his last." Taken from the Introduction by Michael Davis.…

Paperback. Etat : New. In September 1947, after reading C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters in Italian, Fr. (now St.) Giovanni Calabria was moved to write the author, but he knew no English and assumed (rightly) that Lewis knew no Italian. So he wrote his letter in Latin, hoping that, as a classicist, Lewis would know Latin. Therein began a correspondence that was to outlive Fr. Calabria himself (he died in December 1954, and was succeeded in correspondence by Fr. Luigi Pedrollo, which continued until Lewis's own death in 1963).         Translator/editor Martin Moynihan calls these letters "limpid, fluent and deeply refreshing. There was a charm about them, too, and not least in the way they were 'topped and tailed' - that is, in their ever-slightly-varied formalities of address and of farewell."  More than any other of his published works The Latin Letters shows the strong devotional side of Lewis, and contains letters ranging from Christian unity and modern European history to liturgical worship and general ethical behavior.        This new edition is greatly enhanced by a new foreword from the eminent Lewis Scholar, Mark A. Noll, from the University of Notre Dame.…

Hardback. Etat : New.

Hardback. Etat : New. Professor John F. Boyle's lecture, Master Thomas Aquinas and the Fullness of Life, is a piece that combines a profoundly personal element - the experience of someone who has chosen St. Thomas as his own teacher and master - with the learnedness of one of the most respected contemporary American scholars of the thought of Thomas Aquinas. What we are offered in Professor Boyle's lecture is not the kind of arid and lifeless speculation that is sometimes - albeit mistakenly - associated with Aquinas's own style. Boyle emphasizes that Aquinas was far from being a "brain on a stick," a theologian and thinker so deeply immersed in speculation as to lose sight of the real world, and indeed of what matters in the real world. For what matters in the real world is life, and our ability to conduct this life is a way that is in accordance with the deepest longings of human nature. Boyle demonstrates, with both learning and wit, that it is precisely this life, in its fullness, to which St. Thomas endeavors to lead his students through his teaching. This life has its roots in the humble operations of living that we share with creatures such as plants and animals; it rises to the properly human level in the selfdirection of which we are capable through intellect and will, and which enables us to form ourselves morally in habits that become "second natures" for us; and it is perfectedin the supernatural life of faith in which Christ becomes our teacher and master, who leads us to eternal life with his Father. With Master Boyle through Master Thomas to the Master: that could be the motto of this Aquinas Lecture, which was delivered at the University of Dallas on January 28, 2013. Although the University of Dallas has hosted an annual Aquinas Lecture since 1982, Master Thomas Aquinas and the Fullness of Life is the first to be made available in this new series.…

Paperback. Etat : New. A Finalist for the 2026 Spur Award for Best Western Contemporary Novel, this is a tale of one man's road toward fulfillment that plays out in stages of encounters and abandonment instead of one glorious "last stand" expected in a Western romance. Williamson's story weaves the best elements of several genres and with masterful dialogue he illustrates the landscape of a heart cultivated and ravaged by the challenges that emerge in his path. The majestic setting of the rugged west and its horses is not the main aesthetical context, however. "For [us] women were the whole world and the promise of it, men being hardly more than rivals in love to be challenged and defeated."  The Last Westerner is an ode to human happiness embodied in women, and "the kind that comes from a sense of the wholeness, the absolute rightness, of it all." Williamson seems to mean that without women (and horses) no such answers will ever be found. "People without hope don't write books, they say. Neither do men who love women--one woman in particular--lack hope."            Jeb Stuart Ryder, at 51 a retired range detective from Wyoming, meets Jody James, a handsome widowed cowgirl at a horse show in Moab, Utah, where she is exhibiting her prize horse. They begin an idyllic life together until this horse is stolen, and he pledges to pursue the thieves and bring him back to her. Along the way he meets a 16-year-old Navajo boy, John-Wayne Bilagody, who joins the search but with the intention of offering this horse to his own woman. Jeb takes it upon himself to instruct John-Wayne in the proper chivalric attitude a man owes a woman. When they come to the camp of brigada who now possesses the horse, Jeb's world strains to accommodate the existence of Carmen, the beautiful and aristocratic woman who is preparing to lead those men back into Mexico. She has his horse, but his pledge to return it to Jody holds fast. His promise had been a sign of hope, but Jeb at long last arrives at a pass that he knows is the real path to his sunset.…

Paperback. Etat : New.

Paperback. Etat : New. Romano Guardini described Rainer Maria Rilke as the "poet who had things of such importance to say about the end of our own age [and] was also a prophet of things to come." The complexity of Rilke is, then, "highly relevant to modern Man." Decades after Guardini's assessment, the reader who rediscovers Rilke will find a depth of mind and soul that display a profundity the post-modern reader only thinks he possesses.  In an expanded collection of Rilke's sonnets, Rick Anthony Furtak not only makes this lyrical masterpiece accessible to the English reader, but he proves himself a master of sorts as well. His introduction that elaborates on Rilke's marriage of vision and voice, intention and enigma, haunted companionship and abandonment is a stand-alone marvel for the reader. Furtak's praised translation of Sonnets to Orpheus (University of Chicago Press, 2008) is surpassed in this much broader collection of verse that also includes the original German text. It is Furtak's great achievement that Rilke resonates with the contemporary reader, who uncertain and searching wants to believe that the vision of existence can mirror much more than his own consciousness. In his feat of rendering Rilke in English, contextualizing the philosophical meanings of verse, and presenting literary romanticism, Furtak provides a formidable contribution to the vindication of true poetic voice. …

Paperback. Etat : New.

Hardback. Etat : New. Global temperatures have increased since 1880. New data show that solar impacts (radiation and magnetic flux) have increased by the same amount and follow the dips in temperature from 1938 to 1970. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that, based upon computer models, increased solar absorption by CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) are overwhelmingly the basis for temperature increases. But zigzag increases in global temperatures do not track with minor straight-line increased energy absorption by GHG. Rather, such increases follow closely the major zigzag changes in solar impacts emanating from our sun, no different from the past millions of years, as has been supported by multiple climatologists and other scientists. In short, if GHG play a role, it is minor in the 0.26% warming since 1880. The sun is responsible for the primary change, and political fixes such as envisaged in the Kyoto Treaty will not change global temperatures measurably but will mean a drastic decrease in worldwide output of goods, with calamitous effects on millions of people who are ill-prepared to suffer immense decreases in their standards of living. John Zyrkowski begins with the irrefutable, uncontested raw data available from government sources on temperature fluctuations, solar impacts of radiation and magnetic flux, and CO[subscript 2] absorption rates. He then uses Excel functions to demonstrate that the IPCC report used by proponents of the human cause of global warming is fatally flawed. The data doesn't provide the answer the IPCC said it would. The evidence is in. Before we go bankrupt, read It's the Sun, Not Your SUV and make up your own mind. …

Hardback. Etat : New. During the last months of the war, Josef Pieper saw the realization of a long-cherished plan to escape from the "lethal chaos" that was the Germany of that time, "plucked," he writes, "as was Habakkuk, by the hair of his head . . . to be planted into a realm of the most peaceful seclusion, whose borders and exists were, of course, controlled by armed sentries." There he made contact with a friend close-by, who possessed an amazing library, and Pieper hit upon the idea of reading the letters of Goethe from that library. Soon, however, he decided to read the entire Weimar edition of fifty volumes, which were brought to him in sequence, two or three at a time.The richness of this life revealing itself over a period of more than sixty years appeared before my gaze in its truly overpowering magnificence, which almost shattered my powers of comprehension - confined, as they had been, to the most immediate and pressing concerns. What a passionate focus on reality in all its forms, what an undying quest to chase down all that is in the world, what strength to affirm life, what ability to take part in it, what vehemence in the way he showed his dedication to it! Of course, too, what ability to limit himself to what was appropriate; what firm control in inhibiting what was purely aimless; what religious respect for the truth of being! I could not overcome my astonishment; and the prisoner entered a world without borders, a world in which the fact of being in prison was of absolutely no significance.    But no matter how many astonishing things I saw in these unforgettable weeks of undisturbed inner focus, nothing was more surprising or unexpected than this: to realize how much of what was peculiar to this life occurred in carefully preserved seclusion; how much the seemingly communicative man who carried on a world-wide correspondence still never wanted to expose in words the core of his existence.    It was precisely in the seclusion, the limitation, the silence of Goethe that made the strongest impact on Pieper. Here was modern Germany's quintessential conversationalist intellectual, but the strength of his words came from the restraint behind them, even to the point of purposeful forgetting:The culmination is when the eighty-year-old sees forgetting not as a convulsive refusal to think of things, but as what could almost be termed a physiological process of simple forgetting as a function of life. He praises as "a great gift of the gods" . . . "the ethereal stream of forgetfulness" which he "was always able to value, to use, and to heighten."    However manifold the forms of this silence and of their unconscious roots and conscious motives may have been, is it not always the possibility of hearing, the possibility of a purer perception of reality that is aimed at? And so, is not Goethe's type of silence above all the silence of one who listens? . . .    This listening silence is much deeper than the mere refraining from words and speech in human interco.…

Paperback. Etat : New. Eric Voegelin was a German-born political theorist who fled Nazi persecution and immigrated to the United States in 1938, where he had a long and productive academic career. He is widely considered one of the most insightful political scientists of the twentieth century, but is sadly not as well known as other contemporaries like Leo Strauss or Hannah Arendt. This is in large part due to the difficulty of the topics he chose to study and the complex nature of the material produced. While there are other books that discuss his biography and academic/philosophical ideas, none combine these ideas with a practical means of actually utilizing Voegelin's philosophy to define and analyze political reality. This book uniquely applys Voegelin's ideas to real-world political problems and in its utilization of common language, making Voegelin's extraordinary achievements much more accessible to a broader audience than any other previous work. Voegelin's highly original thinking was heavily influenced by the violent and tumultuous times in which he lived. Because the events of his life are so influential, a brief but thorough biography is presented in the first chapter. The "Western Crisis" he recognized in modern Western culture is revealed as the motivation of Voegelin's quest for truth and the resistance he thought vital to the strains of Gnosticism he felt rejected reality and the symbols needed to articulate it. Because Gnosticism is such a central theme in understanding Voegelin's work, an extensive exploration is conducted on Gnostic origins, history, some complications in the use of this term, and how Voegelin's concept of it evolved over the course of his career. The first chapter concludes with and examination of Voegelin's use of symbol and language indices. Chapter two begins with an introduction to Voegelin's views of how science, theology, and philosophy were used in the ancient world to reveal truth, the basis of order, and how humanity can move away from order by disregarding what the ancients revealed. This is followed by an examination of one of Voegelin's most important contributions, his theory of consciousness and use of anamnesis. Chapter two concludes with a description of noesis' relationship to political reality and how Voegelin's quest to know truth and reality led him to question the state of political science and modernity's willingness to seek truth. Chapter three, on Voegelin's mature political theory, is best described as Principia Noetic, so labeled by Ellis Sandoz. Voegelin asserts that political reality is revealed when the basis of order is found in the ground of being. When man separates himself from God, order is lost, and violence and tyranny are guaranteed as man makes himself the sole arbiter of moral and political order, unrestricted by notions of the divine. The reader of this book should come away with a deep understanding of Voegelin's philosophical insights found in the Principia Noetica, how to apply the.…

Paperback. Etat : New. Paul Seaton's Public Philosophy and Patriotism:  The Declaration and Us is a very countercultural book.  It advances the provocative thesis that not only is the Declaration worthy of our study today, but its principles and way of thinking about politics can and should be used to judge us and our politics today.   That's countercultural.   While conservatives still have a warm place for the document in their hearts, one rarely hears them apply it to today's debates.   Progressives tend to take two contradictory tacks toward the founding document:  on one hand, it's the negligible product of hypocritical white males, on another, it limns the "ideals" and "values" of the American project that History is charged with fulfilling.  Neither of these views takes the document intellectually seriously.   Jefferson, however, articulated a different view when he called the Declaration "an expression of the American mind" at the time of the Revolution.  Here was a self-conscious, self-confident American mind, ready to take on the world.  Taking his cue from Jefferson, Seaton takes the Declaration seriously.  He takes it seriously as the expression of a mind that confidently judged despotic designs, but also grasped the principles of free government and free and reasonable politics and looked forward to a country embodying them.   Seaton argues that both these dimensions of Declaration political thought are applicable today.     He does so in an interesting way.  For a number of years, he penned a Fourth of July essay on "the Declaration and Us" for the Law and Liberty website.   On that occasion, he provided an exposition of some theme of the Declaration and applied it to a contemporary debate or issue.  Over the years, they added up to a rather full exposition of the document, as well as an ongoing commentary on American political life.  With this collection, the essentials of the Declaration's view of politics are laid bare, and significant threats to freedom-loving Americans are identified. This is the bold claim and aim of this unique book.     At the beginning and end of the collection, Seaton makes a point of dating the completion of the manuscript on April 18th.  When the curious reader looks up the date, he finds that it is the date when Paul Revere undertook his famous ride.  In this way, the author indicates his judgment of the dire circumstances in which we live today and the patriotic models to which he hearkens.   In the form of an explication de texte, this collection is a call to arms against today's enemies of ordered liberty.…