To Sanctify The World

A leading Catholic intellectual explains why the teachings of the Second Vatican Council are essential to the Church's future—and the world's The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) was the most important Catholic event in the past five hundred years. Yet sixty years after its opening on October 11, 1962, its meaning remains sharply contested and its promise unfulfilled. In To Sanctify the World, George Weigel explains the necessity of Vatican II and explores the continuing relevance of its teaching in a world seeking a deeper experience of freedom than personal willfulness. The Council’s texts are also a critical resource for the Catholic Church as it lives out its original, Christ-centered evangelical purpose. Written with insight and verve, To Sanctify the World recovers the true meaning of Vatican II as the template for a Catholicism that can propose a path toward genuine human dignity and social solidarity.

English historian and Christian humanist Christopher Dawson stood at the very center of the Catholic literary and intellectual revival in the four decades preceding Vatican II. One can find his influence throughout the twentieth-century Catholic Right. Poet and social critic T. S. Eliot considered him the foremost thinker of his generation, and the founder of American conservatism, Russell Kirk, wrote that he had been "saturated in Dawsonian historical studies [and] my own books reflect Dawson's concepts." Dawson's reputation declined dramatically during the cultural shifts accompanying Vatican II, and few remembered the English Catholic in the final decades of the twentieth century. A revival of interest of Dawson and his body of work increased dramatically in the last years of John Paul II's and the beginning of Benedict's pontificates. This book offers the first study of Dawson's life and thought as a whole. It is especially poignant as a post-9/11 reexamination of the meaning of Western civilization. Sanctifying the World was named by biographer Joseph Pearce as the best book of 2008 and the National Catholic Register named it one of the top eleven books of the year.

The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), an African American Pentecostal denomination founded in 1896, has become the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States today. In this first major study of the church, Anthea Butler examines the religious and social lives of the women in the COGIC Women's Department from its founding in 1911 through the mid-1960s. She finds that the sanctification, or spiritual purity, that these women sought earned them social power both in the church and in the black community. Offering rich, lively accounts of the activities of the Women's Department founders and other members, Butler shows that the COGIC women of the early decades were able to challenge gender roles and to transcend the limited responsibilities that otherwise would have been assigned to them both by churchmen and by white-dominated society. The Great Depression, World War II, and the civil rights movement brought increased social and political involvement, and the Women's Department worked to make the "sanctified world" of the church interact with the broader American society. More than just a community of church mothers, says Butler, COGIC women utilized their spiritual authority, power, and agency to further their contestation and negotiation of gender roles in the church and beyond.

First Published in 1963, the book Pilgrim in the Modern World tries to answer fundamental questions like does the Christian faith meet intellectual, moral, and spiritual needs of the contemporary situation or it is like the irreducible surd in a mathematical problem- present as a fact but to be ignored in use? L. J. Baggott has had a long experience in the ministry of the Church of England, from work in the slums to that of Abbey, Minster, and Cathedral; from a chaplaincy of the Tower of London to the vicariate of large industrial parishes; from a visiting lectureship to the parochial tasks peculiar to four great seaports; from the supervision of Ordinands to the archdeaconship of a hundred peaceful Norfolk villages. Throughout it has become increasingly clear that man is indeed the ‘Eternal Pilgrim of the Infinite’. Christianity is an historical religion of which ‘redemption of man’ is the central and ruling thought. For twentieth century man, his pilgrimage is set in most challenging era that man has ever known, a scientific era and a temporal order in which his most important problems take their rise and shape his life. In the light of new knowledge and discovery, the book offers what the author believes the only valid and satisfying answer to the question of relevancy of the Christian faith for modern times. This is a must read for scholars of religion and Christianity.

“An engaging, lucid, and informative introduction to the teachings and traditions of Catholicism” (Wall Street Journal), from one of America’s most prominent Catholic intellectuals. In this remarkable exploration of the Catholic world, prominent Catholic author and papal biographer George Weigel offers a luminous collection of letters to young Catholics, not-so-young Catholics, and any curious souls who wonder what it means to be Catholic today. Weigel takes readers on an epistolary tour of Catholic landmarks—from Chartres Cathedral to St. Mary's Church in Greenville, South Carolina; from the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to G.K. Chesterton's favorite pub in Oxford; and from the grave of a modern martyr in Warsaw to the Sistine Chapel. This revised and expanded edition includes five new chapters that examine topics at the heart of the modern faith—ranging from the mystery of evil to the puzzle of secularization—and feature sacred sites from Lithuania to Mexico. Weaving together insights from history, literature, theology, and music, Weigel illuminates the beliefs that give Catholicism its distinctive texture and explores the theological importance of grace, prayer, vocation, sin and forgiveness, suffering, and—most importantly—love. To a world that sometimes seems closed and claustrophobic, he suggests, Christian humanism offers a world with windows and doors—and a skylight.

Why do Europeans and Americans see the world so differently? Why do Europeans and Americans have such different understandings of democracy and its discontents in the twenty-first century? Contrasting the civilization that produced the starkly modernist "cube" of the Great Arch of La Defense in Paris with the civilization that produced the "cathedral" of Notre-Dame, George Weigel argues that Europe's embrace of a narrow secularism has led to a crisis of morale that is eroding Europe's soul and threatening its future -- with dire lessons for the rest of the democratic world. Weigel traces the origins of "Europe's problem" to the atheistic humanism of the nineteenth-century European intellectual life, which set in motion a historical process that produced two world wars, three totalitarian systems, the Gulag, Auschwitz, the Cold War -- and, most ominously, the Continent's de-population, which is worse today than during the Black Death. And yet, many Europeans still insist -- most recently, during the debate over a new EU constitution -- that only a public square shorn of religiously-informed moral argument is safe for human rights and democracy. Precisely the opposite, Weigel suggests, is true: the people of the "cathedral" can give a compelling account of their commitment to everyone's freedom; the people of the "cube" cannot. Can there be any true "politics" -- any true deliberation about the common good, and any robust defense of freedom -- without God? George Weigel makes a powerful case that the answer is "No," because, in the final analysis, societies are only as great as their spiritual aspirations.

The Catholic Church may be the most controversial institution in the world. Whether the question is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the relationship of Catholicism to other religious communities, the meaning of freedom, the use and abuse of sex, the dignity of human life from conception until natural death, or the role of women, the Catholic Church has taken challenging positions that some find inexplicable, even cruel. In The Truth of Catholicism, George Weigel, author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, explores these perennial questions and more, showing Catholicism and its controversies from "inside" the convictions that make those controversies not only possible but necessary. The truths of Catholicism then come into clearer focus as affirmations and celebrations of human life and human love, even as they challenge us to imagine a daring future for humanity and for ourselves.

When Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year was published in the 1970s, it was the very first comprehensive commentary on the three-year lectionary in relation to the Sacramentary/Missal as these were revised following the Second Vatican Council. Expressed on nearly every page was Nocent's conviction that the liturgy and the Word of God proclaimed within it have something important to say to real people of every culture and time. He constantly returns to the question: What does this passage have to say to us today? Now this extraordinary work of applied, postconciliar liturgical scholarship has been emended and annotated by one of today's leading liturgical scholars. Paul Turner has provided many helpful explanatory notes on history, culture, language, and, of course, liturgy. He has also updated the liturgical texts to conform to The Roman Missal, Third Edition. The result is a resource that promises to enrich and inspire a new generation of presiders, preachers, liturgy planners, and students. On the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II's Sacrosanctum Concilium, encounter the vibrant scholarship and pastoral wisdom of Adrien Nocent's The Liturgical Year again or for the first time! Volume 1 covers the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.

A powerful new interpretation of Catholicism's dramatic encounter with modernity, by one of America's leading intellectuals Throughout much of the nineteenth century, both secular and Catholic leaders assumed that the Church and the modern world were locked in a battle to the death. The triumph of modernity would not only finish the Church as a consequential player in world history; it would also lead to the death of religious conviction. But today, the Catholic Church is far more vital and consequential than it was 150 years ago. Ironically, in confronting modernity, the Catholic Church rediscovered its evangelical essence. In the process, Catholicism developed intellectual tools capable of rescuing the imperiled modern project. A richly rendered, deeply learned, and powerfully argued account of two centuries of profound change in the church and the world, The Irony of Modern Catholic History reveals how Catholicism offers twenty-first century essential truths for our survival and flourishing.

Many people have sought for the ultimate meaning of finding God in all sort of ways, but are never able to find the peace of mind and satisfaction for which they are searching. They've come to realize that there is something vitally missing in their lives and despite all their efforts are unable to remove the guilt of sin that separates them from their creator. This book thoroughly explains how to be reunited with our creator. Many have come to this crossroad facing the following questions looking for answers: (1) What is God's Name? (2) How am I made righteous in God's sight? (3) How do I worship God that I might come into covenant with Him? In this book Minister Franklin unfolds answers and shares his testimony to encourage every believer so they can understand how there faith in Jesus Christ is made complete through there obedience to God's word. This book has revelation knowledge of God's plan and purpose for you in how to receive the blood of Jesus and the infilling of the Holy Ghost.

In a calm, sustained style, the author breaks new ground in the ongoing feminist theological pilgrimage, one that will make traditionalists squirm and liberationists cheer." 'Choice' In 'The Power to Speak', Rebecca Chopp offers an exhilarating defense of feminist theology as proclamation and good news for all. Arguing for a critique and transformation of language, subjectivity, and politics, this thoughtful, engaged book opens new directions in feminist thought." Elizabeth Fox-Genovese A provocative treatment of feminist theology's deepest potential to transform the discipline through language." 'WATERwheel' Rebecca Chopp is developing an original theological position. Her interpretation of Christian faith and Christian theology as having to do primarily with 'emancipatory transformation' breaks through the individualistic pietism of modern liberalism as well as the provincialism of many of the liberation theologies." Gordon D. Kaufman

The Catholic Church is on the threshold of a bold new era in its two-thousand year history. As the curtain comes down on the Church defined by the 16th-century Counter-Reformation, the curtain is rising on the Evangelical Catholicism of the third millennium: a way of being Catholic that comes from over a century of Catholic reform; a mission-centered renewal honed by the Second Vatican Council and given compelling expression by Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. The Gospel-centered Evangelical Catholicism of the future will send all the people of the Church into mission territory every day—a territory increasingly defined in the West by spiritual boredom and aggressive secularism. Confronting both these cultural challenges and the shadows cast by recent Catholic history, Evangelical Catholicism unapologetically proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the truth of the world. It also molds disciples who witness to faith, hope, and love by the quality of their lives and the nobility of their aspirations. Thus the Catholicism of the 21st–century and beyond will be a culture-forming counterculture, offering all men and women of good will a deeply humane alternative to the soul-stifling self-absorption of postmodernity. Drawing on thirty years of experience throughout the Catholic world, from its humblest parishes to its highest levels of authority, George Weigel proposes a deepening of faith-based and mission-driven Catholic reform that touches every facet of Catholic life—from the episcopate and the papacy to the priesthood and the consecrated life; from the renewal of the lay vocation in the world to the redefinition of the Church's engagement with public life; from the liturgy to the Church's intellectual life. Lay Catholics and clergy alike should welcome the challenge of this unique moment in the Church's history, Weigel urges. Mediocrity is not an option, and all Catholics, no matter what their station in life, are called to live the evangelical vocation into which they were baptized: without compromise, but with the joy, courage, and confidence that comes from living this side of the Resurrection.

A classic collection of brief meditations on God's Word arranged according to the Church Year calendar and historic lectionary. Each devotion has a Scripture reading, meditation and a concluding prayer, for every day of the year. C.M. Zorn was a beloved Lutheran pastor and missionary, widely know for his commentaries and explanations of the Bible and his passion to advance the devotional life of God's people.

From 1962 to 1965, in perhaps the most important religious event of the twentieth century, the Second Vatican Council met to plot a course for the future of the Roman Catholic Church. After thousands of speeches, resolutions, and votes, the Council issued sixteen official documents on topics ranging from divine revelation to relations with non-Christians. In many ways, though, the real challenges began after the council was over and Catholics began to argue over the interpretation of the documents. Many analysts perceived the Council's far-reaching changes as breaks with Church tradition, and soon this became the dominant bias in the American and other media, which lacked the theological background to approach the documents on their own terms. In Vatican II: Renewal Within Tradition, an international team of theologians offers a different reading of the documents from Vatican II. The Council was indeed putting forth a vision for the future of the Church, but that vision was grounded in two millennia of tradition. Taken together, these essays demonstrate that Vatican II's documents are a development from an established antecedent in the Roman Catholic Church. Each chapter contextualizes Vatican II teachings within that rich tradition. The resulting book is an indispensable and accessible companion to the Council's developments, one that focuses on theology and transcends the mass-media storyline of "liberal" versus "conservative."