David B. Burrell

Amidst Mass Atrocity and the Rubble of Theology

Theology

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Analogia Entis: Metaphysics

Philosophy

“Be prepared to let a predilection for poetry spice austere argument, to retrieve the pristine dynamic of analogy as Aquinas invariably used it to render philosophy as a handmaid of faith.”

Analogous Uses of Language, Eucharistic Identity, and the ‘baptist’ Vision

Theology

“In the spirit of Jim McClendon, Aaron James mines cognate Christian traditions for the most appropriate ways to articulate the revelation given us in Jesus. He finds the key in analogous uses of language, showing how it can be a critical tool for understanding revelation itself as well as communicating among traditions which have often developed separately.”

Balthasar

Theology

“Karen Kilby exposes the plotline of Balthasar's formidable opus and proceeds to offer circumspect criticism of the supremely confident modes of expression his speculation can take. With grammar as a critical tool, she inquires trenchantly what might allow this 'theological novelist' to know his divine characters so well as to spin the story he does.”

Christian Missions in East Bengal

History & Biography

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

God and Creation in Christian Theology

Theology

“Steeped in a rich tradition, Kathryn Tanner has been able to expose the mis-steps of much of current philosophy of religion, to direct us on a fruitful tack as we learn from the past how to confront current issues. Her key notion of a 'non-contrastive' relation between creator and creation challenges as it retrieves.”

Herbert McCabe

Philosophy

Foreword

“It would be difficult to find another exposition of McCabe’s philosophical wit as competent as Manni’s—a Herculean task.”

In the Light of a Blessed Tree

World Religions

“In our times, it has come to take considerable effort to dispose western readers to grasp something of the mystery and beauty of Islam. Yet Timothy Gianotti does so with an apparently effortless prose approaching the poetic, melding experience with history, practitioner with scholar, to bring this rich and multi-faceted tradition alive in our minds and hearts. It is hard to imagine a better way of helping students and seekers to appreciate the wonders of Islam.”

Lying

Theology

“Elegantly composed conceptual clarity makes this sounding of Augustine a model for ethical inquiry: as the very paradigm of sin, lying (ubiquitous though it may be) cannot be countenanced if we are to become what we are called to be--animals whose speech reflects the Triune Creator by expressing our life as that Creator's gift. I have seldom been so impressed with a book.”

Mystical Monotheism

Philosophy

“The canon of western scholarship tends to skip cavalierly from the classical Greek philosophers--Plato and Aristotle--to medieval giants like Thomas Aquinas, quite oblivious of the fact that the theological synthesis attributed to Aquinas would be inconceivable without the work of intervening generations of scholars--pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim alike. Nor can we overlook the effect of the writings of Plotinus on the giant bridge-figure, Augustine. John Peter Kenney's remarkable work fills in this yawning gap by providing us with stepping stones from the classical to the medieval worlds, and reminding us in the process how much their philosophy fulfilled the role of wisdom, providing a way of life and so a 'mystical theology.'”

The Act of Faith

Theology

“The Act of Faith is a book characterized by the arresting range and quality of its argument. . . . Springsted provides a mature inquiry into epistemological and metaphysical questions, writing with an enviable clarity of expression. His book should prove accessible to a relatively wide audience of intelligent believers, and it may also illuminate those chary of the inner resources of faith commitment.”

The Oneness and Simplicity of God

Theology

“Steeped in Scripture and utterly conversant with philosophical strategies from ancient to contemporary, Barry Smith has canvassed reasons old and new, for and against, insisting that God must be simple. A skilled teacher could use this study to introduce students into the intricacies of philosophical theology, while leading them to see how the 'point of it all'--characterizing a free creator in relation to creatures--can sometimes elude so detailed a study, though apophatic finally wins.”

The Problem of Evil and the Problem of God

Philosophy

“'Philosophy has the contemplative task to do justice to different responses to the contingencies of life' fairly sums up D.Z. Phillips' sustained efforts to clarify the muddles into which rational attempts at theodicy inevitably wander, usually by presuming a divinity which must be answerable to us, since theodicy invariably traps itself into feeling responsible to give answers to our conundra regarding human suffering. Phillips rather teaches us how to use reason deftly to elude that trap. Here is a philosophy that prepares the way for genuine theological reflection, without pretending to respond in its own terms.”

Troubled by Truth

World Religions

“Fine enigmatic prose . . . Kenneth Cragg has a way of bringing out the significant in any item that he touches, and to watch him probe for the significant in human lives is a genuinely edifying as well as illuminating experience. I am always moved to a fresh level of consideration by his probings, and that invitation is especially rewarding when the subject is the lives of those who have managed to cross over what are for others quite formidable barriers.”