St. Augustine’s Press

In a statement published for Paul Cobley’s edition of Realism for the 21st Century. A John Deely Reader, Umberto Eco wrote that “John Deely has not only paid attention to the Second Scholasticism but also to the first one”. In the present book, Deely goes one step further, by establishing the continuity of the Latin Age as a whole. He shows how the Latin thinkers demonstrated the presuppositions and created the framework of critical thought that made possible and inevitable the turn to science in the modern sense. 

Buttiglione was startlingly prescient of the problems we confront at the beginning of the third millennium. This book will spark new discussions as it explains the importance of both the medieval tradition and twentieth-century personalism. The book also draws on a wide range of secondary sources unavailable to English readers that I and will have the unique ability to introduce readers to the “Italian” way of relating speculative and political philosophy in a relatively slim volume.

The brevity of this work limits the amount of citations and textual references given, and Maspero instead urges the reader to study the book alongside Scripture. His manner of writing respects the impossibility of speaking of God in his immanence, but he nonetheless carves out a place for the Trinity in the human intellect, a place where the Jewish and Christian God might be encountered.

This collection of essays centers itself on a perspective of the human pursuit of unity and perfection, directly or indirectly, as objectives of intellectual endeavors, existential ideals, as social or political outcomes, and in the case of National Socialism even as perverse aberrations. Vondung’s particular treatment of Voegelin’s work likewise establishes what the former identifies as a stand-out question of this study: Does the search of order in history show us the unity of the history of humankind?

The concept of nature has drawn criticism from many quarters, including the natural sciences, ethics, metaphysics and theology. In these essays, distinguished thomistic philosophers and theologians seek to recover nature for their disciplines. The volume contains extensive treatment of nature’s much disputed role in ethics, as well as its importance for the philosophy of science (including biology), philosophical anthropology, metaphysics, the philosophy of art, theology and other areas.

Originally published in two volumes in 1899, The River War has been out of print in its original, unabridged version since it was shortened to one volume in 1902. Only 3,000 copies were printed, and the first edition costs thousands of dollars today. The original version abounded in colorful stories about Churchill, controversial judgments on his contemporaries (especially his commanding officer, Lord Kitchener), and thoughts on Islamic fundamentalism and British imperialism. Because they were left out of every subsequent edition, they are all but unknown today, even to scholars. The 1899 edition was illustrated with drawings, photogravures, and colored maps that disappeared with the 1902 abridgment.

Savrola is Winston Churchill’s first major literary effort and his only full-length work of fiction. Published in 1900, the novel’s subtitle, A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania, reflects the story’s modern political focus. Laurania, a long-established republic, is subjected to the autocratic rule of President Antonio Molara, a former general who has become known as the Dictator. Savrola, the man of the multitude, leads the democratic effort to restore the political liberties of the people. When the register of eligible electors is mutilated and the popular franchise compromised, a riot breaks out and the stage is set for a fight to the death between Molara and Savrola over who will rule Laurania. General Molara enlists the assistance of his beautiful wife, Lucile, to undermine Savrola’s influence with the people. But Lucile falls in love with Savrola, who is equally moved by the beauty and charm of the First Lady. As is indicated by the last chapter’s title, “Life’s Compensations,” all ends well in Laurania. After the violent troubles of the revolution, Molara is dead, Lucile and Savrola are united, and the Mediterranean republic returns to peace and prosperity.

After a long life with Shakespeare, seeing, reading, studying, playing, and teaching the works, Michael Platt has bequeathed to after-livers an appreciation of some of the many wonders of Shakespeare. Seven discerned here are: first, how vast his learning is; second, how witty in expression, how rich in thought, and inventive in coinage his language; third, that he is the first poet ever to write both comedy and tragedy, and beyond that, history, thus making him the English Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Thucydides; fourth, that, unlike his great poetic predecessors, he presents life without the presence of the gods or God and yet, though hidden, everywhere Christian teachings illuminate life; fifth, that he so abundantly multiplies instances, so skillfully juxtaposes them, and so frames them with wisdom, that to understand him you must become philosophic; sixth, that each of his near nine hundred characters is so himself, speaking like no other, that we marvel how a man is is what he is like others, and yet who he is is utterly self-referential and seventh, though Shakespeare is invisible in his own works, like water in water, still in one brief run of words, he tells himself the secrets of all his artful life.

The work is given in three parts. The first section on law explores legal minds, rules and commentary on seminal jurisprudence. The second part explores literature and the influence of the writer and the disconcerting truths stories often seek to convey. Thirdly, Mendenhall delves into culture and the more obvious situations wherein we gain insight into our manner of living, and here Mendenhall exudes a Southern accent that in no way compromises his universal bearings.

The late historian Marvin O’Connell left a legacy of brilliant prose and pictures of the past, and in this book the reader at long last has access to O’Connell’s own story. Fr. Bill Miscamble, a noted historian and scholar in his own right, attributes to O’Connell the title ‘Master’ above all on account of his ability to know what matters and then write about it “in the way that all great stories are told.”

 Witness Through Encounter intends to fulfill multiple needs. The diplomatic approach exemplified herein is singular and worthy of study among political scientists, sociologists, philosophers and diplomats eager to embrace a worldview that is more personal than simply humanistic. This work will also be useful in inter-religious settings. An additional advantage of O’Connor’s presentation of Benedict XVI’s diplomatic approach, his witness through encounter, is that it contains insight valuable to the scholar alongside the resources used.