David L. Schindler

Pope Benedict XVI

Nicholas J. Healy

Timely theological insights on culture and humanity from the pen of the Pontiff In this second volume of Joseph Ratzinger in Communio, Pope Benedict XVI speaks to various issues relating to humanity today -- conscience, technological security, the origin of human life, the meaning of Sunday, Christian hope, and more. As editor David L. Schindler notes, "Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) rarely writes on any churchly matter that does not manifest its implications for man and culture, and vice versa. Indeed, this indissoluble linking is one of the main distinguishing features of his theology." This is the second of three volumes; the first deals with themes relating to the Church, and the third volume is to focus on theological renewal.

Christology and Anthropology

Joseph Ratzinger in Communio, Volume 2

Today, thirty years after the Second Vatican Council, there can be little doubt that the notion of communio ("communion") is at the center of Catholicism's renewed understanding of the Church. In Heart of the World, Center of the Church David L. Schindler shows that communio is also at the heart of the Church's worldly mission. Invoking God's spousal relation to the world, Schindler argues that the Church's answer to the question of worldly freedom is nothing less than its own communio. Yet the claim that the Church promotes the "legitimate autonomy of earthly realities" by penetrating the world with its own intimate reality is hardly a matter of arcane speculation. Heart of the World, Center of the Church develops its thesis in critical dialogue with Western (especially Anglo-American) liberalism, whose ascendancy especially after the events of 1989 poses a host of urgent questions for the Church. Examining liberalism in politics, economics, and the academy, Schindler exposes its inadequate theology of human freedom and "worldly" autonomy, while suggesting how communio both transforms and protects freedom and autonomy in their varied cultural expressions. In the spirit of Pope John Paul II's call for a "new evangelization," Schindler contributes to what the Pope himself has strongly reaffirmed as "the positive value of an authentic theology of integral human liberation" (Centesimus Annus, 26).

Communio Ecclesiology, Liberalism, and Liberation

Heart of the World, Center of the Church

The Generosity of Creation

Metaphysical study of God, love, technology, and culture in modern society Reality most basically and properly considered, says David L. Schindler, is an order of love a gift that finds its objective only in an entire way of life. Love is what first brings things into existence, and everything exists in, through, and for love. With this understanding of reality, Schindler explores how modern culture marginalizes love, regarding it at best as a matter of piety or goodwill rather than as the very stuff that makes our lives and the things of the world real. Schindler examines how Western civilization s fixation with technology especially its displacement of experience with experiment and its privileging of knowing and making has undermined its capacity to build an authentic human culture. Schindler sees this as a technological age not simply because of technological advancements but because of the way we think as the result of our technological orientation. He shows, within the context of politics, economics, science, and cultural and professional life generally, that God-centered love is what gives things their deepest and most proper order and meaning.

Liberal Societies and the Memory of God

Ordering Love

Robert Spaemann

What does it mean to love someone? What does the concept of human dignity mean, and what are its consequences? What marks the end of a person's life? Is personhood more than consciousness? These perplexing questions lurk beneath the surface of everyday life, surfacing only to demand urgent attention in crises. Renowned German philosopher Robert Spaemann addresses these and other foundational enigmas in three eloquent short essays. Speaking wisdom to controversy, he offers carefully considered, novel approaches to key philosophical and theological questions about the nature of human love ("The Paradoxes of Love"), dignity ("Human Dignity and Human Nature"), and death ("Is Brain Death the Death of a Human Person?").

On Nature and Natural Law

Love and the Dignity of Human Life

David Bohm

Examines the meaning of nature, or physics, in light of some of the central concerns of Catholic theology and philosophy. The papers presented here result from a conference which examined developments in twentieth-century physics, particularly as interpreted in the work of theoretical physicist David Bohm. Co-published with COMMUNIO International Catholic Review.

The Universe in Recent Physics and Catholic Thought

Beyond Mechanism

In this volume David L. Schindler presents readers with a collection of essays garnered from the 2005 conference marking the centenary of Hans Urs von Balthasar s birth. That conference hosted an international gathering of scholars, among them students, colleagues, friends, and critics of Balthasar, all making an effort to engage the fundamental questions of faith and reason in light of his influential contribution to Catholic theology. A wide range of topics is explored in light of the Christian mystery, including metaphysics and causality, the nature of rationality, the relationship between God and the world, and the meaning of the body. Featuring an impressive list of contributors, Love Alone Is Credible is a tribute to the profound relevance of Balthasar s thought.

Hans Urs Von Balthasar as Interpreter of the Catholic Tradition

Love Alone Is Credible

Is the American Catholic Church becoming overly secularized? How should the Church respond to modern society?

Essays on Nature, Grace, and Culture

Catholicism and Secularization in America

His Life and Work

Hans Urs Von Balthasar

This collection of essays, gathered under the auspices of Communio editors, represents the most wide-ranging study of the life and work of Balthasar. The twenty contributors include highly respected theologians, philosophers and bishops from around the world such as Henri Cardinal de Lubac, S.J., Walter Kasper, Louis Dupre, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), and Pope John Paul II. "...meeting Balthasar was for me the beginning of a lifelong friendship I can only be thankful for. Never again have I found anyone with such a comprehensive theological and humanistic education as Balthasar and de Lubac, and I cannot even begin to say how much I owe to my encounter with them." - Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

Nicholas J. Healy Jr.

Pope Paul VI characterized the Second Vatican Council s Declaration on Religious Freedom -- Dignitatis Humanae -- as one of the greatest documents of Vatican II. It is also perhaps the most intensely debated document of the Council; both the drafting of the Declaration of Religious Freedom and its reception have been marked by deep disagreements about what this teaching means for the Church. In this book David Schindler and Nicholas Healy promote a deeper understanding of this important document. In addition to presenting a new translation of the approved text of the Declaration, Freedom, Truth, and Human Dignity makes available for the first time in English the five drafts of the document that were presented to the Council bishops leading up to the final version. The book also includes an original interpretive essay on Dignitatis Humanae by Schindler and an essay on the genesis and redaction history of the text by Healy.

David L. Schindler

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