Gregory Wolfe

Culture, Not Politics We live in a politicized time. Culture wars and increasingly partisan conflicts have reduced public discourse to shouting matches between ideologues. But rather than merely bemoaning the vulgarity and sloganeering of this era, says acclaimed author and editor Gregory Wolfe, we should seek to enrich the language of civil discourse. And the best way to do that, Wolfe believes, is to draw nourishment from the deepest sources of culture: art and religious faith. Wolfe has been called “one of the most incisive and persuasive voices of our generation,” and this penetrating and wide-ranging book makes a powerful case for the importance of beauty and imagination to cultural renewal. He begins by tracing his own journey from a young culture warrior bent on attacking the modern world to a career devoted to nurturing the creation of culture through contemporary literature and art that renew the Western tradition. Along the way, Wolfe finds in Renaissance Christian humanists like Erasmus and Thomas More—and their belief that imagination and the arts are needed to offset the danger of ideological abstractions— a “distant mirror” in which to see our own times. Beauty Will Save the World offers a revealing introduction to the artists and thinkers who are the Christian humanists of the modern era, from well-known figures like Evelyn Waugh and Wendell Berry to lesser-known authors like Shusaku Endo, Andrew Lytle, and Geoffrey Hill. A section on visual artists Mary McCleary, Fred Folsom, and Makoto Fujimura (accompanied by reproductions of their works) demonstrates that there are artists who can reimagine the Western tradition in strikingly contemporary terms. Finally, Wolfe pays tribute to the conservative thinkers who served as his mentors: Russell Kirk, Gerhart Niemeyer, Marion Montgomery, and Malcolm Muggeridge— all of whom rejected rigid ideology and embraced culture and tradition. At a time when our public discourse has come to be dominated by warring factions with little regard for truth, Wolfe's affirmation of beauty as a redemptive force is both refreshing and encouraging.

Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age

Beauty Will Save the World

Staking out a position beyond the political left and right wing, an anthology of essays by noted religious writers and scholars treats topics ranging from Hollywood's portrayal of evil to the politicization of religion. 12,500 first printing.

A Reader

The New Religious Humanists

Scott Cairns

Greg Pennoyer

Featuring daily meditations for the complete seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, an illuminating and visually stunning book helps readers to rediscover the meaning of Christmas through profound words that are enhanced by classic and contemporary art masterpieces. $20,000 budget.

Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas

God with Us

This book is a compilation of essays by Gregory Wolfe. It includes a series of engravings by Barry Moser.

Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery

Intruding Upon the Timeless

Linda K. Wendling

An anthology of stories exploring the spiritual realm, Peculiar Pilgrims: Stories From the Left Hand of God, will take us on a fascinating journey. Adventures in unorthodoxy, mysterious ways, moments of unbounded, unexpected grace. Things you might not read in Sunday School. The broad range of voices include those of John Dalton, Melanie Rae Thon, Erin McGraw, Alice Mattison, Alice Fulton, Lee Upton, Rose Rappoport Moss, Quinn Dalton, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, and a host of others.

Stories from the Left Hand of God

Peculiar Pilgrims

Lorenzo Albacete

Lisa Lickona

From popes to television personalities to high school students, everyone who encountered Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete knew there was no one like him. He could engage you with a joke about a New Yorker cartoon, move on to a keen commentary on the state of the culture, and finish off with a meditation on the Gospel of John. In his talks and essays, Albacete made profound theological and philosophical insights accessible without ever losing their depth and breadth. But with the exception of a single book published in his lifetime, much of Albacete's wisdom has been scattered and hard to find. The Relevance of the Stars fills this vacuum. With his characteristic wit and ease, Albacete engages the thorniest questions-the relation of faith and reason, the problem of modernity, the possibility of a Christian culture-as they play out in science and politics, money and love, law and finance. He speaks to families, youth, and his friends in the media. The New Yorker cartoons feature here, of course, alongside Dostoevsky, Flannery O'Connor, and Elie Wiesel. Albacete masterfully engages the thought of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Father Luigi Giussani, the founder of the international lay movement Communion and Liberation, whose passion for the infinite Albacete made his own.

Relevance of the Stars: Christ, Culture, Destiny

Christ, Culture, Destiny

The Relevance of the Stars

Traces the life of the English editor and social critic, and discusses his conversion to Roman Catholicism

Gregory Wolfe

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