No Bloodless Myth

Following his acclaimed The Word Has Been Abroad: A Guide Through Balthasar's Aesthetics, No Bloodless Myth by Aidan Nichols summarizes and illuminates the five-volume series Theo-Drama, which develops the heart of Balthasar's theological theory--his exploration of the Good and of the dramatic interplay of finite and infinite freedom. Theo-Drama builds upon the earlier achievement of The Glory of the Lord and transcends it, opening up new horizons for theological and cultural reflection in the twenty-first century. Aidan Nichols's succinct commentary enables the reader to grasp the main themes of one of the most important theological works in several generations. "A magesterial guide through Balthasar's theological dramatics. . . . [This book] confirms Aidan Nichols as an authoritative guide to the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar."--Heythrop Journal "Father Nichols is writing what will surely be the definitive commentary on Balthasar's great theological trilogy. In this second volume he unfolds the complex argument of the Theo-Drama with clarity and good humor. Let no one now complain that they do not know how to find their way through the works of Balthasar. Father Nichols is at hand as a trustworthy guide."--John Saward, author of The Way of the Lamb Aidan Nichols, OP, is prior of the Dominican community at Blackfriars, Cambridge. "[This study] will most certainly contribute in great measure to our in-depth understanding of the innovative vision proposed by the major and increasingly influential Swiss theologian. Readers and scholars are beginning to understand why Urs von Balthasar is so well beloved by so many, not least the current Pope. . . . The unbelievably broad erudition and reading culture of Balthasar is amply unfolded before us, in a way that manages to be both majestic and playful. . . . We should be more than grateful for this elegant and substantial guide."--Review of Metaphysics "Some knowledge of Balthasar's great trilogy is now required of any self-respecting Christian theologian. So we are much indebted to Aidan Nichols for the three books that summarize, respectively, its three multivolume parts, on aesthetics (Beauty), theodramatics (Goodness), and theologic (Truth). . . . [A] rich summary that illuminates the work beautifully, with occasional critical comments, humorous asides, and references to the tradition. Nichols follows Balthasar's order without any particular emphases of his own. The result is often exciting, even when the summary must become dense. Besides its evident usefulness for those who have not yet read Theo-Drama, it enables those who have to get a clearer view of Balthasar's project as a whole."--The Journal of Religion "Nichols excels at combining a straightforward, sequential summary of each volume of the Dramatics with a deft interpretation of what constitutes Balthasar's "canon within canon. . . . One of the more important studies in English of Balthasar's theology." Larry Chapp, Theological Studies

Most contemporary theologies of Holy Orders consider priesthood mainly in its diocesan context and most contemporary theologies of religious life do not consider how ordained ministry functions when it is internal rather than external to religious life. Understanding the Religious Priesthood provides a history and theology of religious priesthood that contributes to our understanding of this vocation’s identity and mission. It uncovers what religious priesthood shares with diocesan priesthood and non-ordained religious life and what makes it different from both those other vocations. Christian Raab begins by tracing the history of religious priesthood from its origins in the early Church to the eve of the Second Vatican Council. He demonstrates that religious priests often faced questions about how to reconcile their two callings, but that they also provided answers in their theologies and spiritualities of priesthood and religious life. Meanwhile, they made key contributions to the Church’s life and mission. Raab then investigates the teachings of the Second Vatican Council on priesthood and religious life. Observing that the Council presented priesthood according to a diocesan typology and presented religious life without sacerdotal associations, he argues that the lack of imagery of religious priesthood contributed to a post-conciliar vocational identity crisis among religious priests. He then seeks to remedy this lacuna by appealing to the biblical images for religious priesthood Hans Urs von Balthasar offered in his theology of vocations. Raab argues that Balthasar’s imagery is a promising way forward for understanding the identity and mission of religious priesthood. In a final part, Raab provides a substantial theological articulation of religious priesthood which illuminates its liturgical signification, ecclesial mediation and mission, and ministerial identity. Here he draws not only from Balthasar but also from Pope John Paul II, Yves Congar, Jean-Marie Tillard, Brian Daley, and Guy Mansini to construct his profile.

This is a volume of essays on ancient (and modern) Greek myth, culture, society, and literature. It covers the work of almost thirty years and is inspired by a lifetime's teaching experience with university and mature students. Some of the essays are already counted as 'classics' and a number have not been published before.

This introductory textbook establishes theatrical improvisation as a model for Christian ethics, helping Christians embody their faith in the practices of discipleship. Clearly, accessibly, and creatively written, it has been well received as a text for courses in Christian ethics. The repackaged edition has updated language and recent relevant resources, and it includes a new afterword by Wesley Vander Lugt and Benjamin D. Wayman that explores the reception and ongoing significance of the text.

Essays in English and American language and literature.

Matthew Farlow traces the thoughts of Balthasar and Barth so as to enter into theological truth of God's Being-in-Act. This exploration embarks on a journey into the reality of our Triune God who has engaged his creation so as to elicit fellow actors. God seeking out humanity is God with us, a truth that not only informs our theological endeavors, but invites us into the dramatic performance of reconciliation. As Farlow illumines, God is an acting God who seeks fellow participants in his ongoing drama of salvation. Through the dramatizing of theology, the church and her theologians come to realize God's threefold movement--revelation, invitation and reconciliation. It is a unified act that startles humanity, and thus theology, out of its "spectator's seat," so as to drag it onto the world's stage. As Farlow discusses, it is through the dramatizing of theology that we find ourselves best equipped to participate faithfully in the role of a lifetime.

"Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry" offers an accessible and imaginative guide to the criticism of British and Irish poetry in the the twentieth century. The editors also supply their own stimulating readings of the poetry. Through an insightful narrative - which points up the major features of the poets and the chosen excerpt Michael O'Neill and Madeleine Callaghan knit together contributions by major critics, as well as essays by a number of distinguished poet-critics, including Geoffrey Hill, Andrew Motion, and Tom Paulin. Featured poets include Hardy, Yeats, Eliot, Owen, Lawrence, Auden, Dylan Thomas, Larkin, MacDiarmid, Stevie Smith, Plath, Heaney, Mahon and many others. An invualuable guide to the ways in which a remarkable and evolving body of poetry has been and might be interpreted, this is a unique and wide-ranging collection of important critical reflection on significant voices in the twentieth-century British and Irish poetic tradition from Thomas Hardy to Derek Mahon. A brief Afterword outlines trends in British and Itish poetry since 1980.

In this astonishing volume of autobiography, John Moriarty's earlier works of mystical philosophy, Dreamtime and Turtle Was Gone a Long Time, are given a biographical grounding. Inhabited by all that he reads and perceives, Moriarty recovers lost forms of sensibility and categories of understanding, reconciling them gloriously within the arc of his life. Nostos is a Greek word meaning 'homecoming'. In its plural form, nostoi, it was the name of an extensive body of literature in ancient Greece about the Greek heroes who returned from the Trojan Wars. Most of this literature has perished, but we do have The Odyssey, describing the long homecoming of Odysseus to Ithaca. Moriarty's book assumes that for various reasons humanity is now exiled from the earth, but by reimagining it and ourselves as involved in a common destiny, it enacts a homecoming, a nostos to it. Nostos is a continuous narrative describing early on how its author lost his world as surely and completely as the Aztecs lost theirs when Cortez came ashore. Thereafter, in places as far apart as neolithic North Kerry and London, Periclean Athens and Blackfoot Dancing Ground, Manitoba and Mexico, Kwakiutl coast and Connemara, the author fights his way to a kind of rest, to a requiem, at the heart of things as they terribly and resplendently are. 'the classical, Eastern and Amer-Indian legends that have informed Moriarty's life are recreated or re-enacted in this deeply personal document, which is paradoxically rich in encounters with the physical world and tender episodes of love and loss, while giving us a disturbing insight into the terrors and rare ecstasies of the hermit's lonely struggle.' -- Tim Robinson

Aidan Nichols' timely book is the first full-scale investigation of Joseph Ratzinger's theology, from the 1950s to the present day. It presents a chronological account of the development of Ratzinger's writing that reflects a wide range of historical and theoretical interests. A comprehensive introduction to a figure who is in his own right, quite apart from his significance in the politics of the Church, a major German Catholic theologian of the twentieth century. This new edition amplifies existing chapters by reference to books by Ratzinger between 1986/1987 and his election as Pope in 2005, and includes two new chapters - Judaism, Islam and other religions, and the secularization and future of Europe.

This volume completes Aidan Nichols's presentation of the great theological trilogy of Hans Urs von Balthasar. The book offers a summary and interpretation of Balthasar's logic and considers the way in which The Truth of the World points forward to theological aesthetics and dramatics.

This fifth and final book in Aidan Nichols' Introduction to Hans Urs von Balthasar series covers Balthasar's prodigious output from the 1940s to his death in 1988, leaving aside the great multi-volume trilogy. Nichols identifies Balthasar's most significant sources, including the Church Fathers (especially Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, and Augustine), Henri de Lubac, Karl Barth, and Adrienne von Speyr. He, then, guides the reader through Balthasar's works thematically, covering fundamental theological themes (revelation and theology, divine providence, the paschal mystery), Mary and the church, the saints, prayer and mysticism, and Christian literature.