Escape into the Future analyzes the power of pessimism, showing links between present-day religious pessimism and the nihilism of popular culture. Stroup and Shuck rummage through an interesting and eclectic body of pop culture, from Fight Club to X-Files to the Left Behind series, pointing out the presence of pessimistic themes throughout. This volume identifies and illuminates the religious language used in these works to articulate America's need to escape from its present cultural path and, ultimately, provide hope that it might do so.

In this study of Madame Guyon and, her defender, Francois de Fénelon, the Archbishop of Cambray, Patricia Ward demonstrates how the ideas of these seventeenth-century Catholics were transmitted into an ongoing tradition of Protestant devotional literature—one that continues to influence American evangelicals and charismatic Christians today. Down a winding (and fascinating) historical path, Ward traces how the lives and writings of these two somewhat obscure Catholic believers in Quietism came to such prominence in American spirituality—offering, in part, a fascinating glance at the role of women in the history of devotional writing.

Facing a Pandemic traces the history and spread of the HIV/AIDS virus in Africa and its impact on African society and public policy before considering new priorities needed to combat the pandemic. The central argument is that the theological motif of the image of God invites a prophetic critique of the social environment in which HIV/AIDS thrives and calls for a praxis of love and compassion.

How can ordinary Christians find moral guidance for the mundane dilemmas they confront in their daily lives? To answer this question, Julie Hanlon Rubio brings together a rich Catholic theology of marriage and a strong commitment to social justice to focu

In this thought-provoking book Thaddée Matura offers a new way of lookingIn this thought-provoking book Thaddée Matura offers a new way of looking at how the Franciscan tradition was adapted and contemporized during the centuries. In a clear and accessible style he shows how the Franciscan Family has gotten to the stage it now enjoys and shows how liberating history can be and is. In 2004 Franciscan Institute Publications reprinted Matura’s Francis of Assisi: The Message in His Writings.

The scholarly authors of the essays in this volume probe important facets of preaching and its history in the Franciscan tradition, as well as its import for the larger Church. Insightful and critical, they trace pathways into the future. From their historical perspective, we appreciate, perhaps for the first time, what a creative impulse to preaching Franciscan men and women brought to the service of the Gospel. We see how ordinary Christian people experienced the impulse to unfold the work of God in Christian life. We see, too, the intrinsic ambivalence of the Franciscan tradition in working out its relationship to the role of clerical preaching tin the hierarchical Church. We are invited to enjoy the feast prepared by scholarship and creative, critical thought.

The purpose of this book is to present some general and major themes of the theological formulation of the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition as these themes intersect with contemporary perspectives. It provides a fine starting point for further reflection and a solid foundation for future expositions in this series. It is meant to help readers plumb the spiritual depths of our Franciscan inheritance and challenges readers to express these theological themes in preaching, in pastoral practice, in the works of evangelization and in the formative experiences of friars, sisters and the laity.

An assessment of the rise and fall within the Franciscan Order of the doctrine of the absolute poverty of Christ and the apostles. Covering the decades between 1210-1323, Lambert describes the doctrine as found in the mind of St. Francis and moves to Pope John XXII’s condemnation of one particular form of the doctrine.