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<DIV>This is one of a two-volume collection of texts and documents issued by the International Theological Commission (ITC), a body of theologians that advises the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The texts and documents of the ITC address pressing theological issues, drawing upon theological experts from around the world who represent differing branches of theology yet who share a common commitment to authentically-Catholic theological reflection. <P><B>Volume 2, 1986-2007</B>, includes texts and documents exploring the following themes: faith and inculturation, the interpretation of dogma, eschatology, God the Redeemer, Christianity and world religions, the Church and the faults of the past, the diaconal ministry, human beings as the image of God, and the hope for the salvation of unbaptized infants. <P>"The special contribution of the Commission is to gain a hearing for the common voice of theology amid all the diversities that exist. For notwithstanding the legitimate pluralism of theological cultures in the Church, the unity of theology must remain, and empower theologians to offer some common account of their subject. In these pages, therefore, one will not find the exciting theses of innovative individuals. If there is excitement here, it lies in the discovery that even in our contemporary situation it is possible to say something together despite all our differences and so to take part together in a further exploration of the one faith of the Church. All the texts which follow are the fruit of a long and often difficult dialogue. In that dialogue, not only have various disciplines, methods and ways of thought found a common path. Over and above that, the wider dialogue of theologians with the bishops, as well as between bishops and the Petrine office in the Church, has found a voice. It is precisely for this reason that the Theological Commission represents an authentic continuation of the great experience of the Council and a clarification of its true bearing."<br><B>�Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger</B> from the Preface to Volume One</DIV></P></P>

International Theological Commission: Texts and Documents 1987-2007

<DIV><P><I>Understanding the Sacraments</I> is a popular guide for prayer and study of all seven sacraments, designed for use by individuals and groups. In this guide, the well-known Fr. Peter Stravinskas, gives you a clear and faithful Catholic teaching in chapters on each of the seven sacraments. Everyday examples and anecdotes enliven the text. An introductory chapter explains the meaning of the word "sacrament", while the closing chapter tells you how to recover a sense of the sacred in the liturgy and how to receive God's healing through the sacraments. </P><P>To help you apply the teaching, frank and thoughtful questions for group discussion are included at the end of all the chapters-making this guide ideal for use in any parish or religious education program. </P><P>Whether at home, your parish, or in a prayer or study group, this popular guide will help you come to a deeper understanding of the sacraments and their important place in your Christian life. </P></DIV>

Understanding the Sacraments: A Guide for Prayer and Study

<DIV><P>In one of his most penetrating books, Kreeft ponders the meaning of a terminal illness we all have: death. The three vital questions of Life, Death, and God are approached through a variety of human experiences. Kreeft's book is a new statement of the Christian vision: the meaning of our existence, and of death, is the fulfillment of our deepest desire for the infinite joy and love of God. </P></DIV>

Love Is Stronger Than Death

<DIV><P>Fifty years ago, nearly 200,000 religious sisters worked in Catholic schools, hospitals and other institutions throughout the United States. American Catholics honored these women of faith who founded and built these flourishing works of mercy.</P><P>Then came the ideological shifts and moral upheavals of the 1960s, and ever since, most women's orders in the United States have been in a state of crisis. Now the sisters are aging, with fewer and fewer younger women to take their place. Perhaps related to this demographic shift is the continuing doctrinal confusion that has come under the scrutiny of the Vatican.</P><P>Using the archival records of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and other prominent groups of sisters, journalist and author Ann Carey shows how feminist activists unraveled American women's religious communities from their leadership positions in national organizations and large congregations. She also explains the recent and necessary interventions by the Vatican.</P><P>After examining the many forces that have contributed to the crisis, Carey reports on a promising sign of renewal in American religious life: the growing number of young women attracted to older communities that have retained their identity and newly formed, yet traditional, congregations.</P></DIV>

Sisters in Crisis: Revisited

<DIV>Fr. Robinson has done a great service in revitalizing Lorenzo Scupoli's classic, <I>Spiritual Combat</I>, so that contemporary Catholics can rediscover this rich work that has served many generations of Catholics. This book is about the life of prayer and personal reform and renewal. It fits squarely into the tradition of the &#34;great masters&#34; of the spiritual life, and to the line of great modern writers on spirituality. It is a work of particular relevance that confronts modern culture with the tough-minded, deeply authentic challenge of spiritual combat.<P>Robinson has retained Scupoli's appeal to the Catholic reader through a conversational style, short chapters, familiar examples from everyday life, and the pastoral bent which has marked his own outstanding career. Covering the basic difficulties of daily prayer and of obstacles to living the virtues, Scupoli and Robinson test the mettle of real Catholics by calling us to live an interior life for and with God.</P></DIV>

Spiritual Combat Revisited

<DIV><P><B>Foreword by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn</B><P>In 2005 the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn wrote a guest editorial in <I>The New York Times</I> that sparked a worldwide debate about "Creation and Evolution". Pope Benedict XVI instructed the Cardinal to study more closely this problem and the current debate between evolutionism and "creationism," and asked the yearly gathering of his former students to address these questions. <P>Even after Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, he has continued to maintain close contact with the circle of his former students. The "study circle" <I>(Schulerkrers)</I> meets once a year with Pope Benedict XVI for a conference. Many of these former Ratzinger students have gone on to become acclaimed scholars, professors and writers, as well as high ranking Church prelates.<P>This book documents the proceedings of the remarkable conference on the topic of "Creation and Evolution" hosted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 at the papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo. It includes papers that were presented from the fields of natural science, philosophy and theology, and records the subsequent discussion, in which Pope Benedict XVI himself participated. <P> "Ultimately it comes down to the alternative: What came first? Creative Reason, the Creator Spirit who makes all things and gives them growth, or Unreason, which, lacking any meaning, strangely enough brings forth a mathematically ordered cosmos, as well as man and his reason. The latter, however, would then be nothing more than a chance result of evolution and thus, in the end, equally meaningless. As Christians, we say: I believe in God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in the Creator Spirit. We believe that at the beginning of everything is the eternal Word, with Reason and not Unreason." <br/><B>— Pope Benedict XVI</B></P></DIV></P></P></P></P>

Creation and Evolution: A Conference with Pope Benedict XVI

<DIV><P>A major book on the subject of heaven, this expanded edition examines the hunger for heaven that is so strong in all of us. Fascinating and upbeat, Heaven, the Heart's Deepest Longing thoroughly explores the psychological and theological dimensions of this search for total joy and for the ultimate reality that grounds it. <BR /></P></DIV>

Heaven, the Heart's Deepest Longing

<DIV><P>In <I>Beyond Modernity</I>, Father Rutler shows the emptiness and vanity of modern man's attempts to deify progress and look at modernity as a goal in itself. Written in a style reminiscent of Chesterton, this book is a theological and sociological commentary on the bankruptcy of progressivism.</P><P>"The modern age is becoming outmoded, the thing it thought most unlikely. This poses a problem overwhelming to set minds: what happens when the age which was supposed to be the end of all the ages ends itself? The stark reply is, modern man is the least equipped to know. While posturing as the breath of things to come, he was insinuating the first civilized denial of the future. Modernity is worse than a rejection of the past; it is a defiant avoidance of that which is next, probably the first school of discourse to cancel tomorrow as a thing as vapid as part of yesterday."<BR /> — George W. Rutler, from the Foreword</P></DIV>

Beyond Modernity: Reflections of a Post-Modern Catholic

Opening credits

PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION

PREFACE TO THE 1968 EDITION

PREFACE TO THE 1969 EDITION

I. BELIEF IN THE WORLD OF TODAY

II. THE ECCLESIASTICAL FORM OF FAITH

I. PROLEGOMENA TO THE SUBJECT OF GOD

II. THE BIBLICAL BELIEF IN GOD

III. THE GOD OF FAITH AND THE GOD OF THE PHILOSOPHERS

IV. FAITH IN GOD TODAY

V. BELIEF IN THE TRIUNE GOD

I. I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, HIS ONLY SON OUR LORD

EXCURSUS꞉ CHRISTIAN STRUCTURES

II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAITH IN CHRIST IN THE CHRISTOLOGICAL ARTICLES OF THE CREED (Sections 1-3)

II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAITH IN CHRIST IN THE CHRISTOLOGICAL ARTICLES OF THE CREED (Sections 4-6)

I. THE INTRINSIC UNITY OF THE LAST STATEMENTS IN THE CREED

II. TWO MAJOR QUESTIONS POSED BY THE ARTICLES ON THE SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH

Closing credits

<p><strong>Revised Edition</strong><br><br>One of Cardinal Ratzinger's most important and widely read books, this volume is a revised second edition with an improved translation and an in-depth 20 page preface by the Cardinal. As he states in the preface, since this book was first published over 30 years ago, many changes and significant events have occurred in the world, and in the Church. But even so, he says he is firmly convinced that his fundamental approach in this book is still very timely and crucial for the spiritual needs of modern man. That approach puts the question of God and the question about Christ in the very center, which leads to a "narrative Christology" and demonstrates that the place for faith is in the Church.<br><br> Thus, this remarkable elucidation of the Apostle's Creed gives an excellent, modern interpretation of the foundations of Christianity. Ratzinger's profound treatment of Christianity's basic truths combines a spiritual outlook with a deep knowledge of Scripture and the history of theology.</p><p></p>

Introduction to Christianity

<DIV><P>With brilliance and creativity, Peter Kreeft has taken all of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew and provided us with imagined questions for each in a totally contemporary setting. Kreeft asks 285 questions in the form of “letters to Jesus”, each in the voice of a different questioner. The answers of Jesus are taken verbatim from Matthew and printed upside down so that the reader must invert the book to read them.</P><P>Along with its unique format, the genius of <I>Letters to Jesus </I>is its clever matching of questions to answers that get to the essence of Jesus’ teachings as they apply to our world today.</P></DIV>

Letters to Jesus (Answered)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

<p>With <em>The Ninth Day</em>, acclaimed film director Volker Schlondorff creates a moral thriller that &ldquo;succeeds in illuminating an almost unimaginably dark story&rdquo; (The New York Times). Inspired by the true story of a dissident priest&rsquo;s temporary furlough from Dachau, <em>The Ninth Day</em> transforms an ethical crisis into a nail-biting showdown and unspeakable horror into transcendent redemption. From inside the hell of the Dachau concentration camp &ldquo;Priest Block,&rdquo; Father Henri Kremer clings to a fragile life and challenged faith. But Gestapo officer Gebhardt, a young and ruthless lapsed seminarian, arranges a nine-day reprieve for the priest. If Kremer can persuade his staunchly anti-Nazi Bishop to capitulate to Nazi occupation, he&rsquo;ll go free. But if he fails or tries to escape, death awaits.</p>
<p>Torn between duty, faith, fear for his own life, and for the lives of his loved ones, in just nine days, Kremer must find a way to ease his conscience, protect his family, hold on to his faith, and uphold his vows. Ulrich Mattes is &ldquo;eerily convincing as a man torn by moral choices&rdquo; (Time Out New York). Together, pilgrim Kremer and tempter Gebhardt &ldquo;are singularly fascinating as tension-filled incompatibles&rdquo; (NY Observer). Matthes, Diehl and Bibiana Beglau, as Kremer&rsquo;s sister, contribute powerfully eloquent performances. <em>The Ninth Day</em> showcases the sensitive visionary precision that has kept Volker Schlondorff on the leading edge of international cinema for four decades.</p>

The Ninth Day

<DIV><P>Increasingly, the future is becoming a theme for theological reflection. In the background we can detect a growing concern among many people for the future of faith. Does faith have any future at all, and, if so, where in all the confusion of today's trends will we discover its embryo? </P><P>But the problem of the future assails not only the believer. In the ever more rapidly advancing process of historical evolution, man is confronted with enormous opportunities, but also with colossal perils. For him, the future is not only hope, but sorrowa nightmare, indeed. He cannot avoid asking what part faith can play in building tomorrow's world. </P><P>Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, approaches this problem of universal concern from a variety of angles, bringing his deep personal faith and theological brilliance to bear on these serious questions. </P></DIV>

Faith and the Future

Opening Credits

Prologue

1. The End of His Life

2.  Back to Normal

3. Do You Really See Us

4. Citizen of the Month

5. A Really Boring Guy

6. A Voice in the Night

7. The Safety of the Cage

8. A Triad of Sages

9. Ganymede and the Eagle

10. Neuron Paths in the World-Brain

11. The Winter World

12. The Hollow Men

13. Cabins and Palaces

14. Surely We Have Met Before

15. Around the Great Wheel

16. In the Underground

17. The Vault of Degradation

18. Millenium Angel

19. Scenes of Historical Importance

20. On the Little-Little Ob

21. Petropavlovskaya Poustyn

22. The Well in the Desert

23. Clerks and Ballerinas

24. A Bad Day at Listvyanks

25. The Clinic at Ozero Baikal

26. A Voice from the Past

27. I Give You Everything

28. The Enchantress

29. Snake and Crocodile

30. The Snowhouse

31. The Icon in the Fire

32. The War of the Winter-Born

33. A Cadre of One

34. Strength and Weakness

35. The Bell Tower

36. A Message in the Ark

37. To Another Country

38. We Know Everything

39. The Realm of the Dispossessed

40. The Silence

41. Upstairs and Downstairs

42. Integrated into a Mission

43. Does Simply No One Believe Me?

44. One May Circle the World

45. Will He Want Me?

46. Kingfishers Catch Fire

Acknowledgements

Author's Note

Closing Credits

<div>
<p>"A modern retelling of the parables The Good Shepherd and The Prodigal Son." <br><strong>- Michael O'Brien</strong><br><br>Canadian bookseller Alex Graham is a middle-age widower whose quiet life is turned upside down when his college-age son disappears without any explanation or trace of where he has gone. With minimal resources, the father begins a long journey that takes him for the first time away from his safe and orderly world. As he stumbles across the merest thread of a trail, he follows it in blind desperation, and is led step by step on an odyssey that takes him to fascinating places and sometimes to frightening people and perils.<br><br>Through the uncertainty and the anguish, the loss and the longing, Graham is pulled into conflicts between nations, as well as the eternal conflict between good and evil. Stretched nearly to the breaking point by the inexplicable suffering he witnesses and experiences, he discovers unexpected sources of strength as he presses onward in the hope of recovering his son--and himself.</p>
</div>

The Father's Tale: A Novel