Friday, May 30, 2014

Josef Pieper on Contemplation

Who among us has not suddenly looked into his child's face, in the midst of the toils and troubles of everyday life, and at that moment "seen" that everything which is good, is loved and lovable, loved by God! 

Such certainties all mean, at bottom, one and the same thing: that the world is plumb and sound; that everything comes to its appointed goal; that in spite of all appearances, underlying all things is—peace, salvation, gloria; that nothing and no one is lost; that "God holds in his hand the beginning, middle, and end of all that is." 

Such nonrational, intuitive certainties of the divine base of all that is can be vouchsafed to our gaze even when it is turned toward the most insignificant-looking things, if only it is a gaze inspired by love. That, in the precise sense, is contemplation...

Josef Pieper, from Happiness and Contemplation

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Walker Percy

Today we mark the birth of Walker Percy (1916–1990). Born in Birmingham, Percy remained in the South throughout the course of his life (save a short stint in New York City, where he attended medical school at Columbia University).

The eldest of three sons, Percy was orphaned after both of his parents committed suicide within a span of two years. Raised with his brothers by his bachelor cousin (a lawyer and poet), Walker was brought up as an agnostic but converted to Catholicism as an adult, alongside his wife and children.

Percy met Shelby Foote—a neighbor boy down the road—when he was fifteen, and the two remained lifelong fraternal and literary friends, deeply influencing each others' work. Percy credits tuberculosis for introducing him to Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, whom he read during his long convalescence and who ultimately influenced him to "explore the dislocation of man in the modern age." He also said: "[Tuberculosis was] the best disease I ever had. If I hadn't had it, I might be a second-rate shrink practicing in Birmingham, at best." 

Percy won the National Book Award for his (probably most famous) novel, The Moviegoer, but his essays are also wonderful. Click the links below to see what we currently have in stock.

from Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book:
It's one thing to develop a nostalgia for home while you're boozing with Yankee writers in Martha's Vineyard or being chased by the bulls in Pamplona. It's something else to go home and visit with the folks in Reed's drugstore on the square and actually listen to them. The reason you can't go home again is not because the down-home folks are mad at you—they're not, don't flatter yourself, they couldn't care less—but because once you're in orbit and you return to Reed's drugstore on the square, you can stand no more than fifteen minutes of the conversation before you head for the woods, head for the liquor store, or head back to Martha's Vineyard, where at least you can put a tolerable and saving distance between you and home. Home may be where the heart is but it's no place to spend Wednesday afternoon. 
from The Moviegoer:
Hatred strikes me as one of the few signs of life remaining in the world. This is another thing about the world which is upsidedown: all the friendly and likable people seem dead to me; only the haters seem alive.

Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book 

Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World

Message in a Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other

The Moviegoer

Signposts in a Strange Land: Essays

The Thanatos Syndrome: A Novel


Monday, May 19, 2014

The Beginnings of a Life of Prayer, by Archimandrite Irenei

by Archimandrite Irenei; 127 pp. paper $13.00

Even though a life of prayer is “the highest, and also the truest, form of human existence,” many obstacles make it difficult to attain. Archimandrite Irenei offers help in this small volume, taking seriously the fact that most of us, straining toward prayer while surrounded by a world of distractions, are mere beginners. The book begins with a reflection on the lowly position of the person who seeks to pray. We are vulnerable to both spiritual opposition and harmful passions, and we must focus attention on the Kingdom of God and learn the discipline of obedience. Ultimately, prayer is directed toward transformation of our life into a life rooted in Christ’s. The second part of the book offers theological reflection on what it means to take up a life of prayer, encouraging us that, while difficult, prayer is possible—it is, after all, “the heart’s true home.” These reflections culminate in two “centuries,” or sets of one hundred digestible reflections for readers to consider. They discuss prayer as Sabbath rest, defeating obstacles to prayer, practical steps to quieting and disciplining the mind, the use of the Jesus Prayer, and a centering focus on Christ’s death and Resurrection. 


Friday, May 16, 2014

A "body full of sentences…"

from The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje:

She entered the story knowing she would emerge from it feeling she had been immersed in the lives of others, in plots that stretched back twenty years, her body full of sentences and moments, as if reawakening from sleep with a heaviness caused by unremembered dreams…







Thursday, May 8, 2014

Christ the Conqueror of Hell

by Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev — 231 pp. paper $21.00

Christ’s descent into the realm of the dead may seem, at first glance, like an interesting if negligible detail in the drama of salvation—an apocryphal account that fills in the gap between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Russian theologian Alfeyev demolishes any such impression, arguing that the “harrowing of hell” constitutes not only established Church doctrine but an event of cosmic significance for the human race. Christ entered Sheol (the underworld) as conquering king, trampling down death’s sovereignty and preaching salvation to its captives. A major soteriological question—did Christ enter Hades to save only the Old Testament righteous, or did His offer of salvation extend to all the departed—occupies the latter half of the book. Alfeyev situates the rather oblique New Testament references to the event (1 Peter 4:6, Matthew 27:52-53) within an astonishingly rich context: early Christian texts, some recently discovered, others never translated into Greek from Syriac or Ethiopic; patristic teachings, in both East and West; and the liturgical poetry of Ephraim the Syrian and Romanosthe Melodist. Although firm answers remain elusive, Alfeyev notes that a preponderance of texts, particularly in the East, assert that Christ left Hades entirely deserted. Alfeyev’s nuanced approach encourages us to reflect more deeply on the tremendous power of free will, the ever-present choice to follow Christ.


Monday, May 5, 2014

The Father of Existentialism

'Tis the birthday of the "father of existentialism," Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, who said: "It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey."

Called by some "an outsider in the history of philosophy," Kierkegaard baffles categorization. His work includes aesthetic novels, psychology, Christian dogmatics, satire, philosophical "scraps" and "postscripts," literary reviews, edifying discourses, Christian polemics, and self-interpretations—though he considered himself, first and foremost, a religious poet.

Kierkegaard inherited melancholy (at least in part) from his father, who figures prominently throughout his work (in stories of sacrifice, as the archetypal patriarch, and in several dedications), while his mother is never mentioned. Many critics conjoin this fact with a remark Kierkegaard makes in Concluding Unscientific Postscript, that "an omnipresent person should be recognizable precisely by being invisible," speculating that his mother is, in reality, ever-present.

Rhetorically, Kierkegaard used irony, satire, parody, humor, and what he calls "indirect communication" as a way to help the reader engage with existential ideas. Regarding his idea of indirect communication, he writes (in Concluding Unscientific Postscript):

No anonymous author can more slyly hide himself, and no maieutic can more carefully recede from a direct relation than God can. He is in the creation, everywhere in the creation, but he is not there directly, and only when the single individual turns inward into himself (consequently only in the inwardness of self-actvity) does he become aware and capable of seeing God.

Though it took some time and effort, he eventually became a master of his mother tongue (Danish) and was rivaled only by his contemporary, Hans Christian Andersen.

O—did we mention the man was rather religious about walking?

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.

On to the books…

Either/Or, Part 1 (Kierkegaard's Writings)

For Self-Examination / Judge for Yourselves! (Kierkegaard's Writings)

Gospel of Sufferings

A Literary Review

The Point of View (Kierkegaard's Writings)

Practice in Christianity (Kierkegaard's Writings)

Prefaces / Writing Sampler

Purity of Heart







Saturday, May 3, 2014

All Things Are Possible: The Healing and Charismatic Revivals in Modern America


by David Edwin Harrell Jr.320 pp. paper $24.95

The first objective history of the great revivals that swept the country after World War II. All Things Are Possible tells the story of the victories and defeats of such giants of the revival as William Branham, Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, T. L. Osborn, A. A. Allen. It also tells of the powerful present day evangelists who carrying on the revival, including Robert Schambach and Morris Cerullo. The book includes photographs of Schambach, Allen, Cerullo, Branham, Roberts, Osborn, Coe and many others. Those who lived through the great revival of the 1950's and 1960's will be thrilled to read about those exciting days. Those who did not experience the revivals first-hand should read this book to gain a better understanding of America’s religious climate today. David Edwin Harrell, Jr. is a professor of history at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Though aspects of his approach will not be accepted by some readers, he has visited Schambach revivals and aims to write from a scholarly yet sympathetic perspective.

We need to be supernaturally natural and naturally supernatural.  —Rob Rufus