This second and final volume of the letters of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria (412-444), takes up in medias res the great Christological controversy about the term Theotokos and the events which lead up to its resolution at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Defending the doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ in the Alexandrian ......
The Politics of Response in the Middle English Religious Drama
Offering a unique historical perspective to the study of medieval English drama, Heather Hill-Vasquez, in "Sacred Players", argues that different treatments of audience and performance in the early drama indicate that the performance life of the drama continued well beyond its traditional placement in medieval history into the Reformation and ......
The relationship between church and state is both controversial and unsettled. For decades, the courts have vacillated dramatically in their rulings on when a particular governmental accommodation rises to the level of an impermissible state establishment of religion. Without a comprehensive theory of the First Amendment establishment clause, ......
The Doctrine of Theosis means a salvation that is the deification of the saved. The saved actually become God. This unusual doctrine lies at the heart of Nicholas of Cusa's (1401-1464) mystical metaphysics. It is here examined for the first time as a theme in its own right, along with its implications for Cusanus' doctrine of God, his theological ......
The Deeds of Pope Innocent III, composed before 1210 by an anonymous member of the papal curia, provides a unique window into the activities, policies, and strategies of the papacy and the curia during one of the most important periods in the history of the medieval church. Innocent III, who became pope in 1198 and reigned until 1216, has long ......
Angela Merici and the Company of St. Ursula (1474-1540)
Angela Merici (1474-1540), like other mystic women such as Catherine of Siena, was considered a ""santa viva"" - a living saint - by virtue of her mysticism, sacred knowledge, human qualities, and participation in civic life. However, Angela's originality and genius reside above all in the foundation of the Company of St. Ursula. It is there that ......
St. Augustine's Teaching on Divine Power and Human Freedom
Aurelius Augustinus (354-430), bishop of Hippo Regius (the modern Annaba in Algeria), is considered one of the outstanding thinkers in Western Christian civilization, Catholic and Protestant alike. Particularly influential has been his pessimistic doctrine of divine predestination, which holds that only a small proportion of humanity has been ......
Once gods walked among humans, but, friends, we have come too late! The Gods are...up there in another world. Thus the poet Holderlin evoked the godlessness in modern life, which, ruled by reason and science, has chased transcendence out of our understanding. Yet is it true that we moderns walk without gods? ""The Religion of Reality"" takes to ......
The American Catholic Church at the United Nations, 1946-1972
Uncharted Territory chronicles the groundbreaking attempt by the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) to mold the United Nations in the image of a Catholic world order through the NCWC Office for UN Affairs. In 1945, the once-isolationist American Catholic Church appointed ""consultants"" to the United States delegation to the United ......
