New Book Releases Summer 2020

New Book Releases Summer 2020

Matthew Bellisario O.P. 2020

I hope your springtime reading has been productive. Its that time again! We are now in the middle of summer and there are some interesting titles to take a look at. As I said in my post for the spring releases, I have not read all of these books, nor do I necessarily endorse them. This post is merely a news post informing you of some of the new books being published by Catholic publishers that look interesting to me. If you have read them or have any comments I would love to hear them in the comments box. There is a new reprint that I thought would be worth mentioning as well. It's always nice to have publishers reprint classics especially when they are nice hardback editions. Here is the list of new summer books for 2020. I have put a link after each title and author so you can go directly to the publisher's website. 

1. Christ the Liturgy- William Daniel (Angelico Press)

We are Homo liturgicus—liturgical beings. But what is liturgy? What does it mean to do liturgy? How is liturgy related to the agency of God in the world? In this profound work, William Daniel discloses liturgy as the inner movement of the triune God, into which creation is gathered by and through Christ who is Liturgy.

Christ the Liturgy is a work of historical and liturgical theology that articulates how we make manifest both our true selves and God through bodily comportment and particular movements. Daniel explores the participatory nature of liturgy: how we encounter our natural nature in measure with our involvement in the agency of Christ, which in turn is inseparable from the comportment and movements of others, the spatial realities of our environment, and the grammatical structure and language used to account for each. All are interwoven and affect our capacity to know and experience ourselves as bearers of divine agency—as beings known by God. Christ-centered at every turn and grounded in scripture, Daniel’s work situates human agency within the Agency of God—the Liturgy who is, a participatory ontology materialized through dispositions of faith.

“Christ the Liturgy is a profound work, simultaneously a theological epistemology, anthropology, ethics, and an elucidation of the Trinity. Daniel puts an end to the translation of leitourgia as ‘work of the people,’ which is not only a poor translation but, more importantly, misleads from a proper notion of the relation between human and divine agency. Liturgy is a transcendent participation in the eternal liturgy that is Christ’s offering. And yet, human participation in liturgy is earthly, akin to composting. Beautifully written, drawn from diverse genres, Christ the Liturgy should become the standard text in liturgical theology.”

— D. Stephen Long

2. This Tremendous Lover- Dom Eugene Boylan (Baronius Press) 

Can married couples become holy? Can anyone who is not a priest or a member of a religious institute reach the heights of mystical union with Christ? In this book, Dom Eugene Boylan, Trappist abbot and spiritual writer, shows how the faithful are invited into this intimate union with Him, regardless of their state in life.

Few works can match the completeness of Dom Eugene’s treatment of God’s loving plan for mankind in This Tremendous Lover. He explains how the doctrines of the Redemption and of the Mystical Body form us in holiness through our membership in His Church. A chapter on the Blessed Virgin Mary outlines her essential role in the spiritual life, while a chapter on Marriage and Holiness explains just how exalted and yet attainable, is the ideal of holiness for married couples.

First published in 1946, This Tremendous Lover sold more than a million copies. Decades after it was written, it remains a sure guide to understanding what the love of God for man truly entails.

This book is an attempt to outline that love story of God and man, which achieves its consummation in the unity of the whole Christ; and to show that the spiritual life is a partnership of love between God and man which can be summed up in one word: Christ.

-Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO

3. The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates- Edward Pentin (Sophia Press)

When Pope Francis' pontificate has passed, it's very likely that one of the nineteen cardinals featured in these pages will be elected to become the next Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, the spiritual leader of over a billion Catholics and the most influential and widely respected moral and religious figure in the world. Yet outside the Vatican walls, despite the considerable roles that some of these men play in the Church and in the world, few of them are known by the public — or even by their brother cardinals.

Hence this book, an engrossing and thoroughly documented instrument through which a future pope may be known in that sphere that matters most: his life and service, first as a priest, and then as a bishop. Written by the National Catholic Register's longtime Rome correspondent, Edward Pentin, in collaboration with an international team of qualified scholars, these encyclopaedic pages present you with the fruit of years of research.

Each cardinal profile begins with a brief biography that sketches the major points of his ecclesiastical life. Then comes a detailed, richly footnoted report and assessment of his three fundamental roles as a successor to the apostles: his sanctifying role as a priest, his governing role as a bishop, and his prophetic role as a teacher.  As an important bonus, these pages also carefully document many of the candidates' published views on moral and theological issues currently debated in the Church and in the public arena, as such views often reveal most efficiently the individual’s true character and deepest held beliefs.

Finally, each profile concludes with a summary, recapitulating the main points brought to light by the thorough research, giving readers and tomorrow's cardinal electors a fair and accurate picture of the man who may soon become The Next Pope. 

4. Captivated By The Master: A Theological Consideration of Christ- Fr. Brian Mullady O.P. (EWTN)

Fr. Brian Mullady brings enlightenment and consolation with this powerful summary of the Teachings of the Catholic Church about Christ. Masterfully addressing the gap in the knowledge of modern Christians about the traditional doctrine of Christ, Fr. Mullady confronts the efforts of modern theologians who suggest that Christ’s purpose on earth was merely to resist unjust social structures and advance wise moral teachings.

According to Fr. Mullady, such fundamental misunderstandings of Christ lead to a flawed interpretation of Scripture that wrongly minimizes miracles and reimagines uncomfortable sacrifices. To remedy such confusion, he documents how the nature of the union between God and man in Christ came to be defined over a five-hundred-year period by major Councils of the Church. Drawing on these gradual but consistent pronouncements, Fr. Mullady speaks with authority about the reasons Christ came to earth and shows how the nature that He assumed promoted His purpose, which was to redeem the human race.

With Fr. Mullady as your guide, you will learn:

Why Jesus had to become human

Why Jesus prays… even though He is God

Why Jesus did not come to earth as an angel

Why Adam’s sin spread as punishment to the entire human race

Why, although He was God, as a young boy Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature”

The meaning of “God from God, Light from Light” in the Nicene Creed

And much more to help you know and lover Jesus better!

5. Oremus: A Treasury of Latin Prayers (Ave Maria Press)

Oremus allows Catholics to experience anew—or for the first time—the beauty and rich spiritual heritage of the language used for almost two-thousand years in the scriptures, liturgy, and prayers of the Church. Traditional Latin prayers such as the Ave Maria, Sancte Michael, and Tantum Ergo are presented side-by-side with their literal English translations in this extraordinary collection.

Oremus is a collection of cherished prayers in Latin—the exact words prayed by many of the saints over the centuries—including:

The prayers of the Rosary—Pater Noster, Gloria Patri, and Salve Regina;

Prayers for Eucharistic Adoration—O Salutaris, Laudes Divinae, and Anima Christi;

Prayers for morning, evening, and night—Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis;

Favorite psalms and Gospel Sequences;

Prayers used by St. Louis de Montfort in his preparation for Total Consecration to Mary—Veni Creator and Ave Maris Stella; and

Prayers of and to saints—Te Deum and Suscipe.

Oremus includes an introduction, ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation guide, index, and accent markings throughout the text. It can be used as a prayer book for individuals, classrooms, families, and small groups. 

6. The Devil and Karl Marx- Paul Kengor (TAN Books)

Two decades after the publication of The Black Book of Communism, nearly everyone is, or at least should be, aware of the immense evil produced by that devilish ideology first hatched when Karl Marx penned his Communist Manifesto two centuries ago. Far too many people, however, separate Marx the man from the evils wrought by the oppressive ideology and theory that bears his name. That is a grave mistake. Not only did the horrific results of Marxism follow directly from Marx’s twisted ideas, but the man himself penned some downright devilish things. Well before Karl Marx was writing about the hell of communism, he was writing about hell.

“Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well,” he wrote in a poem in 1837, a decade before his Manifesto. “My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell.” That certainly seemed to be the perverse destiny for Marx’s ideology, which consigned to death over 100 million souls in the twentieth century alone. No other theory in all of history has led to the deaths of so many innocents. How could the Father of Lies not be involved?

At long last, here, in this book by Professor Paul Kengor, is a close, careful look at the diabolical side of Karl Marx, a side of a man whose fascination with the devil and his domain would echo into the twentieth century and continue to wreak havoc today. It is a tragic portrait of a man and an ideology, a chilling retrospective on an evil that should have never been let out of its pit.

 

7. Blessed Charles of Austria- Charles Coulombe (TAN Books)

October 3, 2004 saw what appeared to many to be a very strange thing: Emperor-King Charles of Austria-Hungary, last Habsburg to rule in Central Europe and wartime foe of the United States, was raised to the altars of the Church as a Blessed by St. John Paul II. But odd as this appeared, the real story of the “Peace Emperor” and his just as remarkable wife reads like a combination of a suspense thriller, Greek tragedy, and hagiography. The inheritor of a tradition of Catholic monarchy dating back to the Roman Empire, Bl. Charles struggled to update it sufficiently to survive in the modern world. A brave soldier coming to the throne during a war whose start he had no part in, he risked everything to bring the bloody conflict to an end. Betrayed on all sides by allies, enemies, and subjects, his deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart, and the Virgin Mary helped him to avoid hating those who wronged him. Devoted to his wife and children, Charles succeeded, with the help of his loving Empress, in leading a good Catholic family life despite everything. In a life filled with signs and miracles before and after his death, Bl. Charles managed to combine a life of deep piety with intense practicality. After his death, his wife and children continued his work—her cause for beatification is now being considered.

In these pages, prolific Catholic author Charles Coulombe brings to bear his vast erudition, affection for Catholic monarchy, and assorted contacts close to the Hapsburg family, through his residence in Austria in the production of a biography of a man whose thrilling and event-filled life story deserves to be better known.