Books by "J. Brian Benestad"
5 books found
The first fruits of the literary career of St Augustine, the great theologian and Christian philosopher par excellence, are the dialogues he wrote at Cassiciacum in Italy following his famous conversion in Milan in AD 386. These four little books, largely neglected by scholars, take up the ancient philosophical project of identifying the principles and practices that heal human desires in order to attain happiness, renewing this philosophical endeavour with insights from Christian theology. Augustine's later books, such as the Confessions, would continue this project of healing desire, as would the writings of others including Boethius, Anselm, and Aquinas. Mark J. Boone's The Conversion and Therapy of Desire investigates the roots of thisproject at Cassiciacum, where Augustine is developing a Christian theology of desire, informed by Neoplatonism but transformed by Christian teaching and practices.
Minister Wogaman updates his comprehensive discussions on the meaning and importance of politics; the history of Christian political thought; and church/state relations, the legislation of social morality, and criminal justice issues.
This book uses the concept of universal human rights to explore the relationship between the individual, society, and truth. To answer the question of how we say something universally true about human beings while lacking the philosophical means to do so, the author explores the changing relationship between truth and politics from Plato to Locke.
This is one of the ten volumes on the Declaration. The first four volumes of this series contain each 365 essays. These last six contain about 36 essays each.
As a religious bloc, Roman Catholics constitute the most populous religious denomination in the United States, comprising one in four Americans. With the election of John F. Kennedy as president in 1960, they attained a political prominence to match their rapidly ascending socioeconomic and cultural profile. From Vietnam to Iraq, the civil rights movement to federal funding for faith-based initiatives, and from birth control to abortion, American Catholics have won at least as often as they have lost. What They Wished For by Lawrence J. McAndrews traces the role of American Catholics in presidential policies and politics from 1960 until 2004. Though divided by race, class, gender, and party, Catholics have influenced issues of war and peace, social justice, and life and death among modern presidents in a profound way, starting with the election of President Kennedy and expanding their influence through the intervening years with subsequent presidents. McAndrews shows that American Catholics, led by their bishops and in some cases their pope, have been remarkably successful in shaping the political dialogue and at helping to effect policy outcomes inside and outside of Washington. Indeed, although they opened this era by helping to elect one of their own, Catholic voters have gained so much influence and have become so secure in their socioeconomic status—and so confident in their political standing—that they closed the era by rejecting one of their own, voting for George W. Bush over John Kerry in 2004.