Epiphany: A Theological Introduction To Catholicism (full Book!)

[Myles Domini]

[url="http://www.christendom-awake.org/pages/anichols/epiphany/epiphany.htm"]Epiphany: a theological introduction to Catholicism[/url] :

[quote]Epiphany : a theological introduction to Catholicism

by Aidan Nichols O.P.


Preface

This book has been written in the conviction that the Catholic faith constitutes a unique source of illumination for the good, the true, and the beautiful - the three interconnected transcendentals of medieval Christian philosophy. That faith is destined to be, and humbly offered as, light for all peoples. The language of light is perhaps the most symbolically dense, the most metaphysically pregnant we possess for our account of reality. From the thirteenth-century bishop Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln with his ontology of light to the hero of Ruskin's Modern Painters, J. M. W Turner, with his evocations of light as the very expression of Being, no more persuasive symbol has come down to us. Fittingly, it was by this metaphor that Jesus Christ, the Origin of Catholic Christendom, was hailed by an elderly Jew when as a tiny babe his parents presented him in the Jerusalem Temple — for Jews the center of the world. Suitably also the Church has applied this symbol of "epiphany"- shining forth — to his first, pre-verbal contact with the Gentiles, as his mother held him out to the representatives of the non­Jewish nations.

I have subtitled this book "A Theological Introduction to Catholicism," for it would of course be unforgivable hubris to claim that one work could encapsulate all the illuminating richness Catholic Christianity can offer. I am, however, confident enough of its catholic quality in both senses of that word, since I have brought together here much that clearer thinkers, and better scholars, have thought and written.

[b]This is a traditional theology[/b], though not, I believe, an altogether unattractive one. [b]It is also a consciously non-liberal theology,[/b] but not, I think, an illiberal one, for its subject is the generosity of God in his revealing Word and sanctifying Spirit. I offer it to my fellow clergy in the hope that they may find it of use in the enriching of their ecclesial culture, and to all interested readers, but most especially to the laity It is not a neutral work, since [b]it aims to arouse a "Christian maximalism" and the boldness to seek in Catholicism's theological tradition inspiration for present and future.[/b] Si quid male dixi, totum relinquo correctioni Ecclesiae.

Blackfriars,
Cambridge,
Easter 1996

[/quote]

*all emboldened sections are my emphasis

PS) Fr Nichols is so great!

[N/A Gone]

what is with you giving me great reading sources during finals..

led thee not into temptation?

(*oh wait, I did buy an xbox 360 yesterday)

[Myles Domini]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1138545' date='Dec 9 2006, 07:32 AM']
what is with you giving me great reading sources during finals..

led thee not into temptation?

(*oh wait, I did buy an xbox 360 yesterday)
[/quote]

Well there's always afterwards...I think you'll get a lot out of Fr Nichols' writing. He touches upon a lot of things we've discussed e.g.

[quote]The very immanence of the divine ground within the world implied in the fact that Augustine could "interrogate" the creation about God, demands, in other words, its transcendence of the world. No part of the whole can be present to the whole as such. Only what transcends the whole can be present to it. Hence there is no true divine immanence in the universe unless God transcends the world.[/quote]--Nichols, A., Epiphany: A Theological Introduction to Catholicism chp 1

[EcceNovaFacioOmni]

Myles Domini,
Since you are from Oxford, I must ask, do you know Fr. Nichols? We read most of The Shape of Catholic Theology this year in my REL 103 class.

[Myles Domini]

[quote name='thedude' post='1138755' date='Dec 9 2006, 07:21 PM']
Myles Domini,
Since you are from Oxford, I must ask, do you know Fr. Nichols? We read most of The Shape of Catholic Theology this year in my REL 103 class.
[/quote]

Yes I do know Fr Nichols and I consider him a friend. I had him round to Keble for dinner last term and I keep in regular correspondance with him via emails. Fr Nichols is someone for whom I have the deepest respect for him as a man, a priest and a theologian. He's a genius and I pray that the Holy Father appoints him to the episcopate in due time...

[N/A Gone]

Who is a better writer...Fr. Nichols or Brother Nicky?

[rkwright]

Wow thanks Myles! I will read this over my christmas break for sure!

(Now to find somewhere I can print a 400 page doc!)

[phatcatholic]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1139543' date='Dec 11 2006, 02:37 AM']
Who is a better writer...Fr. Nichols or Brother Nicky?
[/quote]
definitely Fr. Nichols!!!

he's pretty much the greatest ever.

[N/A Gone]

never heard of him...

but he is british, and Myles is the only british guy I respect.

[Myles Domini]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1140141' date='Dec 12 2006, 04:18 AM']
never heard of him...

but he is british, and Myles is the only british guy I respect.
[/quote]

Harsh, what have we Britons ever done to you? : Dude you're robbing yourself since the Oxford Movement became the launching pad for the Journey Home UK over a century ago Britain has been a great place for Catholic thought. Newman, Manning, Chesterton, Belloc, Knox, Benson, Anscombe, Geach, Nichols, Saward the list goes on and on. Since Catholicism became legal in this country again in 1829 there has been a prolific stream of good authors fighting the Catholic corner. Ne'er mind those 16th century figures like Fisher, More, and Southwell.