Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church Books

Book SynopsisErnest Hemingway belongs to the triumvirate of the three greatest writers from America'sgolden age of literature, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner, but little is known about his religious faith. Celebrated for The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea and many other award-winning literary works, he is also remembered for his machismo and spirit of adventure: a big game hunter, deep sea fisher, boxer, avid swimmer and skier, outdoorsman, and bull fighting aficionado with a bevy of friendsmany of whom were well-known celebrities that he enjoyed drinking and socializing with.In addition, and perhaps surprisingly, Hemingway was deeply though quietly religious. In his writing, Hemingway consistently drew on his spirituality, the wellspring of which, besides his strong Christian upbringing, was his Catholic faith to which he converted during World War I at age 18. Previous biographers have either ignored this story or told it incompletely or inaccurately. This book seeks to fill the void and paint a portrait that reveals the real Hemingway, and the deep motivations and inspirations that left an indelible imprint on his life, his relationships, and his writing.

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Book SynopsisIn an opinion piece on the 2023 political standoff on raising the debt ceiling New York Times pundit David Leonhardt observed that this sort of story was particularly difficult for journalists to cover because it was neither what he called a 100 percent nor a 50 percent story. He went on to explain that a 100 percent story was one in which the facts of the underlying reality were clear, for example, that Joseph Biden had indeed won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and that global warming was certainly taking place. A 50 percent story by contrast involved a reality in which issues were so genuinely open to sharply divergent analyses that the only way to be fair in handling these would be to cover in as an even-handed manner as possible all of the various reasonable views. In this category he put tax rates, abortion, border security and religion in schools, adding that such disputes are more about values and priorities than underlying reality. Yet there were other stories, he said, that do not fit in either category, since these often involve disputed facts and contested evidence that can be marshalled to one side or the other of the argument. He called this last group the 90 percent stories. It is in this last category that the most protracted and difficult debates tend to occur since each position can make claims that are much more grounded in truth although neither side has a monopoly on it. Leonhardt's taxonomy of journalistic categories can be applied with just a bit of tweaking to moral theology, and it reflects what I'm trying to do in this book. Certainly some issues, hotly debated for centuries, are now seemingly settled. For instance, while today some individuals, including a very limited number of professional moral theologians, may still contest the ethical legitimacy of medical termination of an ectopic pregnancy, using Leonhardt's categories we could term this a 100 percent case. As we see, though, in other areas of our shared life these principles are not always supported across the political, social or religious spectrum. For example, a 100 percent case in official Catholic magisterial teaching that still has a ways to go before it reaches strong consensus in the pews would be the continued use of the death penalty. At the other end of the spectrum we still have many debates in the Catholic moral tradition that could be located in Leonhardt's 50 percent stories. Even though there are some magisterial statements in some of these cases, moralists themselves remained divided over what are the morally relevant features and ethical principles that should be considered. Certainly one contemporary debate that would qualify as a 50 percent issue would be the concrete ethical, ecclesial, social and pastoral responses to make towards individuals or groups of people who suffer from gender dysphoria. Chapter 4, Gender Debates in a Principled Prudence Perspective, will outline these sorts of approaches to an important, yet still very contested, issue.The majority of the chapters in this book would fall into the 90 percent category. Here we can find a good deal of consensus in theory, but significant disagreements in discernment and application of the elements of those theories. Perhaps the area in which these 90 percent debates surface most significantly revolve around our electoral process and Chapter 5, on Exercising Faithful Citizenship in a Principled Prudence Perspective, will unpack both the theory and the conscience-based decisions an informed and responsible electorate must make.While politics has often been described as the art of compromise, we seem to be very short on such artists in the current climate. The concluding Chapter 7: A Principled Prudence Perspective in Working for the Common Good in a Divided World will attempt a survey of the landscape and then suggest a possible path forward drawing on the central moral concept of the common good.

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Book Synopsis The education provided by Canada’s faith-based schools is a subject of public, political, and scholarly controversy. As the population becomes more religiously diverse, the continued establishment and support of faith-based schools has reignited debates about whether they should be funded publicly and to what extent they threaten social cohesion. These discussions tend to occur without considering a fundamental question: How do faith-based schools envision and enact their educational missions? Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent offers responses to that question by examining a selection of Canada’s Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic schools. The daily reality of these schools is illuminated through essays that address the aims and practices that characterize these schools, how they prepare their students to become citizens of a multicultural Canada, and how they respond to dissent in the classroom. The essays in this book reveal that Canada’s faith-based schools sometimes succeed and sometimes struggle in bridging the demands of the faith and the need to create participating citizens of a multicultural society. Discussion surrounding faith-based schools in Canada would be enriched by a better understanding of the aims and practices of these schools, and this book provides a gateway to the subject. Trade Review``The editors' choice to concentrate on only Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic schools ... achieves the stated goal of allowing the reader to reflect on different perspectives surrounding debates over religious schools. The focus on three religions also serves the discussion regarding three important aspects of the debate. In the first part, it affords the reader the opportunity to become more familiar with the approach to education particular to each of the studies religions. In the second, we consider the integration of Canadian multicultural values into religious teachings, while in the third we are exposed to the openness of religious schools to internal pluralism. In this fashion, the readers comes to appreciate different facets of the daily functioning of such schools, grasping a more holistic portrait of their reality.... In sum, since religious schooling in Canada is a subject that has been scarcely treated in academic literature, even though it regularly occupies the public attention, a sort of demystification of religious schools emerges in this book. This reveals that even while respecting a religious faith and structure, such institutions can encourage students to be a part of a tolerant and open society. These contradictions in experiences within religious schools are well-discussed in the book's conclusion, ââ¬ËDiversity and Deliberation in Faith-Based Schoolsââ¬â¢ (Mintz), a chapter that, without trying to eliminate the controversy, shows how such schools have a place in the quest for Canadian identity.'' -- Sivane Hirsch, Universitè de Montrèal -- Canadian Jewish Studies/Ãâ°tudes juivres canadiennes, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2012``Religious education is a particularly contentious topic in an increasingly secular society. And yet there is surprisingly little scholarly literature on this topic. The editors seek to address this gap through this excellent and much needed contribution to the field.... Given this ongoing controversy in Canada, Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent can ideally help foster a healthier and more informed debate about the role of religious schools there.'' -- Aruba Mahmud, Western University, London, ON -- American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Volume 31, number 3, Summer 2014Table of Contents Discipline, Devotion, and Dissent: Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic Schooling in Canada, edited by Graham P. McDonough, Nadeem A. Memon, and Avi I. Mintz Introduction Graham P. McDonough, Nadeem A. Memon, and Avi I. Mintz Part A: Aims and Practices 1. The Jewish Day Schools of Canada Seymour Epstein 2. The Distinctiveness of Catholic Education Mario O. D'Souza, csb 3. Between Immigrating and Integrating: The Challenge of Defining an Islamic Pedagogy in Canadian Islamic Schools Nadeem A. Memon Part B: Faith and Citizenship 4. Jewish Education, Democracy, and Pluralistic Engagement Greg Beiles 5. Canadian Catholic Schools: Sacred and Secular Tensions in a Free and Democratic Society J. Kent Donlevy 6. London Islamic School: Millstone or Milestone? Asma Ahmed Part C: Dissent and Critical Thinking 7. The Changed Context for Jewish Day-School Education Alex Pomson and Randal F. Schnoor 8. Teaching Subject Matter That is Controversial among Catholics: Implications for Intellectual Growth in the Church Graham P. McDonough 9. A Canadian Islamic School in Perspective: A Critique of the “Moderate” and “Strong” Categories in Faith-Based Schooling Qaiser Ahmad Conclusion 10. Diversity and Deliberation in Faith-Based Schools: Implications for Educating Canadian Citizens Avi I. Mintz Glossary The Contributors Index

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