This document's purpose is to spell out the Church's understanding of the nature of revelation--the process whereby God communicates with human beings. It touches upon questions about Scripture, tradition, and the teaching authority of the Church. The major concern of the document is to proclaim a Catholic understanding of the Bible as the "word of God." Key elements include: Trinitarian structure, roles of apostles and bishops, and biblical reading in a historical context.

An Anthology of Advent readings, collected from the works of 22 classic and contemporary theologians with a high view of Scripture, it will help in preparing your heart to honor the sacredness of each Christmas season.

“AND SAMPSON SAID TO THE YOUNG MAN WHO HELD HIM BY THE HAND, ‘LET ME FEEL THE PILLARS ON WHICH THE HOUSE RESTS, THAT I MAY LEAN AGAINST THEM’” (Judges 16:26, ESV) Mark Finely has rightly said that there are “seven basic teachings” on which God has built His church. “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars.” These seven pillars are essential, and “the non-negotiables:” Scripture (John 17:17) Salvation (John 3:16) Second Coming (John 14:1-3) Sabbath (John 14:15) State of the Dead (John 11:11-26) Sanctuary (John 17:4, 11, 24) Holy Spirit and Spirit of Prophecy (John 14:15-17) (Prov. 9:1; Mark Finely, Solid Ground, p. 374) “The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” is built on these seven pillars, 1 Tim. 3:15. Because of this, Dr. Norman identifies the church as an eight pillar. This eight pillar rests on the other seven “non-negotiables.” These “non-negotiables” are in turn rooted and grounded in Christ, and they define who we are as a biblical community of faith. Tragically though, great uncertainty concerning the pillars abound. The “non-negotiables” are under assault. And this assault will intensify as a mighty sifting sieve. “Those who seek to remove the old landmarks . . . bring in theories that would remove the pillars of our faith concerning the sanctuary . . . [they are] working as blind men . . . [they are] seeking to bring in uncertainties and to set the people of God adrift without an anchor,” (E. G. White, Manuscript Release No. 760. P. 9, 1905). If there ever was a time, we needed the resolve of Sampson, it is now! The author hopes that this book will inspire this resolve—a resolve that will lead us back to the pillars; back to the “non-negotiables.” Like Sampson, may we feel the pillars once again, and lean on “the non-negotiables” centered in Christ.

For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise. Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life. Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham explores the seven last sayings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, combining rich historical and theological insights to reflect on the true heart of the Christian story. For Jon Meacham, as for believers worldwide, the events of Good Friday and Easter reveal essential truths about Christianity. A former vestryman of Trinity Church Wall Street and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Meacham delves into that intersection of faith and history in this meditation on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross. Beginning with “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” and ending with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Meacham captures for the reader how these words epitomize Jesus’s message of love, not hate; grace, not rage; and, rather than vengeance, extraordinary mercy. For each saying, Meacham composes an essay on the origins of Christianity and how Jesus’s final words created a foundation for oral and written traditions that upended the very order of the world. Writing in a tone more intimate than any of his previous works, Jon Meacham returns us to the moment that transformed Jesus from a historical figure into the proclaimed Son of God, worshiped by billions.

“[A] landmark book . . . Solnit illustrates how the uprisings that begin on the streets can upend the status quo and topple authoritarian regimes” (Vice). A book as powerful and influential as Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, her Hope in the Dark was written to counter the despair of activists at a moment when they were focused on their losses and had turned their back to the victories behind them—and the unimaginable changes soon to come. In it, she makes a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable. Drawing on her decades of activism and a wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history, Solnit argues that radicals have a long, neglected history of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our acts are not always immediately seen, directly knowable, or even measurable, and that pessimism and despair rest on an unwarranted confidence about what is going to happen next. Now, with a moving new introduction explaining how the book came about and a new afterword that helps teach us how to hope and act in our unnerving world, she brings a new illumination to the darkness of our times in an unforgettable new edition of this classic book. “One of the best books of the 21st century.” —The Guardian “No writer has better understood the mix of fear and possibility, peril and exuberance that’s marked this new millennium.” —Bill McKibben, New York Times–bestselling author of Falter “An elegant reminder that activist victories are easily forgotten, and that they often come in extremely unexpected, roundabout ways.” —The New Yorker