Throughout his academic career Robert Crouse has insisted that the patristic and medieval philosophical and theological traditions, which have so profoundly shaped western culture, cannot be understood apart from the subtle and complex dialogue between Christianity and Hellenic culture out of which these traditions emerged. In this volume in Father Crouse’s honour, twenty-two eminent scholars from across North America and Europe examine various moments within the emergence of the doctrine of creation in the patristic and medieval periods, the Hebraic and Hellenic pre-history of this movement, as well as modern reactions to the partristic and medieval syntheses. Student and specialist alike will appreciate not only the depth of scholarly research clearly evident in the individual essays, but also the broad scope of the volume as a whole. Contributors include: Stephen Andrews, Stephen F. Brown, Mary T. Clark, RSCJ, Kevin Corrigan, Lawrence Dewan, Robert Dodaro, OSA, Wayne J. Hankey, Walter A. Hannam, Michael Harrington, Paige E. Hochschild, Dennis House, Edouard Jeauneau, Angus Johnston, Torrance Kirby, Terence J. Kleven, Marguerite Kussmaul, Matthew L. Lamb, D. Gregory MacIsaac, Ralph McInerny, Luca Obertello, Willemien Otten, Neil G. Robertson, Horst Seidl, and Michael Treschow.

This volume contains essays by twenty-two eminent scholars from across North America and Europe, examining various aspects of the Hebraic, Hellenic, patristic, medieval, and early modern understandings of God and creation.

The study features the five most important and most efficacious themes of Western spirituality in their ancient historical origins and in their unfolding up to early modernity: Divine names, Microkosmos-Makrokosmos, theories of creation, the idea of spiritual spaces, and the concepts of eschatological history.

Taking in hand the current "discovery" that we can listen to the cosmos, Andrew Hicks argues that sound-and the harmonious coordination of sounds, sources, and listeners-has always been an integral part of the history of studying the cosmos. In Composing the World, Hicks presents a narrative tour through medieval Platonic cosmology with reflections on important philosophical movements along the way. The book will resonate with a variety of readers, and it encourages us to rethink the role of music and sound within our greater understanding of the universe.

This Handbook contains forty essays by an international team of experts on the antecedents, the content, and the reception of the Dionysian corpus, a body of writings falsely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, a convert of St Paul, but actually written about 500 AD. The first section contains discussions of the genesis of the corpus, its Christian antecedents, and its Neoplatonic influences. In the second section, studies on the Syriac reception, the relation of the Syriac to the original Greek, and the editing of the Greek by John of Scythopolis are followed by contributions on the use of the corpus in such Byzantine authors as Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, Niketas Stethatos, Gregory Palamas, and Gemistus Pletho. In the third section attention turns to the Western tradition, represented first by the translators John Scotus Eriugena, John Sarracenus, and Robert Grosseteste and then by such readers as the Victorines, the early Franciscans, Albert the Great, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Dante, the English mystics, Nicholas of Cusa, and Marsilio Ficino. The contributors to the final section survey the effect on Western readers of Lorenzo Valla's proof of the inauthenticity of the corpus and the subsequent exposure of its dependence on Proclus by Koch and Stiglmayr. The authors studied in this section include Erasmus, Luther and his followers, Vladimir Lossky, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Jacques Derrida, as well as modern thinkers of the Greek Church. Essays on Dionysius as a mystic and a political theologian conclude the volume.

With the recent publication of Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si', many people of faith have found themselves challenged to seek new ways of responding to serious ecological questions essential to the flourishing of all creatures. On Earth as It Is in Heaven brings together fifteen top scholars to consider pressing contemporary environmental concerns through the lens of Catholic theology.Drawing from ancient Christian sources, the contributors delve into such diverse topics as equitable food distribution, responsible procreation, land stewardship, evolutionary theodicy, and poverty and providence. A concluding essay addresses the liturgy as the space in which all creation is consecrated before the cross of Christ. Allowing the earliest Church Fathers and voices from the Christian tradition to speak to our unique circumstances today, this engaging volume shows that ancient, creedal Christianity contains important insights into caring for God's creation.

An introduction to the philosophical and religious thought of Proclus the Neoplatonist, one of the most complex thinkers of antiquity.