St. Philip Neri is one of the best-loved saints of all time. Known as the ಘApostle of Rome', he set in motion a great renewal of Christianity at the heart of the Church's capital city during the 1500's. St. Philip's foundation of the Oratory began by stimulating young laymen to conversion, prayer, and apostolic works, and through them gradually brought about a reform of the entire Church, at all levels of society. St. Philip inspired many through his words, his miracles and his spiritual gifts, which show many similarities with other great saints such as Padre Pio and St. John Vianney. This account of Philip's life, written by his disciple Antonio Gallonio soon after the saint's death, captures well his holy zeal for God's work in the face of a corrupt and decadent Rome; his great sense of humor, which he would often use to remind people of hidden spiritual realities; and the many extraordinary miracles and conversions wrought by St. Philip both during his lifetime and after his death. This is the first ever English translation of the affectionate biography, published originally in Latin in the Jubilee Year 1600. Unusually for the time, it was written in chronological order; it also bears the original footnotes by Gallonio, in which he refers to eyewitnesses and makes comparisons with the lives of canonized saints, intending thereby to assist in the promotion of Philip's cause for elevation to the altars. Additional notes and a comprehensive index make this a most interesting and useful book for devotees of St. Philip, as well as a very readable introduction to the saint for those who do not yet know him.

On July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued his long awaited motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum. In this document he granted permission "to celebrate Mass following the typical edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Bl. John XXIII in 1962 as an extraordinary form of the Liturgy of the Church." Because of this motu proprio, there has been much interest in viewing the Paul VI missal as a continuation of the Bl. John XXIII missal. Understanding the earlier ritual expression is essential if we are to deeply understand the ordinary expression of the Mass of Paul VI. This book is a collection essays from the proceedings of the 11th International CIEL (International Centre for Liturgical Studies) Colloquium held at Merton College, Oxford, September of 2006. CIEL is an academic school of Liturgy founded in 1994 in Paris to form an academic school to instruct priests, seminarians, religious and the laity in the riches of Catholic liturgical history and development of the liturgy.

Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature explores the nature of religion and, in James' observation, its divorce from science when studied academically. After publication in 1902 it quickly became a canonical text of philosophy and psychology, remaining in print through the entire century. "Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."