The Background ... The Quietist Controversy ... Sermons and Panegyrics ... Paving the Way: Divisions and Subdivisions in Jacques Biroat ... Moving Forward: Commonplaces and Curiosities in Jean-François Senault, Bernard Planchette, Claude Texier, and Jean-Louis de Fromentières ... The Bernard of the Strict Observance: Armand Jean de Rancé ... Bernard Returns to Metz: Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet ... Touching, Moving, Converting: The Unction of François Fénelon ... Bernard in Battle: The Anti-Quietist Polemic of Charles de La Rue ... The Flames Die Down: The Revised Panegyric of Charles de La Rue ... Bernard the Mystic: Henri-Marie Boudon ... Panegyrical Plagiarism? Claude Lion, François Ogier, and Esprit Fléchier ... Last of the Fathers and Angel of the Lord: Antoine Anselme and Louis-Bénigne Bourru ... Bernard the Second Samuel: The Psychological Acuity of Jean-Baptiste Massillon ... Conclusion: The Saint in the Sun ... Appendix I: Technical Terms ... Appendix II: Personalities.

Between 1650 and 1750, four Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Built to fix an unquestionable date for Easter, they also housed instruments that threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system, and so, within sight of the altar, subverted Church doctrine about the order of the universe. A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, "The Sun in the Church" tells how these observatories came to be, how they worked, and what they accomplished. It describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. And it offers an enlightening perspective on astronomy, Church history, and religious architecture, as well as an analysis of measurements testing the limits of attainable accuracy, undertaken with rudimentary means and extraordinary zeal. Above all, the book illuminates the niches protected and financed by the Catholic Church in which science and mathematics thrived. Superbly written, "The Sun in the Church" provides a magnificent corrective to long-standing oversimplified accounts of the hostility between science and religion.

The beloved hymn of Saint Francis of Assisi, The Canticle of the Sun, is one of the greatest songs of Christendom. In it he praises the Creator for all the glories of creation, especially Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Inspired by Byzantine art, acclaimed artist Fiona French presents twelve mosaic tableaux that light up a sparkling translation of the canticle. The hymn is a beautiful poem, and a profound prayer, touching on the incredible beauty of God's creation, but also the profound meaning and importance of how we give praise to God when we forgive. These original mosaic illustrations by French are a dazzling celebration of God's gift of life and all creation. Her splendid art combined with the beauty of the the hymn of St. Francis present a book that will be deeply inspiring for all ages.Illustrated in full color with gold accents.

The narrative of the remarkable life of Junipero Serra, the intrepid priest who led Spain and the Catholic Church into California in the 1700s and became a key figure in the making of the American West. In the year 1749, at the age of thirty-six, Junipero Serra left his position as a highly regarded priest in Spain for the turbulent and dangerous New World, knowing he would never return. The Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church both sought expansion in Mexico--the former in search of gold, the latter seeking souls--as well as entry into the mysterious land to the north called "California." By his death at age seventy-one, Serra had traveled more than 14,000 miles on land and sea through the New World--much of that distance on a chronically infected and painful foot--baptized and confirmed 6,000 Indians, and founded nine of California's twenty-one missions, with his followers establishing the rest.

In Brother Sun, Sister Moon, award-winning author Katherine Paterson re-imagines a hymn of praise originally written by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1224. Illuminated with the exquisite illustrations of cut-paper artist Pamela Dalton, this picture book offers a stunningly beautiful tribute to nature.

An action-packed thriller by global sensation, Wilbur Smith. 'A master storyteller' - Sunday Times 'Wilbur Smith is one of those benchmarks against whom others are compared' - The Times 'No one does adventure quite like Smith' - Daily Mirror The highest prize comes at the highest price... Captain Bruce Curry has a simple enough mission: to lead his mercenary soldiers to rescue a town cut off by rebel fighting in the Belgian Congo. But events quickly take a turn for the worse as it becomes clear that the town's diamond supplies are the real focus of the mission. And where there is treasure, danger always seems to follow. It isn't long before Curry finds something even more valuable than diamonds in the town. Something he'll do anything to protect. And soon he discovers that his most deadly enemies might be those closest to him . . .

Chronicles the last half century's haphazard attempt to harness fusion energy, describing how governments and research teams throughout the world have employed measures ranging from the controversial to the humorous.