Offers guidance and motivation for more effectively using councils in leadership positions as well as family situations.

This unique work - no other work yet available in English treats this subject - illustrates the contribution of these Councils in the development and formulation of Christian beliefs. It then shows how their legacies lingered throughout the centuries to inspire - or haunt - every generation.

Vatican I and Vatican II represent two of the three ecumenical councils in modern times, yet relatively few studies have sought to understand their relation to one another. In fact, the councils are often positioned as mutually exclusive so that one must choose either Vatican I’s or Vatican II’s presentations of church and ecclesial authority. Failing to understand the relationship between these councils inhibits the church’s self-understanding and risks misinterpreting key aspects of its own tradition; further, it limits the church’s ability to teach effectively on topics of concern to modern women and men, such as authority, freedom, and ecclesiology. Vatican I and Vatican II: Councils in the Living Tradition uses the questions of what, why,and how the councils taught to frame and demonstrate significant points of continuity, complementarity, and difference between them. It argues that only by seeing both Vatican I and Vatican II as communicating vital dimensions of the Christian faith can the church’s living tradition be fully appreciated and speak meaningfully to modern Christian women and men.?

Rena’s father has demanded that Rena marry Ford and leave home. She is at a loss for words. Her father, a Texan ranch owner, has never forgiven her for her mother’s death in childbirth. She’s always felt unloved. His land gripped by a drought, Ford, the owner of a neighboring ranch, has offered to buy a fertile piece of her father’s land. Her father agrees, but on one condition?Ford must marry Rena. To be a pawn in her father’s plans doesn’t sit right with her. She can’t even imagine marrying under such circumstances…but perhaps Ford can stoke her imagination!