THE MAXIMUM TRUTH QUARTET combines four books of aphoristic philosophy under one heading, beginning with 'Maximum Truth' and progressing, via 'Truthful Maxims' and 'Informal Maxims', to 'Maximum Informality'. Thus this quartet of books begins with a 'maximum' and ends with one, all of which were written in 1993, and thus demonstrate a stylistic and thematic continuity.

THE OMEGA QUARTET, so-called because the contents are largely of an omega-oriented order of transcendentalism with ideological overtones, is comprised of four books of poetry written during the early 1980s, viz. 'Stressing the Essential', 'Spiritual Intimations', 'The Modern Death', and 'Trees', and provides an alternative approach to the ideological philosophy of Social Transcendentalism that has the virtue of bringing all of John O'Loughlin's poetic works of a philosophical nature together in one volume.

This quartet of aphoristic philosophy continues the author's quest for Social Transcendentalist perfection through texts as diverse as the aforementioned 'The Virtuous Circles', which opens the volume, 'The Struggle for Ultimate Freedom', 'Apotheosis of the Gnosis' and 'Eschatology or Scatology', the latter of which would suggest a choice between Heaven and, in effect, Hell, though Mr O'Loughlin has definite ideological alternatives in mind.

Besides the book entitled 'Apocalypso - The New Revelation', this project also includes 'At the Crossroads of Axial Divergence', 'Opti-mystic Projections' and 'Unflattering Conclusions', all of which do further justice to the ideological philosophy of Social Transcendentalism and its Social Theocratic antipathy to Social Democracy.

"We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds." --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar," 1837 From the start of transcendentalism and America's intellectual renaissance in the 1830s, to the Civil War and beyond, the story of four extraordinary friends whose lives shaped a nation "Beginning in the 1830s, coincidences that seem almost miraculous in retrospect brought together in Concord as friends and neighbors four men of very different temperaments and talents who shared the same conviction that the soul had 'inherent power to grasp the truth' and that the truth would make men free of old constraints on thought and behavior. In addition to Emerson, a philosopher, there was Amos Bronson Alcott, an educator; Henry David Thoreau, a naturalist and rebel; and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a novelist. This book is the story of that unique and influential friendship in action, of the lives the friends led, and their work that resulted in an enduring change in their nation's direction." --From the Prologue

Why would an all-loving God allow suffering? Are not suffering and love opposed to one another? Does suffering have any meaning or benefit? Is there any objective evidence for God, for a soul that will survive bodily death, for the resurrection of Jesus? Who is God anyway – benevolent and loving, or angry and retributive? Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., gives a comprehensive response to these questions and many others, explaining the contemporary evidence for God, the soul, and the resurrection. He discusses how God uses suffering to lead us to compassion for others and eternal life. He also shows how the Holy Spirit guides us through times of suffering toward our salvation, explaining the signs and the interior movements that reveal the Spirit's actions. Fr. Spitzer not only addresses the perplexing questions associated with suffering but teaches us how to suffer well. He points out some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to interpret God's motives for allowing or alleviating suffering. He demonstrates why suffering – in combination with love – is one of the most powerful motivating agents for personal, cultural, and societal development.