Over 3 million copies sold! Essential reading for Catholics of all walks of life. Here it is - the first new Catechism of the Catholic Church in more than 400 years, a complete summary of what Catholics around the world commonly believe. The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. The word catechism means "instruction" - this book will serve as the standard for all future catechisms. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.

The popular blogger and publisher of Envoy magazine offers 10 key reasons why he loves being Catholic (and you should too). Drawing heavily on poignant anecdotes from his own experience as a life-long Catholic born in 1960s, Madrid offers readers a way of looking at the Church--its members, teachings, customs, and history--from perspectives many may have never considered. Growing up Catholic during a time of great social and theological upheaval and transition, a time in which countless Catholics abandoned their religion in search of something else, Patrick Madrid learned a great deal about why people leave Catholicism and why others stay. This experience helped him gain many insights into what it is about the Catholic Church that some people reject, as well as those things that others treasure. Drawing upon Madrid's personal experiences, Why Be Catholic? offers a deeply personal, fact-based, rationale for why everyone should be Catholic or at least consider the Catholic Church in a new light.

"How can you believe all this stuff? This is the number-one question Catholics get asked and, sometimes, we ask ourselves. Why do we believe that God exists, that he became a man and came to save us, that what looks like a wafer of bread is actually his body? Why do we believe that he inspired a holy book and founded an infallible Church to teach us the one true way to live? Ever since he became Catholic, Trent Horn has spent a lot of time answering these questions, trying to explain to friends, family, and total strangers the reasons for his Catholic faith. Some didn't believe in God, or even in the existence of truth. Others said they were spiritual but didn't think you needed religion to be happy. Some were Christians who thought Catholic doctrines over-complicated the pure gospel. And some were fellow Catholics who had a hard time understanding everything they professed to believe on Sunday. Why We're Catholic assembles the clearest, friendliest, most helpful answers that Trent learned to give to all these people and more. Beginning with how we can know reality and ending with our hope of eternal life, it s the perfect way to help skeptics and seekers (or Catholics who want to firm up their faith) understand the evidence that bolsters our belief and brings us joy" --

In 2005, Father Julián Carrón became the leader of the global ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation, following the death of the movement's founder, Father Luigi Giussani. Disarming Beauty is the English translation of an engaging and thought-provoking collection of essays by one of the principal Catholic leaders and intellectuals in the world today. Adapted from talks given by Fr. Carrón, these essays have been thoroughly reworked by the author to offer an organic presentation of a decade-long journey. They present the content of his elaboration of the gospel message in light of the tradition of Fr. Giussani, the teachings of the popes, and the urgent needs of contemporary people. Carrón offers a broad diagnosis of challenges in society and then introduces their implications in contexts such as families, schools, workplaces, and political communities. In a dialogue with his listeners, he inspires and encourages them to lay out a new path for the Catholic church and the world. Throughout his essays, Carrón addresses the most pressing questions facing theologians today and provides insights that will interest everyone, from the most devout to the firm nonbeliever. Grappling with the interaction of Christian faith and modern culture, Carrón treats in very real and concrete ways what is essential to maintaining and developing Christian faith, and he invites an ongoing conversation about the meaning of faith, truth, and freedom.

Thigpen lays out the biblical foundations of Catholic teaching on the close of age-- the "end times." Is Jesus coming to "rapture" Christians in the earth's last days? The short answer: No. Along with Scripture, Thigpen draws from Church history, tradition, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and contemporary experience to reveal the shortcoming of the rapture doctrine. -- adapted from back cover

Women Christian Mystics Speak to Our Times is an ambitious collection of essays by leading scholars that connects the modern world with the timeless wisdom of women such as Catherine of Siena, Hildegard of Bingen, Th-rFse of Lisieux, Mary of Bizye, Julian of Norwich, Teresa of Avila, Birgitta of Sweden, Hadewijch of Brabant, Agnes of Blarmbekin, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite de Porete, and Catherine of Genoa. While emphasizing the holy lives of these women, this book also reveals their lasting contributions to theology and spirituality. Bound by a common belief that women Christian mystics have much to teach us today, these accessible essays are geared toward classrooms and educated lay readers.

What in the world is postmodernity? Is it the dominant reality today? If it is, what does it mean to be a church in a postmodern world? It seems that the church had a difficult time coming to terms with a modern world, an era ruled by the claims of scientific certainty. Having done so, more or less, it is now confronted by the claims of postmodernity, which seem to reverse the whole equation, to say that certainty and objectivity are chimeras. What is truth?" Pilate asked, and postmodernity 'at least as caricatured by its opponents 'responds: "There's no such thing." Gerard Mannion, in Ecclesiology and Postmodernity, addresses the situation of the church in a postmodern world. The fundamental changes in human society and culture wrought by the twentieth century require the church to consider its response in the twenty-first century. What is the church's moral Vision, how does its practice look, what is the nature of its aspiration toward holiness in our times? Mannion believes that since Vatican II, the Catholic Church has been in a kind of limbo, awaiting a Vision of its own life for the future. Rather than focusing on specific controversies, Mannion offers concrete suggestions about how the church can create a better harmony between its own self-understanding, its ecclesiological Vision, and its day-to-day life, its ecclesial practice. Gerard Mannion, PhD, educated at King's College, Cambridge University and New College, Oxford University, is Associate Professor of Ecclesiology and Ethics in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Liverpool Hope University, UK. He is also the director of Church In Our Times: Centre for the Study of Contemporary Ecclesiology, co-director of the Applied Ethics Initiative at Liverpool Hope, co-chair of the AAR (American Academy of Religion) Ecclesiological Investigations Program Unit and co-ordinator of the Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network. Mannion is the author of Schopenhauer, Religion and Morality and co-editor of Readings in Church Authority 'Gifts and Challenges for Contemporary Catholicism, both published by Ashgate in 2003, and co-editor of the forthcoming volumes The Routledge Companion to the Christian Church andCatholic Social Justice: Theological and Practical Explorations. "

Defending Christianity in our time became unpopular, "private", shy and... poor. Catholic fundamental theology – officially responsible for defending faith on behalf of the Catholic Church – is aware of being in crisis: crisis of identity and content, and... popularity. It needs a new overall structure: a new point of departure and a new "spirit". It was offered by Joseph Ratzinger, Krzysztof Kaucha declares. Almost everything that has been recently used to undermine the Christian faith and Christianity is used by Ratzinger to... defend Christianity. Kaucha offers over a dozen arguments for Christianity based on Ratzinger's writings (and his original thinking): the Christian axiom as an argument for Christianity, Jesus Christ as the proof of the existence of God, Divine Revelation as an unending proof of God's existence, the alternative argument, the argument from definitive novelty, the argument from the absence of someone greater than Jesus, argument from truth, the anthropological argument, the argument from forgiveness, the argument "from reason", the argument from faith, Ratzinger's wager (in analogy to the famous Pascal's wager), the argument from the whole truth (many times very painful for Christians) about Christianity, the argument from the whole truth (many times very shameful for Catholics) about the Church, comparative argument no. 1 (Christianity versus other Religions), comparative argument no. 2 (Christianity versus the ever more secularized world).