The sacramental and prophetic traditions of Christian spirituality, suggests Matthew Eggemeier, possess critical resources for responding to the contemporary social crises of widespread ecological degradation and the innocent suffering of the crucified poor. In A Sacramental-Prophetic Vision, Eggemeier maintains that the vital key for cultivating these traditions in the present is to situate these spiritualities in the context of spiritual exercises or ascetical practices that enable Christians to live more deeply in the presence of God (coram Deo) and in turn to make this presence visible in a suffering world.

At a time of many distractions for church leaders, lay teachers and parish catechists are often left to fend for themselves. Working within the treasures of our tradition, this book hopes to offer some nourishment and inspiration both personally and professionally. Begin with the Heart introduces a radical dimension to the work of catechesis and religious education. It calls for a dynamic theology and vital spirituality in all aspects of our educational endeavours. The recovery of the notion of the 'sacramental vision' cannot fail to touch the creative imagination of today's teachers and catechists. It ensures that the Catholic tradition of education will make an even greater contribution to the common good in our profoundly pluralist society. It is only from the teachers' and catechists' own inner passion and conviction that the hearts of others will catch fire and be transformed. It is time now for a new effort to realise the dream, to work the vision more surely.

Table of Contetnts Editorial Essay Jason King Keynote Addresses from the second convening of "Laudato Si' and the US Catholic Church: A Conference Series on Our Common Home” co-sponsored by Catholic Climate Covenant and Creighton University. From “Not Enough”’ to Bold Embrace: US Catholic Responses to Laudato Si’ Blase Cardinal Cupich Responding to the Invitation: Fostering a Bolder Response to Laudato Si’ Maureen K. Day Lisa Sowle Cahill: Five Significant Contributions to Reimagining Christian Ethics Charles Curran Racial Habitus, Resurrection, and Moral Imagination Ebenezer Akesseh $ymbol and Sacrament: Fossil Fuel Divestment and Reinvestment as a Real Symbol of Love Erin Lothes Biviano Guns and Practical Reason: An Ethical Exploration of Guns and Language Mark Ryan Aquinas’s Unity Thesis and Grace: Ingredients for Developing a Good Appetite in a Contemporary Age Megan Heeder Revolution of Faith in Les Misérables: The Journey from Misery to Mercy in the Secular Age Jean-Pierre Fortin “All Creatures Moving Forward”: Reconsidering the Ethics of Xeno-transplantation in the Light of Laudato Si’ Skya Abbate Resurrecting Justice Daniel Philpott Book Reviews Daniel J. Daly, The Structures of Virtue and Vice Nichole M. Flores Donal Dorr, A Creed for Today: Faith and Commitment for Our New Earth Awareness Mari Rapela Heidt Gusztáv Kovács, Thought Experiments in Ethics Piotr Morciniec Michael P. Krom, Justice and Charity: An Introduction to Aquinas’s Moral, Economic, and Political Thought R. Jared Staudt Stuart Lasine, Jonah and the Human Condition: Life and Death in Yahweh’s World Karina Martin Hogan James McCarty, Matthew Tapie, and Justin Bronson Barringer, eds., The Business of War: Theological and Ethical Reflections on the Military Industrial Complex Vincent Birch R. Jared Staudt, Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture Jesse Russell Dietrich von Hildebrand, Morality and Situation Ethics and Graven Images: Substitutes for True Morality Kevin Schemenauer

What does postcoloniality have to do with sacramentality? How do diasporic lives and imaginaries shape the course of postcolonial sacramental theology? Neither postcolonial theorists nor sacramental theologians have hitherto sought to engage in a sustained dialogue with one another. In this trailblazing volume, Kristine Suna-Koro brings postcolonialism, diaspora discourse, and Christian sacramental theology into a mutually critical and constructive transdisciplinary conversation. Dialoguing with thinkers as diverse as Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak as well as Francis D'Sa, S.J., Martin Luther, Mayra Rivera, and John Chryssavgis, the author offers a postcolonial retrieval of sacramentality through a robust theological engagement with the postcolonial notions of hybridity, contrapuntality, planetarity, and Third Space. While exploring the methodological potential of diasporic imaginary in theology, this innovative book advances the notion of sacramental pluriverse and of Christ as its paradigmatic crescendo within the sacramental economy of creation and redemptive transformation. In the context of ecological degradation, In Counterpoint argues that it is vital for the postcolonial sacramental renewal to be rooted in ethics as a uniquely postcolonial fundamental theology.

A basic text to help provide structure, background, and perspective for a first year college course in theology or religious studies. It is ecumenical in approach, though not without some impact from the author’s being a Roman Catholic.

"[This] is a book of great richness, beauty and power and thus very difficult to do justice to in a brief review. . . . The violence is sometimes unbearable, the language rarely less than superb. Dillard's description of the moth's death makes Virginia Woolf's go dim and Edwardian. . . . Nature seen so clear and hard that the eyes tear. . . . A rare and precious book." — Frederick Buechner, New York Times Book Review A profound book about the natural world—both its beauty and its cruelty—from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard In 1975 Dillard took up residence on an island in Puget Sound, in a wooden room furnished with "one enormous window, one cat, one spider, and one person." For the next two years she asked herself questions about time, reality, sacrifice, death, and the will of God. In Holy the Firm, she writes about a moth consumed in a candle flame, about a seven-year-old girl burned in an airplane accident, about a baptism on a cold beach. But behind the moving curtain of what she calls "the hard things—rock mountain and salt sea," she sees, sometimes far off and sometimes as close by as a veil or air, the power play of holy fire. Here is a lyrical gift to any reader who has ever wondered how best to live with grace and wonder in the natural world.

Sacraments speak a language and disclose their power through symbols. Beyond ‘representing’ another reality, sacramental symbols are intimately connected with the reality they express and sources of joy, solace, confrontation, peace, healing, strength, and life-giving sustenance to the initiated.In its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Council the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) urged that sacramental symbols be more transparent to their sacred reality to disclose the reality of the Christ event —the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ—so that mystery, and not confusion, could flourish.The seven sacraments – Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Marriage, Orders and the Anointing of the Sick - reveal a link to social justice. The contributors to this book are theologians with pastoral sensitivities—including marrieds, parents, pastors and priests. This present work the social implications of worship, the history of each sacrament, and but also an integrated understanding of the transformation that is inextricably linked to each sacrament, as well as the active presence of Christ who lives in expectation of our response to participate in the urgent response to unjust policies and systems that affect the most vulnerable in our global family.

How should a follower of Christ engage the popular media culture? By becoming a mystic! Sr. Nancy challenges Christians today to delve deep into the rich theological tradition of the church as the root and foundation for recognizing the beauty of God present in all that is truly human. The artists of popular culture sometimes unwittingly seek transcendence while grappling with some of humanity's most profound existential longings. The cultural mystics of today point out those needs of humanity in the culture's artifacts in order to enter into dialogue with those who seek something beyond what this world satisfies. The anthropological-sacramental-incarnational paradigm presented gives us this ability to take a sacred look of the culture and offer the joy of the Gospel, Christ who is the answer of all humanity's yearnings!