Origen’s On First Principles is a foundational work in the development of Christian thought and doctrine: it is the first attempt in history at a systematic Christian theology. For over a decade it has been out of print with only expensive used copies available; now it is available at an affordable price and in a more accessible format. On First Principles is the most important surviving text written by third-century Church father, Origen. Origen wrote in a time when fundamental doctrines had not yet been fully articulated by the Church, and contributed to the very formation of Christianity. Readers see Origen grappling with the mysteries of salvation and brainstorming how they can be understood. This edition presents G. W. Butterworth’s trusted translation in a new, more readable format, retains the introduction by Henri de Lubac, and includes a new foreword by John C. Cavadini. As St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor of the Church, wrote: “Origen is the stone on which all of us were sharpened.”

Seeking what he describes as "the utmost limit of the knowledge our natural reason can achieve . . . concerning the True Existence [that is God]," John Duns Scotus (1265–1308) offers in this treatise one of philosophy’s most rigorous and ambitious attempts to deduce God’s existence from purely metaphysical theorems. As elucidated by its concise philosophical commentary, Thomas M. Ward's new translation of the Treatise on the First Principle puts a masterpiece of natural theology within reach of a new generation of English-reading students of philosophy.

This is a new release of the original 1949 edition.

The existence of God raises many questions. Geis' work addresses queries that arise from the gratuitous claims of empiricism in Hume, unfounded assumptions in Kant, presumptions of science, and the improbabilities it identifies in Darwinism. By focusing on number and proportion as intrinsic to material and atomic constituency, any argument from chance as instrumental to the cosmos' emergence and sustainability becomes invalidated. The arguments from contingency and the nature of intellection provide more clarity than the ratio Anselmi for acknowledging a transcendent causality, taking the reader to the problem of evil and present-day nihilism. These concepts present great, but not insuperable, difficulty for theism. Geis argues that evil, when one uses it as a means to the betterment of oneself and the world, takes on the rTle commensurate with the doctrine of an omnibenevolent deity. Accordingly, one can use evil as a means to a greater understanding of God, Providence, and eternal destiny.

This monograph, The Knowledge of the First Principles in St. Thomas Aquinas, has a well-articulated vision of the issue addressed, both from the metaphysical and epistemological perspectives. It surveys the nature, roles, and habits of basic principles from the Thomistic view. It is a study directed towards a wise understanding of basic reality.

The eighth book of Aristotle's Physics is the culmination of his theory of nature. He discusses not just physics, but the origins of the universe and the metaphysical foundations of cosmology and physical science. He moves from the discussion of motion in the cosmos to the identification of a single source and regulating principle of all motion, and so argues for the existence of a first 'unmoved mover'. Daniel Graham offers a clear, accurate new translation of this key text in the history of Western thought, and accompanies the translation with a careful philosophical commentary to guide the reader towards an understanding of the wealth of important and influential arguments and ideas that Aristotle puts forward.