Before Church and State: A Study of Social Order in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX explores the "problem of Church and State" in thirteenth century France by taking a detailed look at the lives of two men, Gui Foucois (Pope Clement IV) and Louis IX and the institutions they helped build. It argues that the "problem" of Church and State did not exist in the thirteenth century. The spiritual and temporal powers existed, to be sure, but these were not parallel structures attempting to govern the same social space in a contest over sovereignty. Rather, the spiritual and the temporal powers were wrapped up together in a differentiated and sacramental world, and both included the other as aspects of their very identity. "Government" happened through networks of consilium et auxilium that cut across lay/clerical lines. These networks necessarily included both spiritual and temporal powers. During the reign of Louis IX the king's network expanded to encompass the majority of the social space. This network had integral to it both the papal "fullness of power" and the royal "fullness of power" without any contradiction. The book reconstructs how such government actually happened and not simply the arguments that intellectuals had about how it ought to happen. This reconstruction is, furthermore, presented as a response to how modern historians and scholars of politics often suppose government to have happened. The book is, therefore, directly aimed at engaging and challenging the consensus of contemporary scholarship. What is more, it brings contemporary thought concerning the definition of "religion," "secular," and "politics" into the study of the Middle Ages, something that is long overdue. Up to this point, scholars interested in challenging modern conceptions of "religion" have, when treating the Middle Ages, had to rely largely on historical scholarship written from within the conventional paradigm. This book aims to provide these scholars with a methodologically and technically rigorous alternative. If the book's thesis is widely accepted, it will call for the reconsideration of the accepted narrative of medieval Church and State.

The prevailing narrative of human history, given to us as children and reinforced constantly through our culture, is the plot of progress. As the narrative goes, we progressed from tyranny to freedom, from superstition to science, from poverty to wealth, from darkness to enlightenment. This is modernity’s origin myth. Out of it, a consensus has emerged: part of human progress is the overcoming of religion, in particular Christianity, and that the world itself is fundamentally secular. In The Two Cities: A History of Christian Politics, Andrew Willard Jones rewrites the political history of the West with a new plot, a plot in which Christianity is true, in which human history is Church history. The Two Cities moves through the rise and fall of empires; cycles of corruption and reform; the rise and fall of Christendom; the emergence of new political forms, such as the modern state, and new political ideologies, such as liberalism and socialism; through the horrible destruction of modern warfare; and on to the plight of contemporary Christians. These movements of history are all considered in light of their orientation toward or away from God. The Two Cities advances a theory of Christian politics that is both an explanation of secular politics and a proposal for Christians seeking to navigate today’s most urgent political questions.

Integralism is the application to the temporal, political order of the full implications of the revelation of man’s supernatural end in Christ and of the divinely established means by which it is to be attained. These implications are identified by means of the philosophia perennis exemplified in the fundamental principles of St Thomas Aquinas. Since the first principle in moral philosophy is the last end, and man’s last end cannot be known except by revelation, it is only by accepting the role of handmaid of theology that political philosophy can be adequately constituted. Integralism: A Manual of Political Philosophy is a handbook for those who seek to understand the consequences of this integration of faith and reason for political, economic and individual civic life. It will also serve as a scholastic introduction to political philosophy for those new to the subject. Each chapter finishes with a list of the principal theses proposed. About the Authors Fr Thomas Crean is a friar of the English Province of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). He has published with Ignatius Press and Gracewing, and is a Fellow of the Dialogos Institute. He has taught philosophy and theology in Austria, the United States and Northern Ireland. Alan Paul Fimister is Assistant Professor of Theology at Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado, USA and a Fellow of the Dialogos institute. He is the author of Robert Schuman: Neo-Scholastic Humanism and the Reunification of Europe (2008)

In Ministers of the Law Jean Porter articulates a theory of legal authority derived from the natural law tradition. As she points out, the legal authority of most traditions rests on their own internal structures, independent of extralegal considerations -- legal houses built on sand, as it were. Natural law tradition, on the other hand, offers a basis for legal authority that goes beyond mere arbitrary commands or social conventions, offering some extralegal authority without compromising the independence and integrity of the law. Yet Porter does more in this volume than simply discuss historical and theoretical realms of natural law. She carries the theory into application to contemporary legal issues, bringing objective normative structures to contemporary Western societies suspicious of such concepts.

In On Divine Revelation—one of Garrigou-Lagrange’s most significant works, here available in English for the very first time—he offers a classic treatment of this foundational topic. It is an organized and thorough defense of both the rationality and supernaturality of divine revelation. He presents a careful yet stimulating account of the scientific character of theology, the nature of revelation itself, mystery, dogma, the grace of faith, the powers of human reason, false interpretations thereof (rationalism, naturalism, agnosticism, and pantheism), the motives of credibility, and much more. Though written a century ago, On Divine Revelation will restore confidence in theology as a distinct and unified science and return focus to the fundamental questions of the doctrine of revelation. It also serves as a salutary corrective to contemporary theology’s anthropocentrism and concern with what is relative in revelation and religious experience by reorienting our theological attention to what is most certain, central, and sure in our knowledge of divine revelation: the Triune God who has revealed his inner life and salvific will. Readers will see the great splendor of the gift of divine revelation: radiant with credibility before the gaze of reason and drawing our supernatural assent to the mysteries through the gift of faith. As Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P. observes, “On Divine Revelation . . . is a stunning work of inestimable value. No other subsequent work on this topic has come close to meeting it (much less surpassing it).”

Modern historical biblical criticism, while having many strengths, often operates under the pretensions of objectivity, as if such scholarship were neutral and disinterested. Examining the history and roots of modern biblical scholarship shows that such objectivity is elusive, and was never intended by the method's earliest practitioners. Building upon his earlier work in Three Skeptics and the Bible and Theology, Politics, and Exegesis, Morrow continues this historical investigation into the political and philosophical roots of modern biblical criticism in Pretensions of Objectivity, in the hope of developing a criticism of biblical criticism and of making space for theological exegesis. ""One would think that in a postmodern environment, scholars would have learned to be suspicious about any claims to intellectual neutrality and objectivity, but there remains a large pocket of unreformed 'modernism' within the discipline of biblical studies. Morrow helps unmask the covert agendas of this intellectual tradition."" --John Bergsma, Professor of Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville Jeffrey L. Morrow is Associate Professor at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University. He is the author of Three Skeptics and the Bible (2016) and Theology, Politics, and Exegesis (2017).

For far too long the Bible has been studied as just one among many historical and cultural documents from ancient history. That it is a foundational text for Western civilization is clear. What is too often forgotten or ignored in academic discussions, however, is that the Bible has also inspired the lives of countless saints throughout history; men and women who sought to love God and love neighbor to the point of offering heroic sacrifices, sometimes giving up their very lives. Much of biblical scholarship over the past two centuries, however, has reduced the Bible to a dead historical document with little-to-no relevance for today, beyond intellectual curiosity. This, in part, lies at the root of the tragic separation of theology from biblical studies. That theology and biblical exegesis are at an impasse has become a commonplace in academic discourse. Liturgy and Sacrament, Mystagogy and Martyrdom is an attempt to bridge the gap between theology and exegesis. It seeks to develop a theological interpretation of Scripture relying upon the best of traditional Christian exegesis and modern biblical scholarship, so that the Bible can serve, once again, as the wellspring of Christian life.

An analysis of the operation and consequences of exchange rate regimes in an era of increasing international interdependence. The exchange rate is sometimes called the most important price in a highly globalized world. A country's choice of its exchange rate regime, between government-managed fixed rates and market-determined floating rates has significant implications for monetary policy, trade, and macroeconomic outcomes, and is the subject of both academic and policy debate. In this book, two leading economists examine the operation and consequences of exchange rate regimes in an era of increasing international interdependence. Michael Klein and Jay Shambaugh focus on the evolution of exchange rate regimes in the modern era, the period since 1973, which followed the Bretton Woods era of 1945-72 and the pre-World War I gold standard era. Klein and Shambaugh offer a comprehensive, integrated treatment of the characteristics of exchange rate regimes and their effects. The book draws on and synthesizes data from the recent wave of empirical research on this topic, and includes new findings that challenge preconceived notions.