What happens when “the rubber meets the road” for Catholic evangelization? Motown evangelization—an evangelization with wheels, an evangelization on the go, an evangelization with soul! Featuring contributions by several of the leading scholars on Catholic evangelization in the twenty-first century, Motown Evangelization: Sharing the Gospel of Jesus in a Detroit Style invites the reader to contemplate the meaning of the New Evangelization within the disorienting context of the postmodern and post-pandemic world of today. Numerous central themes are treated throughout the book’s potent chapters: the charity of Christ, the urgency of evangelization, redemptive suffering, liturgical sacrifice, the Black Catholic experience, parish life, the communion of saints, contemplative prayer, and practical suggestions for sharing the gospel of Jesus with friends and strangers alike. Tracing the contours of evangelization as at once merciful, urgent, sacrificial, diverse, and sanctifying, this book opens to the world with hope and healing. While oftentimes evangelization can stagnate in wishful thinking with little follow-through, Motown Evangelization encourages the reader to press on toward the finish line of faith wherein the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end. It is because of the paradoxical twists that flood the life and teachings of Jesus that evangelization is ever old and ever new. Motown Evangelization will help to empower its reader to share the gospel of Jesus with renewed vigor and vitality.

What happens when “the rubber meets the road” for Catholic evangelization? Motown evangelization—an evangelization with wheels, an evangelization on the go, an evangelization with soul! Featuring contributions by several of the leading scholars on Catholic evangelization in the twenty-first century, Motown Evangelization: Sharing the Gospel of Jesus in a Detroit Style invites the reader to contemplate the meaning of the New Evangelization within the disorienting context of the postmodern and post-pandemic world of today. Numerous central themes are treated throughout the book’s potent chapters: the charity of Christ, the urgency of evangelization, redemptive suffering, liturgical sacrifice, the Black Catholic experience, parish life, the communion of saints, contemplative prayer, and practical suggestions for sharing the gospel of Jesus with friends and strangers alike. Tracing the contours of evangelization as at once merciful, urgent, sacrificial, diverse, and sanctifying, this book opens to the world with hope and healing. While oftentimes evangelization can stagnate in wishful thinking with little follow-through, Motown Evangelization encourages the reader to press on toward the finish line of faith wherein the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end. It is because of the paradoxical twists that flood the life and teachings of Jesus that evangelization is ever old and ever new. Motown Evangelization will help to empower its reader to share the gospel of Jesus with renewed vigor and vitality.

What does Carmelite spirituality have to teach us about living at peace in the frenetic world of ours today? Everything. Guiding the reader through a mystical maze of themes, Shoeless: Carmelite Spirituality in a Disquieted World displays the heart of the Carmelite charism and apostolate as set forth by the religious reform of Saint Teresa of Avila in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The reader will be introduced to the history of the Carmelite Order and its unique features, including its eremitic and monastic roots, attentiveness to the human soul, the virtue of humility, the spousal meaning of the body, the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the art of silent contemplative prayer. In addition, Shoeless features the testimonies of its authors and their mutual vocation to the sacrament of marriage and the Carmelite way of life. Readers will become acquainted intimately with the meaning of Mount Carmel and the peculiarity of its zealous form of missionary contemplation. A preview is given of the spiritual itinerary toward the summit of this secret height that includes reference to the interior castle and the dark night of the soul.

A Wheelbarrow and a Shovel documents the rags-to-riches success story of John Boll who built a real estate empire by developing manufactured home communities around the world then selling his company to the State of Washington Pension Fund for $2.3 billion. A Wheelbarrow and a Shovel documents the truly remarkable story of one of America’s most unlikely business success stories. Starting with only a wheelbarrow and a shovel, as well as the same American dream that led his parents to leave their native Holland for the United States, John Boll built a real estate empire in the most unlikely of ways—by developing and improving manufactured home communities around the country. It’s a rags-to-riches tale that could only happen in America—and only with the hand of God leading the way. Before Boll sold his company to the State of Washington Pension Fund for $2.3 billion, he was the first person to take a collection of mobile home communities to Wall Street.

Nothing is more dangerous to be misunderstood than the question, "What is the human being?" In an era when this question is not only being misunderstood but even forgotten, wisdom delivered by the great thinkers and mystics of the past must be recovered. Edith Stein (1891-1942), a Jewish Carmelite mystical philosopher, offers great promise to resume asking the question of the human being. In Human and Divine Being, Donald Wallenfang offers a comprehensive summary of the theological anthropology of this heroic martyr to truth. Beginning with the theme of human vocation, Wallenfang leads the reader through a labyrinth of philosophical and theological vignettes: spiritual being, the human soul, material being, empathy, the logic of the cross, and the meaning of suffering. The question of the human being is asked in light of divine being by harnessing the fertile tension between the methods of phenomenology and metaphysics. Stein spurs us on to a rendezvous with the stream of "perennial philosophy" that has watered the landscape of thought since conscious time began. In the end, the meaning of human being is thrown into sharp relief against the darkness of all that is not authentically human.

Investigating Vatican II is a collection of Fr. Jared Wicks’ recent articles on Vatican II, and presents the Second Vatican Council as an event to which theologians contributed in major ways and from which Catholic theology can gain enormous insights. Taken as a whole, the articles take the reader into the theological dynamics of Vatican II at key moments in the Council’s historical unfolding. Wicks promotes a contemporary re-reception of Vatican II’s theologically profound documents, especially as they featured God’s incarnate and saving Word, laid down principles of Catholic ecumenical engagement, and articulated the church’s turn to the modern world with a new “face” of respect and dedication to service. From the original motivations of Pope John XXIII in convoking the Council, Investigating Vatican II goes on to highlight the profound insights offered by theologians who served behind the scenes as Council experts. In its chapters, the book moves through the Council’s working periods, drawing on the published and non-published records, with attention to the Council’s dramas, crises, and breakthroughs. It brings to light the bases of Pope Francis’s call for synodality in a listening church, while highlighting Vatican II’s mandate to all of prayerful biblical reading, for fostering a vibrant “joy in the Gospel.”

Few books in theology have faced the twentieth century with all its horrors and yet convincingly revoiced the redemptive Christian antidote that compels us to reawaken to our true identity as beloved children of God. Joseph Ratzinger’s 1968 masterpiece, Introduction to Christianity, is one of those rare books. On the fiftieth anniversary of this classic book’s publication, English-speaking scholars from around the globe gathered at the University of Notre Dame to celebrate Ratzinger’s lasting influence on the world of Christian theology. Bishops, priests, and lay men and women set their hands to “the trowel of tribute,” honoring the theological legacy of Joseph Ratzinger and the pivotal role he has played in the recent history of the Catholic Church, from his early days as a parish priest and university professor, all the way to his election to the Chair of Saint Peter as Pope Benedict XVI. Readers of this collection, Gift to the Church and World, will enjoy the beautiful variety of essays penned by notable scholars that decorate the timeless insights of Ratzinger’s theological genius. Thematic topics include an overview and context of Ratzinger’s work, fundamental theology, philosophical theology, dogmatic theology, spiritual theology, and pedagogy. Altogether, readers will deepen their appreciation and understanding of the theological contributions of Joseph Ratzinger to the mission field of the New Evangelization today. With contributions from: Catherine R. Cavadini Leonard J. DeLorenzo Patrick X. Gardner Robert P. Imbelli Jennifer Newsome Martin Aaron Pidel Francesca Murphy Anthony J. Pagliarini Timothy P. O'Malley Cyril O'Regan Tracey Rowland Richard Schenk (HC) Anthony C. Sciglitano, Jr. Clemens Sedmak Rudolf Voderholzer

Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) is perhaps one of the best-kept philosophical secrets of recent times. By locating ethics as first philosophy, based on the call of the other, Levinas has revolutionized the Western philosophical tradition. In effect, the perennial priority of the self is displaced by the uncanny urgency of the other. Emmanuel: Levinas and Variations on God with Us gives the reader an introduction to the life and work of this humble philosophical genius. Several applications are made of Levinas’s insights: interreligious dialogue, analytic versus continental philosophy, law and freedom, maternity, childhood, hermeneutics, and ethical contemplation. Most especially, Levinas is brought into lively conversation with Jean-Luc Marion. Levinas’s phenomenology of proclamation is set in confrontation with Marion’s phenomenology of manifestation throughout the book. Erotic love is met with a love filled with responsibilities for the other. Mount Carmel and Mount Zion face one another in a topography of the infinite. Readers will appreciate the variety of themes treated, as well as the dynamic interaction between philosophy and theology. Given the fragmented postmodern milieux of the world today, perhaps the philosophical intuitions of Emmanuel Levinas were prepared “for such a time as this” (Esth 4:14).

PTL traces the lives of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, from humble beginnings to wealth, fame, and eventual disgrace after revelations of a sex scandal and massive financial mismanagement.