Giordano Bruno challenged everything in his pursuit of an all-embracing system of thought. This not only brought him patronage from powerful figures of the day but also put him in direct conflict with the Catholic Church. Arrested by the Inquisition and tried as a heretic, Bruno was imprisoned, tortured, and, after eight years, burned at the stake in 1600. The Vatican "regrets" the burning yet refuses to clear him of heresy. But Bruno's philosophy spread: Galileo, Isaac Newton, Christiaan Huygens, and Gottfried Leibniz all built upon his ideas; his thought experiments predate the work of such twentieth-century luminaries as Karl Popper; his religious thinking inspired such radicals as Baruch Spinoza; and his work on the art of memory had a profound effect on William Shakespeare. Chronicling a genius whose musings helped bring about the modern world, Michael White pieces together the final years -- the capture, trial, and the threat the Catholic Church felt -- that made Bruno a martyr of free thought.

If you could sit down with St. Thomas Aquinas over a pint of beer and ask him any one question, what would it be? Pints With Aquinas contains over 50 deep thoughts from the Angelic doctor on subjects such as God, virtue, the sacraments, happiness, alcohol, and more. If you've always wanted to read St. Thomas but have been too intimidated to try, this book is for you.So, get your geek on, pull up a bar stool and grab a cold one, here we go!""He alone enlightened the Church more than all other doctors; a man can derive more profit in a year from his books than from pondering all his life the teaching of others." - Pope John XXII

Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was a mystic, philosopher and scientist whose ideas were decades ahead of their time. A proponent of a unificatory vision of science, he was both a champion of the occult as Newton would be after him, and a torch-bearer for the sort of holistic dreams that Leonardo had cherished before him. As such he is perfect material for the third in Michael White's loose trilogy of science biographies - after Newton, the last sorcerer, and Leonardo, the first scientist, we have Bruno, science's first martyr. THE POPE AND THE HERETIC re-creates not just the vibrancy of intellectual life at the height of the Renaissance but also the horrific cost of pursuing ideas which ran counter to the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church. After almost eight years' imprisonment and torture at the hands of the Inquisition, Bruno was burned at the stake for his beliefs - or rather, his refusal to accept that intellectual investigation was limited by the dictats of Rome. His life and martyrdom are the subjects of this fascinating book.

Infallibility is a deeply misunderstood idea, within as well as outside the Catholic Church. It remains a subject of great theological debate, especially regarding papal infallibility and the ordinary magisterium of the Church. In The Gift of Infallibility, theologian James T. OಙConnor clarifies the idea of infallibility. He provides a helpful translation of the ಜrelatioಝ or official explanation by Bishop Gasser given at Vatican I, the Church council that defined the dogma of papal infallibility. Also included in this important volume is the first draft of chapter 4 of the Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus, as well as the final, official chapter of the constitution. Despite its importance in all theological discussions on the doctrine of infallibility, Bishop Gasserಙs relatio had never until recently been translated from the Latin original into English. The relatio reveals a mind which is logical in process and fully acquainted with the historical and theological aspects of the question. This volume concludes with a recently updated theological summary on the topic of infallibility by Father OಙConnor. The Gift of Infallibility is immensely important for theologians and others who wish to understand the way by which the Holy Spirit safeguards the Church. It will be of great value to the general student as well as to the specialist.

"Mr. Grant is able to retain the scholastic edge along with the accuracy of the translation while preserving a sense of the author's style." -Fr. Chad Ripperger, PhD For the first time in history, St. Robert Bellarmine's work, De Romano Pontifice, On the Roman Pontiff, has been translated and made available in English! In this Theological treatise St. Robert Bellarmine takes on Protestant as well as Greek Orthodox objections to the Papacy in five books. In the first, he argues that Christ established the Primacy of Peter by means of an Ecclesiastical Monarchy, which takes up subjects as diverse as: What is the best form of government? Why it is fitting that the Church's government should be a monarchy; Exegetical Commentary on the Lord's words in Matthew 16 and John 21, along with copious Patristic testimony. In Book 2 is whether Peter has successors in the Ecclesiastical Monarchy, wherein Bellarmine defends the Church's position on the true history of Peter; that Peter truly went to Rome; that Peter was truly a Bishop there; that upon his death he was succeeded by men in the Ecclesiastical monarchy, as well as its proof from the Fathers, then through all the refutations, Bellarmine asks what would happen if the Pope were a heretic. In book 3, Bellarmine shows the many contradictions and faulty reasoning used by the first Protestants in arguing that the Pope is Antichrist while also giving exposition to the authentic understanding of the passages of Scripture that speak of Antichrist. After presenting the testimony of Scripture and the Fathers on the signs that must precede Antichrist, Bellarmine shows how none of this agrees with the Roman Pontiff. He also refutes the fable of "Pope Joan." In book 4, Bellarmine argues why the Pope is infallible when he defines a doctrine on faith and morals and proceeds to defend Popes whom Protestants and others argued had erred while defining faith. He continues to a discussion of law, and why it is not contrary to the Gospel for the Pope (or a Bishop over his diocese), to make laws that bind the faithful, refuting the teaching of John Calvin. In book 5, Bellarmine takes up the question of the Popes' power in civil affairs. Protestants had argued that the Pope tyrannously usurped the rights of sovereigns and that they meant to rule the world directly in civil affairs, while some canonists overly attached to a more medieval view were of a similar persuasion on the positive side. He then proceeds to demonstrate that the Pope's temporal power is indirect and that he can intervene for the sake of the faith when excommunicating sovereigns, but not for political reasons. The protestants argued that a Bishop could not be a temporal prince and Bishop at the same time, which Bellarmine soundly refutes from Scripture and Tradition. This first ever English translation also has many historical notes on terms, persons, Greek and Latin syntax and other things to aid the reader. The value of the work is not merely apologetic-Bellarmine's treatise also laid down insights into Catholic teaching that were foundational not only for later Theologians but even for Vatican I.

A young man’s fate is tied to the Protestant Reformation—and the violent upheaval that follows—in this prize-winning novel of sixteenth-century Spain. On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nails his ninety-five theses to a church door and launches the movement that will divide the Roman Catholic Church. On that same day, a child is born in the Spanish city of Valladolid. The young Cipriano Salcedo's fate is marked by the political and religious upheaval taking root across Europe. Cipriano grows up to become a prosperous merchant and joins the Reformation movement, which is secretly advancing on the Iberian Peninsula, the historical bastion of the Catholic church. But before long, the Spanish Inquisition will drive the Reformers to put their lives at stake. Through Cipriano’s story, Delibes paints a masterful portrait of the time of Spain's Charles V and recreates the social and intellectual atmosphere of Europe at one of history's most pivotal moments. Winner of Spain’s Premio Nacional de Narrativa

For a long time now, the majority position of Catholic theologians has been that canonizations conducted by the pope are infallible and inerrant. A minority current has always existed that disputes this view. Perennial difficulties with the nature and extension of papal infallibility as well as problems peculiar to recent decades in the Church make it timely to reexamine a debate that has lain dormant for too long, and to give proponents of the minority view an opportunity to make their case. The twelve contributors, sharing a desire for a candid and searching inquiry, argue both sides of the question fairly and fully. Each author brings distinct facts, observations, and arguments to the conversation. The result is a panoramic review of the historical, doctrinal, liturgical, and moral aspects of canonization, which displays a greater complexity than summaries in encyclopedias and manuals would suggest. This book is published as a spur to intensive theological engagement with a quaestio disputata that should not be prematurely treated as definitively solved. Essays by Phillip Campbell - Fr. Thomas Crean, O.P. - Roberto de Mattei - William Matthew Diem - Christopher Ferrara - Msgr. Brunero Gherardini - Fr. John Hunwicke - Peter A. Kwasniewski - John R.T. Lamont - Joseph Shaw - Fr. Jean-François Thomas, S.J. - José Antonio Ureta

In this book, Yves Chiron turns his attention to one of the most influential figures of 20th-century Catholicism: Annibale Bugnini. Bugnini has attracted high praise from his disciples and vilification from his detractors-but all agree that, without him, the extensive overhaul of the Roman Catholic liturgy would not have taken place as it did.

A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church he governs in a book that is “must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of the West and the future of global Christianity” (Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option). Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In his “concise, rhetorically agile…adroit, perceptive, gripping account (The New York Times Book Review), Ross Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies. “A balanced look at the struggle for the future of Catholicism…To Change the Church is a fascinating look at the church under Pope Francis” (Kirkus Reviews). Engaging and provocative, this is “a pot-boiler of a history that examines a growing ecclesial crisis” (Washington Independent Review of Books).

Some of the most portentous events in medieval history—the Cathar crusade, the persecution and mass burnings of heretics, the papal inquisition—fall between 1000 and 1250, when the Catholic Church confronted the threat of heresy with force. Moore’s narrative focuses on the motives and anxieties of elites who waged war on heresy for political gain.