Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build?and Can Help Rebuild?Western Civilization
292
Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build?and Can Help Rebuild?Western Civilization
292Hardcover
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
With stubborn facts historians have given their verdict: from the cultures of the Jews, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Germanic peoples, the Catholic Church built a new and original civilization, embodying within its structures the Christian vision of God and man, time and eternity.
The construction and maintenance of Western civilization, amid attrition and cultural earthquakes, is a saga spread over sixteen hundred years. During this period, Catholic priests, because they numbered so many men of heroism and genius in their ranks, and also due to their leadership positions, became the pioneers and irreplaceable builders of Christian culture and sociopolitical order.
Heroism and Genius presents some of these formidable men: fathers of chivalry and free-enterprise economics; statesmen and defiers of tyrants; composers, educators, and architects of some of the world's loveliest buildings; and, paradoxically, revolutionary defenders of romantic love.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781621640141 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Ignatius Press |
| Publication date: | 11/08/2017 |
| Pages: | 292 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.38(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.88(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Preface xiii
Introduction xv
Part I The Catholic Matrix of Western Civilization
Chapter 1 The Womb and the Embryo 3
Historians Have Spoken: The Verdict 3
Priests: Channels of Lifeblood 5
Milestones of the Catholic Struggle to Build a New Civilization, circa A.D. 200-1300 9
Part 2 Laying the Foundations of a New Civilization, circa A.D. 300-1000
Chapter 2 The Church Amid Dark Ages 15
Night Falls over Rome 15
Rescuing from a Burning City 17
Saga of Centuries: The Conversion of Europe 18
Shouldering Society: Bishops from the Fifth to the Seventh Centuries 21
Birth of a Remarkable Institution: The Parish 23
The Hair's Breadth 31
Chapter 3 Fathers of Western Culture: Ambrose, Augustine, Leo, and Gregory 32
Ambrose; Defender of the City 32
Augustine: Converter of Culture 35
Man of His Century and of Every Century 35
Intellect and Heart Forged by Priesthood 38
Blueprints for a New Culture 42
Blueprints for a New Sociopolitical Order 44
Standing Upright to the End 49
Leo the Great: Rome at the Center 49
Gregory the Great and the Thrust toward the Barbarians 52
Chapter 4 Creative Minorities: The Benedictine and Irish Monks 56
Benedict and the Shaping of the Western Mind 56
Columbanus and the Irish Monks 63
D-Days: Disembarking of Columbanus in France and of Columba in Scotland 63
"Who Are These Men?" 71
The Silent Revolution 78
Plight of Church and Society at the Arrival of Columbanus 78
The Engine of Renewal: The Irish Method of Confession 81
Mission Accomplished 88
Boniface: Seed Sower of Civilization in Germany 91
Chapter 5 Alcuin and the Idealists behind the First Europe 94
The New Alliance: Papacy-Monasticism-Frankish Monarchy 94
Charlemagne: "Rough-Hewn from Gnarled Germanic Wood" 97
The Ideal behind Charlemagne's Empire 100
The Reality 102
The Idealists around Charlemagne 104
An International Group 104
Alcuin 106
The Man Whom Charlemagne Called "My Mentor" 106
Educator of an Empire's Educators 114
Restorer of the Tools of Intellectual Culture 117
Thrust toward Universal Education 120
After Alcuin and Charlemagne (814-1000) 125
Relations between Church, State, and Society 125
The Flame Kept Burning: Renaissance of Culture, Naissance of Christendom 129
Part 3 Distinctive Features of Western Civilization That Budded in the Dark Ages
Chapter 6 Guardians of the Ancient Rite: The Traditional Mass and the Culture of Christendom 139
The Ancient Rite 139
The Embodiment of Catholicism 142
From Sacrifice to Sacrificial Love 143
Embedded Deep in the Existence of Catholics 145
Chapter 7 Fathers of Chivalry: A New Type of Warrior 148
Vigil of Arms 148
Baptizing Men with Claws 153
Training Warriors to Wield and Sheathe the Sword 155
The Silhouette of the Christian Warrior Appears 157
The Knight's Vision of Christ 160
Idealist of Chivalry: Bernard of Clairvaux 162
The Man behind the Statutes of the Templars 162
Background to the Templars: The Crusades 166
Foundation, Development, and Influence of the Templars 167
Chivalry's Finished Product: A King, a Hero, a Man-Louis IX 172
Ever Relevant: "The Living Symbol of Force Subjected to the Spirit" 176
Chapter 8 Clandestine Revolutionaries of Romanticism 182
Romanticism 182
A Millennium-Long Struggle on Behalf of Women 183
Birth of Chivalric Romantic Love 187
Clash: The Chivalric Romantic Ideal versus Troubadourism and Courtly Love 191
Triumph: A Sublime and Enduring Romanticism 194
Chapter 9 Men with Music, Artistry, and Drama in Their Souls 198
"Total Art on the Grandest Scale": Gothic Architecture 198
The Man behind Gothic: Abbot Suger 202
Before and After Gothic and Always 204
Music That Rose into the Night: Gregorian Chant 206
Chapter 10 Founders of Free-Market Economics 211
The Catholic Ideal behind Western Economic Progress 211
First Incubators of Free Enterprise Principles 219
Worldly Ascetics: The Priests Who Pioneered Modern Economics 224
Medieval and Renaissance Economic Thinkers 224
Sketches of Personalities 229
Men Alive with New Ideas 231
Installing the Engine of Free Market Economics 234
Exile to Intellectual Siberia and Return 237
Conclusion: Standing on the Capitoline: Gazing toward Past and Future Horizons 241
Horizons 241
In Order to Build the Future: Remember! 243
Afterword: May the Long Line Never Be Broken! 247
Selected Bibliography 249
Art Credits 255
Index 259