Books on Modern Problems

Hope for the World, a book by Cardinal Raymond Burke, examines pressing issues of our times in an engaging and thoroughly researched discussion. Presenting his thoughts and insights on relevant topics such as the role of the Catholic Church in today’s world, spiritual renewal, marriage and family, respect for human life, and more, Cardinal Burke puts forth deep faith perspectives grounded in sound reasoning. Using his personal upbringing in a devout Catholic family and early years as a priest...

The Final Campaign Against the Savior As G.K. Chesterton once remarked, the cleverest thing the devil ever did was to induce people to believe that he did not exist. It was truly a masterstroke, enabling him to carry on his nefarious operations, not just with the tolerance of so-called enlightened opinion; but with the active cooperation of well-meaning, charitable people like Eleanor Roosevelt, not to mention a large body of clergy of all denominations. Thus, for instance, the devil has been...

It is no secret that many factions exist in the Church. The challenge, however -- and increasingly so -- is in determining which are propagating error and which are shedding light. Through historical vignettes and penetrating writings from a range of sources, Aurelio Porfiri, musician and essayist, examines the emergence of traditionalism in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, the debates concerning liturgy that it has engendered, and the Church's current relationship with the world. Thro...

The Second Vatican Council exhorted the faithful to 'seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God' (Lumen Gentium, 31). The contours of this mission are given by Catholic social teaching and yet, regrettably, this treasure of the Church remains undiscovered by most Catholics. Conscious of this, the popes of the modern age have consistently expressed their desire that this aspect of the Church's doctrine and mission become more widel...

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, "Within the philosophical system of Marx and Lenin, and at the heart of their psychology, hatred of God is the principal driving force, more fundamental than all their political and economic pretensions." This is certainly true of the leaders of the Communist "dynasty" that currently rules China. Chairman Mao, the founder of the Red Dynasty, proudly referred to himself as wu fa wu tian--a Chinese phrase meaning that he was both Godless and lawless. His hatred o...

The Hippo Lectures is a book of essays that were first given as live audience, public talks. Catholicism being a "both/and" faith, this work is both fiction and non-fiction; speech and story; serious and absurd; broadly maximal and microscopically focused. It's singular glue, however, is the Catholic Faith. All the essays-whether about the environment, beauty, athletics, beer, sex, economics, film, or American politics, to name but a few-are viewed through a Catholic lens. Now nearly past the...

God's Solution to a Civilization in Crisis  "How can we save civilization?" It's becoming a common question. As the world descends into chaos, Christians are thinking deeply about how to stem the tide. Many options have been presented to overcome Christian persecution and cultural decadence, but the The Marian Option is one that is already in motion...and has been for centuries. Dr. Carrie Gress provides a thoroughly researched account of the significant cultural and military events where Mar...

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo," says Samwise Gamgee. "Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for." Many have likened the past few years to a dystopian novel or a thriller movie due to unprecedented oppression, violence, loss of rights, and weaponization of science and technology at the hands of powerful people with dark i...

First-ever translation of Essai sur la fin d'une civilisation originally published in 1949.Our contemporary civilization is in distress. Society is unraveling, with rampant individualism, moral dissipation, identity crises, unchecked consumerism, and social isolation. De Corte, writing in the mid-twentieth century, studies these trends and discerns their causes: the prevalence of philosophies rooted in idealism or materialism, the reign of ideologies inspired by these philosophies, objectific...

The atomic bomb marked a catastrophic leap in the history of human achievement. Never before had a man-made instrument dealt out, in an instant, such death and destruction. Once done, it could not be undone. The leap was made; the atomic age begun. To live in this new age, a new spirit was required-a spirit that would prevent mankind becoming the destroyer of all worlds. The father of the atomic bomb himself, J. Robert Oppenheimer, perceived this need, calling for "radical changes not only in...

The most up-to-date "catechism" in print! For the first time in over fifty years, a Catholic bishop has published his own comprehensive presentation of the Faith--what to believe, how to live, and how to pray as Christ taught. Sure to be a classic for generations to come, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith offers a clear and readable summary of Catholicism as a whole, given in the pastoral style of the apostles. Using the simple and direct "Question-Answer" format so popular among instru...

"We have to look at the truth head-on: the priesthood seems to be failing," explains Cardinal Robert Sarah in this book. "The priesthood, its status, its mission, and its authority have been placed at the service of the worst crimes. . . The search for worldly glory, power, honors, earthly pleasures, and money has infiltrated the hearts of priests, bishops, and cardinals. How can we tolerate such deeds without trembling, without weeping, without asking ourselves probing questions?" In the ari...

"Confession of a Catholic Worker: Our Moment of Christian Witness" by Larry Chapp is a profound reflection on the modern crises facing both the Church and the world. Drawing from the lives and teachings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dorothy Day, and Peter Maurin, Chapp presents a compelling vision of radical Christian living rooted in the Sermon on the Mount. Through personal narrative and theological exploration, he advocates for a life of radical love and fidelity to Christ, challenging believ...

"The Coming Christian Persecution" by Thomas D. Williams provides an insightful analysis of the escalating persecution facing Christians globally. Drawing parallels with historical persecutions, Williams delves into the forms of persecution in various countries, including North Korea, Afghanistan, and China, among others. He offers a sobering look at the millions of Christians enduring violence, economic repercussions, forced conversions, imprisonment, and even death due to their faith. The b...

We are living in an era whose atmosphere is saturated with the flames of hatred. It is an age of violence whose tempo of disruption is so rapidly escalating that there is scarcely a city anywhere in the world where humans can be assured of normal, physical security.Nietzsche is the prophet who foresaw and foretold the coming of the beast of violence. Indeed, he proclaimed its greatest commandment whose faithful practice would create a society of savages. "The time has come," he wrote, "to opp...

Human beings are born with an innate sense of right and wrong, yet the complicated world we live in constantly interferes with our natural understanding. And so we live in a time of widely divergent opinions about right and wrong, life and death, sexuality and sex, pro-life and pro-choice, prolonging life and shortening life. What we need now more than ever is a moral compass by which to steer. In Matters of Life and Death, Gerard Verschuuren means to provide the contemporary reader with just...

Dismantling Freud is an essential read for individuals interested in psychology and understanding human nature. Written by an expert in the field, this book offers an insightful exploration of psychoanalysis and religion’s often-overlooked role in our lives. Through careful analysis and compelling arguments, Dismantling Freud contends that recent trends toward the acceptance of psychoanalytic theory has had destructive implications on our understanding of ourselves and the world. This meticul...

How the Diversity Regime Is Flattening America and the West and What to Do about It Diversity. Inclusiveness. Equality.--ubiquitous words in 21st-century political and social life. But how do those who police the limits of acceptable discourse employ these as verbal weapons to browbeat their often hapless fellows into having a "real conversation"? How do these terms function as mere doublespeak for the expectation of full-scale capitulation to the views of "right-thinking people"? Those who h...

In this new and substantially expanded Third Edition, Philip Jenkins continues to illuminate the remarkable expansion of Christianity in the global South--in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Drawing upon the extensive new scholarship that has appeared on this topic in recent years, he asks how the new Christianity is likely to affect the poor, among whom it finds its most devoted adherents. How should we interpret the enormous success of prosperity churches across the Global South? Politicall...

In the words of a 1944 review, written well in advance of twenty-first-century outcomes of educational malpractice: "It is for man that education must exist. Such a statement may seem too obvious to make at all. Yet its meaning is rarely understood today." Education at the Crossroads fully comprehends that meaning. Bringing to bear the full weight of his wisdom, Jacques Maritain argues for education as objectively ordered toward man "in his personal life and spiritual progress, not in his rel...

If Christ came to "bring a sword" into history, it was a sword that was meant to fight on behalf of the personal and common good of individual human beings and the communities through which they work to perfect themselves. Everywhere that sword cut, it did so to fashion a true, good, and beautiful civilization in which men could live with a freedom and a dignity that surpasses all purely natural understanding.The enemies of the Incarnation and its central "practical" consequence for the tempo...

Celebrated author Mary Eberstadt continues her ground-breaking examination of the legacy of the sexual revolution. The book's predecessor, Adam and Eve after the Pill (2012), dissected the revolution's microcosmic fallout via its empirical effects on the lives of men, women, and children. This follow-on book investigates the revolution's macrocosmic transformations in three spheres: society, politics, and Christianity. It also includes an analysis of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision tha...

How the Church's Social Doctrine Addresses the Issues of Our Time We live in a world that has become secularized, marked by ideology and partisanship. In such a world, how are we supposed to know what is right and wrong? As Christians, how are we supposed to approach the social issues of our day? With conflicting voices surrounding us, how can we hear and know the voice of Jesus Christ and receive His teachings? As Christians, we seek to live the way of the Lord Jesus, but that's easier said ...

The Facts, The Fraud, The Stories We must continue to demand justice and compassion for victims of Catholic clergy abuse. This is not optional. However, there is a side of the Catholic Church abuse narrative that is not getting the attention it warrants. Countless priests in the United States have been falsely accused of committing horrendous child abuse. Topics in this book include:... how the most recent and reliable figures reveal that one-third of accused Catholic priests in a major archd...

Newman on Evangelizing the Nones In post-modern society the "nones" have become our new poor. The West still commands vast markets and militaries but our culture has long been living off of borrowed moral capital with no foreseeable schedule of repayment. In Thinking as Though God Exists, Catholic philosopher Ryan Topping draws upon St. John Henry Newman's voluminous insights to present a far-ranging cultural strategy for the New Evangelization. The conversion of secular culture requires many...

The Collapse and Revival of American Community Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet--the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today's fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly...

Reflections on Society Beatified in Warsaw in 2021, Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński (1901-1981) is widely recognized as one of Poland's greatest heroes of the twentieth century. Exercising the function of Primate of Poland from 1948 until his death, he reminded the Polish people of their Christian heritage and opposed the abuses of the communist regime; his popularity made him the Polish communist's worst nightmare. In this collection, which is bound to become a classic, Cardinal Wyszyński ...

This book is a treasure trove of profoundly practical insights for living and loving faithfully in the twenty-first century. Just as St. Francis saw Assisi more accurately not as a fortified stronghold of safety and wealth but as a city hanging upside down by a providential thread, so does Carol Robinson evaluate the tenuous state of America. With Thomistic clarity and Chestertonian wit, she pierces through our current clouded state of affairs. In this small and efficient book, Robinson's lan...

Identity, Technocracy, and the Church Identity politics and novel identities are everywhere today. The Decomposition of Man takes on these issues in a new and illuminating way. The social crisis we are facing involves weakening traditional identities-man, woman, husband, wife, Catholic, American-and asserting constructed ones like "Latinx" and "nonbinary." This is liberating, we are told. In reality, however, as the familial, religious, and communal arrangements by which people have hitherto ...