Pope John called the council not to reform heresy or to denounce errors but to update the church's capacity to explain itself to the world and to revitalize ecclesial life in all its unique local manifestations. Congar's masterpiece fills in the blanks of what we have been missing in our reception of the council and its call to "true reform."Yves Congar, OP, a French Dominican who died in 1995, was the most important ecclesiologist in modern times. His writings and his active participation in Vatican II had an immense influence upon the council documents. With a few other contemporaries, Congar pioneered a new style of theological research and writing that linked the great tradition of Scripture and the Fathers to contemporary pastoral questions with lucidity and passion. His key concerns were the unity of the church, lay apostolic life, and a revival of the church's theology of the Holy Spirit. He was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in recognition of his profound contributions to the Second Vatican Council.Paul Philibert, OP, has taught pastoral theology in the United States and abroad. He is a Dominican friar of the Southern Province. His translation of a collection of Congar's essays on the liturgy has recently been published by Liturgical Press under the title At the Heart of Christian Worship. His book The Priesthood of the Faithful: Key to a living Church (Liturgical Press, 2005) reflects the ecclesiology of Yves Congar and his Vision of the apostolic life of the faithful."

    It is one of the more important encyclicals of Pope Pius XII, because of its topic, the Church, and because its Church concept was fully included in Lumen gentium but also strongly debated during and after Vatican II. The Church is called body, because it is a living entity; it is called the body of Christ, because Christ is its Head and Founder; it is called mystical body, because it is neither a purely physical nor a purely spiritual unity, but supernatural.The encyclical followed the commencement of Nazi Germany's programs of "euthanasia" of the disabled, and race-based murders of Jews and other minorities, and is therefore significant for its reiteration of Church teachings against racism and the killings of people with disabilities.

    The essays span subjects ranging from the nature of legalism and church authority to worship music, debt, youth ministry, and pastoral character. From the book: Modern evangelicals have gained money, power, and influence, and it has been like giving whiskey to a two-year-old. The need of the hour is theological, not political. The arena is the pulpit and the table, not the legislative chamber. Before we are equipped to proclaim His lordship to the inhabitants of all the earth, we must live as though we believed it in the Church.

    Dever unfolds the biblical blueprint to find a leadership structure that blesses churches with peace, but doesn't buckle under the pressures of corporate life.

    However often good nature programmes on T.V. or articles in magazines centre on evolution and completely ignore the Creator. Each story has a Bible verse and lesson for the reader to take away. Written by someone who spent his life in the Rainforest this book has the added benefit of being written by someone who has been there lived there and experienced the culture not just someone who has read the encyclopaedias.

    A leading feminist theologian's view of the church as a community of liberation, with practical guidelines for those wishing to develop communities of worship and mutual support.

    An address summarizing the central theme of the author's book Evangelicalism Divided.

    A colorful cast of characters enter their lives -- lives that will never be the same again. All have their stories to tell, but as Taylor and the church become a part of the New York landscape, Taylor finds their stories becoming intertwined with his to form a tapestry of God's unrelenting grace and mercy.