Non-Fiction Books

This is a book for the non-philosopher as well as the professional theologian. Written in a vivid narrative that is intelligible and interesting, even to the reader who has never before understood a word of philosophy, it examines its subject from every angle. With wit and erudition, Professor McInerny attacks the favorite fantasies of both the traditionalists and the progressives, while clearly expounding his own fresh position.

Thomism is solidly based on the assumption that we know the world first through our senses and then through concepts formed on the basis of our sense experience. In this informally discursive introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas, Ralph McInerny shows how this basic assumption contrasts with dominant modern alternative views and is developed by Thomas into a coherent view of ourselves, of knowledge, and of God. McInerny first places Thomism in context within philosophical inquiry, discussing the relationship between philosophy and theology, and between modern and classical views of philosophy. He then describes the challenges Thomas faced with the introduction of Aristotle’s works into the Christian West. The reader is subsequently guided through such key concepts as art, nature, causes, and motion and shown how Thomas used these concepts to resolve the problems presented by Aristotle. Each chapter is tied to a specific Thomistic text, providing a sample from a number of Thomas’s works. In addition to articles from both Summas, there are sections from the Disputed Questions and the Commentaries, among others. McInerny also provides an annotated list of the writings of Thomas available in English. Bibliographical notes provided by the author, grouped by subject and following his general chapter divisions, will be particularly helpful for further reading.

St. Thomas Aquinas enables the reader to appreciate both Thomas's continuity with earlier thought and his creative independence. After a useful account of the life and work of St. Thomas, McInerny shows how the thoughts of Aristotle, Boethius, and Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius were assimilated into the personal wisdom of St. Thomas. He also offers a helpful study of the distinctive features of Aquinas's Christian theology.

In this study of the relationship between Boethius and Thomas Aquinas, Ralph McInerny dispels the notion that Aquinas misunderstood the early philosopher and argues instead that he learned from Boethius, assimilated his ideas, and proved to be a reliable interpreter of his thought. McInerny makes his point that "Boethius taught what Thomas says he taught" through a careful analysis of Aquinas's commentary on the De trinitate and De hebdomadibus of Boethius .

A patient and faithful working of primary Thomistic texts, this volume

"Long associated with the Roman Catholic tradition, natural law is seen here as a legitimate philosophical position that can be justified without recourse to Christian theology. . . . Though the Christian ethics are a concern to many readers, McInerny is working from within the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, arguing that, while distinct from theology, moral philosophy is best done in the context of faith. Recommended for philosophy and religion collections."― Library Journal

In the mid-1260s in Paris, a dispute raged that concerned the relationship between faith and the Augustinian theological tradition on the one side and secular leaning as represented by the arrival in Latin of Aristotle and various Islamic and Jewish interpreters of Aristotle on the other. Masters of the arts faculty in Paris represented the latter tradition, indicated by the phrase "double truth theory." In 1269, Thomas Aquinas wrote the polemical work On There Being Only One Intellect, Against the Averroists (De unitate intellectus contra averroistas). Thomas is intent on countering two views: first, that intellect is not a faculty of the soul that animates our body, and second, that there is a single intellect existing separately that suffices for all people. Brief as it is, this work puts into play all the significant strands of Thomas’s teaching on man – historical doctrinal, philosophical, and theological. It is a valuable source for discussing Thomas’s views on the relationship between Aristotle and Christianity and puts to rest the misleading claim that Thomas baptized Aristotle.” The introduction places the work historically and sketches the controversy to which it was a contribution. Part 2 includes the Latin Leonine text and McInerny's translation. Part 3 analyzes the basic arguments of Thomas's work and provides a series of interpretive essays meant to make Thomas accessible to today's readers.

At last, a user-friendly introduction to Church Latin using church and scriptural documents themselves, allowing the student to build up knowledge with meaningful texts. All paradigms, grammar, and vocabulary are included, and the texts are explained line by line. A 60-minute audiotape is included to aid in pronunciation. For students of all ages, this work is a boon to home-schoolers too.

In his De nominum analogia, Cajetan introduced a spurious distinction between analogy of attribution and analogy of proportionality that is not found in Aquinas's writings or anywhere else. Cajetan's mistake became a commonplace and it is still uncritically accepted today. In Aquinas and Analogy, Ralph McInerny carefully traces the source of the confusion to Cajetan's misunderstanding of a text from Aquinas's commentary on the Sentences and shows how unwarranted and how misleading that distinction is. Another source of confusion has been the attempt to equate the Greek word analogia and its Latin equivalent to try to find word for word correspondences between Aristotle and Aquinas. For instance, what Thomas calls analogy of names is consonant rather with what Aristotle describes as legetai pollachôs, what "is said in many ways." McInerny brings in all relevant texts and analyzes the points they make, and he makes comparisons with the famous notion of focal meaning used by the Oxford philosopher G.E.L. Owen. McInerny shows how the word 'analogy' is itself analogous and gives an enlightening exposé of the analogy of names. He criticizes Enrico Berti's and Ramirez's influential treatments of analogy, as well as those of a few others for unaccountably falling under the spell of Cajetan's errors. He takes the reader further still into the question of the 'analogy of being' and also of the 'argument by analogy.' But his conclusions steer the reader back to the momentous issues now made accessible by a clear understanding of analogy. The basic distinctions McInerny introduces, his criticism of the central piece in the literature, Cajetan's De nominum analogia, the applications he makes to problems such as that of the nature of metaphysics or of logic, his knowledge of contemporary debates on related topics, combine to make his contribution unique. Basic philosophical issues are renewed by this book and so is one's reading of Aquinas, Aristotle, and their many interpreters past and present. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ralph McInerny is Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies and the director of the Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame, where he has taught since 1955. He is the founder and publisher of Catholic Dossier magazine , and the author of Boethius and Aquinas, Aquinas on Human Action , and The Question of Christian Ethics , all published by CUA Press.

An Uncertain Legacy brings together ten of today's leading thinkers -- including Ralph McInerny, J. Rufus Fears, Timothy Fuller, Leonard Liggio, George Carey, and William B. Allen -- to trace the evolution of the concept of liberty from ancient Rome to modern America.

Vatican II was supposed to herald a Golden Age in the Catholic Church--yet in the thirty years since it ended, chaos & dissension have rocked the pulpits and emptied the pews. Today, theologians rise against the Pope, laymen turn away in dismay and confusion. McInerney cuts through conventional wisdom to reveal the council's true message--a message which, if widely known, would send shock waves through both the conservative and liberal wings on the Church...and would bring many Catholics back to the practice of the Faith. After Vatican II, instead of enjoying the expected renaissance, the Church seemed to fall apart: priests and bishops rejected Church teachings, convents and seminaries emptied, and laypeople were thrown into confusion. I vividly remember my own dismay when I discovered that although I had entered the Catholic Church because I had come to see (with Cardinal Newman's help) the necessity for a teaching authority, large numbers of Catholics were chafing under that authority and yearning for an illusory freedom. This strange rebellion in the post-Vatican II Church is examined and blisteringly rebuked in Ralph McInerny's What Went Wrong with Vatican II . McInerny contends that the problem wasn't Vatican II itself, which, as an ecumenical council, enjoyed the protection of the Holy Spirit. The problem, he argues, came afterward: with Humanae Vitae , Pope Paul VI's restatement of the Church's constant teaching that artificial contraception is immoral. Instead of greeting it with respect and obedience, a large group of clergy dissented publicly from Humanae Vitae and touched off a civil war in the Church as they competed with the Vatican for the obedience of the faithful. In this crucial book, McInerny traces the problem and shows what we must do now to restore the Church.

In Characters In Search of Their Author , the Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Glasgow in 1999-2000, Ralph McInerny discusses natural theology as it can be discussed in the present philosophical climate. The first five lectures ask "Whatever Happened to Natural Theology?", and trace the fate of philosophical efforts to establish the existence and nature of God in modern times. In the second set of lectures, dealing with "The Recovery of Natural Theology," McInerny defends the viability of the philosophical effort against certain dominant trends in contemporary philosophy. It has been the practise of Gifford Lecturers to write a book based on the lectures, often years after the event. This book contains the text of the lectures McInerny actually delivered.

Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, was one of the few unalloyed heroes of World War II. At great personal risk, he saved some 800,000 Jews from extermination by the Nazis. Jewish refugees were given asylum in the Vatican, swelling the number of Swiss Guards. No Allied leader can match his glorious record. Golda Meir lauded Pius XII after the war, and the chief rabbi of Rome became a Roman Catholic, taking the name of Eugenio in tribute to Eugenio Pacelli. Why then has such a man been vilified and all but accused of being responsible for the Holocaust? Rolf Hochhuth's infamous play, The Deputy, marked the turning point. The outrageous distortions of this play turned the greatest friend the Jewish people had during World War II into an anti-Semite. This book restores Pius XII to the rank of hero, demolishes the ludicrous charges against him, and identifies the true target of this infamous calumny: the Church, the papacy, and the Christian moral teaching which confronts and condemns the Culture of Death.

The Very Rich Hours of Jacques Maritain is distinguished philosopher Ralph McInerny’s hymn of praise to the spiritual and intellectual life of the great Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (1881–1973). The structure of this work is modeled on the medieval book of hours, making use of the daily offices, from Matins through Compline, to examine each stage of the life of Maritain and his wife, Raïssa. Through this unique blending of biography and meditation, McInerny creates a powerful portrait of the Maritains, one that reveals a model of the intellectual life as lived by Christian believers. McInerny’s authoritative work provides an interesting and accessible avenue of entry to Maritain’s life and thought. Among the topics McInerny covers are Maritain’s remarkable and diverse set of friends, his involvement in French politics, and the development of his views on the nature and future of democracy, the church, and Catholic intellectual life. By skillfully interweaving Maritain’s philosophy with anecdotes from his life, McInerny demonstrates what distinguished Maritain as a Catholic philosopher and why he is a source of inspiration for McInerny and others of his generation. “This is the best book about Jacques Maritain in the English language. McInerny provides a standard for Maritain scholarship.” — Jude P. Dougherty, Catholic University of America “Ralph McInerny has done a great service to the study of Maritain in producing a work that is informative, engaging, and inspiring. No one reading this book can fail to be impressed by the achievements of Maritain or be struck by how apt an author is McInerny to relate them, for he shares in the multifaceted talent of his subject. This book will be read in years to come.” — John Haldane, University of St Andrews “This marvelous portrait of Jacques Maritain demonstrates why in the 20th century he was a unique role model for intellectuals and artists throughout the world. Amidst the tumultuous events of that century, political, cultural, philosophical, Maritain kept his compass pointing to true north, on sanctity through Christ and the Church. McInerny shows why Maritain ought to remain a model for all with a similar goal now.” — John P. O'Callaghan, University of Notre Dame

With I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You , Ralph McInerny―distinguished scholar, mystery writer, editor, publisher, and family man―delivers a thoroughly engaging memoir. In the course of his recollections, McInerny describes his childhood in Minnesota; his grammar school and seminary education, with his decision to leave the path toward ordination; his marriage to his beloved Connie and their active family life and travels; and his life as a fiction writer. We learn of his career as a Catholic professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, his views on the Catholic Church, his experiences as an editor and publisher of Catholic magazines and reviews, his involvement with the International Catholic University, and his thoughts on other Catholic writers. Part homage to his academic home for the last half century and part appreciation of the many significant friendships he has fostered over his life, McInerny's reminiscences beautifully convey his lively interest in the world and his gift for friendship and collegiality. Written in his characteristically elegant style, by turns charming, poignant, humorous, and revealing, I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You will delight McInerny's many devoted readers.

Ralph McInerny puts before the reader a number of writers who in their different ways were influenced by their Catholic faith - or in the case of Willa Cather by a faith that was a near cousin to Catholicism. Many of these writers would have been surprised by, even unhappy with, the designation Catholic. The adjective may suggest that their fiction is apologetic, catechetical, pastoral. But the point of noticing the influence of faith on the outlook of these writers is not to separate them off from writers tout court, but to emphasize that they occupy in a way noteworthy in these last times the mainstream of Western literature. It would seem gratuitous to refer to Dante and Shakespeare and Dryden as Catholic authors. There is no need to point out that the faith was the very air they breathed. Nowadays it seems useful to make the point explicit.

Dante and the Blessed Virgin is distinguished philosopher Ralph McInerny's eloquent reading of one of western literature's most famous works by a Catholic writer. The book provides Catholic readers new to Dante's The Divine Comedy (or Commedia ) with a concise companion volume. McInerny argues that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the key to Dante. She is behind the scenes at the very beginning of the Commedia , and she is found at the end in the magnificent closing cantos of the Paradiso . McInerny also discusses Dante's Vita Nuova , where Mary is present as the object of the young Beatrice's devotion. McInerny draws from a diverse group of writers throughout this book, including Plato, Aristotle, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas, and George Santayana, among others. It is St. Thomas, however, to whom McInerny most often turns, and this book also provides an accessible introduction to Thomistic moral philosophy focusing on the appetites, the ordering of goods, the distinction between the natural and the supernatural orders, the classification of capital vices and virtues, and the nature of the theological virtues. This engagingly written book will serve as a source of inspiration and devotion for anyone approaching Dante's work for the first time as well as those who value the work of Ralph McInerny.