The Culture of the Incarnation: Essays in Catholic Theology (Renewal Within Tradition)

by Tracey Rowland

Publisher:

Emmaus Academic

, 2017

Overview

In this collection of essays, distinguished Australian theologian Tracey Rowland takes up the relationship of Christ and culture, broadly understood. She contrasts the principles undergirding what St. John Paul II called a “culture of death” with those required for the flourishing of a humanism that flows from the grace of the Incarnation.

Rowland returns frequently to the theological insights of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, to whose thought she is deeply indebted. Drawing upon the Augustinian and Thomist traditions of political theology, she offers a trenchant theological critique of liberalism in all its forms, with attention to our modern attraction to false utopias and accommodationist impulses.

The nine essays in this volume engage such perennial topics as the place of natural law, the theological status of the “world,” and the nature of true humanism, along with timely topics such as the retrieval of the sources of Catholic resistance to Communism and what is now commonly called cultural Marxism. Rowland’s inimitable voice, keen wit, and penetrating insight into the distinctiveness of Catholic truth make this book a landmark volume as the Church today revisits anew its relationship to the world.

Key Features

• Places culture back at the center of the Church’s attention
• Contains a collection of nine essays focusing in the Incarnation
• Offers a sober challenge and corrective to the anti-culture generated by modern liberal orders

Contents

• Beyond the Correlationist Paradigm: Joseph Ratzinger on Re-Evangelization and Mass Culture
• The World in the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• Augustinian and Thomist Engagements with the World
• Variations on the Theme of Christian Hope in the Works of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI
• Culture in the Thought of John Paul II and Benedict XVI
• Poland and Communism (for Those Too Young to Remember!)
• The Contribution of the Polish Intelligentsia to the Breakthrough of 1989
• Natural Law: From Neo-Thomism to Nuptial Mysticism
• The Humanism of the Incarnation: Catholic, Barthian, and Dutch Reformed

Praise for The Culture of the Incarnation

In this fine collection of essays Tracey Rowland sustains and deepens her articulation of a non-correlationist theology of culture for which culture as formation is nonetheless essential to the theological project. In the course of doing so she shows us what a wise and significant theologian of culture Joseph Ratzinger has been, and why his influence is likely to outlast those of his detractors.

—John Milbank, University of Nottingham

In this learned collection of essays, Tracey Rowland offers a sober challenge and corrective to the anti-culture generated by modern liberal orders. While engaging a wide range of major figures in this essential study of our theological-political condition—including Wojtyla, Ratzinger, Havel, MacIntyre, and Guardini—Rowland not only distills and integrates but achieves a critical perspective that is distinctive, instructive, and timely.

—Patrick J. Deneen, University of Notre Dame

The Australian theologian Tracey Rowland is recognized as an internationally esteemed expert in all matters pertaining to Pope Benedict XVI. This precious collection of essays offers a rich, variegated tapestry of topics: from Benedict XVI, culture, Augustine, Thomism, John Paul II, natural law, and Vatican II to ecumenism. New perspectives are being unlocked. The uniting melody is the mystery of the Godman among us. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

—Fr. Emery de Gaál, University of Saint Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, IL

We need to be grateful to Dr. Rowland for this volume, which places culture back at the center of the Church’s attention. Drawing chiefly on the thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, Rowland points out the distinguishing marks of a culture that is truly Christian. By dedicating two chapters on the overthrow of communism in Poland, she also gives a concrete and opportune example of a culture’s successful transformation by the workings of a creative minority.

—Stephan Kampowski, Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, Rome

Product Details

• Title: The Culture of the Incarnation: Essays in Catholic Theology
• Author: Tracey Rowland
• Series: Renewal within Tradition
• Publisher: Emmaus Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2017
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Pages: 170
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Christianity and culture; Catholic Church › Doctrines; Incarnation
• ISBNs: 9781945125522, 9781945125515, 1945125527, 1945125519
• Resource ID: LLS:RNWLTRDTNCTHLTH
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:47:19Z

About Tracey Rowland

Tracey Rowland is dean and associate professor of political philosophy and Continental theology at the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She is a member of the Centre for Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham and a member of the editorial board of the English language edition of Communio, founded, among others, by Joseph Ratzinger. She is the author of Culture and the Thomist Tradition: After Vatican II and Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Benedict XVI.