New Publication: ‘Christian Faith and the Power of Thinking’

Fr. Seán Martin, President of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO, receives a copy of the just published book, Christian Faith and the Power of Thinking, from Fr. Jay Harrington, O.P. Regent of Studies for the Province of St. Albert the Great. The book, comprising 9 essays, marks the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). The authors include 5 current or former professors from Aquinas Institute and 3 current members of the Board of Trustees.

How do friars of the Order of Preachers – an Order founded around study, preaching, prayer and community – best commemorate eight-hundred years of their intellectual and spiritual tradition? Fr. Jay Harrington, OP, Regent of Studies for the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great and Associate Academic Dean at Aquinas Institute of Theology (St. Louis, MO), invites the modern reader to glimpse into the lineage and tradition of the Dominicans through various lenses in his compilation, Christian Faith and the Power of Thinking: A Collection of Essays, Marking the 800th Anniversary of the Founding of the Order of Preachers in 1216.

In addition to his own chapter on the 13th-century Dominican, Augustine of Dacia, OP, Fr. Harrington includes the essays of Dominican friars from the Provinces of St. Albert the Great and St. Martin de Porres: Fr. Charles Dahm, OP; Fr. James Marchionda, OP; Fr. Thomas O’Meara, OP; the late Fr. Paul Philibert, OP; Fr. Scott Steinkerchner, OP; Fr. Benedict Thomas Viviano, OP; Fr. Mark Wedig, OP; and Fr. Richard Woods, OP. The authors treat their subjects with expertise, the fruits of the labor resulting from extensive intellectual work and practical ministerial application, and definitively within the charism of the Dominican Order.

This collection of essays offers the casual reader a wide selection of topics ranging from history to the arts, from the ministerial to the theological. For the discerning Dominican reader, Christian Faith and the Power of Thinking can provide a deepened insight into particular eras and schools of thought within the Order’s history with which he or she may already have familiarity.

While the authors cover prominent Dominican figures, such as St. Albert the Great, Meister Eckhart, and M.D. Chenu, they also provide cultural, historical, and theological context, thus piecing together what otherwise might seem to be a patchwork quilt of content. Instead, the authors, under the guiding vision of Fr. Harrington, present readers a stained glass window through which to view the eight-hundred-year Dominican tradition, each essay a fragment of the whole, designed and polished individually, before being crafted together, unified.

Christian Faith and the Power of Thinking was made possible through a grant from Aquinas Institute of Theology, in order to teach and engage Catholic readers in the spirit of St. Dominic. New Priory Press is delighted to announce that Christian Faith and the Power of Thinking is available from www.newpriorypress.com.