Herbert McCabe Theology Collection (6 vols.)

by Herbert McCabe

Publishers:

Continuum; Bloomsbury

, 2003–2012

Overview

A master of philosophy and theology, Herbert McCabe is regarded as one of the deepest and most profound Roman Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century. The epitome of Dominican intellectual openness and rigor, McCabe’s writings read like great speaking, making clear the complex. Reason and good argumentation are emphasized, while jargon, intellectual posturing, and platitudes are shunned. This collection features McCabe’s mature thinking on a wide range of topics pertinent to the intersection of philosophy and theology—the reasonableness of religious belief, the sacraments as producers of human unity, the vision of God as the goal of human happiness, salvation through the human Son of God, ethical thinking, and more.

Key Features

• Includes sermons, spiritual addresses, essays, and book length material
• Explores topics important to Christianity, the church, and ethics, informed by the lenses of both philosophy and theology
• Examines sacramental theology with clarity and depth of insight, informed by reason
• Offers profound and balanced insight into the divinely-established, human quest for happiness

Faith Within Reason

• Author: Herbert McCabe
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication Date: 2007
• Pages: 184

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Is it possible to think about religious beliefs philosophically? Should religious beliefs be viewed as a flight from reason or as capable of rational support? Can theologians learn from philosophers? Can philosophers learn from theologians? Is it possible to be both a good Christian and a good thinker? Can there be such a thing as reasonable faith?

This book is chiefly concerned with these questions and others related to them. A collection of previously unpublished papers written by the late Herbert McCabe O.P., it examines the nature of religious belief, especially belief in God, with an eye on both theological and philosophical arguments. Some thinkers have sought to drive a wedge between philosophy and theology. Like Thomas Aquinas, whose writings he especially admired, McCabe seeks to show how the two can be systematically connected. Some religious truths, he argues, may defy our understanding. But this does not mean that they cannot be reasonably discussed.

This is a book that has much to offer professional academics and general readers alike. It is the work of a born communicator, who has the power to inspire and to touch the heart, as well as to argue his case with care and with rigour. Christianity could do with more such advocates

—John Cottingham, The Tablet

God Still Matters

• Author: Herbert McCabe
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication Date: 2002
• Pages: 256

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Herbert McCabe, who died in 2001, was one of the most intelligent Roman Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century. An influence on philosophers such as Anthony Kenny and Alasdair McIntyre he was also befriended by poets and literary critics such as Seamus Heaney and Terry Eagleton. Equally at home in philosophy and theology, he despised jargon and intellectual posturing as a substitute for reason and argument.At the time of his death, he left a wealth of unpublished material- so outstanding in its quality and originality that it is surprising that it was never published in book form. This is now put to rights. In God Still Matters we have the chance to read McCabe on the topics that interested him most- philosophy of God, Christology, Fundamental theology, Sacramental theology and ethics.Noone who reads this volume will doubt that McCabe was one of the outstanding Chrisian thinkers of his generation and the epitome of Dominican intellectual openness and rigour.

There is a breadth to this book...M.’s [McCabe’s] use of Aquinas’s insights are fresh to the topics raised, and he is master at clearly presenting the core of the matter...The two achievements of the volume are M.’s original insights into the topics and his delightful and engaging style. Surely waiting to be written is a doctoral dissertation on his thought.

—Theological Studies

God, Christ and Us

• Author: Herbert McCabe
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 176

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Here is a collection of Herbert McCabe’s more popular spiritual writings. McCabe was highly regarded as a writer on philosophy and theology but in true Dominican tradition (the Order of Preachers) he was also a brilliant preacher. He always preached in a lively and witty way - his style has been compared to that of G.K. Chesterton. This collection of his sermons and spiritual addresses are never platitudinous or short of ideas, filled with questions, arguments and solid intellectual content. The major influence on McCabe was the Bible but he was also a devoted admirer of the thought of St Thomas Aquinas, whose ideas saturated his public speaking. From the Bible, McCabe derived the notion of God leading us to happiness through the work of grace and through the life and teachings of Jesus. From Aquinas, McCabe derived a hatred of idolatry, a powerful sense of the incomprehensibility of God and a recognition that we depend on God’s gracious revelation of himself rather that what we can work out on the basis of our limited understanding. A presiding theme in this book is that we are saved because of the life of someone fully human. God, Christ and Us communicates the essence of the Gospel in an original and compelling way. It can therefore be mentioned in the same breath as works by Dean Inge, Donald Soper, H.A. Williams and Leslie Weatherhead.

An irresistibly direct, earthy no-nonsense refresher course in Christian Faith as such...A brilliantly unususal guide to Christian and (in the fullest sense) Catholic reality, accessible to practically an reader.

—Archbishop Rowan Williams

Law, Love and Language

• Author: Herbert McCabe
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication Date: 2003
• Pages: 224

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

What is ethics all about? In this book Herbert McCabe suggests that it is about loving, obeying laws and talking to people. In doing so, he offers an introduction to ethical thinking for anyone with a serious interest in moral philosophy. He does so as someone who writes with a Christian audience in mind. Most of his arguments, however, do not presuppose a believing Christian readership.

That may be about to change with the republication of two of his early books, Law, Love and Language and God Matters, and the posthumous publication of a collection of essays, God Still Matters, and a book of sermons, God, Christ and Us.... McCabe’s theology merits attention not only because of its wit...but also because of the care and precision with which he treats difficult questions....McCabe’s approach to ethics helps us ask these kinds of questions.... God, Christ and Us contained 27 sermons that are worthy models for preachers, who stand on the front lines of theological discourse.

—Christian Century

The Good Life: Ethics and the Pursuit of Happiness

• Author: Herbert McCabe
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication Date: 2005
• Pages: 144

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

The Dalai Lama once wrote that the object of human existence was to be happy. This sounds extremely glib as happiness in the popular imagination is a feeling and in the words of the song ’the greatest gift that we possess’. On the other hand, von Hugel wrote ’Religion has never made me happy;it’s no use shutting your eyes to the fact that the deeper you go, the more alone you will find yourself’ This small masterpiece by the late Fr Herbert McCabe of the Dominican order steers a steady courss between these two extremes. We feels instinctively that human beings are designed to enjoy themselves and to be happy and yet we are told that suffering is good for the soul. But in the Catholic tradition the true object of human existence is the vision of God and nothing less than this will ever make us truly happy. But Fr McCabe explores much deeper issues. Is Happiness a pleasure or a pain? You hardly know. Certainly it is not a comfort for comfort spells seciurity and hapiness can take you out of yourself to a degree where all secutiry is left behind. Behind a feeling of exultation, you can sense the flame of incandescent terror. This short book is entirely original and will further enhance McCabe’s posthumous reputation.

The book glows on all its pages with rigourous argument, honest observation and apposite examples, expressed in brilliantly accurate phrases. One particular virtue is the way McCabe refuses to let an appeal to God short-circuit his arguement from nature

—Timothy McDermott, Times Literary Supplement

The New Creation

• Author: Herbert McCabe
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 176

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

A reissue of McCabe’s study of the sacraments and what it means to live in the Church and the Church’s world, The New Creation explores how human beings can reach real unity with one another and the world around them through the Spirit of Christ.

The New Creation engages with themes like the Word of God, the Son of God, the meaning of community and communion and the sacraments as mysteries of human unity; the place of physical healing in the redeemed world and the Old-Testament and pagan religious foundations upon which modern Christianity is built. There is a humane simplicity in McCabe’s insights into all of these subjects, similar to that found in the Gospels, which provides the reader with clarity on inherently complex theological issues.

’Christ is present to us in so far as we are present to each other’ as McCabe tells us and this book plainly and vividly encourages us to find the company of both.

I began to marvel at how mainstream the theology of The New Creation seemed to be. I began to wonder, then, how McCabe could have produced a book, to which he wrote the introduction in 1963 - before Vatican II had produced any of it’s documents - that seems to fit so comfortably in the mainstream Catholic theology of sacraments that had established itself since Vatican II.

—The Tablet