Catholic Realism: A Framework for the Refutation of Atheism and the Evangelization of Atheists by Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, and Dr. Ronda Chervin

Catholic Realism: A Framework for the Refutation of Atheism and the Evangelization of Atheists

by Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, and Dr. Ronda Chervin

Atheism is in revival. Many in the 21st Century lack a belief in a supernatural Creator. This requires an emboldened response from those who also live by faith, doing what God has called them to do, and not through their five senses alone (2 Corinthians 5:7). As Pope Benedict XVI said in his January 9, 2013, audience, “The event of the Incarnation, of God who became man, like us, shows us the daring realism of divine love.” Those of us who ‘see’ that daring realism are called to share it with others, and that is the idea behind this book called Catholic Realism. As Catholics, we can share a response based on revelation and interpreted by the Magisterium, but that will not satisfy the atheist. Indeed, it does not satisfy many who believe the Gospel message is true but do not live faith-filled lives. For that reason, a philosophical response is a necessary pre-evangelization tool. This book is designed to assist the everyday evangelist in developing such a tool.

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A Note for Readers of this Book:

When you, yourself, have been fortified as an evangelizer you may wonder: “How can I get atheists to read the same arguments for theism that are in this book?”

The authors of Catholic Realism have an answer, having put together a short companion book entitled Why be an Atheist if??? with the best arguments in Catholic Realism addressed to the doubter rather than to the evangelizer. After all, what atheist wants to read about strategies others are using to convert him or her?

Check it out!

TESTIMONIALS

I’ve read dozens of books both promoting and refuting atheism, and Drs. Mahfood and Chervin have produced one of my absolute favorites. Not only does this book reveal the weakness of classical and modern atheistic arguments, it shows the truth, goodness, and beauty of Catholic realism, from a masterful summary of Aquinas’s proofs of God’s existence and descriptions of His attributes, to sprinklings of the wisdom and artistry of Dante. Catholic Realism features penetrating biographical sketches of prominent modern atheists turned theists (some of whom were completely new to me), probing philosophical analyses of metaphysical and ethical issues, and an excellent chapter on the enduring friendship between the Catholic Faith and science. Catholic Realism is superb and deserves a very wide audience. – Dr. Kevin Vost, author of Memorize the Mass!, Memorize the Faith! and Memorize the Reasons!

“A familiar term like ‘atheism’ may lead some readers (or listeners), like me, to expect to hear familiar arguments. To the contrary, Catholic Realism was novel in most respects, a cogently presented and informative read. It was authoritative and a truly engaging read; I very much enjoyed it!” – Gregory LaPoint, Founder and President of The Center for Natural Law

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ronda Chervin has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Notre Dame Apostolic Institute. She is a convert to the Catholic faith from a Jewish but atheistic background. She has been a professor at Loyola Marymount University, St. John’s Seminary of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Our Lady of Corpus Christi, and presently teaches at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut. More than fifty books of hers have been published by Catholic presses in the area of philosophy and spirituality. Dr. Ronda presents on EWTN and Catholic radio. She is a dedicated widow and grandmother. Her many books include Quotable Saints,Seeking Christ in the Crosses & Joys of Aging, Catholic Realism and Voyage to Insight.

Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, is a Lay Dominican of the Queen of the Holy Rosary chapter in the Province of St. Albert the Great. Dr. Mahfood holds a master’s in comparative literature from the University of Texas at Arlington, a master’s in philosophy and a master’s in theology from Holy Apostles College & Seminary, a master’s in educational technology from Webster University and a doctorate in postcolonial literature and theory from Saint Louis University. Among his other publications include his book Radical Eschatologies: Embracing the Eschaton in the Works of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Nuruddin Farah, and Ayi Kwei Armah. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, Dr. Stephanie Mahfood, and children, Alexander and Eva Ruth.

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A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics, Volume 2: An Introduction to Ragamuffin Thomism

A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics, Volume 2: An Introduction to Ragamuffin Thomism

by Dr. Peter Redpath

Nothing short of a metaphysical disturbance and metaphysical revolution of the highest order can resolve the West’s and the world’s current cultural, political, and civilizational problems. Dr. Redpath’s contribution to resolving this metaphysical crisis has been chiefly to add to the vision of his mentors the dimension that the only way to reunite science and wisdom is through uniting philosophy and science, and the only way to reunite philosophy and science is through a new interpretation of Western intellectual history, especially that of the nature of ancient philosophy and of the teachings of St. Thomas.

While in the first volume of this series, Dr. Redpath endeavored to accomplish this re-interpretation, in this second volume, he has sought chiefly to consider essential implications regarding the nature of the reunion between philosophy and science and the teachings of St. Thomas. He expects that he has helped his mentors give birth to a radically new interpretation of St. Thomas (what some colleagues of his and he have started to call “Born Again Thomism” or “Ragamuffin Thomism”) as well as a radically new interpretation ofphilosophy and science. Download Chapter 1 of Volume 1 for free and buy the book to read the rest.

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TESTIMONIALS

“A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics is a rich book, and Redpath has a clear style. He breaks complicated issues into short, intelligible units. He repeats difficult points, and then he repeats them again, rephrasing them to make them understandable. This is a book I wish I’d had in my earlier years of studies. In reading it, I found that many notions and points I had often wondered about, or about which I needed more explanation, were much clearer after Redpath dealt with them. For us metaphysicians, this is a book of refreshment and a review of what we thought we knew….A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics is one of those rare, to-the-point books that argues forcefully about the heart of things. The book is remarkably whole. It relates the order of the mind and the order of things in a way we seldom see in a brief space. Yes, it remains a difficult book. We must take time to read it….The advantage of this book is its constant, step-by-step guidance to knowing how to achieve such an end of understanding what is, if we would have it. This is the highest service a professor can perform for those who wonder, for those who seek to know reality.” – Fr. James V. Schall, New Oxford Review, May 2018, Volume LXXXV, Number 4.

“Standing on the shoulders of the intellectual principles that he has synthesized from classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas and twentieth-century intellectual giants like Mortimer J. Adler, Jacques Maritain, Armand A. Maurer, and Charles Bonaventure Crowley, Redpath has, in the tradition of Adler, composed a monumental work that challenges as false and civilizationally dangerous prevailing opinions of leading philosophical scholars, scientists, and ethicists ‘falsely-so-called’ about the nature and history of the subjects in which they profess to have an expertise.” – Max Weismann, Co-founder, with Mortimer J. Adler, of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas

“This present book, ‘written,’ as the author tells, ‘in the hope of ending the centuries-old separation between philosophy and science and science and wisdom,’ has only one counterpart known to me, and that is The Way toward Wisdom by the late Benedict Ashley, O.P.. The thematic synchronicity of these two volumes so close in time may well suggest that a veritable Tsunamic revision of modern philosophy’s ‘standard picture’ is approaching the shore of our time! Ragamuffin Thomism may well prove to be the next major wave in philosophy’s future.” – John N. Deely, Saint Vincent Seminary and College

“This volume II brings the wisdom of volume I to new heights. For a modern person, struggling with the complexities of today’s world, Metaphysics sounds like an antique, useless, with no personal value. Redpath shows how Christian Metaphysics is a central piece in the development of personal and organizational leadership. Christian Metaphysics provides what modern sciences were incapable of doing: unveiling the best of life, what are the secrets of happiness, the elements to empower every person and organization, to develop a vision, motivate and energize everyone towards such vision, in summary: leadership. Christian Metaphysics is a central piece in discovering the best life, to unify each person’s psychology, to reintegrate the society, towards its best. This book is unique, for anyone, to develop wisdom and leadership.” – Dr Juan Pablo Stegmann

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter A. Redpath (retired Full Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, New York) is author, editor, co-editor of 22 books and many dozens of articles and book reviews. An internationally recognized scholar, since 1980 he has given over 200 invited guest lectures nationally and internationally. Among his many accomplishments, he is CEO of the Aquinas School of Leadership, LLC; former Founder and Chair of the Thomistic Studies Graduate Concentration in Christian Wisdom for Holy Apostles College and Seminary (USA); an Affiliate Scholar with the University Abat Oliba Graduate program (Barcelona, Spain). Peter is also co-founder of the Gilson Society (USA) and the International Etienne Gilson Society, the Adler-Aquinas Institute, and the Angelicum Academy and Great Books Academy homeschool programs (both founded with the help of Mortimer J. Adler); former executive editor of the Value Inquiry Book Series (VIBS) for the Dutch publisher Editions Rodopi, B.V., and special series editor for Rodopi and Brill/Rodopi. Presently, he is a member of the editorial board of Brill Publishing’s Philosophy and Religion (PAR) series, a member of the Advisory Board of the Lyceum Institute, and Officer in Charge of Medieval Christian Philosophy and Academic Liaison to the Holy See for Global Scholarly Publications. For a list of articles published on the Catholic World Report, see http://www.catholicworldreport.com/author/redpath-peter/

One of the books Dr. Redpath has edited and highly endorses is Origin of the Human Species by Dr. Dennis Bonnette. Dr. Bonnette has also written an article on the topic entitled, “The rational credibility of a literal Adam and Eve.” When combined with the article, the book provides a Thomistic interpretation of mainstream evolution theory that is consonant with Catholic teaching, including that regarding our first parents.The article is found in the peer reviewed Spanish philosophical journal, Espiritu. For a list of articles published on the Catholic World Report, see http://www.catholicworldreport.com/author/redpath-peter/

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A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics, Volume 1: Written in the Hope of Ending the Centuries-old Separation between Philosophy and Science and Science and Wisdom

A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics book cover

A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics, Volume 1: Written in the Hope of Ending the Centuries-old Separation between Philosophy and Science and Science and Wisdom

by Dr. Peter Redpath

This book’s chief aim is novel and radical: to reunite philosophy, science, and wisdom (which had initially been separated several centuries ago by René Descartes) through a synthesis of two new interpretations, one of the nature of ancient Greek philosophy and science, and, two, of the metaphysical teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas about philosophy and science. Download Chapter 1 of Volume 1 for free and buy the book to read the rest.

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On December 11, 2012, Prof. Peter A. Redpath discussed his book A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics in which he examines the essential connection between philosophy, science, and wisdom, severed with the birth of “modern science.”

Audio version of the above talk located on the International Etienne Gilson Society Website:

SCHOLARLY REVIEWS

Dr. Raymond Dennehy, International Philosophical Quarterly (Volume 56, Issue 3, September 2016, 381-383) – (click here to read it).
Fr. James V. Schall, SJ, New Oxford Review (May 2018) – (click here to read it)

TESTIMONIALS

“A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics is a rich book, and Redpath has a clear style. He breaks complicated issues into short, intelligible units. He repeats difficult points, and then he repeats them again, rephrasing them to make them understandable. This is a book I wish I’d had in my earlier years of studies. In reading it, I found that many notions and points I had often wondered about, or about which I needed more explanation, were much clearer after Redpath dealt with them. For us metaphysicians, this is a book of refreshment and a review of what we thought we knew….A Not-So-Elementary Christian Metaphysics is one of those rare, to-the-point books that argues forcefully about the heart of things. The book is remarkably whole. It relates the order of the mind and the order of things in a way we seldom see in a brief space. Yes, it remains a difficult book. We must take time to read it….The advantage of this book is its constant, step-by-step guidance to knowing how to achieve such an end of understanding what is, if we would have it. This is the highest service a professor can perform for those who wonder, for those who seek to know reality.” – Fr. James V. Schall (Professor Emeritus in the Department of Government at Georgetown University), New Oxford Review, May 2018, Volume LXXXV, Number 4.

“Standing on the shoulders of the intellectual principles that he has synthesized from classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas and twentieth-century intellectual giants like Mortimer J. Adler, Jacques Maritain, Armand A. Maurer, and Charles Bonaventure Crowley, Redpath has, in the tradition of Adler, composed a monumental work that challenges as false and civilizationally dangerous prevailing opinions of leading philosophical scholars, scientists, and ethicists ‘falsely-so-called’ about the nature and history of the subjects in which they profess to have an expertise.” – Max Weismann, Co-founder, with Mortimer J. Adler, of the Center for the Study of The Great Ideas

“In his book, A Not So Elementary Christian Metaphysics, Dr. Peter Redpath offers insightful analysis as to how modern science came to replace the classical philosophy and theology that had reigned in Western thought prior to the time of Rene Descartes. Redpath points out that no true science is possible without metaphysics first to offer apodictic foundations upon which to build the scientific edifice. Still, Descartes separated science from the world of theology and philosophy, thus starting it on a long historical road that ends in traditional ontological questions about human life, its origin, and destiny being now claimed solely the province of utopian socialists using modern methods of mathematical physics. The author skillfully illuminates the intellectual moves made by modern philosophers that led finally to the abysmal error that traditional religion and philosophy are today considered relics of an ‘infantile past.’ Redpath’s adroit exposure of this twisted intellectual path to modern folly makes for rewarding reading.” – Dr. Dennis Bonnette, retired, Niagara University in Lewiston, New York

“The power of Redpath’s historical survey and analysis is reminiscent of Hegel at his most sweeping.” – Jude P. Dougherty, Dean Emeritus of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America

“Within the context of his penetrating review, Redpath gives stunning reinterpretations of Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas to show that each of them recognized philosophy and science to be mainly studies of the problem of understanding the one and the many. His analysis of Aristotle and St. Thomas’s teaching about the nature of science is revolutionary. Within the process of these reinterpretations, he challenges commonly-received opinions among scholars about the nature and origin of the problem of universals, the nature of analogy and Christian philosophy, and the role that Descartes and Rousseau play in the development of modern thought. He persuasively argues that Rousseau is a neo-Averroist and that Rousseau’s teaching about the ‘General Will’ is simply an analogous transposition to the political sphere of Averroes’s teaching about the unity of the intellect. He even goes so far as to claim that the popular reduction of science to physics and the divorce of science from philosophy and wisdom is a result of the displacement in modern thought of metaphysics by utopian socialism (of various stripes). In short, he radically alters prevailing undertandings of philosophy, science, politics, and their history. In doing so he opens the path to their reunification. To say that this book is groundbreaking is an understatement. It is nothing short of a radical reinterpretation of Western intellectual history. As such, it should be an essential part of any serious scholar’s library.” – Dr. Curtis Hancock, Rockhurst University

“Common sense tells us the mind seeks unity and truth. While the universe is composed of many elements, the universe is nonetheless a universe(meaning one.) Our mind seeks truth in understanding commonality. The Greeks understood that the mind sought wisdom by the integration of reality. The modern age as it evolved to materialism and atheism chose to separate science from philosophy from each other ,being dismissive of philosophy since it was intangible. The issue is simple, but scientists and philosophers who are legendary created labyrinthian epistemological systems that bear no semblance to reality. Redpath, being a brilliantly disciplined philosopher with the common sense of a native of Brooklyn, NY cuts through the confusion in a volume that will rock ersatz philosophers!!!” – Joseph Indelicato, Caritas Consulting

“Dr. Redpath observes that all science/philosophy ‘chiefly aims at improving human possession of truth’ and adopts Mortimer Adler’s reflection that ‘the relation between truth and error is always that of a one to many. The truth is always singular, while the errors it corrects are manifold’ (p.210). In this work, Dr. Redpath accurately identifies the conditions for knowing the truth and at the same time combats the manifold errors that flow from the modern and postmodern misunderstanding of science/philosophy and attendant separation of science from philosophy. Metaphysical realism unites all the sciences under a final end and is inseparable from them. The principles of metaphysics are common to all the arts and sciences. Tearing down this wall of separation between philosophy and science is a necessary condition for reversing the decay of Western culture. Redpath begins the task.” – Michael B. Mangini, Attorney-at-Law

“This book is a “must read” for anyone wanting to develop a fine critical thinking on modern Western culture. Dr. Redpath provides a view of the evolution of modern thinking, by looking at the impact that abandoning Christian Metaphysics had on modernity, on current sciences and philosophy. Christian Metaphysics not only has a central role in providing unity to human knowledge, to build wisdom, to integrate sciences, which leads to the integration of the human being and the societies; but more than that, it rediscovers the best of the world, of man, the meaning of life, the road to happiness.” – Dr. Juan Pablo Stegmann

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter A. Redpath (retired Full Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, New York) is author, editor, co-editor of 22 books and many dozens of articles and book reviews. An internationally recognized scholar, since 1980 he has given over 200 invited guest lectures nationally and internationally. Among his many accomplishments, he is CEO of the Aquinas School of Leadership, LLC; former Founder and Chair of the Thomistic Studies Graduate Concentration in Christian Wisdom for Holy Apostles College and Seminary (USA); an Affiliate Scholar with the University Abat Oliba Graduate program (Barcelona, Spain). Peter is also co-founder of the Gilson Society (USA) and the International Etienne Gilson Society, the Adler-Aquinas Institute, and the Angelicum Academy and Great Books Academy homeschool programs (both founded with the help of Mortimer J. Adler); former executive editor of the Value Inquiry Book Series (VIBS) for the Dutch publisher Editions Rodopi, B.V., and special series editor for Rodopi and Brill/Rodopi. Presently, he is a member of the editorial board of Brill Publishing’s Philosophy and Religion (PAR) series, a member of the Advisory Board of the Lyceum Institute, and Officer in Charge of Medieval Christian Philosophy and Academic Liaison to the Holy See for Global Scholarly Publications. For a list of articles published on the Catholic World Report, see http://www.catholicworldreport.com/author/redpath-peter/

One of the books Dr. Redpath has edited and highly endorses is Origin of the Human Species by Dr. Dennis Bonnette. Dr. Bonnette has also written an article on the topic entitled, “The rational credibility of a literal Adam and Eve.” When combined with the article, the book provides a Thomistic interpretation of mainstream evolution theory that is consonant with Catholic teaching, including that regarding our first parents.The article is found in the peer reviewed Spanish philosophical journal, Espiritu. For a list of articles published on the Catholic World Report, see http://www.catholicworldreport.com/author/redpath-peter/

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Spirituality for All Times: Readings from the Catholic Classics

Spirituality for All Times: Readings from the Catholic Classics

Edited by Ronda Chervin and Kathleen Brouillette

Spirituality for All Times is offered in the hope that it will inspire those who seek a deeper union with God. The authors have chosen to offer short selections to enable the reader to wade in from the shallow end of the pool, so to speak, until they are comfortable enough to take their feet off the bottom and swim toward the deeper end – someday reading whole books by the same writers. A brief review of the table of contents will convey to the reader a specific concept underlying Catholic spirituality: one size doesn’t fit all!

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TESTIMONIALS

“Ronda Chervin and Kathleen Brouillette have brought together in this little volume an important collection of spiritual wisdom from across the ages. To paraphrase St. Catherine of Siena, from my own Dominican tradition, the reason for such diversity in spirituality among believers is so that we realize the value of our coming together in community for the purpose of supporting one another through God’s grace in the pursuit of our salvation.” – Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, co-author with Dr. Ronda Chervin of Catholic Realism: A Framework for the Refutation of Atheism and the Evangelization of Atheists

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ronda Chervin has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Notre Dame Apostolic Institute. She is a convert to the Catholic faith from a Jewish but atheistic background. She has been a professor at Loyola Marymount University, St. John’s Seminary of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Our Lady of Corpus Christi, and presently teaches at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut. More than fifty books of hers have been published by Catholic presses in the area of philosophy and spirituality. Dr. Ronda presents on EWTN and Catholic radio. She is a dedicated widow and grandmother. Her many books include Quotable Saints, Seeking Christ in the Crosses & Joys of Aging, Catholic Realism and Voyage to Insight

Kathleen Brouillette is the Director of Religious Education at a parish in Connecticut. She is a graduate of the Master of Theology Program at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, providing a valedictory address at the 2020 and 2021 virtual graduation ceremony. With encouragement from her professors to write about the faith, she was invited by Dr. Ronda Chervin to co-author this, Kathleen’s first book. When not teaching or learning about the Faith, Kathleen is happy to be sailing with her husband or spending time with their children and grandchildren.

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The Jesus Code: In the Beginning was the Word

The Jesus Code: In the Beginning was the Word

by Roger Skrenes

Jesus is the only person in the history of the world whose biography was known before he was born! He wanted everyone on earth to know of this miraculous Old Testament portrait of himself (Luke 24:27), and that is the starting point for this book.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roger Skrenes studied science as an undergraduate and history as a graduate. He holds a master’s degree in religion and has taught high school in Los Angeles, California, for over thirty years, including six summers in the California Youth Authority (a prison for teenage boys in Whittier, CA). He is the father of three adult children, Mary, Mark and Therese.

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