This book unties the philosophical knot of Dr Tracey Rowland’s assertions concerning the natural moral law, Faith and reason, nature and grace. To lay bare every bend and twist of this knot and refute Dr Rowland’s assertions, Frank Calneggia has quoted extensively from two Vatican Councils; Pope Benedict XVI and seven of his predecessors; St Thomas Aquinas; and a number of the very best twentieth century Thomists.
“I used selected extracts from Frank Calneggia’s analysis and critique of Dr. Tracey Rowland’s book Natural Law: from Neo-Thomism to Nuptial Mysticism in an appendix to my recent book Natural Law – Australian Style. Readers now have the distinct advantage of reading the full text of his work. In it, one will see how thoroughgoing his analysis and critique is. I felt the need only to extract his powerful responses to points made in the early part of his work, which are numbered 1 to 21. In fact, as may be seen on reading his work, he goes on to respond in quite amazing detail to another 130. The popes, especially of recent times, now over a period of more than a hundred and forty years, have endorsed the need for Catholic academics to use our human reason to propound and defend the Natural Moral Law. What I found most impressive in Calneggia’s responses are the number and depth of detail of citations from magisterial documents that he was able to bring to bear in direct refutation of the position of Rowland on Natural Law, and most significantly citations from Pope Benedict XVI, whose work Rowland should know well as she has herself written a book on him. Though Calneggia covers many other significant aspects of her position on Natural Law, that aspect of his response is quite devastating. But, more generally, if it only succeeds in bringing to the attention, not just of modern Catholics but also of all people amenable to reason, what is the true position of the Church on the meaning and place of the Natural Law in the defence of Faith and Morals, this work will in my view prove to be one of the most valuable contributions on the subject.” – Donald G Boland, author of Natural Law – Australian Style
The author is a retired electrical engineer who worked for most of his professional career in the specialist area of power generation. In a sabbatical year he completed post graduate research in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne. He has long loved the philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas.
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This book is a critique of the three most prominent Australian “authorities” on Law and Ethics of the present day, namely John Finnis, Tracey Rowland, and Peter Singer. So far as the study of Natural Law is concerned the central figure is John Finnis. Peter Singer relates to it indirectly as adopting a position in Moral Philosophy that rejects Natural Law in any traditional sense and takes a naturalist position in a utilitarian sense. Tracey Rowland adopts a position that downplays Natural Law as knowable by human reason or philosophy outside the theological order of grace. The works of these philosophers provide the occasion for bringing back into focus some of the great truths of ethical and legal philosophy and for showing up, as best as one can from within, the diabolically perilous situation for our modern culture that has developed since the general breakdown of Christian civilization now so long ago as to be practically forgotten.
“With this book, Dr. Boland has conducted a laser precise post-mortem on the natural law theories of
Singer, Finnis and Rowland. I highly recommend his Natural Law – Australian Style to all who teach
or study Ethics or Law in institutions of higher learning, and to all who desire to benefit from the intensive and extensive learning of a true Thomistic scholar and teacher.” – Frank Calneggia, author of Assertions and Refutations: An Assessment of Dr Tracey Rowland’s Natural Law: From Neo-Thomism to Nuptial Mysticism
Donald G Boland, Ll. B., Ph. D., is a founding member of the Centre for Catholic Studies Inc. in Sydney, Australia, and served as its president. He practiced for a number of years as a lawyer having a degree in law from the University of Sydney. Over much the same time, having obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of St. Thomas in Rome, he has taught philosophy and law in both Catholic and secular educational institutions, such as the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of Newcastle, the Aquinas Academy, the Centre for Thomistic Studies Inc., now operating under the name of the Centre for Catholic Studies Inc., and various Catholic seminaries, such as those of the Marists and the Vincentians.
His doctoral thesis was on the concepts of utility and value in economics as found in the works of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. He has maintained a constant interest in the relation between moral, social and political philosophy and modern Economic Science. He has written numerous articles on this subject and has now condensed them into this book.
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Western Philosophy has been a 2500-year conversation attempting to understand the reality which lies beyond the changing physical appearances of the world. This perennial metaphysical discussion provided the West with a framework for its beliefs, politics, morality, and common values. In the 20th century, this conversation was rejected in favor of new Materialist ideologies like Methodological Naturalism, Nazism, Nihilism, Communism, and Transhumanism. The success of these experiments in ideology hinge, though, on one central problem: Can man really be shaped into the image of his own making, or will his metaphysical identity always make a return?
Paperback: $12.95 | Kindle: $9.99
“A copy of this book should be in every high school in America, and translated into Spanish so we can get it overseas as well. I’ve told my family the same. It is that good.” – Dr. Peter Mango, former director of the MA in Philosophy program, Holy Apostles College & Seminary, Cromwell, CT
“It seems cliché to say that Western Civilization is at a crossroads. Actually, we are now beyond the crossroads a fair distance down the wrong path. In The Drama of Metaphysics, Stephen Beach details our missteps, encouraging the hope that civilization might somehow regain its bearings.” – Dr. Chris Gustafson, Director of the Regina Institute
“A well-articulated treatise that explains the shards of our ruined society and offers the kind of hope we need to begin rebuilding civilization.” – 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
“Stephen has done an excellent job of articulating the philosophical underpinnings of various worldviews in conjunction with the moral life of the human person. I highly recommend his work. Once you pick it up, it will be hard to put down.” – Dr. Marianne Siegmund, Director of the MAPS and MDiv in the New Evangelization programs at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, CT
Stephen Alexander Beach is a graduate of Holy Apostles College and Seminary with a Master of Arts in Systematic Philosophy. He has also been a high school Catholic Theology and Philosophy teacher since 2013 in Charleston, SC, where he lives with his wife, Juliana Beach.
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Ronda Chervin sets out her course through the 20th Century as a dialogue between notable pairs and herself; however, on occasion there is more than a notable pair. Chervin begins the book with James Dewey (1842-1910) and William James (1842-1910) and ends it with Albert Camus (1913-1956) and C. S. Lewis, which makes it slightly out of sequence as she precedes these two with Sartre (1905-1980) and St. John Paul II. I not only like and admire the range of her “pairs” but appreciate, too, her plan to recover from her “opponents” what he or she has to offer. In this same style of pithy comment and argument Chervin proceeds promptly and at a reasonable pace through her period companions. Each person is introduced within the framework of a reasonably brief but apposite cameo and, as far as one can tell, a fair assessment, neither omitting nor exaggerating key facts and works. Furthermore, there are often a range of excerpts from the people under consideration and, therefore, Chervin’s book starts to serve the purpose of a reader, too: a book giving actual samples of a variety of works.
The book as a whole, we begin to realize, is not a strictly chronological account of thinkers through the 20th Century; rather, it is thematic, introducing us to a range of themes and thinkers, beginning with “Religion of Experience vs. Religion of Doctrine” and ending with “Evil as Proof of Atheism vs. God as the Answer to Suffering”. At the same time, Chervin provides a variety of resources to help the interested reader or actual student of philosophy, giving a mixture of primary and secondary sources. There is a particularly attractive set of excerpts from the work of St. Edith Stein which pertains very much to the present day need to understand the equality and complementarity of the sexes; and, in a different but equally exemplary way, there is the prolife work of Joan Andrews. In other words, this book easily suffices as an introduction to both the general reader and to the student who needs an overview of the background to contemporary thought.
While Chervin specifically recommends another of her books on ethics (cf. p. 116) there are excerpts and themes which apply, directly or indirectly to human nature and moral action; for instance, as regards those who want to permit euthanasia or even seek it, there is the work of Viktor Frankl, who ‘thought there were many layers where illness could arise, and that one of them was due to failure to find meaning in life’ (p. 100). Furthermore, there is a substantial treatment of the theme of freewill vs determinism with numerous excerpts from von Hildebrand.
In general, however, this book would work well with one of the many introductions to “perennial philosophy”, the philosophy that integrates truth with truth throughout the ages and constantly draws on reality as it exists, not confusing “what is the effect of the fall of man” with what in fact points to the enduring reality to be redeemed. At the same time, we could say, the book tends towards the possibility of a new synthesis, taking from each author what can be recognized as part of a renewed understanding of the nature of reality and the human person.
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 Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut. Eighty-five books of hers have been published by Catholic presses in the area of philosophy and spirituality. Dr. Ronda presents on EWTN and Catholic radio. Her many books include Quotable Saints, Seeking Christ in the Crosses & Joys of Aging, Catholic Realism and Voyage to Insight.
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This is a book about philosophy, but it is a book for everyone—everyone who has ever wondered about the meaning of the universe and human life—because it provides answers to two fundamental questions: What is it all about? and How should we live?
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Conscious Energy, The Fallen Angel Model, and the Catholic Church by Joe Provenzano, Dcn. Ron Morgan, and Dan Provenzano (January 2022)
Book Review of the 1st Edition, The Teilhard Review by Tom Baxter (Autumn, 1993)
“The Philosophy of Conscious Energy provides a way to understand how an immortal soul, as understood by Scripture and theology, could emerge through an evolutionary process. That’s because it is a process of increasing consciousness and complexity guided by God, who is the author of the Law of Consciousness and Complexity.” — Deacon Ron Morgan (2021)
“Provenzano has written an interesting and thought-provoking book on a fascinating part of philosophy, namely consciousness. I benefited greatly from his summary and categorization of the main philosophers in history which comprises the first half of the book.” — Dave Palmer (2021), Dave Palmer Summa Theologica YouTube Channel
“[Provenzano] provides an immediately understandable portrayal of the key concepts of Teilhard’s thought and of its implications. This summary is without doubt the clearest that I have read on Teilhard.” — Editor, The Teilhard Review (1993)
“According to Provenzano, ‘What is it all about?’ and ‘How should we live?’ are the ‘Two Big Questions’ philosophy should answer if it is to benefit the human race…Conscious Energy is a challenging and thought-provoking work that once again places ‘The Two Big Questions’ at the center of philosophical inquiry.” — Bodhi Tree Bookstore, Los Angeles (1996)
“What a wonderful book this philosophy of Conscious Energy is! An uncle gave me a copy a good few years ago, and reading it had a profound effect on me. I have been interested in Teilhard’s thought for years, and this book really clarified & crystallised his concepts for me. I love the fact that Provenzano is humble enough to encourage his readers to ask their own questions and to seek their own answers using this philosophy of conscious energy. I often revisit the book, and as time goes on, I am more and more grateful for it. I see the truth of it in the world & in my life more deeply as I get older. It has given me a framework for my personal & spiritual growth, and a way of making sense of life.” — Chris Dunne, London, England
Five Star Book Review by Tasshin FoglemanAuthor of 3 books with 61 followers in GoodreadsThis strange book was given to my college’s library by Mortimer Adler, and that was enough to make me overcome my initial reaction—weird cover, weird premise!—and check the book out. When I started reading it, I was enthralled, and when I had to stop at the end of a sitting, I couldn’t wait to get back to finish the book.
Provenzano is an amateur or layman philosopher, and his thesis is that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has helped us to finally answer philosophy’s two big questions—What is this universe, and how should we live in it?
Provenzano gives criteria for a successful philosophy at the beginning of the book, summarizes many of the world’s major philosophies in a coherent order, and then proceeds to show why Chardin’s philosophy is the most satisfactory or successful philosophy, while subsuming all of the successful aspects of previous philosophies as secondary insights.
This book makes me think that Plato’s claims in the Phaedrus and the Seventh Letter that “there is an argument which holds good against the man ventures to put anything whatever into writing on questions of this nature.” Provenzano’s insistence on using clear prose and straight-forward thinking about these questions in writing is a courageous attempt to transcend this kind of philosophical skepticism, and a breath of fresh air after a lot of esoteric argumentation from other thinkers. I’ll be thinking about the conclusions in this book for some time, and the way in which Provenzano pulled it off. I recommend this book highly to any open-minded reader who likes books that whack you out of any existential slump right back into this beautiful world.
Joe Provenzano has an M.S. in physics. He has spent much of his life studying the great philosophical thinkers and the tough philosophical and theological questions. Joe also authored How to Believe in God and Science — In Three Easy Steps and co-authored The Fallen Angel Model — Deeper into the Mysteries with Deacon Ron D. Morgan and Dan R. Provenzano (Joe’s son) who has a Ph.D. in physics. Joe may be reached at joepro@proandsons.com
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To aid students in comprehending the Holy Father’s thought, Dr. Healy provides close-to-the-text summary interpretations of Saint John Paul II’s major philosophical works, condensing the essence of his philosophical teachings on the person and act, love, and sexuality.
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“Professor Michael Healy has prepared a very accessible and usable introduction to the thought of Pope John Paul II which students and teachers alike–and even the interested general reader–will find to be a very good beginning in trying to understand and appreciate the author of one of the most profound and prolific teaching pontificates in the history of the Church. One would have to plow through many volumes to acquire what careful reading and study of this volume alone provides. Not least, the “primer” provides a clearer idea of what the student of John Paul II’s thought should go on to acquire and study.” – Dr. Kenneth D. Whitehead
“Karol Wojtyła was very gifted as a speaker but, alas, when he made philosophy he was extremely technical and rigorous. So much so that a familiar story in the milieu of Cracow was that all priests who in life had neglected their intellectual formation, before entering in Heaven, should have to pass an examination on The Acting Person (the philosophical masterpiece of Wojtyła). For some of them it might take even one hundred years. Now their task has been enormously facilitated (and their penance correspondingly cut short) by this “primer” of Prof. Michael Healy Sr.. Prof Healy has assimilated the spirit of Wojtyła so much in depth that he succeeds in rendering it in a smooth, plain and easy expression. He is really the St. John the Baptist of Wojtyła : he prepares the way leading to our author and makes the paths straight. The book is good for the students who try to find a path leading into the complex conceptual construction of Wojtyła but is useful also to advanced scholars who want to better appreciate the particular and inimitable flavor of Wojtyła’s philosophy.” – Dr. Rocco Buttiglione
Dr. Michael J. Healy served as Dean of the Faculty (chief academic officer) under Fr. Michael Scanlan, TOR (President) at Franciscan University of Steubenville from 1986-2000. During the 2002-2003 academic year, he served as interim president of Ave Maria College while on leave of absence from Franciscan University. He then returned to Franciscan to resume his position as full professor of philosophy, where he specializes in philosophy of the person, ethics, existentialism, and philosophy of religion. He has a special love for Kierkegaard, von Hildebrand, and Wojtyla interpreted in light of and in dialogue with the philosophia perennis. His favorite author in the Thomistic tradition is Josef Pieper. His favorite course is The Nature of Love, wherein he uses the works of all four of the above. Dr. Healy earned his B.A. from Loyola University of Los Angeles (1972, now Loyola Marymount University) and his M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. (1978) from the University of Dallas.
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