This book is a wonderful well written account on what Mormons believe about temple worship past and present. James Talmage was an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early twentieth century. Good for members preparing to enter the temple.

I have read over 400 books on LDS beliefs and this is a Top 25. A must read for all Latter-day Saints. Editor, All About Mormons web site.

I recently wrote this book as a doctoral dissertation at the Gregorian University in Rome. It was rewarded a "pluma gregoriana" on May 13, 1997. My thesis moderator, Charles A. Bernard, S.J., had this to say about it: "This book is important, clear, and of notable merit for spirituality." One of the defense judges, John Navone, S.J., wrote the following: "This is an original work that masterfully treats a topic of perennial interest for both spiritual and systematic theologians. It offers a healthy antidote to contemporary tendencies to eliminate the cognitive or doctrinal constituents from considerations of religious experience in general and from considerations of Christian experience in particular. Father Carpenter's work reminds us that the mindless approach to God is not the Christian approach. . . Fr. Carpenter's intelligent use of Bernard Lonergan's transcendental method contextualizes his study within the mainstream of contemporary theology."

This book belongs in every seminary. A perfect guide to how one combines the intellectual pursuit of theology with deep spirituality. This thesis should be carefully studied and highlighted liberally as it is a book one can pick up again and again, leaving the session closer to God each time. A masterpiece for every Catholic student!

This is a collection of nine short works by Augustine. The table of contents is presented below:

"The Good of Marriage", introduced and translated by Charles T. Wilcox

"Adulterous Marriages", introduced and translated by Charles T. Huegelmeyer

"Holy Virginity", introduced and translated by John McQuade

"Faith and Works", introduced and translated by Marie Liguori

"The Creed", introduced and translated by Marie Liguori

"Faith and the Creed", introduced and translated by Robert P. Russell

"The Care to be Taken for the Dead", introduced and translated by John A. Lacy

"In Answer to the Jews", introduced and translated by Marie Liguori

"The Divination of Demons", introduced and translated by Ruth Wentworth Brown

"The Good of Marriage" was one of Augustine's most influential works. He wrote it to define the purpose of marriage and to defend it as a good - not as good as holy virginity but a good nevertheless. To this end, he defined the purpose of marriage (what goods it brings to those in the married state), and from this what the duties of marriage must therefore be. It is a work at once strange and familiar. It is strange in the pains it takes to defend the idea that marriage is not actually sinful (a charge that few would even think to make today). It is familiar in that many of the most criticized aspects of the Catholic view of marriage, such as the denial of divorce and the sinfulness of non-procreative sex, are presented and defended in this work. It is a powerful presentation of these embattled points of doctrine and well worth reading.

"Adulterous Marriages" is a treatment of a variety of possible issues and complications surrounding adultery, particularly with regard to separation and remarriage. It was built on the same theological foundations as "The Good of Marriage", but was aimed less at expounding doctrine than answering possible objections to it and clarifying the finer points. It almost serves as a set of appendices to that prior and more foundational work.

"Holy Virginity" is a work that necessarily followed Augustine's works on marriage. Having defended the goodness of marriage, a defense of the superior goodness of virginity was required. The argument is rhetorical in form and scriptural in content. The main purpose is completed fairly quickly - Augustine draws on the lives of Mary, Jesus, the Apostles, and the teachings of Paul to establish that holy virginity is a good thing. Surprisingly, he then devotes considerable space to warning those practicing virginity not to be over-proud of their state and its superiority over marriage and to caution those practicing virginity to humility.

"Faith and Works" concerns what the title suggests it concerns. The launching point, however, is the narrower question of whether pagan converts should be educated in the requirements of a Christian life before or after baptism. This question leads Augustine into the question of how important the Christian life is to salvation: do works matter? Augustine's answer and the scripture used in addressing this point is the Catholic position. It relies on Peter, John, James, and Jude as counterweights to the "faith alone" reading of Paul, and in fascinating in showing how the question did not arise suddenly in the sixteenth century but in fact had very old roots (Augustine in fact regards it as old even in his own time, and as having been settled in the time of the Apostles).

"The Creed" is a short work, originally given as a sermon, explaining the meaning of the Creed to a lay audience. Augustine went slowly through the Creed, explaining each line's meaning in clear terms, and avoiding theological heavy lifting.

"Faith and the Creed" is a slightly longer work than its predecessor, and was aimed at a more sophisticated audience. It also works slowly through the Creed, but its main occupation is using it as a means of differentiating Catholic from Manichaean belief, naturally to the credit of the former.

"The Care to be Taken for the Dead" is a sensitive work for those dealing with the problem of the proper care for the dead and what - if any - consequences it has for the life to come. Augustine finds that the reason for respectful care for the dead lies not out of concern for the next life (where it has no effect), but out of concern for those still alive, that care of the dead is an opportunity for a final show of respect for the deceased. In doing so, Augustine gives comfort to those who cannot care for loved ones who have died, without making it seem as though those who can are foolish in doing so.

"In Answer to the Jews" aims to defend the Christian interpretations of messianic prophecy in the Old Testament against Jewish objections. There was a substantial Jewish population in North Africa where Augustine was bishop, and he sought to fortify local Christians with a defense of Christian belief about the Old Testament.

"The Divination of Demons" is a short piece intended to explain a question that seldom troubles Christians today: how could demons prophecy the future and if they could didn't it make them worthy of worship? Without claiming to have every heard a demon prophecy anything, Augustine argues that they could do so by merely natural means, and that this would not even necessarily make them better than men, much less worthy of worship.

Anyone who shares my passion for the Gospel and Ignatius of Antioch can't afford not to have this book in their personal collection. His mastery of the inner meanings of the Gospel are unparralleled. For anyone caught in the tumultuous seas of Biblical Literature, this book is the lighthouse that will guide you to truth.

For Aristotle, both desire and knowledge lead to action. Actions that spring from a desire must follow true discourse. If action do not follow a sound syllogism, then they are done in haste. Thus, a prudent action is guided by logos, the principle of intelligence. The perfect Aristotelian man possesses logos in all his actions. He desires true acts and knows good acts.

St. Thomas complements the virtue theory of Aristotle by saying that prudence involves true reason and the rightness of appetite. The prudent person is moved by his appetites for a good reason, and an imprudent person seeks the object of his appetites for poor reasons. A virtuous person seeks to have his appetites governed or harnessed by reason because actions stem from desire, and desire stems from love. But love is brought about by knowledge. Therefore, just as effects are inferior to their causes, human acts are subordinate to reason. For this reason, St. Thomas writes that a person who allows his appetites to guide his actions is carnally prudent (S.T., II-II, p. 55, a. 2, ad 2m).

For St. Thomas, there are six subjective parts in prudence. These parts are the steps the intellect and will go through on their way toward a good object. First, the intellect apprehends the good. Second, the will is inclined or moves toward the apprehended good and consents. Third, the intellect performs a deliberation process to consider the various means and options to obtain the good. Fourth, the will chooses one of the means which appear to the intellect to be the most reasonable. Fifth, the intellect commands the will to actualize the potential of the chosen means toward the good. And sixth, the will executes in order to contact and rest in the enjoyment found in the possession of the good that was first perceived by the intellect.

This is a long process that occurs within the human psyche within a matter of seconds. Mature human adults have gone through these steps so many times in their lives that only after careful reflection can the six steps be detected. They are best summarized by: apprehension, consent, deliberation, choice, command, and execution.

Knowing the parts of prudence is necessary for the understanding of imprudence and sin. Sin is an act that is in discord with reason or natural law. St. Thomas writes, "No sin can take place unless there be a failure in an act of the directing reason. And this belongs to imprudence" S.T. II-II, p. 53, a. 2). A sinful, imprudent act is one that skips over one of the parts of prudence. St. Thomas has named four actions that discard one of the prudent steps in action.

First, an action that abandons deliberation is precipitous, which is an action that does not look ahead, but moves in haste or with rashness. Second, an inconsiderate action is one that is unable to choose the most reasonable means toward its goal. Here the fourth part of prudence, choice, is handicapped and our of commission. Another name for this action is thoughtlessness. The third kind of action ignores the fifth step of prudence, command, and prevents a person from actualizing the means chosen to obtain a certain good. These types of action are called inconstant and erratic. The last kind of imprudent action is negligence, which abandons steps three, four and five in the acts of the will. One who is negligent does not deliberate about the various possibilities, fails to make a choice concerning a possibility, and does not command the will to take action. Hence, a person who neglects his or her homework does not find, pick and do a reasonable means to turn in the assignments.

What causes imprudence? For Aristotle, pleasure corrupts the prudential decision making process. But for St. Thomas, it is something much more specific than pleasure. Lust is the major enemy of prudence and sends its four bandits of precipitation, thoughtlessness, inconstancy and negligence to attack the various parts behind every human act. The imprudent person is a deficient lover: "imprudence is a failure of love (O'Neil, 1955, 96)."

If imprudence stems from the corrupt desire of lust, then prudence must spring forth from love. Love moves the reason to discern. Discerning is prudence which in turn builds the existential structure by which a person can be united with singular goods as well as the ultimate good - God. The saw of the carpenter is like the moral person's will, and the carpenter's straight edge is like his ruled reason. Hence, before each action, especially before major, life-shattering decisions, we can choose to love most completely by stopping in our tracks in order to bend down and pick up the ruler of reason, the logos of Aristotle and the sound syllogism of Aquinas.

The moral person is a craftsperson who is the master of his actions. He allows himself to go through the six steps of prudence, and wards off the impulse of impatience. Plus, he orders his love by choosing objects that are good and reasonably fit. In this way a disordered love, or lust, is incapable of sending out its troops to interfere with the motions of discourse. The prudent person takes time to be reasonable, and makes time to be loving.

This little book is clearly an interpretation of events taken from the perspective of the author, a man of faith. It is a read of great value for anyone who yearns to know why Paul is such a significant witness of Christ and of the Gospel. I was delighted to enter into the context and dialogue of those who heard Paul through Dr. Ball's images.

One of the most accessable, yet honest histories I've read. Brooks was a well-respected historian in academic circles, yet with her straightforward style instantly transports the lay reader into the early Mormon frontier.

How often does one book offer an accessible, lively window on the inside world of the great artists, composers, writers and choreographers of our time? In The Saints of Modern Art, Riley uses the ideas of the withdrawal of the artist from the world, and the quest for perfection, to link figures as disparate as Jasper Johns and Glenn Gould, George Balanchine and Marcel Proust, Piet Mondrian and George Santayana, not to mention other essays on David Smith, Miro, Brice Marden, Elliott Carter, Walter Abish, Robert Mapplethorpe and others. The book is peppered with lively interviews with the artists, and photographs of little-known works as well as masterpieces. Few critical studies cover as much ground in an interdisciplinary way, without bogging down in jargon or false analogies. The "readings" of major works, such as Barnett Newman's "Stations of the Cross" or Miro's "Constellations" are thorough and loving guides to milestones in contemporary aesthetics, and every page is informed with passion and inside knowledge. A mus-have for those seriously interested in the arts of our time.

St. Francis de Sales is one of the greatest of spiritual writers and writers, period. It is easy to be charmed by this guide to the spiritual life. He inspires the reader with a gentle, loving touch which I found delightful. He was also a very learned and experienced adviser when it came to things of the spirit. He seemed to have known about every difficulty that one has in the spiritual life and offers practical and wise solutions that anyone can carry out. If you are interested in reading the great spiritual classics, be certain not to miss this one. It will be well worth your time. I cannot imagine anyone finishing this volume without obtaining some excellent advice from it and also without making progress just from reading it. The only drawback is that it IS several hundreds years old and some of the theology is dated and will seem strange to modern, post Vatican 2 Christians. Do not let that keep you from this book, just keep it in mind when reading it. Highly recommended.

This book will help any one get through hard times, good times, loving times, bad relationships, and will basically help you through every day life. It is so deep and so well written by St. Francis de Sales. In the beggining it might be a little hard to read but after going through it, you feel better as a human being. When I first heard about this book I didn't think it would be great, and I thought it would be St. Francis de Sales lecturing me on how I can become more like Jesus Christ. But as I went through the book page by page I started to realize how much I needed this book in my life. The best part about it is that you dont have to read it cover to cover. You just think about some troubles in your life and then you look them up in the table of contents. You only have to read things you would like to read at that particular moment in your life. As I said before, I love the book and anyone who doesn't own it does not know how much closer you become to God after reading it. So next time you have a chance, do yourself a favor, pick up a copy.

By Jordan Aumann, O.P., Christian Spirituality in the Catholic Tradition (1985)

The doctrine taught by St. Francis de Sales was not new, but he did present spiritual teaching in an original manner and he deserves credit for removing Christian spirituality from the monastic framework in which it had been confined for many centuries....

The Introduction to the Devout Life...was written precisely for the laity and perhaps St. Francis de Sales is the first spiritual writer to compose a treatise of lay spirituality. As he states in his preface, those who have written previously on the spiritual life have done so for the instruction of persons who have given up association with the world or they have taught a spirituality that would lead persons to do so. The intention of St. Francis, however, is to give spiritual instruction to those who remain in the world, in their professions and in their families, and falsely believe that it is impossible for them to strive for the devout life.

What does St. Francis understand by the devout life or true devotion?...

True devotion, which for St. Francis de Sales is the same as Christian perfection, is the fulfillment of the twofold precept of charity enunciated by Christ (Mt. 22:34-40)....

Although he mentions the good works that flow from true devotion, St. Francis is insistent that the devout life is essentially an interior life....

Immediately after stressing the universal call of all Christians to perfection, St. Francis de Sales insists on the need for a spiritual director....

The first task facing the soul is purgation from sin, and here St. Francis follows the teaching of St. Ignatius Loyola, proposing meditation on the last ends and a general confession. Then, there must be a complete renunciation of all attachment to sin, without which there can be no lasting conversion and no progress in perfection....

In the second part of the Introduction St. Francis proposes a daily schedule of spiritual exercises in which the practice of mental prayer holds a central position....

In the third part of the Introduction St. Francis considers the practice of virtue, selecting those which are particularly necessary for the Christian layman. Of all the virtues treated we could say that, after charity, the predominantly Salesian virtue is meekness....Finally, in the last two parts of the Introduction St. Francis treats of temptations, sadness, consolations, and aridity and concludes the work with a series of self-examinations and considerations whereby the soul can judge its progress in true devotion. Thus, in its totality the Introduction to the Devout Life provides a complete program for the spiritual advancement of the laity.

Paul's life was in so many ways a type for our own that I wonder why more books of this ilk have not been written. When we study his letters, we learn the teachings of a man who walked with God through this life in ways most of us can only imagine. But we don't get the point until we consider the man himself, flaws and all. Then we begin to see how Paul knew grace experientially, so he could explain how others could live in it. Paul understood sin, but he also knew the power of Christ to redeem sinners and he never 'got over it'.

Swindoll's books are as good as his sermons, which is to say, magnificent. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the Christian life, but especially to anyone who wants to serve God with everything He has blessed you with.

Paul: A Man Of Grace and Grit is an extraordinary work detailing the life of the apostle Paul. The book outlines and explains the biblical and cultural history and signifigance of the life and times of Paul in a way I have never before discovered. I cannot recommend it enough. The book presents history mixed with important lessons mixed with timely analogies. It is a must read for Christians and non-Christians alike. I guarantee that reading it will affect your outlook on life and make you feel uplifted as it did me.

This is a wonderful book. I found myself staying up late so I could read "just one more chapter."

I have to admit that in the past I have had trouble with some of Paul's writings, while at the same time, his letters to the churches never fail to deepen my relationship with Christ. But,
I always tended to think of Paul as the "saint of saints" and this was very intimidating.

This book has helped me to see Paul as a real human being. I am still overwhelmed by his total faith in the grace of God, but I now have a deeper understanding of the journey he took and how he let God use him. I no longer feel that this type of faith is reserved for "the chosen few."

I appreciated Mr. Swindoll's way of showing how Paul's experiences could be applied in my life. This book is not just a traditional biography of a great man, but it has helped me see how to let God increase my faith.