Canadian Jesuits publish articles in both the popular press and in scholarly journals. They also contribute chapters to many books in a number of fields from the sacred to the secular.
At the same time, they have written a number of books on a variety of topics. Here is a partial list of some of their books published in the past few years.
Terence Fay. New Faces of Canadian Catholics: The Asians (Toronto, Novalis, 2010) The book focuses on five of the largest groups of Asian Canadian Catholics - Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Tamil, and Vietnamese - because of their special ability to adapt to their new lives. They offer unique windows on how their communities are putting down roots in the Catholic Church and in Canadian History. This book is a valuable guide for all Canadians, describing the cultural riches and human resources that Asian Catholics bring to the Canadian mosaic.
Benjamin Fiore. The Pastoral Epistles: First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus. (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2007) This commentary places the Pastorals in their historical and literary context. The reader will find here a solid introduction to parallel literary forms in Latin and Greek literature. Drawing on his parish experience as well as his academic training, Fiore also provides reflections on the contemporary pastoral application of these books, giving readers a renewed appreciation for the “pastoral” label these epistles bear.
Tibor Horvath: Thinking About Faith Speculative Theology, Volume One: Love (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006). Horvath proposes that love for Jesus Christ is at the origin of the Christian faith. In the first volume of a trilogy on Thinking about Faith, love is shown to be the hermeneutic principle in a systematic exploration and interpretation of Christian dogma and sacramental theology. Horvath explores love for God, human beings, and the universe in the gospel, pre-gospel, pre-Pauline theologies, the 21 Ecumenical Councils, and the liturgy of the sacrament of the Eucharist. He also analyses the historical and systematic foundation of the other sacraments, such as marriage, ministry, forgiveness, serving the sick, baptism, and confirmation.
Eric Jensen. Entering Christ’s Prayer: A Retreat in 32 Meditations
(Ave Maria Press, 2007). An eight-day retreat which presents Jesus as a contemplative in action.
Gregory Kennedy. An Ontology of Trash - The Disposable and its Problematic Nature (Albany: SUNY Press, 2007). A philosophical exploration of the problematic nature of the disposable. Kennedy inquires into the meaning of disposable objects and explores the nature of our prodigious refuse. He takes trash as a real ontological problem resulting from our unsettled relation to nature. The metaphysical drive from immanence to transcendence leaves us in an alien world of objects drained of meaningful physical presence. Consequently, they become interpreted as beings that somehow essentially lack being, and exist in our technological world only to disappear. Kennedy explores this problematic nature and looks for possibilities of salutary change.
Scott Lewis. God’s Word on Sunday: Liturgical Reflections for Year A. (Toronto: The Catholic Register, 2010). This book provides 52 spiritual mediations for the Sunday readings in Year A.
Bernard Lonergan. Shorter Papers. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007). The volume contains seventy-four Papers, spanning Lonergan's life from his years in Philosophy at Heythrop College to 1980, four years before his death.
Bernard Lonergan. The Triune God: Systematics. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008). The English translation by Michael Shields of the second volume of Father Lonergan's monumental two-volume work on the Trinity.
Bernard Lonergan. The Triune God: Doctrines. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009). The English translation by Michael Shields is the companion volume to The Triune God: Systematics. This is the fifteenth volume of a projected twenty-five in the Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan published by the University of Toronto.
Attila Miklósházy. The Origin and Development of the Christian Liturgy According to Cultural Epochs: Political, Cultural and Ecclesial Backgrounds (History of the Liturgy, Vols. I-V). (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2006.)
Max Oliva. Beatitudes for the Workplace. (Toronto: Novalis, 2009) Using the Beatitudes of Jesus as a framework, Oliva explores eight virtues: wisdom, integrity, honesty, compassion, justice for the earth, forgiveness, generosity, and courage. He explores their relationship with finding faith in the workplace. People in the workplace are asking some difficult questions about how to find meaning in their work, how to find God in daily life, and how to bring the light of faith to ethical issues.
John Perry. Catholics and Slavery: A Compromising History. (Toronto: Novalis, 2008) Perry takes us through the difficult story of slavery in the Christian experience, from its biblical treatment, to colonial history in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the insidious practices of forced labour and human trafficking today.
John Perry. Torture, Religious Ethics, and National Security. (Toronto: Novalis, 2005) an intellectual study of the history and meaning of torture and the clarification of what makes it immoral, especially from a Christian perspective. As Perry introduces his own views, he also presents the perspective of both the torture victim and the torturer, giving an equal layout without a bias on the debate.
Terrence Prendergast. Living God’s Word: Reflections on the Sunday Readings for Year A (Toronto: Novalis, 2010) This new series of reflections on the Sunday readings by a noted Scripture scholar offers fresh insight into the land and people of the Bible. The first of three books, Living God’s Word: Reflections on the Sunday Readings for Year A updates columns from The Catholic Register newspaper.
John Pungente and Monty Williams. Finding God in The Dark II: Taking the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to the Movies. (Toronto: Novalis, 2011.) When we watch a movie, we are not just being entertained; we are exposing ourselves to narratives that define what is possible for us, and we often incarnate those possibilities. The book – a second edition of the award winning book published in 2004 - is a guide through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius using 54 popular films. Watching these films in the Ignatian way becomes an act of contemplative prayer and self-reflection. The films carry the reader through the four stages of the Ignatian Exercises as a growth into incarnate love. Finding God in the Dark II is designed for use by individuals or by groups, at home or in retreat, pastoral, academic or parish settings.
Monty Williams. The Gift of Spiritual Intimacy: Following the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. (Toronto: Novalis Press, 2009.) We are all mystics, invited to live lives of growing spiritual intimacy. Those stages are: 1. discovering we are God's beloved even though trapped in sin. 2. Learning to live as the beloved of the Father in companionship with the Son. 3. Walking with the Son through the barriers of sin and death. 4. Celebrating the new path that overcomes death in a life of creativity by becoming living Words of the Father on mission to transform the world into communities of love.
Monty Williams. The Nash Lecture: The Incarnation and the Stories We Live By. (Regina: Campion College, 2010). We live in imagined worlds as if they were real. Those constructed myths can be read as closed, broken, or open. A closed myth is one that sees creation as complete with a fixed set of values. Such myths are culture bound but regard themselves as transcultural. A broken myth knows the limitations of the closed myth but cannot escape it. It uses violence to overcome the violence of the closed myth and seeks to replace one repressive ideology with another. The open myth disposes itself to the dynamics of the Incarnation by entering into the spaces of closed and broken myths transforming them into paths of transcendence. This is called Incarnation.
Monty Williams. Stepping Into Mystery. (Toronto: Novalis Press, 2011/12.) The book examines four perspectives towards discernment in the spiritual journey. The first looks at the movement from fear, through clarity and power, to despair as the four traps which stop transcendence. The second part looks at the Ox-herding pictures of Zen Buddhism to give ten basic stages of the spiritual journey. The third part looks at the Ignatian rules for discernment from the perspective of the overriding dynamics between Lover and beloved where we are God's beloved, individually and collectively. The fourth part examines our redeemed and unredeemed past, present, and future in the light of that growing journey into more and more comprehensive forms of love.