{"title":"St Augustine's Press","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781587312083","title":"Electras – Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides","description":"Michael Davis revisits questions of interpretation in Greek tragedy emerging in the thought of the late Seth Benardete. While this is not the book Benardete would have written, it wrestles with problems that bear his indelible mark.  In the extant tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, only one story is treated by all three––the tale of Electra. Davis endeavors to develop Benardete's understanding of the story's deeper meaning, as well as the connections that might be drawn between the three authors. He follows a thread that brings Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides closer together according to a powerful and shared theme––namely, that the female is the deeper (even if less easily accessible and articulated) of the pair of fundamental principles constituting human beings.    Davis accomplishes much more than an exegetical bridge as he connects us with ancient memory and wisdom. \"When we cannot resist the temptation to recoil morally from their terminology, we risk the tragedy of losing their profound thoughts about our humanity––their philosophical anthropology.\" Davis has remarkably made of a niche study a stunning source material for more universal questions. This is a book that is as timely as it is ageless.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303697789301,"sku":"9781587312083","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587312083_3b878daf-41ad-4acb-ab21-869ee2fdba4e.jpg?v=1786023666"},{"product_id":"9781587315367","title":"My Early Life – A Roving Commission","description":"In My Early Life, Churchill describes his education and his experience in four wars on three continents as a young officer and newspaper correspondent, including his cavalry charge against the Dervishes at Omdurman in the Sudan and his capture and escape from a Boer prisoner of war camp in South Africa. He explains how he wrote his first five books and launched his political career before taking his seat in the House of Commons at twenty-six. By the time he wrote this book, the First World War had ushered in many changes, not all of them good, and Churchill perceived a low spirit in his countrymen. He thinks a time may come when young Britons will need more love of “adventure, and adventure for adventure’s sake,” which his early life exemplifies, and he offers “the new generation” his own “story of youthful endeavour” to encourage and rekindle the spirited part of their souls. Giving an account of his own life is a summons to young people who are drifting in an eddy of mass effects to surmount their fear of death, aiming to stir up unselfish endeavor in them. Lest anyone mistake his intention in writing the book, he dedicates it “TO A NEW GENERATION.” This edition of My Early Life includes “The Dream.” This short story was first mooted at a family meal at Churchill’s country house at Chartwell in late November 1947, in the company of Winston and Clementine Churchill’s children, Diana and Randolph. Diana asked her father, if he could conjure up anyone, who would fill an empty chair in the dining room. He replied that he would choose to dine with his own father, Lord Randolph Churchill, who had died more than fifty years earlier. He went on to describe a story he meant to write, based on a dream in which Lord Randolph returned to his son’s painting studio to inquire what had occurred in the intervening half-century. Encouraged by his family’s enthusiasm, Churchill wrote the story soon afterwards but, after revising it, set it aside to be published later. This “Private Article,” as he styled it, first appeared a year after his death in the Sunday Telegraph, January 30, 1966, which described it as “his last story—locked away in a box for years—now published for the first time.” By permission of Churchill College, it is reprinted, with explanatory editorial notes, as a fitting epilogue to Churchill’s autobiography.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303700050293,"sku":"9781587315367","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587315367.jpg?v=1791213011"},{"product_id":"9781587313189","title":"Ha! – A Christian Philosophy of Humor","description":"\"This book almost didn't exist. I was about to write a serious, heavy book entitled How To Save Western Civilization, as a sequel to my book How To Destroy Western Civilization and Other Ideas from the Cultural Abyss. But writing it was not making me happy, and reading it was not going to make anybody else happy either. And then I stopped just long enough for my guardian angel to squeeze through that tiny window of opportunity that I had opened up by my silence and to whisper this commonsense question into my subconscious: \"Why not make them happy instead?\" (Angels specialize in common sense.)  I started thinking: Western civilization is neither healthy, happy, nor holy. Humor is all three. Humor is not only holy, it's Heavenly. And if you are surprised to be told that humor is Heavenly, you need to read this book because you reveal your misunderstanding of both humor and Heaven. If you ask, 'Is there laughter in Heaven?' my answer is: 'You can't be serious!'\"","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303700214133,"sku":"9781587313189","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587313189_f0d07efe-97fd-4912-8eeb-0006a4b1a5ed.jpg?v=1786023670"},{"product_id":"9781587310775","title":"Being Philosophical","description":"Everyone must become a philosopher. The alternate is to forego living a human life, or as D. Q. McInerny illustrates, to run while choosing to be hamstrung. But not all philosophizing is equal, and it requires discipline and systematic study. In \"creative impatience with ignorance\" and \"an unswerving commitment to the truth,\" one can be confident he is at least moving in the right direction toward genuine philosophy.    But most importantly, philosophy requires teachers. To philosophize is, after all, to be an eternal student, a person who even while instructing others relies on the guidance found in the 'fertile' human wisdom cultivated throughout the ages. And the most fecund of all philosophy, according to McInerny, is that contained in Aristotelian-Thomism. His concise and thorough defense of the philosophical life and its lodestar, Thomism, must be read as deliberately as it was written. For McInerny makes a bold claim: if one is truly serious about philosophizing, an encounter with the essentials of Thomism is fundamental and indicates a path for the human mind unlike anything other systems or traditions of thought can offer.  This book begins with logic and is followed by introductions to the philosophy of nature, philosophical psychology, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics and natural theology. It is a companion for students of all ages who have yet to spend quality time with Thomas Aquinas. And it is a real delight to do so in the company of McInerny, who in Being Ethical (2019) has already proven himself to be the affable and able teacher every thinking person longs to meet along the course of his search for truth.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303854780789,"sku":"9781587310775","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310775_90364052-6930-4a72-860b-2ffd41fcddfa.jpg?v=1786023660"},{"product_id":"9781587310096","title":"The Age of Nightmare – The Gothic and British Culture, 1750–1900","description":"Historian Jeremy Black is comprehensive, as ever, but in his treatment of the British Gothic novel his greatest service is the preservation of the detail––namely, the human impetus behind art that is often undervalued. Gothic novelists were purposeful, thoughtful, and engaged questions and feelings that ultimately shaped a century of culture. Black notes that the Gothic novel is also very much about \"morality and deploying history accordingly.\" The true interest of the Gothic novel is more remarkable than it is grisly: the featured darkness and macabre are not meant to usurp heroism and purity, but will fall hard under the over-ruling hand of Providence and certainty of retribution.  Black's understanding of the Gothic writer is a remarkable contribution to the legacy of British literature and the novel at large. Once again, in Black thoroughness meets fidelity and the reader is overcome with his own insights into the period on the merit of Black's efforts.  In The Weight of Words Series, Black is devoted to the preservation of the memory of British literary genius, and in so doing he is carving out a niche for himself. As in the Gothic novel where landscapes give quarter to influences that seem to interact with the human fates that freely wander in, reading Black is an experience of suddenly finding oneself in possession of an education, and his allure takes a cue from the horrific Gothic tempt.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303855698293,"sku":"9781587310096","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310096_c0aded1e-a2da-4970-9d0a-78f4c4626a23.jpg?v=1786023656"},{"product_id":"9781587318450","title":"The Sonnets of Rainer Maria Rilke","description":"Romano Guardini described Rainer Maria Rilke as the “poet who had things of such importance to say about the end of our own age [and] was also a prophet of things to come.” The complexity of Rilke is, then, “highly relevant to modern Man.” Decades after Guardini’s assessment, the reader who rediscovers Rilke will find a depth of mind and soul that display a profundity the post-modern reader only thinks he possesses.  In an expanded collection of Rilke’s sonnets, Rick Anthony Furtak not only makes this lyrical masterpiece accessible to the English reader, but he proves himself a master of sorts as well. His introduction that elaborates on Rilke’s marriage of vision and voice, intention and enigma, haunted companionship and abandonment is a stand-alone marvel for the reader. Furtak’s praised translation of Sonnets to Orpheus (University of Chicago Press, 2008) is surpassed in this much broader collection of verse that also includes the original German text. It is Furtak’s great achievement that Rilke resonates with the contemporary reader, who uncertain and searching wants to believe that the vision of existence can mirror much more than his own consciousness. In his feat of rendering Rilke in English, contextualizing the philosophical meanings of verse, and presenting literary romanticism, Furtak provides a formidable contribution to the vindication of true poetic voice.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303858123125,"sku":"9781587318450","price":11.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587318450_03cb09f7-ef71-4ba3-899c-af4f41967411.jpg?v=1786023687"},{"product_id":"9781587312199","title":"The End of Liberalism","description":"In the fourth title in the Dissident American Thought Today Series, Chilton Williamson takes on liberalism and reveals the 'faith' of the present Democratic Party as its own cultivated version of absurdity. This 'advanced liberalism' is not the liberalism of Mill, and it certainly no longer is the thinking man's party. If it were once true that conservatism is unimaginative and reactionary, the contrary is the picture of our times. Liberalism now asserts that human nature can and must be perfected, but without reference to nature. The age of the expert has been thrust upon the United States with the urgency of technique to be applied to coerce the vision of a perfect society and perfect human beings.  Williamson observes that this liberalism to nevertheless be collapsing, given the obvious opposition to the idea that it is essential to modernity. Liberalism is ironically a kind of unyielding control, \"a relativist persuasion that discourages and resists fixed beliefs and certainties and the idea of truth itself.\" Williamson offers commentary on the present state of liberal ideas and their crimes against better judgment, and vindicates conservatism from being labeled reactionary. Liberalism is exposed as a faith we cannot accept, for it contains nothing to be believed and what it says about the order of things is pure fiction.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304276865397,"sku":"9781587312199","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587312199_8f0e207a-d78c-4589-854c-e4704a9cff35.jpg?v=1786023668"},{"product_id":"9781587316708","title":"The Phaedo – A Platonic Labyrinth and On Plato′s Euthyphro: New Edition","description":"Since antiquity the Phaedo has been considered the source of “the twin pillars of Platonism” – the theory of ideas and the immortality of the soul. Tracing the movement of the argument through the work as a whole, Burger is led to a radical rethinking of those doctrines. That movement is indicated by the structure of the dialogue, divided in two halves by a central interlude in which Socrates warns against the great danger of “misology,” loss of trust in human reason.  The discussion that follows, with that danger in mind, brings about a transformation in the understanding of knowledge, the ideas, the soul, death, and immortality. With this \"second sailing,\" as Socrates calls it, the Platonism presented in the Phaedo emerges as precisely the target of which the dialogue is a critique.    This revised and expanded edition includes a new Preface, “The Death of Socrates and the Post-Socratic Schools,” and an essay, “On Plato's Euthyphro.” “This is a comprehensive study of the Phaedo, thoroughly researched, and sparkling with insights into the text.” – Paul Woodruff, University of Texas “Burger has a wonderfully fertile mind and supports her imaginative thesis with a close reading, extremely sensitive to nuance.” – Jerome Schiller, The Journal of the History of Philosophy 1986 \"On Plato's Euthyphro\" presents a more thoughtful and careful analysis of the dialogue than any previous full-length commentary. -- Lewis Fallis, Interpretation 2016","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304280961397,"sku":"9781587316708","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587316708_e1bb3c24-2d7d-47ab-ba59-78d6b4e0de04.jpg?v=1786023681"},{"product_id":"9781587314131","title":"John Stuart Mill – Articles, Columns, Reviews and Translations of Plato`s Dialogues","description":"This is the second volume, following the well-received edition of Mill’s writing essential to understanding the liberal tradition. His commentary on a full spectrum of issues gives further insight into the strengths and vulnerabilities of liberal democratic theory in practice. Rare and difficult to locate material is here brought to attention and made available.  The contribution of Mill’s most authoritative biographer, Nicholas Capaldi, is a singular and unmatched highlight. The tenor of St. Augustine’s Press volumed on Mill is distinct in its intention to place his work in the framework of political philosophy and the conversation of the viability of liberalism as a tradition of thought.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304281026933,"sku":"9781587314131","price":39.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587314131_a6588995-594d-41b8-a698-89722acde3c5.jpg?v=1786023671"},{"product_id":"9781587318528","title":"Smollett`s Britain","description":"Acclaimed British historian examines the layers of craft and insight in Tobias Smollett, and discusses the particular nature of his genius and influence on British culture. Once again, Black acquaints the reader with the full range of a prolific writer's works and offers a backstage tour of the meaning and context of Britain's most beloved stories and story-tellers.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304282272117,"sku":"9781587318528","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587318528_19da83d4-436b-477a-8831-813f8f9fd517.jpg?v=1786023689"},{"product_id":"9781587317088","title":"Recovering Politics, Civilization, and the Soul – Essays on Pierre Manent and Roger Scruton","description":"The Western inheritance is under sustained theoretical and practical assault. Legitimate self-criticism has given way to nihilistic self-loathing and cultural, moral, and political repudiation is the order of the day. Yet, as Daniel J. Mahoney shows in this learned, eloquent, and provocative set of essays, two contemporary philosophic thinkers, Roger Scruton and Pierre Manent, have––separately and together––traced a path for the renewal of politics and practical reason, our civilized inheritance, the natural moral law, and the soul as the enduring site of self-conscious reflection, moral and civic agency, and mutual accountability.  Both Scruton and Manent have repudiated the fashionable nihilism associated with the “thought of 1968” and the “Parisian nonsense machine,” and have shown that gratitude is the proper response of the human person to the “givenness of things.” Both defend the self-governing nation against reckless nationalism and the even more reckless temptation of supranational governance and post-political  democracy, what Manent suggestively calls a “kratos” without a “demos.” Both defend the secular state while taking aim at a radical secularism that rejects “the Christian mark” that is at the heart of our inheritance and that sustains the rich and necessary interpenetration of truth and liberty. Scruton’s more “cultural” perspective is indebted to Burke and Kant; Manent’s more political perspective draws on Aristotle, St. Thomas, Tocqueville, and Raymond Aron, among others. By highlighting their affinities, and reflecting on their instructive differences, Mahoney shows how, together, the English man of letters Scruton, and the French political philosopher Manent, guide us to the recovery of a horizon of thought and action animated by practical reason and the wellsprings of the human soul. They show us the humanizing path forward, but first we must make the necessary spiritual decision to repudiate repudiation once and for all.    “With sophisticated and profound scholarship, Daniel Mahoney deploys his elegant style to defend the soul of civilization. Through the writings of Pierre Manent and Roger Scruton, he charts a course through the political and philosophical turmoil of the present age, providing hope and light amid the prevailing darkness.” — Mark Dooley, Irish philosopher, writer and journalist. Author of Conversations with Roger Scruton and Sir Roger's literary executor.  “Mahoney's collection of essays does a marvelous job of contextualizing and explaining the vital work of these two philosophers. He's also an engaging and elegant writer.” — Daniel DiSalvo, City Journal “A series of reflective essays by Mahoney on the philosophical, theological, and political thinking of our best conservative theorists: Pierre Manent and the late Roger  Scruton. Recovering Politics, Civilization, and the Soul expresses well what we need.” — Richard M. Reinsch II, National Review","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304587735413,"sku":"9781587317088","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587317088_ee1ae076-9d61-41d3-8096-563dc038d532.jpg?v=1786023682"},{"product_id":"9781587316173","title":"The Other Solzhenitsyn – Telling the Truth about a Misunderstood Writer and Thinker","description":"The great Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) is widely recognized as one of the most consequential human beings of the twentieth century. Through his writings and moral witness, he illumined the nature of totalitarianism and helped bring down an ‘evil empire.’ His courage and tenacity are acknowledged even by his fiercest critics. Yet the world-class novelist, historian, and philosopher (one uses the latter term in its capacious Russian sense) has largely been eclipsed by a caricature that has transformed a measured and self-critical patriot into a ferocious nationalist, a partisan of local self-government into a quasi-authoritarian, a man of faith and reason into a narrow-minded defender of Orthodoxy. The caricature, widely dispensed in the press, and too often taken for granted, gets in the way of a thoughtful and humane confrontation with the “other” Solzhenitsyn, the true Solzhenitsyn, who is a writer and thinker of the first rank and whose spirited defense of liberty is never divorced from moderation. It is to the recovery of this Solzhenitsyn that this book is dedicated.    This book above all explores philosophical, political, and moral themes in Solzhenitsyn’s two masterworks, The Gulag Archipelago and The Red Wheel, as well as in his great European novel In the First Circle. We see Solzhenitsyn as analyst of revolution, defender of the moral law, phenomenologist of ideological despotism, and advocate of “resisting evil with force.” Other chapters carefully explore Solzhenitsyn’s conception of patriotism, his dissection of ideological mendacity, and his controversial, but thoughtful and humane discussion of the “Jewish Question” in the Russian – and Soviet twentieth century. Some of Solzhenitsyn’s later writings, such as the “binary tales” that he wrote in the 1990s, are subject to critically appreciative analysis. And a long final chapter comments on Solzhenitsyn’s July 2007 Der Spiegel interview, his last word to Russia and the West. He is revealed to be a man of faith and freedom, a patriot but not a nationalist, and a principled advocate of self-government for Russia and the West.      A final Appendix reproduces the beautiful Introduction (“The Gift of Incarnation”) that the author’s widow, Natalia Solzhenitsyn, wrote to the 2009 Russian abridgment of The Gulag Archipelago, a work that is now taught in Russian high schools.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304587932021,"sku":"9781587316173","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587316173_c2b29389-1dda-48a9-b933-46c13efb004a.jpg?v=1786023680"},{"product_id":"9781587310539","title":"Analog Hunger in a Digital World – Confronting Today`s Identity Crisis","description":"Renowned psychologist Paul Vitz addresses the troubling fact that scientific progress is no longer making human beings happy. In fact, the reverse trend is taking hold: individuals are more distressed and struggle with overwhelming confusion regarding personal identity and the meaningfulness of life as technology makes daily life more 'manageable.' Vitz asserts there is a noteworthy connection between the sense of personal identity and flourishing, and the connection between well-being and technological progress has been largely severed because 'progress' in this sense encourages various ways 'losing sight of oneself.' Vitz argues that the \"special digital way in which technology is destroying our well-being will require some new vocabulary… [while] making the case that analog experience is the only reliable source of meaning in our lives and that its loss has led to the growth of meaninglessness and especially to the loss of [personal identity.\"  This book is written for those who are enthralled by the digital realm and tech advancements, but also for those who are affected by contemporary crises in culture and identity. Vitz's approach is far-reaching and concise. \"After describing the nature of analog and digital codes in chapters 1 and 2, I then note the great importance of the right and left brain hemispheres to analog and digital differences in chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 5 introduces the cultural crisis of today as analog hunger in a digital world. Chapters 6 and 7 identify the problem as extreme uncontrolled digitalism, with a focus on transhumanism. Chapter 8 presents ways to recover analog life and chapter 9 makes clear we need both codes. Chapter 10 provides a solution involving the integration of the two codes in the service of the analog from a distinctly religious perspective.\"","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304709402997,"sku":"9781587310539","price":13.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310539_e5f95a4b-cd0c-4159-8841-649aa54ade1d.jpg?v=1786023658"},{"product_id":"9781587311178","title":"The Civil War","description":"The American Civil War may have been more consequential to American history (and its global supremacy) than its Revolutionary War and participation in all other world wars. The influence of this war is not just reduced to the victory of the north and its economic infrastructure, but the fact of Union success ushered in the notion of 'what it means to be American' that even the revolution could not instill.  European military historian Jeremy Black reorients readers to see what was extraordinary in the civil war of 'the American colonies' and why this was warfare unlike anything that could be properly understood on the world stage at that time. He also examines with expertise the role of foreign powers (or lack thereof).  Black's treatment might be the doom of civil war counterfactuals. Was the south destined to fail? Was it weaker motive, faulty strategy, or lack of European support? Was the north just lucky, or possessed of foresight and providential endowment? Black dispels romanticism and sentimentalist hindsight––the American Civil War is unparalleled in many respects, but it is not without clear lessons in warcraft, diplomacy, and cultural–economic impasse.  Furthermore, Black's Civil War is a new resource that teaches, reaffirms, and reminds readers of the intensity of the American past––in both error and idealistic impulse––that might continue to guide us to the best future and avoid the lose-lose circumstances of a civil war. Black's acumen for historical review in this case renders a kind of warning: May the leaders of men in the future come to a better way of self-realization than give way to the internal conflict that pits father against son, and sister against brother. But if he must engage, at least understand the distinction between war and politics.  Black's objective and concise account is a treasure for students and experts alike who need clarity and insight without too much of an investment. The take-away is an appreciation for the American spirit that civil strife petrified and an understanding of the tactical progression of this conflict and the context of combat of that era.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304711139701,"sku":"9781587311178","price":23.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587311178_140ecf59-adc7-476f-9405-8a5086ecc684.jpg?v=1786023663"},{"product_id":"9781587314254","title":"The Importance of Being Poirot","description":"Written by the renowned British historian who has been described as both utterly thorough and humanely delicate, Jeremy Black offers a guided tour through the mind of Agatha Christie and life during the Great World Wars. His incomparable treatment of literary craft developing alongside global military engagement nearly overshadows the natural draw of the crime drama that is the subject of his book. Indeed, the “prurience and sensationalism” of crime is not as exciting as Black’s aptitude for drawing the reality from the fiction (and periphery sources), giving Christie a much louder voice than she might ever have dreamed. If Christie is also moralist and mirror to her times, Black here plays his part as the detective and reveals layers of previously unmined truths in her stories.    Hercule Poirot as a character is masterfully imagined, but Black shows us how he is inseparable from Christie’s turbulent and changing world. He also illuminates significant social commentary in Christie’s fiction, and in so doing Black often uses his authority to vindicate Christie’s work from hastily, at times stupidly, applied labels and interpretations. He is especially magnificent in his chapters, “Xenophobia” and “The Sixties.” Black nevertheless gives due recognition to Christie’s critics when they have something relevant and reasonable to say, and hence the reader finds yet another service in Black’s comprehensive review of the reviewers over the expanse of Christie’s writing career.    For all this, Black proves himself to be a worthy history-teller because he can aptly ‘detect’ the meaning of stories that seeks to answer the past and guide the present. His erudition runs much deeper than his ability to navigate the stores of resources available on the subject, and the reader gets a glimpse of this early on when in the introduction he proffers his own defense for writing about the importance of a Hercule Poirot. Black writes, “the notion of crime had a moral component from the outset, and notably so in terms of the struggle between Good and Evil, and in the detection of the latter. Indeed, it is this detection that is the basis of the most powerful strand of detection story, because Evil disguises its purposes. It has to do so in a world and humanity made fundamentally benign and moral by God.” The Golden Age of detective novels represents much more than a triumph of a literary genre. It is in its own right a story of how the challenge to address the problem of evil was accepted. Its convergence with the plot-rich narrative of the twentieth century in the modern age renders Black’s account a thrilling masterpiece, seducing historians to read fiction and crime junkies to read more history.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304936288629,"sku":"9781587314254","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587314254_61793472-96b5-42c1-8d49-8f253a5e801b.jpg?v=1786023673"},{"product_id":"9781587314612","title":"Leo Strauss` Published but Uncollected English Writings","description":"Any presentation of political philosophy in the 20th century is radically incomplete without Leo Strauss. The appearance of this collection is particularly important given the relentless but shifting interest in his influence and thought in recent years. Lenzner and Minkov contend that in order to evaluate Strauss’s achievement properly, one must do so chiefly with reference to the works by which Strauss sought to establish his legacy–i.e., those he chose to submit for the consideration of future readers.    The most complete record of Strauss's thought includes his books together with his other published and unpublished writings and lectures. The achievement of this volume is to present in one collection every piece Strauss chose to publish in English that he did not himself include in a collection or a book. The material is arranged chronologically so as to avoid undue categorization by the editors.     Among the highlights of these works published between 1937 and 1972 are striking formulations not to be found in his books on the relationship between philosophy and society, which is perhaps the most prominent theme in Strauss’s corpus taken as a whole; rare ‘personal’ statements that shed light on his self-understanding as a philosopher; his first writing devoted solely to a classical thinker (“The Spirit of Sparta or the Taste of Xenophon”); his first piece devoted to Plato, “On a New Interpretation of Plato’s Political Philosophy,” his most searching engagement with Jean-Jacques Rousseau; his first treatment of the thought of Niccolò Machiavelli and a wonderful, later treatment of Machiavelli’s relation to ancient writers; and a critical review of a book on Xenophon’s Hellenica.    This complete collection of Strauss’s scattered work in English is invaluable for those interested in the political philosopher, to be sure. But it is also an important contribution to the field in general as well as the history of philosophy.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304936452469,"sku":"9781587314612","price":36.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587314612_97d822f5-e9ca-455e-ad3c-6bd9d8fedd27.jpg?v=1786023674"},{"product_id":"9781587315398","title":"Where the Muses Still Haunt – The Second Reading","description":"\"Re-reading is one of life's joys,\" Anne Drury Hall reminds us. Not simply from the sweetness of remembering or because of the way a book can be like an old friend, but because returning to a great book is inseparable from the endeavor to succeed at being human. The \"pull of something old and steady and reliable, the pull to rise to a higher plane\" is an important aspect of this experience, where the reader truly \"notices\" and \"connects\" with the world and himself. This is why books are the cornerstones of education and the source of the power of concentration.    After leaving school and becoming lost in adulthood, can one return to these books and revive the quest to be great? For this is why we call such books \"great\". Yet as Hall says, \"few people use the phrase 'great books' any more except ironically, because there is an odd view in the current intellectual fog that there is no such thing as 'greatness'\". She is compelled, then, to reexamine the so-called great books and make the case for their eternal importance. It is a task that requires not only swimming against the disenchanted march of the post-modern reader into adulthood, but also asserting the unthinkable––namely, that great books were written by great men who achieved this status through their own labor and endurance.  Hall reintroduces the reader to Plato, Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and Melville and hopes this will expose the fraud of most of contemporary literature, and encourage taste and stamina for the works that promise to exhilarate. And Hall argues well that the thrill of these books draws from one shared feature: \"The heart of these books is the drama of choice.\" If Roger Scruton is famous for showing us that ideas have consequences, Hall provides the reader the vision of himself as standing on the brink and the urgency of taking life seriously again. For many this means taking books seriously again.    This book is an important companion to the works treated therein, for teachers and students alike. Both need encouragement in the laboring of instruction or reading the impressive classics. Particularly apt is Hall's treatment of the difficulty of teaching Shakespeare. For the not-so-recent university graduate, perhaps this book will bring him once again to wander where the Muses still haunt. Indeed, even the well-read will enjoy Hall's keen interpretation of the glory of these stories. This is a book written by a true teacher.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304936780149,"sku":"9781587315398","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587315398_aa50dc54-40a8-4f86-abab-ea66b7a9e776.jpg?v=1786023678"},{"product_id":"9781587317576","title":"The Sea Within – Waves and the Meaning of All Things","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305172382069,"sku":"9781587317576","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587317576_564b0638-8fb0-490c-b615-c77bd2d32c4d.jpg?v=1786023684"},{"product_id":"9781587310065","title":"After Pandemic, After Modernity – The Relational Revolution","description":"The global pandemic has levied a heavy toll on humanity, but in its wake appears a great opportunity. Amidst what he calls a crisis of modernity, Giulio Maspero points to a phenomenon that can be seen in plain sight. \"The absence of personal relationships highlighted by the health crisis exposes the consequences of the modern matrix, which, having lost its Christian element, now risks transforming itself into a digital matrix, substantially configuring itself as a technognosis.\"    Without Trinitarian framework ancient and new idols emerge, as the Covid-19 tragedies have shown. Yet post-pandemic must be a moment of clarity and realism, as we can see how necessary it is that humanity place itself in relation to something beyond. The post-modern journey, however, must be in the spirit of Christian humanism or else any so-called progress will no longer be unable to speak authentically of our humanity. That is to say, the relational dimension of human life will be erased right along with the other ills that plague our earth.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312635162997,"sku":"9781587310065","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310065_5747878a-cc81-497e-a1f7-14d396f3fbb1.jpg?v=1786023654"},{"product_id":"9781587310737","title":"Who Believes Is Not Alone – My Life Beside Benedict XVI","description":"The collaboration between a future pope and young prelate is transformed into profound friendship when circumstances thrust Joseph Ratzinger into the Apostolic Palace, even as he expected to be released in retirement to his beloved Bavaria. Monsignor Georg Gänswein never left his side, and witnessed one of the most influential people of this century conduct his papacy on both sides of the curtain. From his appointment as private secretary in 2003, which was meant to be temporary, until the abdication of the pope in 2013 and subsequent years as emeritus, Monsignor Gänswein walked the same steps and weathered the same storms as his dear friend, the Roman Pontiff Benedict XVI. Here he offers the truth regarding the man and the papacy as a spiritual testament of a pope whose formidable legacy is often subject to unfounded characterizations of rigidity and secrecy.  Written with the involvement of the regarded Vaticanista Saverio Gaeta, Mons. Gänswein offers an account of a particular decade in history and confronts false claims of intrigue and cover-up (Vatileaks, the Orlandi abduction case, the sexual abuse scandal, among other issues) to tell the real story of a pope who faced a changing landscape and a public who largely misunderstood him and his style of governance. Here we meet one of the most affable and intellectually formidable popes the Catholic Church has ever known, and a priest who might also be considered a prophet of the post-modern age. Gänswein brilliantly contextualizes many of Benedict's most poignant theological positions, and in giving us a sense of their origin reveals that Benedict seamlessly lived everything he promulgated. His faith was the single bulwark upon which his personality as both teacher and leader were built. No biography has yet to establish the integrity and heart of Joseph Ratzinger as well as his friend, Georg Gänswein, does here.    As a spiritual testament more than just a journalistic exposé, Gänswein provides something only he can give––namely, the candid intelligence and sanctity witnessed up close. This is a remarkable and singular contribution to the history of the papacy and the record of the life of a saint. As Gänswein asserts, knowing this man is to encounter heroic virtue and an invitation to meet God, the greatest lover of mankind. Pope Benedict's own friendship with God will continue to provide warmth for as long as there are people on this earth who believe.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312635228533,"sku":"9781587310737","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310737_f49a3af6-fa26-4e75-805e-d0c5d05d9a64.jpg?v=1786023659"},{"product_id":"9781587312151","title":"Eccentric Culture – A Theory of Western Civilization","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312635359605,"sku":"9781587312151","price":17.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587312151_8e737990-2ff6-484d-a9fb-0aa77e5a248e.jpg?v=1786023666"},{"product_id":"9781587318085","title":"Socratic Logic 3.1e – Socratic Method Platonic Questions","description":"This new and revised edition of Peter Kreeft’s Socratic Logic is updated, adding new exercises and more complete examples, all with Kreeft’s characteristic clarity and wit. Since its introduction in the spring of 2004, Socratic Logic has proven to be a different type of logic text:(1) This is the only complete system of classical Aristotelian logic in print. The “old logic” is still the natural logic of the four language arts (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Symbolic, or “mathematical,” logic is not for the humanities. (How often have you heard someone argue in symbolic logic?)(2) This book is simple and user-friendly. It is highly interactive, with a plethora of exercises and a light, engaging style.   (3) It is practical. It is designed for do-it-yourselfers as well as classrooms. It emphasizes topics in proportion to probable student use: e.g., interpreting ordinary language, not only analyzing but also constructing effective arguments, smoking out hidden assumptions, making “argument maps,” and using Socratic method in various circumstances.   (4) It is philosophical. Its exercises expose students to many classical quotations, and additional chapters introduce philosophical issues in a Socratic manner and from a commonsense, realistic point of view. It prepares students for reading Great Books rather than Dick and Jane, and models Socrates as the beginner’s ideal teacher and philosopher.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312635588981,"sku":"9781587318085","price":36.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587318085_fab522b4-5e9f-4498-9593-2b0aa4284f97.jpg?v=1786023686"},{"product_id":"9781587314780","title":"The Long Night of the Watchman – Essays by Vaclav Benda, 1977–1989","description":"The Long Night of the Watchman brings into English translation the writings of the renowned Czech anti-Communist dissident and Catholic thinker Vaclav Benda (1946-1999). An early signatory of Charter 77, the Czechoslovak human rights association, Benda would twice serve as a spokesman. He was a founding member of VONS (the Czech acronym for the Committee to Defend the Unjustly Persecuted) and served a four-year prison sentence for his dissident activities.     Benda was a keen analyst of Communist totalitarianism who was heavily involved in many facets of resistance. The writings collected in this volume thus offer a unique perspective on life under a Communist regime. Readers are given eyewitness accounts of crucial, yet little known events such the Christian pilgrimage to Velehrad in 1985. We are also transported back into Benda’s workplace as the repercussions of his signing of Charter 77 unfold. And Benda’s extended reflections on topics such as the family and totalitarianism and the fate of the Catholicism under Communism display his subtle and exacting mind.     The volume is divided into three sections.  “Reflections” is comprised of relatively brief texts usually prompted by some event or action, while “Reports and Defenses” is made up of short documents written for a specific purpose and often related to the regular work of Charter 77. The middle section, “Essays and Inquiries,” contains Benda’s longer pieces of a more philosophical character.       With The Long Night of the Watchman, Vaclav Benda’s deeply humane voice and his unbending mind come to the attention of English readers.      Index","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312635752821,"sku":"9781587314780","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587314780_6d572347-e483-46f8-b9d9-31d54686a52c.jpg?v=1786034360"},{"product_id":"9781587310133","title":"Africae Munus – Ten Years Later","description":"With great foresight and vision for the Church, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI carefully integrated theological, catechetical and pastoral themes in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Africae Munus. Maurice A. Agbaw-Ebai and Matthew Levering, in the introduction to this collection of reflections and studies focused on the Pope Emeritus’ themes, affirm the African continent’s status as a global center for the growth of the Catholic Church in the twenty-first century and the future of the international Catholic community.         Building on the vitality and enthusiasm of the Church in Africa, it is important to lift their faith through scholarly research and academic reflections. We cannot fully appreciate the dedication, commitment and perseverance of the Catholic community throughout the African continent if we do not know the truth of their sufferings and persecution and understand their resilience in the light of faith. This collection, drawn from the halls of academia, provides an important contribution to the understanding and advancement of Catholic Africa, following the insights and enlightenment of Pope Emeritus Benedict. It is my hope that these essays will enrich your understanding and experience of the Catholic faith.    — From the Preface by Seán Patrick Cardinal O’Malley","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368085074293,"sku":"9781587310133","price":36.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310133_7c1aef03-277c-47e1-bb25-f657211b17bf.jpg?v=1787039860"},{"product_id":"9781587318719","title":"Tale of a Criminal Mind Gone Good","description":"In this concise and creative book, Nathan Lefler places G. K. Chesterton and René Girard in conversation on the art of being deceived. The campaign to get rid of (or mythicize) the Judaic and the Christian is not progress, it is a fog. Girard noted early on that returning preeminent status to the Judeo-Christian influence would have the (paradoxical) effect of clearing the air, such that humans might actually breathe and reason well again. Entrée G. K. Chesterton. If Girard recognizes the talent certain literary figures have for observing what celebrated philosophers fail to see, Chesterton is one of these men of real vision. Lefler in his match-making is interested in “Romance and the romantic,” and placing Girard and Chesterton in a kind of dialogue he draws a clearer concept of Romanticism.  Who is the Romatic hero? And why do we so badly need to know? If what Lefler sees in Chesterton and Girard requires “special pleading” on the part of the reader for the author to make himself more clear, Lefler obliges. He takes a sharp turn into the Father Brown stories and points the reader to Chesterton’s famous villain: Flambeau, the “colossus of crime”. The moral transition from sinner to saint in Flambeau is strikingly anti-Romantic and, with Girard in mind, also very much anti-mimetic. Or is it? Lefler argues that even Girard would have “inclined his own regal forehead in delight and awe” at Chesterton’s portrayal of the crowning Romantic quality and unlikely machete in an overgrown jungle of the self-intoxicated modern imagination––namely, humility.  Lefler makes his mark in several places with this new study. As literary critic, both Chesterton and Girard are honored. As philosopher, Lefler speaks as if somehow he managed to find a pocket of unpolluted air to breath. As theologian, he betrays that he also loves what Chesterton and Girard loved. And as special service to the reader, the full text of Chesterton’s The Queer Feet is provided.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368085696885,"sku":"9781587318719","price":8.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587318719_4e6ff381-d94f-49c0-add5-7f4a3ae88543.jpg?v=1786034368"},{"product_id":"9781587317484","title":"The Second Coming of Christ – Ancient Doctrine and Present Times","description":"Compelling theological questions converge with contemporary concerns in Françoise Breynaert's exposition of the doctrine surrounding Christ's second coming. Why must Christ come again? What will become of this earth as the dominion of man is more and more power concentrated in the hands of the few? Ideologies associated with the pursuit of power promise salvation––of the world, the planet, of humanity itself––through politics, technology, and science. But Breynaert draws answers to both questions instead from Scripture and with this book prepares us for what lies ahead. She points to the spiritual journey that is humanity's true destiny, along which man will encounter the temptation to accept the claims of power and its promises of fulfillment in this life, and the traps laid for the man who does not wish to be challenged for the victory of his soul. Breynaert's account of the second coming and the false promises of today's world also remind us of the assurances given in Scripture for mercy and triumph, an optimism that offers much needed strength of spirit.  The great mystery of Christ's second coming is part of the core of Christian faith. And at long last, here is a book that explains what this truly means. And in doing so, we come to know the revealed meaning of history, which has nourished the hope of Christians through the ages.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368086057333,"sku":"9781587317484","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587317484_dcc5093f-2978-45ec-bca9-fd0ccfada815.jpg?v=1786034365"},{"product_id":"9781587313080","title":"Face to Face with Everything – How Philosophy Looks at the World and What It Sees","description":"An introduction to philosophy often approaches the branches of philosophy to describe this particular science, but what about approaching it from the more general and obvious areas of human knowledge? And one not meant for polymaths, but vigorous seekers that can't help crossing boundaries along the way? Scott Randall Paine writes for the committed of heart and the specialist who feels constrained. As he suggests, \"Inside every specialist there is a generalist trying to get out.\"             Among a myriad of books on philosophy, Paine celebrates the true philosopher: the reader who seeks to know that which has a bearing on everything. This is a book unlike any other. The reality we live in has a kind of 'face', and philosophy is a way of engaging this entity. \"Who are you? What can you tell me about being human?\" Can certain encounters in science and other branches of knowledge be like seeing the half-smile of Mona Lisa? What a tease and yet how much to be discovered upon the right inquiry! Philosophy in this regard can be incredibly daunting, as it brings us face to face not just with particulars, but with everything.                Paine's trajectory is captured in his table of contents. First, he approaches synoptic and cenoscopic philosophy, and then he deals with philosophy and the following categories: humanities, production and liberal arts, physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences, religion, modernity, idioscopy, and the range of the cenoscopic. Paine is successful in his attempt to be exemplary more than strictly conclusive. This is a book for highly engaged (but not necessarily technical) individuals who need to remember to stay hungry.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368086352245,"sku":"9781587313080","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587313080.jpg?v=1791213011"},{"product_id":"9781890318017","title":"Averroes' Middle Commentaries on Aristotle's \"Categories and De Interpretatione\"","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368230007157,"sku":"9781890318017","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318017_14143d37-2e0b-44c8-89d0-a0d083378e30.jpg?v=1786034586"},{"product_id":"9781890318055","title":"Between Nothingness Paradise","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368230957429,"sku":"9781890318055","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318055_3791bb57-ac19-4110-b0b4-2461138df354.jpg?v=1787039973"},{"product_id":"9781587310874","title":"Britain`s Imperial Histories","description":"Military historian Jeremy Black continues his review of the global context of martial conflict and spatial conquest into the modern era (16th–20th centuries), focusing on the British empire and its lasting effect on this landscape. Black offers a representation of the \"imperial experience\" that is eye-opening for a generation of readers who associate this with a strictly negative connotation. But the notion of an empire is not understood at all if this is true. Indeed, not only is there \"no one type of empire, no prototype,\" the basis of empire is much more 'order' than it is 'invasion.' Furthermore, reflecting on the unavoidable cultural and sociological symbiosis and transfer, Black makes the case that in all instances of influence and encounter, sameness between peoples never results. But how does one distinguish influence from control? What are the long-term benefits among peoples? \"To many today, empire might seem obvious: governors with ostrich-feathers in their colonial garb ruling non-White peoples; but this scarcely describes the situation across time and place.\"              Why did the European empires ultimately fall? When approaching this question, Britain's Imperial Histories proposes that the perspective of \"making and remaking of the international system\" be made distinct from the \"rational pursuit of power and wealth and the use of technology.\" As seen in earlier work, Black's brilliance is centered in his capacity to incorporate the complexity of war and its battles in his assessments, while never neglecting the fact that wars themselves have specific and broad contexts that must be read thoroughly.              Another highlight of the present work includes more insight into the British-American relationship and American political identity. \"If the British empire is blamed for many of the aspects of modernization and globalization, is also serves as a way of offering historical depth to a critique of American power.\" Yet he is also adept at drawing in Asia into the study and does so with uncommon acumen. This book provides an approach to history that has been neglected, especially in the New World, and connects the present to the past with a kind of hermeneutical responsibility that has been of late abandoned.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038000501,"sku":"9781587310874","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310874.jpg?v=1791213011"},{"product_id":"9781587310485","title":"An African Perspective on the Thought of Benedict XVI","description":"Catholicism continues to experience an exponential growth in Africa. Going by the figures and the intensity of religious practice, Africa can unarguably be described as the new center of the Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular. With over 236 million Catholics, Africa considers itself as having come of age and capable of making its voice heard on matters pertaining to global Catholicism\/Christianity. And if there is a contemporary theologian greatly loved and admired by African scholars, Joseph Ratzinger\/Benedict XVI ranks premium on that list. His convening a second synod on Africa on the theme of justice, peace and reconciliation, further endeared him to the African theologians. This book is a testimony to the affection that the Church in Africa has for Benedict XVI. In effect, as Africa finds its voice on the stage of global Catholicism, the theology of Joseph Ratzinger\/Benedict XVI provides a fruitful space for Africa's engagement with the wider Church. Benedict XVI described Africa as the spiritual lung of the world. This volume testifies to the vitality and healthiness of that lung, a must read for all interested in African Catholicism and its definite impact on global Christianity as a whole.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038033269,"sku":"9781587310485","price":36.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310485_a32a1ddc-8bf5-4762-86bb-27aa5bc315c5.jpg?v=1786034355"},{"product_id":"9781587313509","title":"God? – Philosophical Preface To Faith","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038164341,"sku":"9781587313509","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587313509_798c6659-5eba-45d0-875f-e6308111d81f.jpg?v=1786034358"},{"product_id":"9781587310423","title":"The Ancient City","description":"The importance of engaging the problems of contemporary political theory has brought us to an unprecedented reliance on the historical commentary already provided by giants like Alexis de Tocqueville and Edmund Burke. Among these is also the less often noted Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges and his landmark work, The Ancient City.  Fustel de Coulanges plunged deep into the world and language of the ancient Greeks and Romans. His presentation of religion as a factor in civilization equates to a vision of how and why the ancient city-state died. This is a non-partisan and spiritually unmotivated work of political-philosophical merit, in which from a perspective of Cartesian doubt Coulanges strips away layers of cultural façade until the most foundational and hidden stratospheres of Greek and Roman institutions are laid bare. The Ancient City places ancient Greek and Roman cities in relation to each other, and the daily life in both are illustrated in detail. Morality and custom are rendered as living and breathing entities, and the dynamics of social life are displayed in a way that the tragic influence of Christianity is rendered obvious, yet not heartbreaking.  This new translation is an essential component to a well-rounded understanding of where the notion of the city and political ordering come from, the role of religion in politics, the development of law, and its reliance on custom and the eternal fabric of the family.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038197109,"sku":"9781587310423","price":26.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310423_cd82afc8-48b8-409b-9b2d-092ee91d68b8.jpg?v=1786034355"},{"product_id":"9781587314681","title":"Living Medjugorje","description":"In the spirit of the Jubilee Year 2025, this book does for Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, what Living the Jubilee does for Rome, Italy. Pope John Paul II called Medjugorje \"the spiritual center of the world,\" and the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has recently stated that what is happening in Medjugorje is at the very least authentic \"by its fruits.\" This is the highest form of official approval for a claims regarding supernatural phenomena.    What is happening in Medjugorje and why do hundreds of thousands of people visit each year? In June of 1981, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, began appearing to six young people with messages above all of peace and conversion. She calls herself the \"Queen of Peace,\" and these apparitions have continued to this day. First coming to the children in the rocky hills outside the small city ravaged by war and Communism, throngs of pilgrims walk the unfriendly trails to the original spot every day of the year and often with bare feet. The miracles and spiritual experiences attributed to this place are impossible to count.  The pilgrimage to Rome is historical and deeply woven into the custom of piety and devotion in the Catholic Church. But for the post-modern world, Medjugorje is the pre-eminent 'destination' for all people seeking to encounter God, especially those who have fallen away or have no religious affiliation. The Jubilee Year will bring many more to Medjugorje and Saverio Gaeta's guidebook provides a necessary service of how to do it and what to do while one is there. The introduction to the English edition is provided by the official chaplain to English-speaking pilgrims, Leon Pereira.    There are over 200 color photographs and graphs.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038393717,"sku":"9781587314681","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"9781587314834","title":"The Making of the Christian Mind: The Adventure – Vol. 3: Confessions and Rule","description":"In the third installment of The Making of the Christian Mind, James Patrick's Church history and 'adventure' series, we meet more towering figures of Christianity, among them Augustine and Benedict. The former, who abandoned rhetoric to become learned by Saint Ambrose, and the latter, whose Rule built a thousand monastic communities across Europe, were not isolated characters but beneficiaries of wisdom drawn entirely from the pursuit of holiness. What emerges is a culture of living and learning that flourishes on the foundations of prayer. This is the adventure of the Great Helper, who working throughout the passage of time post-Christ has come to guide not just the dreams and spirit of man, but his work and daily life.  Patrick's work is both fine scholarship and epic story-telling, a key component to both the education and fascination of the Christian mind, which in turn has shaped the world more deeply than any other influence in human history. \"The Christian intellect will guide the heart to the place where the knee can bend and the eye see; the making of the Christian mind will continue from age to age, locating eternal truth in a human history that will endure as God wills so that many may be saved, pointing beyond itself to the reality that thoughts and words represent, making all things new.\"","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038459253,"sku":"9781587314834","price":23.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587314834_1f803b5c-d94a-4545-b6c2-5ab668792dbb.jpg?v=1786034361"},{"product_id":"9781587315237","title":"My Art, My Life","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038590325,"sku":"9781587315237","price":80.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587315237_c5a4db23-0b89-4e34-a49f-5641a52270bc.jpg?v=1786034362"},{"product_id":"9781587316869","title":"A Quality of Loss","description":"The world in the 1970s was a cultural upheaval in many respects. This novel is a story of the deepest disruption but in the quietest and most hidden of places––namely, a monk living in isolation who is turned upside down by recent developments in the Catholic Church motivated by post-modern plans.              Brother Martin journals what he doesn't identify as confusion in D.Q. McInerny's debut novel that paints the portrait of a period in history that many are only now taking more seriously. What happened before the turn into the new millennium, and why are the effects of Vatican Council II more obvious and influential now than they were in the immediate wake of this council? The story of Brother Martin is a time capsule for many readers, but for others it is an insight into life that was stubbornly resistant to modern thinking in favor of the transcendent and eternal with respect to spirituality. McInerny shows through story-telling how much the institution was anything but a hinderance to the human soul and how much we may have lost by rejecting old forms on the sole basis of not having come up with them ourselves. This story is a generational bridge and reveals religious life in a truthful and still generous light.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369038786933,"sku":"9781587316869","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"9781890318307","title":"Happiness and Contemplation","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369343660405,"sku":"9781890318307","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318307_62d00372-0a4f-4e51-b93e-3d7aece45bb5.jpg?v=1786034587"},{"product_id":"9781890318581","title":"Phaedo A Platonic Labyrinth","description":"Since antiquity the 'Phaedo' has been considered the source of \"the twin pillars of Platonism\" - the theory of ideas and the immortality of the soul.  Burger's attempt to trace the underlying argument of the work as a whole leads to a radical rethinking of the status of those doctrines. The movement of that argument is marked by the structural division of the dialogue into two halves, linked and separated by a central interlude in which Socrates warns against the great danger of \"misology,\" or loss of trust in 'logos.'  That danger, which threatens the very possibility of philosophic inquiry, comes to overshadow the threat posed by the fear of death, which motivated the original series of arguments.  The turn this necessitates, from the first to the second half of the diaglogue, brings about a transformation of the understanding of knowledge, the ideas, the soul, death, and immortality.  With this \"second sailing,\" as Socrates calls it, the \"Platonism\" presented in the 'Phaedo' emerges as precisely the target of which the dialogue is a critique.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369343693173,"sku":"9781890318581","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318581_e6264ad7-0fa8-49d8-b5c2-638a9a38671f.jpg?v=1786034588"},{"product_id":"9781587317545","title":"Savrola – A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania","description":"Savrola is Winston S. Churchill’s first major literary effort and his only full-length work of fiction. The novel was first published in 1900, and its subtitle, A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania, demonstrates the author’s focus on significant change in political regimes. Savrola contains the seeds of Churchill’s exceptional talents as a statesman, a political philosopher, and a man of literature. The ambition of the book’s eponymous protagonist Savrola to rule foreshadows Churchill’s own career as the greatest democratic leader of the twentieth century. He sketches a model of the education needed for modern statesmanship and describes the kind of rhetoric that appeals to a modern democratic people, all in a style that anticipates his writing in the books for which he later won the Nobel Prize for Literature.         This edition of Savrola contains extensive introductory materials, notes, and an appendix. It is lavishly illustrated with reproductions of the André Collot woodcuts made for a limited French-language edition.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56420591370613,"sku":"9781587317545","price":40.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"briefly-considered-from-the-manstream-notes-and-observations-on-the-sources-of-western-culture","title":"Briefly Considered – From the Manstream: Notes and Observations on the Sources of Western Culture","description":"The “mainstream” as the term is employed here finds it headwaters in antiquity, if not in the pre-Socratics, certainly in Plato and Aristotle. Through the centuries, that philosophy has been utilized and developed by the Stoics, the Neo-Platonists, the Scholastics, the Arabs, and by the Early Moderns. Dougherty approaches his topics from the perspective of the mainstream, specifically from the vantage point represented in contemporary discourse by the realism of Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas.     In commenting on contemporary social and political issues, Dougherty provides a critique of the humbug that often passes as philosophy. Much of what is published as philosophy, he claims, has little to do with the pursuit of wisdom, and much is written without any knowledge of the history of philosophy – for example, a professor of moral philosophy, by his own admission, lecturing without any knowledge of the Stoics, and another professor at a prominent university, in a nationally televised series of lectures devoted to the history of philosophy, jumping from Plato to Descartes with nothing in between. Dougherty argues that the ancients, no less intelligent or observant than we, have much to say to us about nature, human nature, and the polity. It is from the vantage point of what he takes to be perennial philosophy that Dougherty discusses topics such as “The Acquisition and Use of Power,” “Property as a Condition of Liberty,” “Tolerance.” “Responsibility,” and “The Nature of Scientific Explanation.”    Briefly Considered is divided into three parts. Part One presents a series of essays on contemporary social and political issues. Part Two surveys some recent works in the history and philosophy of science, and Part Three provides an introduction to Islamic scholarship that will aid those seeking an understanding of the origins and history of that movement.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484348457333,"sku":"9781587310812","price":16.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587310812.jpg?v=1786266411"},{"product_id":"the-last-superstition-a-refutation-of-the-new-atheism","title":"The Last Superstition – A Refutation of the New Atheism","description":"The central contention of the “New Atheism” of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is that there has for several centuries been a war between science and religion, that religion has been steadily losing that war, and that at this point in human history a completely secular scientific account of the world has been worked out in such thorough and convincing detail that there is no longer any reason why a rational and educated person should find the claims of any religion the least bit worthy of attention.   But as Edward Feser argues inThe Last Superstition, in fact there is not, and never has been, any war between science and religion at all. There has instead been a conflict between two entirely philosophical conceptions of the natural order: on the one hand, the classical “teleological” vision of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, on which purpose or goal-directedness is as inherent a feature of the physical world as mass or electric charge; and the modern “mechanical” vision of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, according to which the physical world is comprised of nothing more than purposeless, meaningless particles in motion. As it happens, on the classical teleological picture, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the natural-law conception of morality are rationally unavoidable. Modern atheism and secularism have thus always crucially depended for their rational credentials on the insinuation that the modern, mechanical picture of the world has somehow been established by science. Yet this modern “mechanical” picture has never been established by science, and cannot be, for it is not a scientific theory in the first place but merely a philosophical interpretation of science. Moreover, as Feser shows, the philosophical arguments in its favor given by the early modern philosophers were notable only for being surprisingly weak. The true reasons for its popularity were then, and are now, primarily political: It was a tool by which the intellectual foundations of ecclesiastical authority could be undermined and the way opened toward a new secular and liberal social order oriented toward commerce and technology. So as to further these political ends, it was simply stipulated, by fiat as it were, that no theory inconsistent with the mechanical picture of the world would be allowed to count as “scientific.” As the centuries have worn on and historical memory has dimmed, this act of dogmatic stipulation has falsely come to be remembered as a “discovery.”However, not only is this modern philosophical picture rationally unfounded, it is demonstrably false. For the “mechanical” conception of the natural world, when worked out consistently, absurdly entails that rationality, and indeed the human mind itself, are illusory. The so-called “scientific worldview” championed by the New Atheists thus inevitably undermines its own rational foundations; and into the bargain (and contrary to the moralistic posturing of the New Atheists) it undermines the foundations of any possible morality as well. By contrast, and as The Last Superstition demonstrates, the classical teleological picture of nature can be seen to find powerful confirmation in developments from contemporary philosophy, biology, and physics; moreover, morality and reason itself cannot possibly be made sense of apart from it. The teleological vision of the ancients and medievals is thereby rationally vindicated – and with it the religious worldview they based upon it.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484350062965,"sku":"9781587314520","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587314520.jpg?v=1786266413"},{"product_id":"the-loss-and-recovery-of-truth-selected-writings-of-gerhart-niemeyer","title":"The Loss and Recovery of Truth – Selected Writings of Gerhart Niemeyer","description":"That the United States is currently in the midst of a serious crisis, even an ideological civil war, which is part of the general and prolonged crisis of Western civilization is obvious to any thoughtful observer. One of the most perceptive observers of the development of this crisis was Gerhart Niemeyer. As a fugitive from Nazi Germany, a devout Christian, and a political theorist who had mastered the philosophical tradition and the Communist worldview, he was particularly well equipped to discern the ways in which the various modern ideologies insidiously erode the substance of truth and order in contemporary society and to seek remedies in the return to the ontological and spiritual roots of order in the Western tradition.       The writings collected in this volume, many of which were previously unpublished, are chosen from Gerhart Niemeyer’s essays, conference talks, and letters. The first part, intended to introduce the reader to Niemeyer on a more personal level, includes an unpublished essay describing his experiences in Nazi Germany and in the America that he encountered on his arrival in 1937. Several letters and other short works provide a sense of his character and his deeply Christian view of human life, both of which were essential to his grasp of truth.       The second part, “The Loss of Truth,” consists of thirty-seven essays that focus on the destructive effects of ideologies and other manifestations of disorder in the modern world. Several essays provide a sampling of his expert analysis of Communism and the ideological world-view of the American Left, while others discuss the spiritually stifling effects of the modern bureaucratic state and the ideological disorders that have crept into contemporary culture and the understanding of Christianity. Many of these essays are taken from Niemeyer’s National Review column “Days and Works.”    The character of Niemeyer’s search for “The Recovery of Truth” appears in the subdivision of the thirty-four essays of the third part under the topics of political theory, education, Conservatism, and Christian faith. Although these essays also consider the loss of truth, they are concerned primarily with the quest for its recovery through faith, divine grace, and a clear-eyed understanding of reality. This section begins with his 1950 work “A Reappraisal of the Doctrine of Free Speech” in which he lucidly analyzes the pitfalls of free speech in an ideological age. Among the other essays included here are works that attest to Niemeyer’s concern for a spiritual renewal in education and his profound respect and admiration for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and, perhaps above all, St. Augustine.     The book includes a bibliography of Niemeyer’s previously published books, pamphlets, essays, and reviews.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484350914933,"sku":"9781587314728","price":48.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587314728.jpg?v=1786266414"},{"product_id":"morality-the-catholic-view","title":"Morality – The Catholic View","description":"“As Alasdair MacIntyre notes in the preface, the work of Pinckaers attracted strongand fully justified notice in this country with the publication in English of his TheSources of Christian Ethics. As Pinckaers himself notes in the text, excellently translatedby Michael Sherwin, the interest should in no way be limited to RomanCatholics. Morality recasts the earlier book in an argument that is both lower andupper case ‘catholic,’ and is accessible to readers and teachers outside the limitedcircle of moral theologians and academic ethicists. Pinckaers contends thatChristian morality is not first of all about obligations but about happiness, understandingthat the happiness of union with God is our natural destiny made possibleby grace. The Sermon on the Mount is at the center of an approach to moralitythat turns on the distinction between ‘freedom for excellence’ and ‘freedom ofindifference,’ the former understood as human flourishing and the latter as a ‘neutral’capacity to choose between controversies. The proposal of Morality is thoroughlyChrist-centered, humanistic, and faithful to the magisterial teaching of theChurch. Warmly recommended.”First Things  “If you want to have the experience of reflecting on Catholic morality as thoughyou were reading about it for the first time, treat yourself to Father ServaisPinckaers’ Morality: The Catholic View. He has recovered the classical view of themoral life as the quest for happiness and has presented it with disarming simplicity.   Bringing us back to the Sermon on the Mount and Romans 12–15, the writingsof Augustine and Aquinas, and the theme of natural law, he has freed those textsfrom the layers of legalism which has hidden their liberating, spiritual powers formoral living. By distinguishing freedom of indifference from freedom for excellence,he has restored a wise vision of freedom. No one has shown better the roleof virtues as building blocks for morality. Catechists need to read this book.”Rev. Alfred McBride, O.Praem., Professor of Homilectics and Catechetics at BlessedPope John XXIII Seminary, Weston, Massachusetts “Father Pinckaers has given us a masterful exposition of Christian living. The clarityand brevity of his presentation – captured well by the translator – make this bookideal for classroom and parish use.        “Readers will find the historical and systematic observations very informative.”Romanus Cessario, St. John’s Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484351635829,"sku":"9781587315152","price":11.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587315152.jpg?v=1786266415"},{"product_id":"politics-of-culture-other-essays","title":"Politics Of Culture Other Essays","description":"Brings together Scruton's best essays from many sources, arranging them thematically. The book has four sections: Language and Art, Writers in Context, Architecture, and Culture and Anarchy. Though the essays are diverse, certain themes are developed in particular and then in general ways, and there are several important essays on writers and critics, that contribute to the reappraisal of their work -- among them Dante, Andre Breton, Graham Greene, James Joyce, Sylvia Plath, Jacques Lacan, and Yukio Mishima.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484353241461,"sku":"9781587316647","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587316647.jpg?v=1786266417"},{"product_id":"the-seven-last-words-of-our-lord-upon-the-cross","title":"The Seven Last Words of Our Lord Upon the Cross","description":null,"brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484354191733,"sku":"9781587317712","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781587317712.jpg?v=1786266418"},{"product_id":"averroes-middle-commentary-on-aristotle-s-poetics","title":"Averroes` Middle Commentary on Aristotle`s Poetics","description":"This volume contains a translation into English of Averroes's Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Poetics, an introduction to the translation in which the arguments of both Averroes and Aristotle are sketch out and their differences from Plato and other important thinkers explored, an outline analysis of the order of Averroes's commentary, annotations to the text, a bibliography, and a glossary of important terms with their English translations.  Heretofore, non-Arabic readers have had to depend upon Hermannus Alemannus's Latin translation of Averroes's Middle Commentary or on its English version. Both are inadequate. They incorrectly render Averroes's various arguments and make his beautiful poetic citations read like doggerel. Moreover, they provide inaccurate and incomplete information about the sources of those citations and consequently portray Averroes's text as a curious compilation of relics from some exotic but not very learned horde.  The present translation is based on a sound, critical Arabic edition prepared by the translator. Not only is it the first English translation from the Arabic original, but also the first translation of the Arabic text into any language other than medieval Hebrew or Latin. The translation is literal and eloquent, albeit more literal when eloquent when sense demands such a sacrifice. Throughout the commentary, the same English word is used for the same Arabic word unless an exception is noted. The renditions of the poetic citations are somewhat freer without reaching to unwarranted innovations.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490134663541,"sku":"9781890318031","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318031.jpg?v=1786442022"},{"product_id":"augustinian-cartesian-index-texts-commentary","title":"Augustinian–Cartesian Index – Texts \u0026 Commentary","description":null,"brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490135613813,"sku":"9781890318109","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318109.jpg?v=1786442023"},{"product_id":"bergson","title":"Bergson","description":"Leszek Kolakowski shows how Henri Bergson sought to reconcile Darwin's theory with his own beliefs about the nature of the universe.  Bergson believed that time could be thought of in two different ways: as an abstract measuring device used for practical purposes, or as 'duree', the \"real\" time we actually experience.  He also held that all matter is propelled by an internal 'elan vital', or life-drive, and that the life of the universe is constantly creative and unpredictable.  On the basis of these ideas he constructed a system of thought that embraced his views on memory, matter, conscousness, movement, religious morality, and the nature of laughter.  His pantheistic and dynamic vision of the universe, which emerged at a time of crisis in Western intellectual life, was symptomatic of the struggle between a rigid scientific derminism and the Christian tradition of a divine creation.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490136695157,"sku":"9781890318116","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318116.jpg?v=1786442023"},{"product_id":"motivated-irrationality","title":"Motivated Irrationality","description":null,"brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490138497397,"sku":"9781890318413","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781890318413.jpg?v=1786442025"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-st-augustines-press.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}