See these online texts and ebooks (I) by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI and (II) about him and his thought, previously indexed on the Project.
I. Texts and ebooks by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger / Pope Benedict XVI:Continue reading →
“Homosexual Inclinations and the Passions: A Thomistic Theory of the Psychogenesis of Same-Sex Attraction Disorder”, by Robert Loyd Kinney, III, The Linacre Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 2 (May 2014): pp. 130–161. Available in pdf format and in PubReader format at the National Library of Medicine.
See also the “Letter to the editor: Objections to Dr. Kinney’s article” and the author’s Response, The Linacre Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 3 (August 2014): pp. 199–203, which is available in pdf format and in PubReader format at the National Library of Medicine.
The Via Pulchritudinis, Privileged Pathway for Evangelisation and Dialogue, by the Pontifical Council for Culture, March 27-28, 2006. May be read online on this page of Catholic Culture.
The Cultural Heritage of the Church and Religious Families, by the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church, 10 April 1994. May be read online at the Holy See.
“Via pulchritudinis: respuesta de la iglesia a la crisis contemporánea”, por Padre Santiago Canals Coma, Cuestiones Teológicas, Vol. 39, No. 92 (julio – diciembre, 2012): pp. 345-369. Disponible en linea y en formato PDF en SciELO Colombia.
“Jacob said to himself, Why, this is the Lord’s dwelling-place… What a fearsome place is this!… This can be nothing other than the house of God; this is the gate of Heaven. So it was that, when he rose in the morning, Jacob took the stone which had been his pillow, and set it up there as a monument, and poured oil upon it; and he called the place Bethel, the House of God… This stone, too, which I have set up as a monument, shall be called the House of God.” (Genesis xxviii, 16-19, 22)
“It is a matter of justice that the sacrifices of parishioners and benefactors result in a beautiful church, one that manifests Christ to our world. Even those who are unable to contribute monetarily to the building of the church, including the poor, have a right to expect their church to be beautiful, a sign of God in our midst.” (Bishop Jerome E. Listecki, Norms for the Construction and Ordering of Church Buildings in the Diocese of La Crosse)
Reclaiming Our Roman Catholic Birthright: The Genius and Timeliness of the Traditional Latin Mass, Kindle Edition, by Peter Kwasniewski (Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2020). The print book and the ebook are available for purchase, and the ebook may be read for free by Amazon Kindle subscribers, through Amazon.com and Amazon UK. (N.B., This book is recommended by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, on this post of Fr. Z’s Blog; and by Fr. William Slattery through his brief review at Rorate Caeli.)
See also this related worth-it book & ebook:
Nothing Superfluous: An Explanation of the Symbolism of the Rite of St. Gregory the Great, by the Rev. James W. Jackson, FSSP (Lincoln, NE: Redbrush, 2016). With Imprimatur. The printed book (softcover/paperback) may be purchased on this page of Fraternity Publications. The paperback and the ebook (which may be read for free by Amazon Kindle subscribers) may be available at Amazon. [See also this review by Peter Kwasniewski “Nothing Superfluous — A Masterful Spiritual Guide to the Traditional Mass” (September 12, 2016) at the New Liturgical Movement.]
See also these related free ebooks on the ancient Roman Rite: Continue reading →
Charles Borromeo’s “Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae”, 1577, Book I and Book II, translated with commentary and analysis by Dr. Evelyn Voelker (+2008). The complete text is available in pdf format at EvelynVoelker.com.
The original dissertation of Dr. Voelker, containing the translation of Book I, is also available: Charles Borromeo’s “Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae”: A Translation with Commentary and Analysis, by Dr. Evelyn Voelker (Dissertation, Syracuse University, 1977). May be borrowed at Internet Archive (which requires an Internet Archive account, entailing a very simple signup), and may be accessed by ProQuest subscribers at Syracuse University Libraries.
[Note 1: Dr. Voelker’s translation of St. Charles Borromeo Pastoral Letter to the Clergy of Milan, on page 21 of her original dissertation, translates the title of the work as Instruction for Ecclesiastical Buildings and Furnishings.]
“The Sacred Is Still Beautiful: The Liturgical and Theological Aesthetics of Pope Benedict XVI”, by Roland Millare, Logos, vol. 16, no. 1 (Winter 2013), pp. 104-128. May be read online and downloaded in pdf format at Academia.edu.
See also our list of ebooks on Art and Architecture; as well as these related texts and ebooks:
“The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty”, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). 2002 message to a meeting of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation. May be read online at Zenit and on this page of Cossroads Initiative, which summarizes the text as a “Lenten and Holy Week meditation on Psalm 45 and the contemplation of beauty”. [N.B., According to John Jang in his thesis “Beauty as a transcendental in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger”, page 5, footnote 21, this text was re-titled “Wounded by the Arrow of Beauty: The Cross and the New ‘Aesthetics’ of Faith,” when published in On the Way to Jesus Christ (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005)]
Posted on Holy Monday, 2019; on the anniversary of Lateran Council of AD 769; in observance of the Universal Day of Culture and of World Art Day; and in advance of the birthday of Pope Benedict XVI. For other online texts and legally free ebooks, you may access the List of Free eBooks (Arranged by Title) and the List of Free eBooks (Grouped by Subject).
[S]ome artistic expressions are real highways to God, the supreme Beauty; indeed, they help us to grow in our relationship with him, in prayer. These are works that were born from faith and express faith.” (Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 31 August 2011)
“[R]eligious iconography should be directed to sacramental mystagogy… Everything related to the Eucharist should be marked by beauty.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, no. 41)
Letter to Artists, by Saint John Paul the Great / Pope John Paul II (4 April 1999). Subtitled: “To all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new ‘epiphanies’ of beauty so that through their creative work as artists they may offer these as gifts to the world”.
The audio of excerpts of the Letter is provided in the video “Pope John Paul II’s ‘Letter to Artists’” (published April 21, 2014) at the JPCatholic Youtube channel. The Youtube page describes the video as “A tribute to John Paul II’s ‘Letter to Artists’, as read by students at John Paul the Great Catholic University… to commemorate his canonization to sainthood, and as a gift to Christian artists throughout the world. Many of the students reading are… students who have taken up the Pope’s invitation to pursue the arts.”
“John Paul II’s Letter to Artists and the Force of Beauty”, by James Matthew Wilson, Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, Volume 18, Number 1 (Winter 2015): pp. 46-70. Available online at Project Muse and at Questia (both accessible to subscribers only). With a review and excerpts in “Beauty and Reality”, by Rod Dreher (September 29, 2015) at The American Conservative.
“The firmament on high is his beauty, the beauty of heaven with its glorious shew. The sun, when he appeareth shewing forth at his rising, an admirable instrument, the work of the Most High… And the moon in all in her season, is for a declaration of times and a sign of the world… The glory of the stars is the beauty of heaven; the Lord enlighteneth the world on high… Look upon the rainbow, and bless him that made it: it is very beautiful in its brightness.
“By his commandment he maketh the snow to fall apace, and sendeth forth swiftly the lightnings of his judgment… The eye admireth at the beauty of the whiteness thereof, and the heart is astonished at the shower thereof… At his word the wind is still, and with his thought he appeaseth the deep, and the Lord hath planted islands therein… There are great and wonderful works: a variety of beasts, and of all living things, and the monstrous creatures of whales.
“What shall we be able to do to glorify him: for the Almighty himself is above all his works… Glorify the Lord as much as ever you can, for he will yet far exceed, and his magnificence is wonderful. Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can: for he is above all praise.”
“To admire the icons and the great masterpieces of Christian art in general, leads us on an inner way, a way of overcoming ourselves; thus in this purification of vision that is a purification of the heart, it reveals the beautiful to us, or at least a ray of it. In this way we are brought into contact with the power of the truth… [T]he true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth against every denial, are the saints, and the beauty that the faith has generated. Today, for faith to grow, we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to enter into contact with the Beautiful…
“The experience of the beautiful has received new depth and new realism. The One who is the Beauty itself let himself be slapped in the face, spat upon, crowned with thorns; the Shroud of Turin can help us imagine this in a realistic way. However, in his Face that is so disfigured, there appears the genuine, extreme beauty: the beauty of love that goes “to the very end”… The icon of the crucified Christ… imposes a condition: that we let ourselves be wounded by him, and that we believe in the Love who can risk setting aside his external beauty to proclaim, in this way, the truth of the beautiful…
“Dostoyevsky’s often-quoted sentence: ‘The Beautiful will save us’… is referring… to the redeeming Beauty of Christ… If we know him, not only in words, but if we are struck by the arrow of his paradoxical beauty, then we will truly know him, and know him not only because we have heard others speak about him. Then we will have found the beauty of Truth, of the Truth that redeems. Nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom his own light becomes visible.”
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