1. Fr. John Vidmar, O.P., Praying with the Dominicans, To Praise, To Bless, To Preach (Paulist Press, 2008). 78 pages. $9.95. 978-0-8091-4480-8

2. Fr. Albino Barrera, O.P. Globalization and Economic Ethics: Distributive Justice in the Knowledge Economy. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).  ISBN 0-230-60089-1

Description
What is the appropriate criterion to use for distributive justice? Is it efficiency, need, contribution, entitlement, equality, effort, or ability? Globalization and Economic Ethics maintains that far from being rival principles of distributive justice, efficiency and need satisfaction are, in fact, complementary norms in our emerging knowledge economy. After all, human capital plays the central role in effecting and sustaining long-term efficiency in the Digital Age. This book explores the vital link between human capital formation and allocative efficiency using the properties of the market and the knowledge economy as analytical tools.

Fr. Albino Barrera, O.P., is member of the Dominican Province of St Joseph and did his philosophical and theological studies at the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies. He currently teaches in both theology and economics at Providence College. His most recent books include Modern Catholic Social Documents and Political Economy (Georgetown, 2001) and God and the Evil of Scarcity, Moral Foundations of Economic Agency (Notre Dame, 2005).

 
3. Fr. Dominique Barthélemy, O.P., God and His Image: An Outline of Biblical Theology. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007).

 A new edition of a classic work  of Biblical Theology, first published in French in 1963, containing a more complete translation of the French original and foreword by Fr. Stephen Ryan, O.P.

4. Fr. Basil Cole, O.P., The Hidden Enemies of the Priesthood. The Contributions of St. Thomas Aquinas. New York: St. Pauls, 2007. $22.95. ISBN 0-8189-1226-X. 

5. Fr. Brian Shanley, O.P. Thomas Aquinas, The Treatise on the Divine Nature, Summa Theologiae I, 1-13, translated with commentary by Brian Shanley O.P., Hackett, 2006, 370pp, $16.95, ISBN 0872208060.

From a review by Fr. Brian Davies, O.P.,
in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews:

"...The present volume is, therefore, most welcome. For, as well as providing a new translation of all of ST I, 1-13, it offers a substantial commentary on this text, one which presupposes no previous familiarity with Aquinas as a thinker. There is, I believe, no other book (none easily available, anyway) that does just this. There are translations of Aquinas which include ST I, 1-13; but these come with little help for someone new to Aquinas and to this text in particular, someone needing to be 'talked through' the material in detail. There are paraphrases or 'companions' to the Summa Theologiae, ones which have things to offer on ST I, 1-13; but these do not provide a careful translation of all of that text, and they tend to pass over many of its details in silence and with no explanatory matter. So Fr Shanley's volume fills a definite gap. It should prove very helpful to anyone teaching ST I, 1-13 at both the undergraduate and graduate level. I would also expect it to be especially useful to people studying ST I, 1-13 entirely on their own."

6. Fr. John Vidmar, O.P. The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History. Paulist Press, 2005.

From a review by Fr. Michael Monshau, O.P.
in Homiletic & Pastoral Review:

"This work is the product of a master teacher (Father Vidmar is a former professor and academic dean at the Dominicans’ House of Studies in Washington, D.C., and currently, in addition to other duties, he teaches at their prestigious Providence College in Rhode Island)...Here, then, is a church history that one can confidently place in the hands of R.C.I.A. participants, Catholic college students, Newman Center attendees, parish adult education groups and a host of others in similar circumstances. Father Vidmar’s work is a masterpiece of pedagogy, an example of fine scholarship, and an important voice in the Church’s own reporting of what the author calls her 'family story.' The sheep will be well fed by the accomplishment of this book’s priest-friar-scholar-professor-historian author."

From the back cover:

"This lively and compelling book by Paul Murray OP names and celebrates aspects of the Dominican tradition which are at the very core of its spirituality. This tradition has often been described in the past, and for good reason, as scholarly and intellectual. But the lives of the Dominicans whose voices we hear in this book were also, and to an extraordinary degree, apostolic, exuberant, evangelical, risk-taking, mystical and robust.

One of the things which has characterized the Dominican spirit from the beginning is a sense of openness to the world. Dominicans such as Thomas Aquinas, Jordan of Saxony and Catherine of Siena were not only impressive celebrants of grace. They were also defenders of nature. After the example of St Dominic himself, they learned to drink deep from the wine of God's Word, and became witness not only of certain great moral and doctrinal truths but witnesses also of an unimaginable joy.

One reason, in society today, why so many feel unfulfilled and are not happy is because the vision of life offered is one that is restricted to a pragmatic, one dimensional view of the world. The Dominica vision of life we find here presented in this book is one that is truly broad and joyous. It is a path of spirituality – a way – open to people of all kinds and conditions.”

Paul Murray, O.P. is Irish by birth. He now works in Rome where he teaches the literature of the mystical tradition at the Angelicum University. He has published T.S. Eliot and Mysticism and four books of poetry, one of which was awarded Poetry Ireland Choice. Fr. Murray delivered the Aquinas Lecture, “Preaching the Mystery: Grace and Truth in St. Bernard of Clairvaux,” at the Dominican House of Studies in March of 2001.

8. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. Edited by Rev. Peter John Cameron, O.P. (Magnificat / Ignatius, 2006)

With a foreword by Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., and essays by Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P., Fr. J. Augustine Di Noia, O.P., and Fr. Brian Mulcahy, O.P.

From the publishers:
"With this new book you can start every day with a meditation from Pope Benedict XVI! Edited by Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., (the editor of Magnificat), Benedictus is compiled from books, talks, and homilies by the Pope. In the same richly decorated and beautifully typeset style of the Magnificat missal, this volume gives 366 meditations for the entire year, from January 1st to December 31st. Each meditation is accompanied by two masterpieces of sacred art, helping you with your prayer and reflection. A hardcover volume with an elegant ribbon marker in papal colors, Benedictus is the perfect gift for any Catholic seeking to know our Holy Father or to deepen their spiritual life. 732 pieces of sacred art."

"The Benedictus refers to the advent of the incarnate God in our midst. Christ's eucharistic coming makes a present occurrence out of a promise, and brings the future into the here and now."
—Pope Benedict XVI

9. Fr. Albino Barrera, O.P. Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

ISBN 0-521-85341-9

From the publisher:

“Markets can often be harsh in compelling people to make unpalatable economic choices any reasonable person would not take under normal conditions. Thus workers laid off in mid-career accept lower paid jobs that are beneath their professional experience for want of better alternatives. Economic migrants leave their families and cross borders (legally or illegally) in search of a livelihood, and countless Third World families rely on child labor to supplement meager household incomes. These are examples of economic compulsion, an all-too-frequent state of affairs in which people are driven to make choices under acute economic duress.

These economic ripple effects of market operations have been virtually ignored in ethical discourse because they are generally accepted to be the very mechanisms that shape the market's much-touted allocative efficiency. Albino Barrera argues that Christian thought on economic security offers an effective framework within which to address the consequences of economic compulsion.”

Fr. Albino Barrera, O.P., is member of the Dominican Province of St Joseph and did his philosophical and theological studies at the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies. He currently teaches in both theology and economics at Providence College. His most recent books include Modern Catholic Social Documents and Political Economy (Georgetown, 2001) and God and the Evil of Scarcity, Moral Foundations of Economic Agency (Notre Dame, 2005).

The following are excerpts from a review of Fr. Barrera’s book by Peter Day in Church Times.

How to separate wants from needs: Peter Day on the moral basis of market forces

THE AUTHOR is an economist and a theologian: the heart sinks. This is number 23 in the series New Studies in Christian Ethics: oh dear! But in fact this is an important book on a very timely subject.

The starting-point is one familiar to British workers affected by the impact of the global economy: as at Rover a year ago, unpalatable choice faces many when one kind of work comes to an end. The only jobs available to people in mid-career are often lower-paid and less rewarding professionally. The cover of the book is the haunting Dorothea Lange photograph of a Californian migrant agricultural worker's family without food in 1936.

Across the world, economic migrants swap a familiar kind of uncertainty for another, unfamiliar, one. In political eyes, they are somehow not genuine, because they are fleeing poverty rather than war or famine…In a closely argued but always dynamic book, Professor Barrera offers a comprehensive review of the Christian principles with which we may address what happens when market forces clash with human well-being, all over the world.

This is a serious book. Unlike many critics of globalisation, he accepts the dynamics of the invisible hand of Adam Smith working in the market-place. He recognises the benefits of the phenomenal world economic growth during the past 200 years…..We need more studies such as this one, tackling the prickly ethical issues of growing old, genetic modification, and virtual morality.

Peter Day presents In Business on BBC Radio 4, and Global Business on the BBC World Service.

For Peter Day’s complete review in Church Times click here.

10.   Fr. Dominic Hoffman, O.P., with Fr. Basil Cole, O.P. (Ed), Consecrated Life: Contribution of Vatican II. Mumbai: St Pauls, 2005. ISBN 81-7109-744-8

11.  Fr. Joseph Torchia, O.P., the editor-in-chief of the Pontifical Faculty's journal, The Thomist, has published a new book entitled Exploring Personhood: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Nature  (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007). The book explores philosophical anthropology on its most foundational level, with a focus on the basic constituents of the unified self. The coverage of the work is broad in scope, moving from the Pre-Socratics to Postmodernism, with special attentiveness to the contributions of the Aristotelian/Thomistic tradition of inquiry.