The Counter Reformation: Council of Trent

This volume represents the first stage of the translation into English of the important "Geschichte des Konzils von Trient" by Hubert Jedin, Professor of Medieval and Modern Church History at the University of Bonn. It is the first comprehensive work on the Council of Trent for some three hundred years that sets out to be a work of history and not of religious propaganda on one side or the other. Dom Graf has translated this first installment of what promises to be a monumental work of scholarship into lucid and readable English. -Jacket.

Convening in 1545,the Council of Trent was the first formal answer to the Reformation. Reacting to the Protestant challenge, it reaffirmed the codified Catholic doctrine. To disseminate the Council's proceedings, Jacob Andrada wrote an explanation that is recognized as the authoritative interpretation of the Council's Canons and Decrees. Chemnitz examines the Council in the light of Andrada's work- an examination that has become the standard Lutheran answer to the claims of Rome as set forth at Trent. Written between 1566 and 1575, Examen Concilii Tridentini is a monumental four volume work. Part I is perhaps the most significant, for it is here that Chemnitz sets forth the Protestant interpretation of Sacred Scripture, Free Will, Original Sin, Justification and Good works.

"John O'Malley works out a guide to the intellectual and historical developments behind the concepts of Catholic reform, the Counter Reformation, and, in his felicitous term, Early Modern Catholicism." "Trent and All That makes a case for subsuming the present confusion of terminology under the concept of Early Modern Catholicism. The term indicates clearly what this book demonstrates: that Early Modern Catholicism was an aspect of early modern history, which it strongly influenced and by which it was in itself in large measure determined."--Jacket.

"The book challenges the received view that the development of Papal authority during this period simply reflected the 'Absolutism' of secular governments of the European Ancien Regime. It examines the multiple commitments of the Popes of this period. Analytic in structure, covering one dimension of Papal authority per chapter, the book is not limited to European coverage, and relates this period to earlier Papal history."--Jacket.

Although the sacrificial nature of the eucharist is no longer the divisive issue that it once was between the churches, other issues in eucharistic doctrine and practice have still to be resolved. In this book, Professor Power defines the points of continuing disagreement in current ecumenical relations. He shows in each case what the Council of Trent intended in its teaching on the Sacrifice of the Mass, and presents principles for an interpretation and re-evaluation of the dogma. The first chapters provide an analysis of the debates and decrees concerning the Mass of the Council of Trent, and also offer an interpretation of these teachings based on general principles for the interpretation of dogma. Then follows a consideration of some of the interests and concerns prior to the Council of Trent that led to the present practice of the Catholic Mass. Professor Power shows how an understanding of these may compel a re-interpretation of the dogma and allow the possibility of much further dialogue among the churches. -Jacket.

Presenting a survey of the historical underpinnings of baptismal liturgies and theologies, this book presents an ecumenical and geographical discussion of baptismal rites, practice and reflection, and sacramental theology. It offers the understandings of baptism in the New Testament and the development of baptismal reflection and liturgical rites.