What’s New in ePublishing

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Eric Wolf

The eBook textbook world just took another leap last week. The major players are Kindle, iBook, and Nook. Apple has enhanced their multimedia authoring platform (iBooks Author) to allow their books to be viewed on iPhones for the first time, yet more importantly, the iBooks can now be read (interacted with) on non-Apple devices such as Samsung Galaxy and Microsoft Surface tablets.

James Rice has written a fine article “Did Apple Just Change Textbooks Forever?” interpreting this radical shift in the Apple ecosystem. Apple’s latest enhancements portend a huge shift in how we will disseminate classroom information in the not-too-distant future, and it makes for a much richer teaching-learning environment.

Pope Francis: Legacy of Vatican II

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Linda Wolf

Pope Francis: The Legacy of Vatican II

Recently released is Professor Eduardo J. Echeverria’s study Pope Francis: The Legacy of Vatican II.

Catholics and Protestants alike tend to use Pope Francis’s pronouncements to justify the correctness of their own viewpoints on Vatican Council II and other religious and theological matters. Professor Echeverria does a thorough job of drawing from the pre-papal writings of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the man’s current papal writings, talks, and sermons to discover and document the continuity in thought Francis has with the councils.

Echeverria compares Francis’s discourse with that of his papal predecessors in the era since Vatican II. He draws heavily on the documents of Vatican II and the theology of doctrinal development stemming from the First Vatican Council and embraced by Vatican II. Not left out is the modern ecumenical movement from both the Reformed and Catholic side.

This book draws high praise from prominent theologians whose full endorsements can be found here.

It is an ideal text for basic theology courses, courses on the modern Church for seminarians or divinity students, or courses about the influence of Vatican II. It’s a must-read for those wanting to learn about Pope Francis and the future of Christianity. A special strength of the book is the respect with which it treats the Reformed Tradition.

Just Released! Maldari’s “The Creed”

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Linda Wolf

For I truly tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
(Matt 17:20)

As copy editors of scholarly books written by immensely talented theologians, it’s not always duck soup to stay focused. However, The Creed: the Faith That Moves Evolution, the book we celebrate today, published on the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, May 14, 2015, and authored by Le Moyne College professor Donald C. Maldari, S.J., is quite the exception!

Every paragraph is a joyous experience of faith read against a backdrop of the stuff of scientific research.

The Creed: the Faith That Moves Evolution George V. Coyne, S.J., a trusted friend and mentor of Fr. Maldari, suggests: “No one of us lives without, even unconsciously, seeking for that which gives meaning to our lives, for that which treads together all our lived experiences, for that which makes us deep down who we are.”

This former Director of the Vatican Observatory and current chair in Physics at Le Moyne College goes on to say, “Although this book is clearly written for the Christan believer, for those who voyage into the beyond, it does that in a unique way by searching for a deeper understanding of the transcendent in the immanent and, in particular to probe the transcendent by meditating upon our best scientific knowledge of the universe in which we live.”

He frames the book as “a consideration of how we can best participate in God’s work of creation in our 21st century world.”

The book is the culmination of many years of research, spurred by what the author perceives as an artificial dissociation between faith and reason encountered over 20 years of undergraduate teaching and conversations with students, theologians, and people who inquire about the relevance of faith in a contemporary world.

While the work will be a delight for general readers, it’s written with undergraduate students in mind, making the book unique.

Readers can download a Sample ePub Book or purchase the Softcover on our website. Inquiries to our Textbook Adoption Team are welcome at (772) 932-7969.