Ciphers of Transcendence: Essays in Philosophy of Religion in Honour of Patrick Masterson Fran O’Rourke (Irish Academic Press, €35) This is a well-deserved Festschrift. Patrick Masterson was a loyal and valued staff member of University College Dublin for 30 years. Beginning in 1963 he was an assistant lecturer in the philosophy department and in…
From the Underground Church to Freedom by Tomáš Halík (Notre Dame Press, $US35.00 / £39.50) Frank Litton The 1950s were grim in Czechoslovakia. The promise of liberation had not delivered. The state acquiesced in a foreign-based orthodoxy which it imposed with brutality. Censorship stifled thought. It was into this Communist dominated world that…
The Diary of Elizabeth Dillon: A Gateway to the Otherness of the Past edited with an introduction by Brendan O’Cathaoir (Currach Books, €34.99) Frank Callanan This delightful book is considerable editorial feat. The diaries of Elizabeth Dillon are copious running to 38 journals, and have been rendered down by the editor without any…
Homo Lapsus: Sin Evolution and the God who is Love by Niamh Middleton(Deep River Books, $US14.99; available through Amazon UK, £11.53) Fr Joseph McCann CM Darwin’s evolution poses the most powerful challenge to belief in God and Creation and Salvation. Evolution explains human existence as a scientifically determined process, so there is no…
The Polish Society Yearbook 2018 Jaroslaw Plachecki (Polish Society, email: ips.dublin@gmail.com; post only, Polish House, 20 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, Ireland) The Irish Polish Society was established in Dublin in January 1979. The members were largely Poles who migrated from their country following World War II. The Society acquired its Centre – ‘Polish House’…
Irish Anglicanism 1969-2019: Essays to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland edited by Kenneth Milne & Paul Harron(Four Courts Press, €24.95) Robert Marshall In 1970, to mark the centenary of its disestablishment, a volume of essays edited by Fr Michael Hurley SJ was generously presented by 17 ecumenical essayists…
Burned: The inside story of the ‘cash for ash’ scandal and Northern Ireland’s secretive new elite by Sam McBride (Merrion Press, €19.95) The scandal of Northern Ireland’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is one of bureaucratic failure, sloppy political oversight, and culpable procrastination, all leading to a colossal waste of public money. This book will…
Has Science Killed God? Faraday Papers on Science and Religion edited by Denis Alexander (SPCK, £19.99) Christopher Moriarty This is a truly amazing book. Written by a team of eminent scientists, who are also believers in the reality of the spiritual, it provides a great deal of comfort to people of faith who…
Dorothy Macardle by Leeann Lane (University College Dublin Press, €25.00) In this study the author sets out to explore Dorothy Macardle’s writings to reveal the development of her political thought and feminism. In so doing she has provided an excellent biography of her subject. Dorothy was born on March 7, 1889 in Dundalk, Co.…
Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard by Clare Carlisle (Allen Lane, £25.00) Patrick Claffey This exploration of the tortured mind and faith of Kierkegaard is a challenging title with which to begin a fresh year of reading. Clare Carlisle opens her preface to this book on the philosopher with a reference…