Call Me Jorge...: Renaissance

Showing posts with label Renaissance. Show all posts

Monday, August 20, 2018

The ‘conservative’ publishing house, Ignatius Press, is in reality an occultic press

the master & the disciple

Making the works of occultic heirs of the Renaissance humanist-kabbalists — Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Joseph Ratzinger (Germans) — Henri de Lubac, Louis Bouyer, and Yves Congar (French) — and Adrienne von Speyr (Swiss) — available in English was the impetus behind the creation of the book publisher, Ignatius Press. Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola would be pleased.

James McClain: As we prepare to celebrate its fortieth anniversary, where did the idea for Ignatius Press come from?

Fr. Joseph Fessio: As a Jesuit, you study philosophy, teach in a high school or university, and then study theology. I went to France for my theology studies and got to know Fr. Henri de Lubac. When it was time to continue my studies, I asked him what I should do my doctoral thesis on, and where I should study. He proposed Hans Urs von Balthasar as “the greatest theologian of our time, and perhaps of all time,” and suggested that I study under a young German theologian, Professor Ratzinger. Looking back, I realize that around the period of the Second Vatican Council — before and after — there were six major theological figures, three German speaking - Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Joseph Ratzinger — and three French-speaking ones — Henri de Lubac, Louis Bouyer, and Yves Congar. It was a blessing for me to know four of them well.

When I returned to the United States in 1974, I was a part of a reading group that discussed these theologians, along with Adrienne von Speyr, a mystic and directee of Fr. Von Balthasar. Since most of their works were not available in English, it was clear that something needed to be done to make their writings available to the English-speaking world. At that time I came to know Frank Sheed, who was the dean of Catholic publishing in the twentieth century, with his publishing company Sheed and Ward. I asked him whether we should consider establishing our own publishing company, and he said, “By all means. But be ready for ten years of grief.”

James McClain: Ignatius Press has become one of the world's most prominent Catholic media publishers. How has Ignatius Press done over the years?

Fr. Joseph Fessio: We sell about 2 million books per year. Since we had a software update recently, I had to export and import our historical data. I realized that we have sold 34 million books so far.

Ignatius Press at 40 Years: An Interview with Fr. Joseph Fessio, National Catholic Register, (17 August 2018).

Another liberal Jesuit posing as a ‘conservative’ while promoting the kabbalah.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

The New Renaissance

Benedict XVI, Art is a door to the infinite: Aesthetic Theology for a New Renaissance

published by Fabrizio Fabbri Editore e Ars Illuminandi (2017)

“Tota Pulchra” or “All Beautiful”

“Some significant anniversaries occur around this time. It is ten years since the Letter to Artists by my venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Pope John Paul II. For the first time, on the eve of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Pope, who was an artist himself, wrote a Letter to artists, combining the solemnity of a pontifical document with the friendly tone of a conversation among all who, as we read in the initial salutation, “are passionately dedicated to the search for new ‘epiphanies’ of beauty”. Twenty-five years ago the same Pope proclaimed Blessed Fra Angelico the patron of artists, presenting him as a model of perfect harmony between faith and art. I also recall how on 7 May 1964, forty-five years ago, in this very place, an historic event took place, at the express wish of Pope Paul VI, to confirm the friendship between the Church and the arts. The words that he spoke on that occasion resound once more today under the vault of the Sistine Chapel and touch our hearts and our minds. “We need you,” he said. “We need your collaboration in order to carry out our ministry, which consists, as you know, in preaching and rendering accessible and comprehensible to the minds and hearts of our people the things of the spirit, the invisible, the ineffable, the things of God himself. And in this activity … you are masters. It is your task, your mission, and your art consists in grasping treasures from the heavenly realm of the spirit and clothing them in words, colours, forms – making them accessible.” So great was Paul VI’s esteem for artists that he was moved to use daring expressions. “And if we were deprived of your assistance,” he added, “our ministry would become faltering and uncertain, and a special effort would be needed, one might say, to make it artistic, even prophetic. In order to scale the heights of lyrical expression of intuitive beauty, priesthood would have to coincide with art.” On that occasion Paul VI made a commitment to “re-establish the friendship between the Church and artists”, and he invited artists to make a similar, shared commitment, analyzing seriously and objectively the factors that disturbed this relationship, and assuming individual responsibility, courageously and passionately, for a newer and deeper journey in mutual acquaintance and dialogue in order to arrive at an authentic “renaissance” of art in the context of a new humanism.”