This anthology of two novellas--A Requiem for Love and A Symphony in Sand--provides rich new re-settings for the stories of Creation and Redemption.

Ground-breaking scholarship about how the Torah became the Jewish canon.

The Divine Symphony begins with this one presupposition; that all that God has revealed about Himself, and all that He yearns for His People to be, is offered through the Catholic Mass. The exposition of that presupposition resulted in this unique book on the Theology of the Catholic Mass. The Divine Symphony presents a wonderful and seamless presentation of the liturgical continuity of the history, meaning, and mystery of the central and highest expression of worship and prayer in the Catholic Church. For the past century and longer, nearly every book written by Catholics about the Catholic Mass has taken to the approach to explain the liturgy by dissecting it into separate parts and pieces. Contrary to this staunchly popular style of teaching, the Catholic Mass is not a disjointed litany of things laity says, things the Priest says, times they stand, times they kneel, things they do, and things they don’t do. Rather, in all of its liturgical expressions, from East to West, the Catholic Mass is a singular and Divinely inspired composition; a familial song of prayers and confessions. It truly is a Divine Symphony called the ‘Ite, Missa est.’ This is what makes David L. Gray’s work groundbreaking, in that finally there comes along a book that presents a harmonious symphony of the Catholic Mass. Although Mr. Gray uses the Novus Ordo rite as the outline to narrate and guide the reader through the liturgical movements, he also draws into text much older Latin and Eastern rites, for the objectives of deeper study and explanation of the purpose, meaning, mystery, and orientation of the sacred liturgy. Such incorporation of so many various rites demonstrates, most beautifully, the universality and continuity of Christ Jesus’ memorial sacrifice. A second unique feature of this work is Mr. Gray’s use of the classical symphony orchestra as a way to explain the structure and flow of the Catholic Mass. Even if the reader is not trained in the classical works, Gray gives them enough history and examples to give the reader a good reason to appreciate and understand their many similarities of form and purpose. A third unique aspect of the book is that rather than attempt to explain the Mass through Scriptural proof-texts, the author has rightly moved to explain the Scriptures through the Mass. For, as the Scriptures tells the story of salvation history, it is the Mass, which brings the promise of the story to their fulfillment. Through beautiful prose and a concrete presentation of the Divine Symphony’s history, meaning, mystery, and liturgical continuity, David L. Gray, in this exordium, gives reason to all to know, love and pray the Mass. This well written and accessible a book is not only for Catholics, but for anyone who is looking to developing a deeper understanding and appreciation for what the Priests, Deacons, and the People are doing when they pray and confess the Ite, Missa Est. To know the Mass is to love it and to love it is to pray it.

This book explores the mythical realm, unveiling the fascinating interactions between mortals and gods in mythology and literature. It delves into the origins and hierarchy of the gods, their power and influence, interventions in humanity, and creation and destruction of the world. It examines divine marriages, love affairs, jealousy and betrayal among the gods. Also the divine wisdom, trials and challenges faced by gods and heroes. It analyzes the transformations and metamorphoses of the gods, their epic battles, revelations and prophecies that shaped civilizations. It details the worship, rituals and pilgrimages that connect the mortal to the divine. It explores the divine encounters in ancient texts, epic tales, poetry, drama and modern interpretations. The book delves into the rich symbolism and imagination of mythology, examining how humans have portrayed these divine encounters and their impact on human culture and imagination.

The two-fold task of A Symphony of Distances is to provide an overview of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s use of distance imagery with regard to personal distinctions in the Holy Trinity and to offer a critical analysis of him as a modern Catholic theologian. A metaphor of “distance” integrates all of Balthasar’s theological thought as a primary cipher for the many symbols through which he reads the Christian theological tradition in a trinitarian and eschatological mode. The book follows a chronological, four-stage development of Balthasar’s trinitarianism through the lens of this distance metaphor as it occurs across representative texts. The critical analysis employs the conceit of a symphony of four musical movements that correspond to four varieties of theological distance. These distances show certain correspondences of God’s creation and redemption of the world—marked by the first two “distances”—with the relations of the divine persons to each other in the economy of salvation and in the eternal Trinity itself—marked by the third and fourth distances. “Listening” to the four movements of Balthasar’s theological distances enables his readers to “hear” the themes of all four movements in the ascending order of richness, complexity, and inclusivity over the long development of his thought. This fundamentally positive approach of A Symphony of Distances allows for a thorough critique of the internal consistency of Balthasar’s applied method, of the controversial use of gendered trinitarian notions in his speculations on divine pathos, and of his adequacy to the tasks of modern theology. The final judgment is that Balthasar’s theology of distance can be accepted, with reservations, as a positive element of his contribution to contemporary trinitarian theology. The book can thus serve as a critical reference for readers who find Balthasar’s notion of trinitarian distance, and indeed his trinitarianism as a whole, to be compelling, confusing, or frustrating.

One divine melody permeates the grand narrative of Scripture. In this creative overview of the Bible, we will train our "ears to hear" the penetrating God-beat at the center of redemption history. The story of the Bible sweeps and flows, builds and develops like a masterful musical composition with many movements. From the explosive energy of the opening Creation, to the somber sounds of Sin and Lament along the way, the song rises and falls (and rises again!) to a grand crescendo at the end. Leave the dissonance of the world and join the Dance of the Trinity as we learn to live and dance in step with the "unforced rhythms of grace" (Matthew 11 The Message).