Abbot Vonier begins his Christological Trilogy with "The Personality of Christ," a meditation on how Our Lord, while remaining a divine person, brings salvation to humanity precisely through his human actions. This illuminating study is marked by a memorably clear explanation of the meaning of “person” in the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, and a perceptive Biblical study of Christ’s acts and relationships within human society. Vonier shows that much of the unique, dramatic character of the gospels derives from the distance between Christ’s infinite, divine personality and the finite, human personalities that he touches and elevates. "The Personality of Christ" is followed by "Christ the King of Glory," and "The Victory of Christ." "These are no mere exegetical treatises for the trained philosopher; their common purpose is to strengthen devotion, not by appealing to sentiment but by adapting to modern needs the classical exposition of the Fathers and Scholastics, especially those of his great Master in Divinity—St. Thomas Aquinas. The style however is clear and free from technical terms." -The Irish Monthly

The Personality of Christ (Christological Trilogy)

Religion & Spirituality

Vonier O.S.B., Dom Anscar

Christian Books & Bibles

Assumption Press

Dom Anscar Vonier, Abbot of Buckfast, was among England’s greatest homilists and theologians of the early twentieth century. His works include "A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist" and "The Personality of Christ."   In this work of remarkable eloquence, Abbot Vonier explores the reality of the Church as a permanent sign of the Holy Spirit dwelling on Earth. Through a sustained reflection on the miracle of Pentecost, Vonier shows that the same presence of the Spirit, revealed in miracles on that day, abides in the Church even now—a truth clearly seen in the Church’s power to heal the sins of her members, as “a function of Christ’s risen life.”  Vonier’s powerful, Biblical theology of the Church features impressively clear explanations of continuity and change in the Church, renewal, liturgy, and the sacramental life, which anticipate many of the great theological insights that would later animate the Second Vatican Council.  He writes, “We are all plunged into one river of life, the Spirit; we all drink the same cup of life, the Spirit; through the Spirit we are as one life. Such unity never existed before: it is the miracle of Pentecost, a miracle that will last through all eternity.”

The Spirit and the Bride

Vonier, Dom Anscar

The Angels

Dom Anscar Vonier, Abbot of Buckfast, was among England's most celebrated homilists and theological writers in the early twentieth century. In this concise primer, Vonier introduces the reader to one of the most noble, but overlooked, elements of Catholic theology: the nature of angels. Drawing from Scripture, Patristic sources, and St. Thomas Aquinas, Vonier unfolds the metaphysical and moral characteristics of this mysterious group of spirits. Far from the soft, sentimentalized depiction of angels in much modern artwork, what emerges from Vonier's account is a picture of sheer vastness and awe, of an innumerable variety of pure spirits, filling the infinite space between God and humanity. To know these greatest of created beings, Vonier writes, will be "a great element in man's eternal happiness" and "the last thing in created love; greater love than that there could not be except man's communion with God himself."

An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent

Newman is a magnificent guide for all those who perceive that the key, the focal point and the goal of all human history is to be found in Christ. -St. John Paul II
 Carefully composed over twenty years, Newman’s Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent is an acknowledged masterpiece both for its apologetic response to atheistic naturalism and its positive contribution to the Catholic theology of faith. Newman confronts the dilemma of modern skepticism through a sustained investigation of what it means for the mind to give assent. He shows how the believer, who encounters the light of Christ, can give a certain assent to the propositions of the faith even in the absence of demonstrative proof.
 Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman was England’s greatest Catholic convert and theologian of the nineteenth century. Newman’s many written contributions to Catholic theology and culture include An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, The Idea of a University, and Apologia pro Vita Sua. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

History

Newman, Bl. John Henry

World

Dom Anscar Vonier, Abbot of Buckfast, was among England’s greatest homilists and theologians of the early twentieth century. His works include "A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist" and "The Spirit and the Bride." Having explored the unity of Christ’s Divine Person in The Personality of Christ, Abbot Vonier now considers his duality of natures, divine and human. In a penetrating account, he shows how both the divine and the human in Christ, by retaining their distinction and individual integrity, each operate fully in Christ’s priestly work of obtaining eternal redemption for humanity. In consequence, the Church approaches both natures with an attitude of reverence and “worships everything in Christ, his body and his blood, his heart and his head, his acts and his thoughts.” These are no mere exegetical treatises for the trained philosopher; their common purpose is to strengthen devotion, not by appealing to sentiment but by adapting to modern needs the classical exposition of the Fathers and Scholastics, especially those of his great Master in Divinity—St. Thomas Aquinas. The style however is clear and free from technical terms." - The Irish Monthly

Christ the King of Glory (Christological Triliogy)

Dom Anscar Vonier, Abbot of Buckfast, was among England’s greatest homilists and theologians of the early twentieth century. His works include "A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist" and "The Spirit and the Bride."  In this final book of his Christological Trilogy, Abbot Vonier gives an inspiring account of Christ’s triumph over death and its centrality to the life of the Church. Through a close study of the New Testament, Vonier unfolds how the truth of Christ as Victor informs the Church’s liturgy and aposotolic mission, giving to all Christian spirits the means of understanding and confronting the presence of evil in the world. Vonier writes, “The Catholic Church then, must at all times be viewed in the light of Christ’s victory; it is her very life to believe in that victory, to feed on it, to glorify it through the Spirit that is in her. Any diminution of her faith in Christ’s victory would be a death-blow to her; for she is not living on an edifying memory, but she ﬁghts for the King of Glory whom the heavens have received.” Praise for "The Victory of Christ": "The Victory of Christ is a literary mosaic portraying the meaning of the eternal triumph of the Redeemer as seen from various points of view and as it should be imprinted as a reality on the mind of the faithful."  -Dom Bernard Moss, in "The Downside Review" "The gripping reality of Christ’s victory cannot be set forth in few words, nor can it be understood by the unbeliever. But the sincere Christian who reads this book once, and perhaps again, will be rewarded and comforted by a clear realization of the truth which the Christian ages celebrate as the Victory of Christ."  -Orate Fratres

The Victory of Christ (Christological Trilogy)

"The first theologian in modern times to discover to our wonder and joy the fully sacramental character of the Mass was, doubtless, that profound and personal thinker, Abbot Vonier." - Fr. W. Barden, O.P.
 In his greatest, and most influential masterpiece, Abbot Vonier gives a spiritually and intellectually enriching explanation of the Eucharist based on a careful study of “the great sacramental doctrine of the Church” found in the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Council of Trent. Vonier writes, “To conceive the sacrifice of Mass as a sacrament is a simple visualization of a great truth which, if it be once grasped by the mind … makes all the difference between light and fantasy.” The great beauty and intellectual clarity of the Church’s theology as explained by Vonier reminds the reader over and over that “In theological matters the spark that illumines always comes from under the hoof of strict reasoning.”

A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist

This collection assembles six of George  MacDonald’s best works of short fiction, which have inspired the imaginations of readers for over a century. From the the titular story of a neglected child who restores her family through a heart-rending discovery on Christmas, to the great fairy tale "Photogen and Nycteris," about two children raised in isolation by a witch, these stories are marked by rich diversity in content and style. Yet the common current running through all of them is the simple image of Christ, revealing himself quietly in the many and varied expressions of human love.

The Gifts of the Child Christ, and Other Stories

MACDONALD, GEORGE

Written in the course of his conversion to Catholicism, Newman’s “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine” ranks among the most decisive breakthroughs in systematic and historical theology of the modern era. Newman confronts the age-old problem, which he had wrestled with for his entire life, of how Christian doctrine can develop over time while retaining its roots in the original revelation of Christ. Newman first shows that constructive development is a natural, even predictable consequence of Christ’s investment of authority in the Church. He then provides clear, historically grounded criteria for distinguishing authentic developments from false novelties and fads. The result is a profound interpretation and defense of the Church’s mission and of its power to proclaim the whole counsel of God.

An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Blessed Newman’s Dream of Gerontius is a beautiful and subtle poem about the soul of a man who has died in a state of grace as he is led by his guardian angel past the bounds of material existence toward the merciful judgment seat of God. In the vein of Dante and Calderón, Newman’s poem gives exquisite expression to the content of Catholic theology by placing it the dramatic context of the most central human aim: the life of the soul striving upward towards its greatest good, eternal union with God.

The Dream of Gerontius

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