A dialogue on Islam between Father
and Son
(Dialogo
sull’Islam tra un padre e un figlio, Fazi, Rome, 2014; 400 pages). Available only in Italian.Introduction by Franco Cardini.
This is a dialogical book between
the author and his father Alberto Tessore, an anthropologist and traveller. It
deeply analyses the main aspects of Islam, in its historical developing, in its
today reality, and in its relation with Christianity and other religions. The book especially spells out the
difference between the teachings of the Quran and of Prophet Muhammad’s hadiths,
and the doctrines and customs that were afterwards elaborated by Islamic Law. It also proposes in a thoroughly new
and sometimes baffling light the most burning aspects of Islam, as women’s
rights, polygamy, Jesus, Palestine and Israel. The authors also step outside
Islam, to question themselves about the actual meaning of following any
religion, about the role of believes today, especially within Christianity, as
well as about globalization as a radical challenge to traditional ways of
life.
- Read more: Abstract of the book and Index (English), Reviews on newspapers (Italian)- Where to buy it (15 €): Amazon, Libreria Universitaria; in E-book (13 €: EPUB, PDF)
The Mystique of War: The Spirituality of Arms from the Bible to Isis
(La
mistica della guerra: spiritualità delle armi nel Cristianesimo e nell’Islam, Fazi, Rome, 2003; 254 pages).
Original in
Italian (with Introduction by Franco Cardini). Entirely translated into ENGLISH and updated to 2015.Available also in German, Portuguese and Hungarian.
This is a book that throws a new,
baffling light on the subject of holy war. There are many studies on this
phenomenon, based on historical, political, and sociological analyses; however, this book suggests a different angle, emphasizing the most specific and most determinant aspect of holy war: religion. This
book is a journey in search of the
“spirituality of war”, a dimension which is a common heritage of nearly all
cultures and religions. Through a wide outline on war spirituality from the Bible and the
Quran, crusaders and mujahidins, samurais and Aztec priests, it argues that war can be seen as a way of liberation for oneself and for others, a way
of mystical asceticism and introspection. Numberless ancient and modern texts
are quoted: passages from Khomeini and Bin Laden, from samurai and Japanese
monks, from St. Augustine, St. Bernard and St. Pius V, from the Teutonic
Knights’ statutes and the Crusade’s proclamations.
- Read more: Abstract of the book and Index (English), Read Excerpts, Reviews on newspapers (English), The Introduction of F. Cardini (Italian)- Where to buy it: out of print; available only in E-book (7 €)
Fasting
(Il digiuno, Città Nuova, Rome, 2006; 70 pages). Original in Italian.
Foreword (to the English
edition) by Nicholas Sagovsky, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey.
This is a brief treatise
on fasting, in a simple language, easy to read, but at the same time rigorous and based on the
ground-texts of the Christian religion: the Bible and the ancient Church Fathers.
The reader will be able, in this way, to understand the meaning (and also the
practice) of fasting in old Israel, for Jesus and the Apostles, for the
original Christian community and for the great Church Fathers, and to understand
again and live fasting in today's Church
- Read more: Abstract of the book and Index (English); Review on "The Tablet"; The Foreword of N. Sagovsky (English)
The Christian Woman, According to the
Teachings of Apostolic Tradition
(La
donna cristiana secondo gli insegnamenti della tradizione apostolica, Il
Leone Verde, 2007; 450 pages). Available
only in Italian.
An in-depth and detailed
analysis of Christian traditional teaching on women’s nature and role. After
a survey of the historic and social context of the Hellenistic-Roman world,
the book goes on explaining the traditional Christian doctrine about women:
their metaphysical subordination to men, the spiritual value of obedience, the
biological and psychological trends of being woman, the issues of the veil
and dress, the exclusion of women from priesthood and many other themes. A book
of a high academic level for the large number of quotations, documents and
historical references (more than 2000 quotations from Bible and Church
Fathers, among which many passages translated for the first time from Greek,
Latin and Syriac), but at the same time readable, charming, captivating, and
also highly controversial and intellectually challenging for its radical overthrowing of the modern concept about
women and their role and rights.
Essays on Medieval
Mentality (Saggi sulla mentalità medievale, Adytum, Lavarone, 2012; 150 pages). Available only in Italian.
This book is an
illustration of some main points of medieval men’s mentality. It exposes,
through several quotations from original texts, aspects of medieval Christianity
that are often ignored: the concept of commerce as rebellion against the order
established by God, the corruption of Papacy as a proof of its divine mission,
the idea of devils as bodily realities operating in daily life, and the blood’s
nobility as a theological concept.
- Read more: Abstract of the Book (English)- Where to buy it (18 €): Libreria Universitaria, Libreria Fernandez
The Capital Vices
(I vizi capitali, Città Nuova, Rome, 2006; 73 pages). Original in Italian.
This short book is a
practical guide encouraging Christians to engage in a serious
spiritual work on themselves, beginning from the diagnosis and therapy of
the seven basic diseases which are the cause of every psychical and physical
malaise: greed, anger, envy, presumption... The book is written in a simple and
easy to read style, though rigorously based on the Church Fathers’ sentences and
teachings.
- Read more: Abstract of the Book and Index (English)- Where to buy it (6 €): Amazon, Libreria Universitaria
Apostle Peter: A Man in Search of God
(San Pietro, un uomo alla ricerca di Dio, Città Nuova, Rome, 2007; 175 pages). Original in Italian.
A easy-read book, easy to
read, but also accurate at the historical-scientific level. Besides
the biographical and historical facts of Apostle Peter’s life and the picture
of the social and cultural background in which he lived, great importance is
given to the inner and spiritual path of this man in search of God. The
sources on which this book is based are the New Testament, some apocryphal
hagiographic tales, the works of the Church Fathers and of ancient historians,
as well as recent historiographical and archaeological studies. The book is
written in a clear and easy-read style.
- Read more: Abstract of the Book and Index (English)- Where to buy it (11 €): Amazon, Libreria del Santo
King David, Prophet of
Israel
(Davide, profeta e re d’Israele, Città Nuova, Rome,
2012; 150 pages). Available only in Italian.
Figure of highest
importance for the Jews, but also for the Christians and the Muslims, David is
an ambiguous, mysterious character: prophet and spiritual man, but at the same
time a sovereign rich in power, glory and women; great saint, religious teacher
and ascetic, but simultaneously great sinner; man of prayer, author of the Psalms,
enchanting musician, but at the same time cruel warrior, conqueror and
assaulter of caravans... This readable and charming book, rigorously based on
the biblical narration, describes the life of David, as spiritual leader of
Israel and as politician, as human being with his weaknesses and as teacher of
prayer (this book abundantly quotes verses from the Psalms), and allows the
reader to penetrate the historical context and the life-style of that age.
- Read more: Presentation of the Book (Italian)- Where to buy it (10 €): Amazon, Libreria Universitaria
Gregory VII: The Monk, the Politician, the Saint
(Gregorio VII: il monaco, l’uomo politico, il santo, Città
Nuova, Rome, 2003; 230 pages). Available only in Italian.
One of the most
important Popes of the Church history and of the West. He died in 1085. He was
the main character of extraordinary adventures: the rivalry with the Empire and
Henry IV, the quarrel for the investitures, the king's excommunication and the
Pardon of Canossa are crucial facts, that show Gregory VII as a man of Church
and a politician. But this touching biographical portrait (factually accurate and
well-documented, but also readable and appealing) shows also his experience as
monk, his spirituality, his humanity: through his rich and fascinating
epistolary (till now never translated entirely into any modern language), we
are offered a precious occasion to approach the "personality" of
Gregory VII, with his choices, his doubts, his fears.
- Read more: Abstract of the Book and Index (English)- Where to buy it (14 €): Amazon, Libreria del Santo
An Introduction to Ratzinger: The Ethical, Political, Religious Positions of Benedict XVI
(Introduzione a Ratzinger: le posizioni etiche, politiche e religiose di Benedetto XVI, Fazi, Rome, 2005; 223 pages). Original in Italian.Preface by Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople.
Available also in Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal) and Bulgarian.
Cardinal Ratzinger's books, articles, decrees, interviews are of
extreme interest and also of great importance in order to understand his
politics and his thinking as pope, as well as the post-Ratzinger Church situation.
This book is an review – through his own words - of Cardinal Ratzinger's
thoughts on several important issues (the
question about the Mass in Latin, the condemnation of homosexuality and
feminism, the relation with the other Christian Churches, etc.).
- Read more: Abstract of the book and Index, The Preface of the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I- Where to buy it: out of print, available only in E-book (7 €)
