The author of numerous books, Gerald O'Collins, S.J., is a professor at the Gregorian University in Rome. His last book for Paulist Press™ was The Tripersonal God.
Edward G. Farrugia, S.J., is a professor of dogmatic theology and Eastern patrology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. He is assistant editor of Orientalia Christiana Periodica.
This second edition of the favorably reviewed 1990 work of the same title (LJ 5/1/91) remains much the same, with only the addition of some 50 new entries, corrections, expansions, and an index of names. The approximately 1200 alphabetically arranged theological terms and phrases span the entire course of Christian history. Individual entries are concise, balanced, and clearly written and range in length from a single sentence to a full-page essay on selected topics. Although the work is ecumenical in perspective, Roman Catholicism and theological developments in biblical, catechetical, ethical, historical, liturgical, and philosophical studies since Vatican II receive the major focus. Regretfully, this second edition fails to add bibliographies; however, Jesuit theologians O'Collins and Farrugia skillfully refer to biblical and ecclesiastical documents, providing the reader with a more complete discussion. Cross-references abound, and though there are no biographical entries, this is a useful resource for students and others seeking basic theological information. Libraries already owning the first edition, however, need not replace.
-John-Leonard Berg, Univ. of Wisconsin, Platteville
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