Professors and pundits decry Western civilization as exploitative, destructive, and without value. But Esolen sets the record straight and respectfully acknowledges Western civilizations vital role in shaping our values and our world.

Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization: Library Edition

History

Esolen, Anthony

World

Blackstone Pub

Everything you should know--but PC professors won't teach--about Western heritage. Western civilization is the envy of the globe. It has given to the world universally accepted understandings of human rights (rooted in Judeo-Christian principles), created standards for art, music, and literature that have never been equaled, and originated political and social systems that have spread all across the planet. Political correctness now obscures these and other truths about Western civilization. Leftists and Islamic jihadists find common cause in assailing Western "colonialism," "imperialism," and "racism" as its defining characteristics. Guilt-ridden Western leaders and public figures speak of their cultural patrimony in disparaging terms they would never dare to use about a non-Western culture. And in universities, "multicultural"-minded professors flatter students into believing they have nothing really to learn from Sophocles or Shakespeare. But now, Professor Anthony Esolen--one of the team-teachers of Providence College's esteemed Development of Western Civilization Core Curriculum--has risen to the West's defense. The Politically Incorrect Guide(TM) to Western Civilization takes on the prevailing liberal assumptions that make Western civilization the universal whipping boy for today's global problems - and introduces you to the significant events, individuals, nations, ideas, and artistic achievements that make Western civilization the greatest the world has ever known. Today, defending the West has become an urgent imperative: if we don't value what we have and what we have inherited, we will surely lose it. The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Western Civilization is an essential sourcebook for that defense.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (The Politically Incorrect Guides)

Regnery

Dante's Divine Comedy can rightly be called the greatest poem ever written, praised through the ages by a pantheon of writers and scholars. Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) referred to Dante's crowned "visionary brow." Irish novelist James Joyce (1882-1941) said "Dante is my spiritual food!" Pope Benedict XV (1854-1922) called Dante "the most eloquent singer of the Christian idea." Even the 20th century literary critic T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) famously wrote that "Shakespeare and Dante divide the world between them, there is no third." Yet today this great poem is often dismissed by modern scholars for its unabashed Catholic theology and deep spiritual vision. Shrug off these skeptical scholars disdain and discover for yourself the true grandeur, Christian nature, and sheer artistry of Dante's Divine Comedy. Just as Dante needed Virgil to lead him through the bowels of Hell, you also need a true and trustworthy guide. Dr. Anthony Esolen serves as your Virgil in this course on the Inferno, the first canticle of the Divine Comedy. An expert who has taught Dante to college students for more than twenty years, Professor Esolen is also the preeminent modern translator of the entire Divine Comedy from the original Italian. With Professor Esolen you will enter the terrible gates of Hell and progress level by infernal level to its diabolical depths. Professor Esolen places a special emphasis on the drama of the poem, leading you through each canto in succession. Along the way, he will highlight Dante\'s astonishing human and theological insights and discuss the destiny of man, how to find our way out of the wilderness of sin, the relationship between love and knowledge, and the integral unity between body and soul. Professor Esolen will more than satisfy your curiosity about Hell and the fate of the damned. He will reveal in all its starkness the horror of sin, and awaken in your heart a longing for divine love.

Dante's Inferno: A Study on Part I of the Divine Comedy

Saint Benedict Press

We Know What Happens in Hell...But What about Purgatory? 
Dante's Inferno revealed some titillating details about the punishments inflicted on sinners - but in a way, we already knew what happens to people in Hell. What we don\'t know is what happens to people who end up in Purgatory. In this second part of The Divine Comedy, Dante probes the mysteries of that strange and often misunderstood place between earth and Heaven. 
Climb the Mount 
Purgatory is a place to work through - no one gets stuck there forever. The souls in Dante's Purgatory must climb up seven terraces on Mount Purgatory before they can reach Heaven. On these terraces, Dante and Virgil find: 
The prideful who are forced into humility by heavy loads of stones on their backs The envious whose eyes are sewn shut to prevent them from seeing the goods of others The wrathful climb through choking smoke which represents the blinding nature of anger The slothful engage in ceaseless activity to overcome their former laziness The covetous who must lie face down on the ground for their attachment to earthly goods The gluttonous must starve in sight of unreachable fruit hanging from trees above them The lustful are purified by running through a wall of flame which represents God's pure love 
Along the way, they are cleansed from the stains of sin by punishments which are like, and very unlike, those suffered by the sinners in Hell. Here, the suffering souls glorify God and rejoice in their suffering because they know it prepares them for the eternal bliss of Heaven. 
A Real Place 
Virgil and Dante discover the astonishing spiritual reality of Purgatory as they climb through the terraces on Mount Purgatory. Dante created a poetic vision which might be the best imaginative representation of Purgatory ever written. While his poem might not reflect the actual nature of Purgatory, his insights can help us understand it better. 
Your Expert Guide 
A celebrated translator and teacher of Dante, Professor Esolen interprets and describes the rich theological insights discovered by Dante on his journey up the mountain. Join Dante, Virgil, and Professor Esolen to continue the journey begun in the Inferno which will culminate in the ineffable beauty of Paradise.

Dante's Purgatory - DVD: A Study on Part II of the Divine Comedy

You've followed Dante through the dread gates of Hell, to the arduous slopes of Mount Purgatory, and now, finally, to the transcendence of the Heavenly Court. With Dr. Anthony Esolen, you've travelled into the depths of the Inferno. You've witnessed the terrible hopelessness of Hell and the bitter punishments for sinners there. You've accompanied Dante and Virgil through the mysteries of Mount Purgatory where sinners are purged of all attachment to sin. Finally, together with blessed Beatrice, enter into the indescribable glory of Heaven.The Beatific Vision Dante imagines that Paradise consists of nine celestial spheres which surround the very Throne of God at the center. It is like a blossoming rose, each petal reveals further splendor and glory the nearer we come to the center. Yet, in a way, Dante's journey to God read something like science fiction - after all, he and Beatrice travel through: The Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and SaturnThe "Fixed Stars" - a region medievals imagined to contain all stars except the SunAnd finally, through the "Primum Mobile" - the sphere which causes the motion of all other spheres within it because it is moved directly by God In each astral location, Dante and Beatrice meet the blessed souls who enjoy the bliss of Heaven. Unlike Purgatory and the Inferno which are arranged by different types of sin, Paradise is structured according to virtue. Each sphere is associated with one of the cardinal virtues - prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance - or one of the theological virtues - faith, hope, charity. Poetry of the Highest Order Professor Esolen who has served as your guide through both the Inferno and Purgatory will guide you through the profound and elevated poetry of Paradise. An expert who has taught Dante to college students for more than twenty years, Professor Esolen is also the preeminent modern translator of the entire Divine Comedy from the original Italian. Dante can rightly be called the greatest poet who ever lived because he chose for the subject of his epic poem the greatest subject ever conceived - namely the whole purpose and end of man. Dante\'s imaginative genius gave us both astonishing human and theological insights and perhaps the most beautiful verse describing Heaven ever written. Discover the ineffable majesty of Paradise with Professor Esolen and complete the journey of all men who have conquered self through the sufferings in Purgatory.

Dante's Paradise - DVD: A Study on Part III of the Divine Comedy

Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity is a rousing, compelling defense of traditional, natural marriage. Here, Anthony Esolen—professor at Providence College and a prolific writer uses moral, theological, and cultural arguments to defend this holy and ancient institution, bedrock of society—and to illuminate the threats it faces from modern revolutions in law, public policy, and sexual morality. Inside, discover: - Traditional marriage’s roots in age-old religious, cultural, and natural laws - Why gay marriage is a metaphysical impossibility - How acceptance and legal sanction of gay marriage threatens the family - How the state becomes a religion when it attempts to elevate gay marriage, and enshrine as a civil right all consensual sex - How divorce and sexual license have brought marriage to the brink - How today’s culture has impoverished and emptied love of its true meaning In Defending Marriage, Esolen expertly and succinctly identifies the cultural dangers of gay marriage and the Sexual Revolution which paved its way. He offers a stirring defense of true marriage, the family, culture, and love—and provides the compelling arguments that will return us to sanity, and out of our current morass.

Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity

Self-Help

Relationships

Real Music by Anthony Esolen (with accompanying CD of 18 hymns recorded by the St. Cecilia Choir of St. John Cantius Church in Chicago) is a comprehensive and delightful guide to the great traditional hymnody of the Church. In an age when sacred hymns of the past have either been "modernized" or utterly rejected as irrelevant, Real Music restores to us to a treasure trove, the vast heritage of glorious sacred music for congregations and choirs. In it, Professor Esolen masterfully illustrates how the traditional hymns combine elegant poetry with sound doctrine and music composed and arranged by great masters. With the Church and Her precepts under assault from all sides, we need now, perhaps more than ever before, to contemplate the beauty and truth that these fine hymns proclaim. With noted literary scholar, poet, and translator Anthony Esolen as your guide and the St. Cecilia Choir as your muse, join the musical renaissance to recover and to restore to our churches the best that has been sung and played and prayed by Christians down through the ages. Real Music is arranged by events in the life of our Lord and the seasons and Sacraments of the Church. Join Professor Esolen on a pilgrimage into the realm of glorious poetry and incomparable music, all written to bring Christians ever closer to the faith of our fathers and to the Author of our faith. Real Music is a book meant to be savored. Whether you read the book and listen to, or perhaps even sing along with, the CD at home in your favorite easy chair, or among friends in an informal class at your parish, Real Music will enrich your spiritual life with magnificent music through which we may all offer praise and honor to God.

Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church

Arts & Photography

Music

TAN Books

In the Beginning Was the Word: An Annotated Reading of the Prologue of John

In this extended meditation, Anthony Esolen looks, phrase by phrase, at the majestic Prologue to the Gospel of John, which with good reason he calls “the most influential paragraph in the history of man.” He unfolds its theological richness by showing how the Apostle John has in mind, not only what he saw Jesus do and heard him say, but also the whole witness of Scripture before the time of Jesus, and the way the young Church proclaimed him. A unique feature of this remarkable work is how Esolen “hears” (and we with him) the Hebrew/Aramaic underlying John’s Greek (which was not his mother tongue), echoing those languages in such a way that, all at once, what we thought could never be more profoundly expressed bursts forth in a renewed poetic splendor that brings into ever keener relief the whole panorama of the theology of the God-Man. Esolen’s decades-long immersion in Christian poetry and Scripture uniquely positions him as a guide to the astonishing and life-changing “poem” of the Prologue. He says it best: “My hope is not only to illuminate what John wishes us to hear, but to show that, when it comes to this poetry, John is not the originator; he is, rather, the beloved disciple who caught the habit from the Lord Himself.”\n“This book is more than biblical interpretation. It is poetry — and poetry about the greatest work of poetry ever generated: the Prologue to John’s gospel.” —SCOTT HAHN\n“A word-by-word commentary that is accessible and scholarly, robustly orthodox, and poetically inspiring.” —FR DWIGHT LONGENECKER\n“Here philological expertise is brought to bear on the paragraph of text that is arguably the most pregnant with meaning of any ever written.” —FR LUKE BELL\n“In this splendid gem of a book, Anthony Esolen reminds us that all Scripture — perhaps especially the Gospel of John — sparkles and delights, if only we would see its theological, philosophical, and poetical brilliance.” —R. J. SNELL\n“Anthony Esolen here reveals something of the original tongues that fed into this theological overture, allowing our souls to resonate with the allusive overtones of the Logos that tells us our Story.” —SCOTT RANDALL PAINE\n“This unique, arresting book allows a mere eighteen verses to shed their light into the very heart of life and culture!” —R. JARED STAUDT

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Angelico Press

"This book is more than biblical interpretation. It is poetry — and poetry about the greatest work of poetry ever generated: the Prologue to John's gospel." —Scott Hahn\nIn this extended meditation, Anthony Esolen looks, phrase by phrase, at the majestic Prologue to the Gospel of John, which with good reason he calls "the most influential paragraph in the history of man." He unfolds its theological richness by showing how the Apostle John has in mind, not only what he saw Jesus do and heard him say, but also the whole witness of Scripture before the time of Jesus, and the way the young Church proclaimed him. A unique feature of this remarkable work is how Esolen "hears" (and we with him) the Hebrew/Aramaic underlying John's Greek (which was not his mother tongue), echoing those languages in such a way that, all at once, what we thought could never be more profoundly expressed bursts forth in a renewed poetic splendor that brings into ever keener relief the whole panorama of the theology of the God-Man. Esolen's decades-long immersion in Christian poetry and Scripture uniquely positions him as a guide to the astonishing and life-changing "poem" of the Prologue. He says it best: "My hope is not only to illuminate what John wishes us to hear, but to show that, when it comes to this poetry, John is not the originator; he is, rather, the beloved disciple who caught the habit from the Lord Himself."

Alone among the creatures of the world, man suffers a pang both bitter and sweet. It is an ache for the homecoming. The Greeks called it nostalgia. Post-modern man, homeless almost by definition, cannot understand nostalgia. If he is a progressive, dreaming of a utopia to come, he dismisses it contemptuously, eager to bury a past he despises. If he is a reactionary, he sentimentalizes it, dreaming of a lost golden age. In this profound reflection, Anthony Esolen explores the true meaning of nostalgia and its place in the human heart. Drawing on the great works of Western literature from the Odyssey to Flannery O'Connor, he traces the development of this fundamental longing from the pagan's desire for his earthly home, which most famously inspired Odysseys' heroic return to Ithaca, to its transformation under Christianity. The doctrine of the fall of man forestalls sentimental traditionalism by insisting that there has been no Eden since Eden. And the revelation of heaven as our true and final home, directing man's longing to the next world, paradoxically strengthens and ennobles the pilgrim's devotion to his home in this world. In our own day, Christian nostalgia stands in frank opposition to the secular usurpation of this longing. Looking for a city that does not exist, the progressive treats original sin, which afflicts everyone, as mere political error, which afflicts only his opponents. To him, history is a long tale of misery with nothing to teach us. Despising his fathers, he lives in a world without piety. Only the future, which no one can know, is real to him. It is an idol that justifies all manner of evil and folly. Nostalgia rightly understood is not an invitation to repeat the sins of the past or to repudiate what experience and reflection have taught us, but to hear the call of sanity and sweetness again. Perhaps we will shake our heads as if awaking from a bad and feverish dream and, coming to ourselves, resolve, like the Prodigal, to "arise and go to my father's house."

Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World

Regnery/Gateway

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Esolen, Anthony. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Esolen, Anthony

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Esolen, Anthony. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization: Library Edition

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (The Politically Incorrect Guides)

Dante's Inferno: A Study on Part I of the Divine Comedy

Dante's Purgatory - DVD: A Study on Part II of the Divine Comedy

Dante's Paradise - DVD: A Study on Part III of the Divine Comedy

Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity

Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church

In the Beginning Was the Word: An Annotated Reading of the Prologue of John

In the Beginning Was the Word: An Annotated Reading of the Prologue of John

Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World