The Way of Heaven and Earth
The Way of Heaven and Earth
From Either/Or to the Catholic Both/And
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A crisis of polarization more and more threatens the future of civilization. Whether it’s philosophy, theology, politics, or culture, we find ourselves falling into stark either/or dilemmas: Religion or science? Conservative or liberal? Faith or works? We can’t help but choose one idea at the expense of the other, falling into zero-sum games, mutual extremes, and the endless division of human life.
In The Way of Heaven and Earth, Matthew Becklo offers a way of interpreting this crisis: Christ and “the Catholic both/and.” Framing our greatest dilemmas as “heaven-earth dilemmas”—choices between God or man, God’s place or man’s place, the spiritual or the physical, or the spirit or the flesh—Becklo shows that our greatest hope for overcoming our divisions is in Christ, who is “the Way of heaven and earth,” and the Catholic Church, which is the fullness of the Way.
With the help of Scripture, Catholic teaching, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and various philosophers, theologians, and artists, The Way of Heaven and Earth finds new hope in this forgotten Way, which calls us into the paradoxes of the human journey.
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What People are Saying
“This book is like a many-jeweled crown. It is a rich treasury of thousands of pieces of wonderfully unoriginal Catholic wisdom arranged in an original and unforgettable ‘big picture’ that reveals the Catholic (universal) ‘both/and’ mind in contrast to all its ‘either/or’ alternatives. It shows how Christ is a matchmaker who marries (not compromises) all the spiritual couples that the world divorces.”
—Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College, and author of Socrates’ Children
“Pursuing holiness requires a type of suffering that many are not able to bear. It includes a radical transformation in the way we see God, ourselves, and the world. In The Way of Heaven and Earth, Becklo masterfully leads us down the road that Scripture calls ‘narrow’ and ‘constricted’ by breaking through the false dichotomies that distract many today and teaching us how to be holy, how to see, how to understand, and simply how to be human. If you're tired of wrestling with the either/or scenarios that plague the human heart or tired of sitting in the tension of polarization and extremes, this book is an invitation to be free of the paradoxes by diving deeper into them through the lens of the Incarnation. Everyone should read it.”
—Rachel Bulman, author, speaker, and editor of With All Her Mind: A Call to the Intellectual Life
“I am so happy that Matthew Becklo has written The Way of Heaven and Earth. Why? Because when people discover that I teach philosophy at a seminary, they often share with me their deep desire to study philosophy in the light of the Catholic faith to better understand God, themselves, the Church, the world, and their participation in it. Whether he intended it or not, in The Way of Heaven and Earth, Becklo covers all the major philosophical themes required by the Program for Priestly Formation in a well-written, thoroughly researched, and challenging yet accessible book. As our world, our country, and even at times our Church become more polarized, Becklo reminds us that the fullness of truth is usually found in the Catholic both/and, and that heaven and earth ought not be opposed.”
—Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar for Evangelization and Secretary for Parish Life in the Diocese of Cleveland, Professor of Philosophy at Borromeo Seminary, and author of Understanding the Hillbilly Thomist: The Philosophical Foundations of Flannery O’Connor’s Narrative Art