"What does it mean to be a human being?" Given this perennial question, Alasdair MacIntyre, one of America's preeminent philosophers, presents a compelling argument on the necessity and importance of philosophy. Because of a need to better understand Catholic philosophical thought, especially in the context of its historical development and realizing that philosophers interact within particular social and cultural situations, MacIntyre offers this brief history of Catholic philosophy.

Tracing the idea of God through different philosophers' engagement of God and how this engagement has played out in universities, MacIntyre provides a valuable, lively, and insightful study of the disintegration of academic disciplines with knowledge. MacIntyre then demonstrates the dangerous implications of this happening and how universities can and ought to renew a shared understanding of knowledge in their mission. This engaging work will be a benefit and a delight to all readers.

Alasdair MacIntyre is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He has written 16 books, includingAfter Virtue,Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry,A Short History of Ethics, and, more recently,Edith Stein: A Philosophical Prologue, 1913-1922.

Introduction
God, philosophy, Universities
Chapter 1 God
Chapter 2 Philosophy
Chapter 3 God and philosophy
Chapter 4 God, philosophy, universities
Prologues to the Catholic philosophical tradition
Chapter 5 Augustine
Chapter 6 Boethius, PseudoDionysius, Anselm
Chapter 7 The Islamic and Jewish prologue to Catholic philosophy
Chapter 8 The genesis of the Catholic philosophical tradition
Aquinas and after
Chapter 9 Aquinas: philosophy and our knowledge of God
Chapter 10 Aquinas: philosophy and the life of practice
Chapter 11 Aquinas: God, philosophy, universities
Chapter 12 After Aquinas: Scotus and Ockham
The threshold of modern philosophy
Chapter 13 From scholasticism to scepticism
Chapter 14 Descartes, Pascal, and Arnauld
Modernity
Chapter 15 The Catholic absence from philosophy and the Catholic return to philosophy 1700-1850
Chapter 16 Newman: God, philosophy, universities
Chapter 17 From Aeterni Patris to Fides et Ratio
Chapter 18 Fides et Ratio: the Catholic philosophical tradition redefined
Chapter 19 Now: Universities, philosophy, God
Index
About the Author