Oakley, Francis

The Western church in the later Middle Ages by Francis Oakley ( Book )
11 editions published between 1979 and 1991 in English and held by 950 libraries worldwide

The medieval experience; foundations of Western cultural singularity by Francis Oakley ( Book )
12 editions published between 1974 and 1993 in English and held by 889 libraries worldwide
Includes chapters on medieval religion, politics, economics, and intellectual life.

Community of learning : the American college and the liberal arts tradition by Francis Oakley ( Book )
5 editions published in 1992 in English and held by 648 libraries worldwide
In the past decade, criticism of the state of undergraduate education in America has come from many directions and in various forms, from Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind, to Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education, to Secretary of Education William J. Bennett's 1984 report To Reclaim a Legacy. In his book Tenured Radicals, Roger Kimball derided current instruction in the humanities as "a program of study that has nothing to offer. . .but ideological posturing, pop culture, and hermeneutic word games." And given the intense demands of global competition, others have wondered if liberal arts programs in general should be replaced by more practical, job-oriented courses of study. Has the age-old tradition of education in the liberal arts been betrayed in our lifetime? Is it destined to become a stale vestige of the past? In Community of Learning, Francis Oakley, the president of Williams College, makes a strong case for the values and achievements of the liberal arts in providing a sense of historical continuity and a broader framework in which to come to terms with the problems of the modern world. Noting the "dyspeptic presentism" and "disheveled anecdotalism" characteristic of a good deal of the recent criticism, Oakley attempts to place it in historical perspective. He asserts that the single most important factor shaping the American undergraduate experience today is the unparalleled demographic upheaval of the past thirty years, the nature of the response it evoked, and the energy, imagination, and adaptation going into that response. And, reaching back to a more distant past, he insists that the tradition of education in the liberal arts has always been a highly tension-ridden one that from its very conflictedness has derived much of its enduring vitality. Weaving together historical perspective and recent statistical data, he evaluates current worries about a "flight from the humanities" on the part of students, or from teaching on the part of academics, and addresses such hotly debated issues as curricular coherence, multiculturalism, and the alleged politicization of undergraduate studies. Coming at a time when the age-old tradition of education in the liberal arts is beset by anxious questioning, Community of Learning is a bold affirmation of its established strengths and current efficacy in helping provide students with an enhanced ability to cope with the complex demands of an era of unprecedented change.

The political thought of Pierre d'Ailly: the voluntarist tradition by Francis Oakley ( Book )
7 editions published in 1964 in English and held by 626 libraries worldwide

Omnipotence, covenant & order : an excursion in the history of ideas from Abelard to Leibniz by Francis Oakley ( Book )
7 editions published between 1984 and 1992 in English and Undetermined and held by 528 libraries worldwide

Natural law, laws of nature, natural rights : continuity and discontinuity in the history of ideas by Francis Oakley ( Book )
6 editions published in 2005 in English and held by 418 libraries worldwide
"This book focuses on three bodies of theory that developed between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries: (I) the foundational belief in the existence of a moral/juridical natural law, embodying universal norms of right and wrong and accessible to natural human reason; (2) the understanding of (scientific) uniformities of nature as divinely imposed laws, which rose to prominence in the seventeenth century; and (3), finally, the notion that individuals are bearers of inalienable natural or human rights. While seen today as distinct bodies of theory often locked in mutual conflict, these three intellectual constructs grew up inextricably intertwined. The book argues that they cannot be properly understood if taken each in isolation from the other."--BOOK JACKET.

Kingship : the politics of enchantment by Francis Oakley ( Book )
8 editions published in 2006 in English and held by 414 libraries worldwide
"In this book, Francis Oakley argues that kingship may be the most common form of government known to humankind. He traces its history from the time of the Neolithic revolution and the spread of agrarian modes of subsistence around the eastern Mediterranean (c.8000 - 5000 BCE) down to its widespread loss of legitimacy in the modern industrial world."--BOOK JACKET.

Creation: the impact of an idea by Daniel O'Connor ( Book )
1 edition published in 1969 in English and held by 351 libraries worldwide

The conciliarist tradition : constitutionalism in the Catholic Church, 1300-1870 by Francis Oakley ( Book )
11 editions published between 2003 and 2008 in English and held by 308 libraries worldwide
In 1870 the First Vatican Council vindicated the old Roman vision of an essentially unlimited monarchical authority residing in the pope, thus vanquishing an even older, conciliar, essentially constitutionalist ideal of church governance. This book reconstructs the half-millennial history of that rival and now largely forgotten tradition. - ;In the early fifteenth century, the general council assembled at Constance and, representing the universal Church, put an end to the scandalous schism which for almost forty years had divided the Latin Church between rival lines of claimants to the papal o.

Council over Pope? Towards a provisional ecclesiology by Francis Oakley ( Book )
6 editions published in 1969 in English and held by 300 libraries worldwide