Christopher McDougall’s journey begins with a story of remarkable athletic prowess: On the treacherous mountains of Crete, a motley band of World War II Resistance fighters—an artist, a shepherd, and a poet—abducted a German commander from the heart of the Axis occupation. To understand how, McDougall retraces their steps across the island that birthed Herakles and Odysseus, and discovers ancient techniques for endurance, sustenance, and natural movement that have been preserved in unique communities around the world.

His search takes us scrambling over rooftops with a Parkour crew in London, foraging for greens with a ballerina in Brooklyn, tossing heavy pieces of driftwood on a Brazilian beach with the creator of MovNat—and, finally, to our own backyards. Natural Born Heroes will inspire readers to unleash the extraordinary potential of the human body and climb, swim, skip, throw, and jump their way to heroic feats.

About St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope John XXII said:
"A man can derive more profit in a year from his books
than from pondering all his life the teaching of others."

And Pope Pius XI added:
"We now say to all who are desirous of the truth:
'Go to St. Thomas.'"

But when we do go to Thomas when we open his massive Summa Theologica or another of his works we're quickly overwhelmed, even lost.

If we find him hard to read, how can we even begin to "think like Aquinas?"

Now comes Kevin Vost the best-selling author of The One-Minute Aquinasarmed with a recently rediscovered letter St. Thomas himself wrote a brief letter to young novice monk giving practical, sage advice about how to study, how to think, and even how to live.

In this letter written almost 800 years ago, St. Thomas reveals his unique powers of intellect and will, and explains how anyone can fathom and explain even the loftiest truths.

Vost and St. Thomas will teach you how to dissect logical fallacies, heresies, and half-truths that continue to pollute our world with muddy thinking. Best of all, you'll find a fully-illustrated set of exercises to improve your intellectual powers of memory, understanding, logical reasoning, shrewdness, foresight, circumspection, and practical wisdom.

You'll also learn:

• The four steps to training your memory
• How to know your mental powers and their limits
• Why critical thinking alone is insufficient for reaching the truth
• Twenty common fallacies and how to spot them
• The key to effectively reading any book
• How to set your intellect free by avoiding worldly entanglements
• How to commit key truths to memory

Pius XI called St. Thomas Aquinas the "model" for those who want to "pursue their studies to the best advantage and with the greatest profit to themselves." Leo XIII urged us all to "follow the example of St. Thomas." Over the centuries, dozens of other popes have praised him.

Surely it is time to listen to these good men, time to "go to Thomas" to learn to think like him, and, yes, even to live like him.

The writings in this volume cast a glimmer of light upon the emerging traditions and organization of the infant church, during an otherwise little-known period of its development. A selection of letters and small-scale theological treatises from a group known as the Apostolic Fathers, several of whom were probably disciples of the Apostles, they provide a first-hand account of the early Church and outline a form of early Christianity still drawing on the theology and traditions of its parent religion, Judaism. Included here are the first Epistle of Bishop Clement of Rome, an impassioned plea for harmony; The Epistle of Polycarp; The Epistle of Barnabas; The Didache; and the Seven Epistles written by Ignatius of Antioch—among them his moving appeal to the Romans that they grant him a martyr's death.