"Mother Maria is a saint of our day and for our day; a woman of flesh and blood possessed by the love of God, who stood face to face with the problems of this century."--Anthony (Bloom), Metropolitan of Sourozh Mother Maria Skobtsova (1891-1945) has emerged as one of the most fascinating religious figures of the twentieth century. As an Orthodox nun in Paris her home was at once a soup kitchen for the needy, a center for the renewal of Orthodox thought, and---under Nazi occupation---a haven for the rescue of Jews. For the latter cause she ended her life in a concentration camp. Like Dorothy Day, her writings reflect her deep commitment to the gospel mandate that unites love of God and love of neighbor. The introduction is by Jim Forest, secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, and author of many books including Praying with Icons and Confession: Doorway to Forgiveness

Meister Eckhart, the fourteenth-century German mystic and theologian, is one of the most enigmatic and controversial figures in the history of the Church, and few have played so diverse and fertile a role in the cultural imagination. He has been seen as both heretic and 'the man from whom God nothing hid'; Christian mystic and Buddhist sage; Catholic and Protestant; feminist and ecologist; he is both medieval schoolman and inspirer of contemporary philosophers such as Heidegger, Bloch and Derrida. Oliver Davies's masterly evaluation of Eckhart is based on an unrivalled knowledge of the original texts, their historical and theological context, and their place in the Christian mystical tradition. The portrait of St Dominic on the cover (of the book) illustrates one of Davies's main themes: Eckhart's position in the mainstream Dominican tradition of grounding theology in spiritual experience. Both a stimulating scholarly study and an ideal introduction for the non-specialist, Meister Eckhart: Mystical Theologian explores the enduring fascination of Meister Eckhart, 'a mystic for our age'.

Karl Rahner, a Jesuit Priest who died in 1984, is widely regarded as one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. His writings played an enormous role in shaping the documents of Vatican II. But while he is best known for his academic theology, his deepest goal was to help ordinary Christians to recognize and respond to the presence of grace in their everyday lives. Rahner famously observed that the Christians of the future will be mystics or there will be no Christianity. With readings for Advent, Lent, and the other liturgical seasons, these sermons, prayers, and reflections offer spiritual nourishment for the whole year.

Howard Thurman (1900-1981), minister, philosopher, civil rights activist, has been called "one of the greatest spiritual resources of this nation." His encounters with Gandhi in India helped instill his commitment to nonviolence. His identification of Jesus as one of the disinherited helped shape the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr. His embrace of wisdom from other religious traditions emboldened interfaith cooperation and understanding.

VISIONARY CHRISTIAN Culled from some of C.S. Lewis's finest fiction and poetry, this collection of writings explores the eternal truths of Christianity in the accessible language of allegory, fairy tales, dream visions, and science fiction. From his children's classic The Chronicles of Narnia to the wisdom of Screwtape on marriage, democracy, and heaven, Lewis's literary imagination and extraordinary insight into the universe and God remain vivid and relevant for all times. The Visionary Christian is testimony to a true man of faith who continues to provide comfort and understanding to Christians around the world.

Scholars of Gregory of Nyssa have long acknowledged the centrality of faith in his theory of divine union. To date, however, there has been no sustained examination of this key topic. The present study fills this gap and elucidates important auxiliary themes that accrue to Gregory's notion of faith as a faculty of apophatic union with God. The result adjusts how we understand the Cappadocian's apophaticism in general and his so-called mysticism of darkness in particular. After a general discussion of the increasing value of faith in late Neoplatonism and an overview of important work done on Gregorian faith, this study moves on to sketch a portrait of the mind and its dynamic, varying cognitive states and how these respond to the divine pedagogy of scripture, baptism, and the presence of God. With this portrait of the mind as a backdrop we see how Gregory values faith for its ability to unite with God, who remains beyond the comprehending grasp of mind. A close examination of the relationship between faith and mind shows Gregory bestowing on faith qualities which Plotinus would have granted only to the `crest of the wave of intellect'. While Gregorian faith serves as the faculty of apophatic union with God, faith yet gives something to mind. This dimension of Gregory's apophaticism has gone largely unnoticed by scholars. At the apex of an apophatic ascent faith unites with God the Word; by virtue of this union the believer takes on the qualities of the Word, who speaks (logophasis) in the deeds and discourse of the believer. Finally this study redresses how Gregory has been identified with a `mysticism of darkness' and argues that he proposes no less a `mysticism of light'.

Longing and Letting Go explores and compares the energies of desire and non-attachment in the writings of Hadewijch, a thirteenth-century Christian Beguine, and Mirabai, a sixteenth-century Hindu bhakta. Through an examination of the relational power of their respective mystical poetics of longing, the book invites interreligious meditation in the middle spaces of longing as a resource for an ethic of social justice: passionate non-attachment thus surfaces as an interreligious value and practice in the service of a less oppressive world. Mirabai and Hadewijch are both read through the primary comparative framework of viraha-bhakti, a mystical eroticism from Mirabai's Vaisnava Hindu tradition that fosters communal experiences of longing. Mirabai's songs of viraha-bhakti are conversely read through the lens of Hadewijch's concept of "noble unfaith," which will be construed as a particular version of passionate non-attachment. Reading back and forth across the traditions, the comparative currents move into the thematics of apophatic theological anthropology, comparative feminist ethics, and religiously plural identities. Judith Butler provides a philosophically complementary schema through which to consider how the mystics' desire, manifest in the grief of separation and the erotic bliss of near union, operates as a force of "dispossession" that creates the very conditions for non-attachment. Hadewijch's and Mirabai's practices of longing, read in terms of Butler's concept of dispossession, offer clues for a lived ethic that encourages desire for the flourishing of the world, without that passion consuming the world, the other, or the self. Longing-in its vulnerable, relational, apophatic, dispossessive aspects-informs a lived ethic of passionate non-attachment, which holds space for the desires of others in an interrelated, fragile world. When configured as performative relationality and applied to the discipline of comparative theology, practices of longing decenter the self and allow for the emergence of dynamic, even plural, religious identities.

In the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council, the movement of nouvelle theologie caused great controversy in the Catholic Church and remains a subject of vigorous scholarly debate today. In Nouvelle theologie and Sacramental Ontology Hans Boersma argues that a return to mystery was the movement's deepest motivation.
Countering the modern intellectualism of the neo-Thomist establishment, the nouvelle theologians were convinced that a ressourcement of the Church Fathers and of medieval theology would point the way to a sacramental reintegration of nature and the supernatural. In the context of the loss suffered by both Catholics and Protestants in the de-sacramentalizing of modernity, Boersma shows how the sacramental ontology of nouvelle theologie offers a solid entry-point into ecumenical dialogue.
The volume begins by setting the historical context for nouvelle theologie with discussions of the influence of significant theologians and philosophers like Mohler, Blondel, Marechal, and Rousselot. The exposition then moves to the writings of key thinkers of the ressourcement movement including de Lubac, Bouillard, Balthasar, Chenu, Danielou, Charlier, and Congar. Boersma analyses the most characteristic elements of the movement: its reintegration of nature and the supernatural, its reintroduction of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, its approach to Tradition as organically developing in history, and its communion ecclesiology that regarded the Church as sacrament of Christ. In each of these areas, Boersma demonstrates how the nouvelle theologians advocated a return to mystery by means of a sacramental ontology."

St Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022) is regarded as one of the most significant figures in Byzantine mysticism. Though a very controversial figure in his own lifetime, he is now revered both in Orthodox and other Christian traditions. After beginning his monastic life while still comparatively young, he became hegumen of the monastery of St Mamas, and held that position for several years. Many of his writings, including the Discourses and Hymns, have appeared in print, but his four epistles have not been published in their entirety until now.
In these four letters, besides criticising those contending against him, Symeon writes as a pastor, concerned to give practical moral guidance. He focuses on confession, repentence, and the role of the spiritual father. H. J. M. Turner details the biographic and textual context of this scholarly annotated edition. He uses the previously unpublished Greek text established by Joseph Paramelle to provide an authoritative basis for his translation. Clearly and accessibly presented, these letters serve to reinforce our understanding of Symeon's life and work.

This book collects multiple disciplinary voices which explore current research and perspectives to discuss how spirituality is understood, interpreted and applied in a range of contexts. It addresses spirituality in combination with such topics as Christian mysticism, childhood and adolescent education, midwifery, and sustainability. It links spirituality to a variety of disciplines, including cognitive neuroscience, sociology, and psychology. Finally, it discusses the application of spirituality within the context of social work, teaching, health care, and occupational therapy. A final chapter provides an analytical discussion of the different voices that appear in the book and offers a holistic description of spirituality which has the potential to bring some unity to the meaning, expression and practice of spirituality across a variety of disciplines as well as across cultural, religious and secular worldviews. "A strength of the book is that each chapter is characterized by a fearless confronting of oppositional perspectives and use of the latest research in addressing them. The book takes the difficult topic of spirituality into almost every nook and cranny of personal and professional life. There is a persistent grasping of the contentiousness of the topic, together with addressing counter positions and utilizing updated research across a range of fields in doing this. The opening and closing chapters serve as book ends that keep the whole volume together."Terence Lovat, The University of Newcastle, Australia "The interdisciplinary nature of the work is by far the strongest aspect of this volume. It has the potential to contribute to a dialogue between different professions and disciplines. This prospective publication promises to promote a more holistic approach to the study of spirituality. This volume takes into consideration a wide variety of issues. The way the editors have structured the sequence of chapters contributes to facilitate any possible dialogue between the different areas."Adrian-Mario Gellel, University of Malta, Malta

The meditative prayer practices known as Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer have played an important role in the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. This book explores how these prayer practices have spread from a primarily monastic setting within Orthodox Christianity, into general Orthodox Christian usage, and finally into wider contemporary Western culture. As a result of this gradual geographic shift from a local to a global setting, caused mainly by immigration and dissemination of related texts, there has been a parallel shift of interpretation causing disagreement. By analyzing ongoing conversations on the practices, this book shows how such disagreements are due to differences in the way groups understand the ideas of authority and tradition. These fundamental ideas lie beneath much of the current discussion on particular aspects of the practices and also contribute to the wider academic debate over the globalization and appropriation of religious traditions.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This book examines the writings of an early sixth-century Christian mystical theologian who wrote under the name of a convert of the apostle Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite. This 'Pseudo'-Dionysius is famous for articulating a mystical theology in two parts: a sacramental and liturgical mysticism embedded in the context of celestial and ecclesiastical hierarchies, and an austere, contemplative regimen in which one progressively negates the divine names in hopes of soliciting union with the 'unknown God' or 'God beyond being.' Charles M. Stang argues that the pseudonym and the influence of Paul together constitute the best interpretive lens for understanding the Corpus Dionysiacum [CD]. Stang demonstrates how Paul animates the entire corpus, and shows that the influence of Paul illuminates such central themes of the CD as hierarchy, theurgy, deification, Christology, affirmation (kataphasis) and negation (apophasis), dissimilar similarities, and unknowing. Most importantly, Paul serves as a fulcrum for the expression of a new theological anthropology, an 'apophatic anthropology.' Dionysius figures Paul as the premier apostolic witness to this apophatic anthropology, as the ecstatic lover of the divine who confesses to the rupture of his self and the indwelling of the divine in Gal 2:20: 'it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.' Building on this notion of apophatic anthropology, the book forwards an explanation for why this sixth-century author chose to write under an apostolic pseudonym. Stang argues that the very practice of pseudonymous writing itself serves as an ecstatic devotional exercise whereby the writer becomes split in two and thereby open to the indwelling of the divine. Pseudonymity is on this interpretation integral and internal to the aims of the wider mystical enterprise. Thus this book aims to question the distinction between 'theory' and 'practice' by demonstrating that negative theology-often figured as a speculative and rarefied theory regarding the transcendence of God-is in fact best understood as a kind of asceticism, a devotional practice aiming for the total transformation of the Christian subject.

This fascinating volume explores the mystical strand of thought that exists in the writings of John Calvin. Dennis Tamburello explores in particular the relationship between Calvin's notion of "union with Christ" and notions of the mystical union between believers and Christ that were prominent in the medieval period as explicated in the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The Columbia Series in Reformed Theology represents a joint commitment by Columbia Theological Seminary and Westminster John Knox Press to provide theological resources from the Reformed tradition for the church today. This series examines theological and ethical issues that confront church and society in our own particular time and place.

In many ways, Meister Eckhart has had to wait seven centuries to be heard. Born in 13th century Germany, much of his life was spent in a monastery; though not all. The 'Meister' in his name means 'Master', and is an academic title from the University of Paris. An admired member of the Dominican Order, he was often sent to reform ailing priories. He was known also as a spiritual counsellor; a safe haven for many who sought God in their life, but found themselves troubled by the dire state of the institutional church. And in a century of flowering female spirituality, he was a supportive figure for many Dominican nuns and women in the burgeoning lay communities which arose. He was best known, however, as a preacher - an original preacher who used his native German language to startling effect. Eckhart preached a spiritual vision which distrusted the artifice of both ritual and church dogma. Instead, he aimed at nothing less than the spiritual and psychological transformation of those given to his care. To this end, Eckhart made the disposition of the human heart the key to all things. 'Conversations with Meister Eckhart' is an imagined conversation with this 13th century mystic, around such themes as detachment, which he famously placed above love; spirituality, God, the soul and suffering. But while the conversation is imagined, Eckhart's words are not; they are authentically his own. One of his controversial claims was that God cannot be described. Indeed, in one sermon, he went so far as to say 'We must take leave of God.' 'The church became very hostile towards him,' says Simon Parke, 'accusing him of heresy; and he spent his last days on trial before the pope. They also tried to ensure he'd be forgotten when he died, and nearly succeeded. But he's more popular now than ever.' Eckhart's teaching is an adventure, not a system; a call, not a creed. The depth and universality of his work means it can be contained by no established religion, but draws to itself seekers of truth from all backgrounds. 'Here we have a teaching open to all, but possessed by none,' says Parke. 'And therefore free like a butterfly, in the garden of the soul. Its perhaps my most challenging and rewarding conversation.'

"Margaret Cropper was the first to capture Evelyn Underhill s] life, which now in this new century can continue to inspire, challenge and point the way for those on the ancient quest for the holy." from the Foreword by Dana Greene, dean of Oxford College of Emory University

SkyLight Lives reintroduces the lives and works of key spiritual figures of our time people who by their teaching or example have challenged our assumptions about spirituality and have caused us to look at it in new ways.

Evelyn Underhill (1875 1941) was one of the most highly acclaimed spiritual thinkers of her day. Her fresh approach to mysticism provided one of the first invitations to modern seekers to realize that not only saints or great holy men could experience the love of God but that all people contain within them a capacity for the Divine.

This intimate biography, written by one of Underhill s closest friends, allows us to appreciate this revolutionary woman as both a charming, down-to-earth friend and a groundbreaking spiritual seeker and guide.

Through letters, personal reminiscences, and excerpts from Underhill s much-loved published writings including her definitive Mysticism, published in 1911 and continuously in print since then Margaret Cropper captures the spirit, journey, and wisdom of one of the most influential women of the early twentieth century.

Updated with a new foreword by Dana Greene, dean of Oxford College of Emory University, this intriguing spiritual portrait includes a brief memoir of Lucy Menzies, one of Underhill s closest confidants, highlighting their remarkable relationship.

This biography of Evelyn Underhill, one of the greatest spiritual thinkers of the early twentieth century, guides readers on a voyage through her life and a survey of her spiritual classics that would forever bring the Divine into the everyday for countless people.

A passionate writer and teacher who wrote elegantly on mysticism, worship, and devotional life, Evelyn Underhill urged the integration of personal spirituality and worldly action. This is the moving story of how she made her way toward spiritual maturity, from her early days of agnosticism to the years when her influence was felt throughout the world.

An early believer that contemplative prayer is not just for monks and nuns but for anyone willing to undertake it, Underhill considered the study of modern science not as a threat to contemplation but rather an enhancement of it. Her many lectures and writings on mysticism and spirituality, including her classic "Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man s Spiritual Consciousness, "inspired the many people touched by her unique passion to take on a spiritual life.

Jacob Boehme was born in 1575. He received little if any formal education and was apprenticed to a shoemaker at Goerlitz in Saxony. From an early age he seems to have been devoted to the study of the Bible as well as to have had a growing, inner, sense of the reality of God. Walking one day in the fields, when he was twenty-five years old, the mystery of creation was suddenly opened to him, of which he later said that "in one quarter of an hour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years at the university . . . and thereupon I turned my heart to praise God for it." As experiences of this kind came more frequently, he puzzled much as to why such knowledge should be given to him, of all men, who sought only the love of God and was quite unlearned in the ordinary sense. Some ten years later he began to record what he received, as a help to his own memory, and thus was born The Aurora, his first book, finished in 1612. From then on he found both friends and enemies of his work. Due to persecution in his hometown, Boehme later settled in Dresden, where he died in 1624. Mysterium Magnum, written by Boehme the year before he died and at a time when his powers of expression had developed to their full, is perhaps central to his work in some thirty-one or thirty-two original volumes. Taking the general form of an interpretation of Genesis, it far outstrips such apparent confines, touching among other matters upon the meaning of the New Testament and, from the first sentence, leading to the heart of the universal experience of all mystics: When we consider the visible world with its essence, and consider the life of the creatures, then we find therein the likeness of the invisible, spiritual world, which is hidden in the visible world as the soul in the body; and we see thereby that the hidden God is nigh unto all and through all, and yet wholly hidden to the visible essence. Among those who have acknowledged the spiritual stature of Boehme are Hegel, William Law, St. Martin (le Philosophe Inconnu), Dean Inge, and Nicolas Berdyaev.

Enemies of the Cross examines how suffering and truth were aligned in the divisive debates of the early Reformation. Vincent Evener explores how Martin Luther, along with his first intra-Reformation critics, offered "true" suffering as a crucible that would allow believers to distinguish the truth or falsehood of doctrine, teachers, and their own experiences. To use suffering in this way, however, reformers also needed to teach Christians to recognize false suffering and the false teachers who hid under its mantle. This book contends that these arguments, which became an enduring part of the Lutheran and radical traditions, were nourished by the reception of a daring late-medieval mystical tradition - the post-Eckhartian - which depicted annihilation of the self as the way to union with God. The first intra-Reformation dissenters, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt and Thomas Muntzer, have frequently been depicted as champions of medieval mystical views over and against the non-mystical Luther. Evener counters this depiction by showing how Luther, Karlstadt, and Muntzer developed their shared mystical tradition in diverse directions, while remaining united in the conviction that sinful self-assertion prevented human beings from receiving truth and living in union with God. He argues that Luther, Karlstadt, and Muntzer each represented a different form of ecclesial-political dissent shaped by a mystical understanding of how Christians were united to God through the destruction of self-assertion. Enemies of the Cross draws on seldom-used sources and proposes new concepts of "revaluation" and "relocation" to describe how Protestants and radicals brought medieval mystical teachings into new frameworks that rejected spiritual hierarchy.

Ursula King's Christian Mystics tells the story of sixty men and women whose mystical devotion to God transformed the times in which they lived and still affects our present-day search for spiritual meaning. Moving from key figures of the early Christian age to the great mystics of modern times, special emphasis is given to the great high points of mysticism in the medieval, early modern and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The lives of visionaries, including Clement of Alexandria, Saint Bonaventure, Blaise Pascal and Simone Weil are studied in detail. It reveals the richly diverse expressions that mystical experience has found during two thousand years of Christian history and shows how it underpins Christian ritual and doctrine as a source of spiritual inspiration for all believers. Beautifully illustrated and written by a prominent name in the British academic world, this significant text has received high acclaim and is the only book to feature biographies of key mystics.

Leading spiritual teacher John Philip Newell reveals how Celtic spirituality, listening to the sacred around us and inside of us, can help to heal the earth, overcome our conflicts and reconnect with ourselves. Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul offers a new spiritual foundation for our lives, once centered on encouragement,guidance and hope for creating a better world. Sharing the long hidden tradition of Celtic Christianity, explaining how this earth-based spirituality can help us rediscover the natural rhythms of life and deepen our spiritual connection with God, with each other and with the earth. Newell introduces some of Celtic Christianity's leading practitioners, both saints and pioneers of faith, whose timeless wisdom is more necessary than ever, including: Pelagius, who shows us how to look beyond sin to affirm our sacredness as part of all God's creation and courageously stands up for our principles in the face of oppression. Brigid of Kildare, who illuminates the interrelationship of all things and reminds us of the power of the sacred feminine to overcome those seeking to control us. John Muir, who encourages us to see the holiness and beauty of wilderness and what we must do to protect these gifts. Teilhard de Chardin, who inspires us to see how science, faith, and our future tell one universal story that beings with sacredness.