David Mahlowe was an actor, writer, TV presenter and interviewer who, in the late 1960s was compared, for his skills in 'the delicate art of TV confrontation', with Malcolm Muggeridge and Bernard Levin. A fine Shakespearean actor, he worked in repertory, film, TV and radio before moving into TV presenting and interviewing. He and his wife Marah Stohl were lead actors for Manchester Library Theatre in the 1950s. In this book he shares the insights which he gained through a lifetime's study of Shakespeare, art, religion and philosophy, in a series of talks which he gave between 1995-1998. Literary executor of the artist Eugene Halliday, with whom he had written Shakespeare King Educator, he founded the Melchisedec Press to publish Halliday's writings. A short illness led to his early death in 1998.

The contemporaries of Hildegard of Bingen called her ""prophetissa teutonica"", honouring her philosophical writings and interpretation of the cosmos. Mediaevalists still consider her one of the leading mystics, and point to her active spiritual and artistic life in the 12th century as the finest example of what a woman can achieve. The abbess Hildegard of Bingen was the first composer to sign her musical works. As a playwright and author, she witnessed and shaped the time of the Crusades, the literary minnesang, and political and theological debate. The author of this text draws a complex picture of her life and work, as he ""translates"" Hildegard's ideas and her mysterious world of symbols from mediaeval Latin into contemporary concepts. Heinrich Schipperges delineates this remarkable thinker's view of the human being as a microcosm of the universe, intricately bound by the senses to the life of the soul, nature, and God.

The Christology and Mystical Theology of Karl Rahner delineates what Rahner means by the mysticism of daily life, the mysticism of the masses, the mysticism of the classical masters, the difference between infused and awakened contemplation, the relation of mysticism to Christian perfection, and Rahner's controversial view that the mystical life does not require a special grace. It explores how Rahner embraces the person of Jesus Christ - whom Rahner sees as Christianity's center - both with his acute theological mind but also with his Jesuit heart. Who has better defined the human person as the ability to be God in the world, understood Jesus' humanity as God's human in the world, and boldly stated the difference between Jesus and other human beings that is only he is God's humanity in the world. The book also looks at Rahner's view of Jesus as the absolute savior, his ascending and descending Christology, his creative re-interpretation of Christ's death and resurrection, his seeking Christology, and his controversial anonymous Christian theory. Finally, it emphasizes the influence of St. Ignatius of Loyola on Rahner's thinking. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises, especially their emphasis on God working immediately with the person, its Christology, and the rules for the discernment of spirits plays a key role in Rahner's overall theological view. Few Catholic theologians have taken Christian saints and mystics as theological sources as seriously as Rahner has.

2020 Association of Catholic Publishers first place award in spirituality Thomas Merton's sessions with the young monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani showcase Merton's brilliant ability to survey the key figures and synthesize their writings, inspiring his listeners and readers with what it means for the spiritual life. Like its companion volume, A Course in Christian Mysticism, this book is a collection of fifteen lectures that get to the heart of Merton's belief that monastic wisdom and spirituality are applicable for everyone. This compact volume allows anyone to learn from one of the twentieth century's greatest Catholic spiritual teachers. The study materials at the back of the book, including additional primary source readings and thoughtful questions for reflection and discussion, make this an essential text for any student of Christian desert spirituality.

The contemporaries of Hildegard of Bingen called her ""prophetissa teutonica"", honouring her philosophical writings and interpretation of the cosmos. Mediaevalists still consider her one of the leading mystics, and point to her active spiritual and artistic life in the 12th century as the finest example of what a woman can achieve. The abbess Hildegard of Bingen was the first composer to sign her musical works. As a playwright and author, she witnessed and shaped the time of the Crusades, the literary minnesang, and political and theological debate. The author of this text draws a complex picture of her life and work, as he ""translates"" Hildegard's ideas and her mysterious world of symbols from mediaeval Latin into contemporary concepts. Heinrich Schipperges delineates this remarkable thinker's view of the human being as a microcosm of the universe, intricately bound by the senses to the life of the soul, nature, and God.

Thomas Merton's lectures to the young monastics at the Abbey of Gethsemani provide a good look at Merton the scholar. A Course in Christian Mysticism gathers together, for the first time, the best of these talks into a spiritual, historical, and theological survey of Christian mysticism-from St. John's gospel to St. John of the Cross. Sixteen centuries are covered over thirteen lectures. A general introduction sets the scene for when and how the talks were prepared and for the perennial themes one finds in them, making them relevant for spiritual seekers today. This compact volume allows anyone to learn from one of the twentieth century's greatest Catholic spiritual teachers. The study materials at the back of the book, including additional primary source readings and thoughtful questions for reflection and discussion, make this an essential text for any student of Christian mysticism.

Since its rediscovery in 1934, the fifteenth-century Book of Margery Kempe has become a canonical text for students of medieval Christian mysticism and spirituality. Its author was a fifteenth-century English laywoman who, after the birth of her first child, experienced vivid religious visions and vowed to lead a deeply religious life while remaining part of the secular world. After twenty years, Kempe began to compose with the help of scribes a book of consolation, a type of devotional writing found in late medieval religious culture that taught readers how to find spiritual comfort and how to feel about one's spiritual life. In Margery Kempe and the Lonely Reader, Rebecca Krug shows how and why Kempe wrote her Book, arguing that in her engagement with written culture she discovered a desire to experience spiritual comfort and to interact with fellow believers who also sought to live lives of intense emotional engagement.An unlikely candidate for authorship in the late medieval period given her gender and lack of formal education, Kempe wrote her Book as a revisionary act. Krug shows how the Book reinterprets concepts from late medieval devotional writing (comfort, despair, shame, fear, and loneliness) in its search to create a spiritual community that reaches out to and includes Kempe, her friends, family, advisers, and potential readers. Krug offers a fresh analysis of the Book as a written work and draws attention to the importance of reading, revision, and collaboration for understanding both Kempe's particular decision to write and the social conditions of late medieval women's authorship.

The mythical story of fallen angels preserved in 1 Enoch and related literature was profoundly influential during the Second Temple period. In this volume renowned scholar Loren Stuckenbruck explores aspects of that influence and demonstrates how the myth was reused and adapted to address new religious and cultural contexts. Stuckenbruck considers a variety of themes, including demonology, giants, exorcism, petitionary prayer, the birth and activity of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the conversion of Gentiles, "apocalyptic" and the understanding of time, and more. He also offers a theological framework for the myth of fallen angels through which to reconsider several New Testament texts-the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John, Acts, Paul's letters, and the book of Revelation.

Introduction by Baroness Cox

In this revised edition of a longtime best selling anthology of Christian mysticism, editors Louis Dupre and James Wiseman bring together selections from the writings of twenty-three of the most important Christian mystics, from Origen of Alexandria in the third century to Thomas Merton in the twentieth. This edition retains most of the authors included in the first addition, but has replaced some authors from that edition with ones that will be of greater interest to readers today, e.g., Francis and Clare of Assisi, Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal, and Evelyn Underhill. A general introduction discusses the place of mysticism within the Christian life as a whole, while individual chapter introductions place the mystical writers in their historical context and relate their works to others in the anthology. In addition, the editors have completely updated the bibliographies at the end of each chapter. Students and teachers of spirituality, as well as persons interested in their own spiritual growth, will welcome this popular revised resource, because it makes readily available in one volume major works by important Christian mystical writers. Like its predecessor, it is sure to be welcomed in the academic world and spiritual and devotional circles.

During a ten day period in November of 1999, Wendy Alec received a visitation from the Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke of mercy, He warned of judgment...on the world's trading systems, on ministry leaders...upon the church. He wept In two separate visitations in 2002, He spoke iin anguish of the last days assignments against the elect, He warned of the great blinding, of seduction, lust and Jezebel, and the great falling away... 'My children perish...' Jesus' voice was so soft...that it was barely audible... And then He turned to me, His beautiful countenance ravaged with grief. 'Now warn My children...warn My beloved...that even those in the deepest mire might find their way home...' This is the extraordinary record of His discourse.