The diversity of prophetic voices in the Bible provides a message that is rich and variegated. But the variety of the testimony can be lost by limiting one's interpretations or application of the prophetic word. Interpreting the Prophetic Word helps readers understand the harmony of the voices that reveal God's purposes in redemptive history. Dr. Willem VanGemeren explains clearly and fully the background of the prophetic tradition. He then interprets the message of the major and minor prophets, using historical context and literary form and structure as tools in his analysis. He concludes with an explanation of the relevance of the prophetic word today. Dr. VanGemeren's extensive research and scholarship is presented in a readable way to unlock the door of prophecy for readers. He helps them to interpret prophecy and invites them to listen to the prophets and to lives the prophetic word.

In The Resurrection of the Body Caroline Bynum forges a new path of historical inquiry by studying the notion of bodily resurrection in the ancient and medieval West against the background of persecution and conversion, social hierarchy, burial practices, and the cult of saints. Examining those periods between the late second and fourteenth centuries in which discussions of the body were central to Western conceptions of death and resurrection, she suggests that the attitudes toward the body emerging from these discussions still undergird our modern conceptions of personal identity and the individual. Bynum describes how Christian thinkers clung to a very literal notion of resurrection, despite repeated attempts by some theologians and philosophers to spiritualize the idea. Focusing on the metaphors and examples used in theological and philosophical discourse and on artistic depictions of saints, death, and resurrection, Bynum connects the Western obsession with bodily return to a deep-seated fear of biological process and a tendency to locate identity and individuality in body. Of particular interest is the imaginative religious imagery, often bizarre to modern eyes, which emerged during medieval times. Bynum has collected here thirty-five examples of such imagery, which illuminate her discussion of bodily resurrection. With this detailed study of theology, piety, and social history, Bynum writes a new chapter in the history of the body and challenges our views on gender, social hierarchy, and difference.

"Eternal greatness! You made yourself low and small to make mankind great." While in an ecstatic trance, St. Catherine of Siena dictated The Dialogue. In this intense and searching work, she offers up petitions to God, filling her conversation with instruction on discernment, true and false spiritual emotion, obedience and truth, and revealing her famous image of Christ as the Bridge. Catherine's brilliant insights into the nature of the spiritual life have motivated Christians for centuries to unite a life of prayer with a life of action. "This have I told you, my sweetest daughter, that you might know the perfection of this union-producing state, when the eye of the intellect is ravished by the fire of my charity, in which it receives supernatural light. With this light the souls in the state of union love me, because love follows the intellect, and the more it knows the more it can love." (from the book)

The Mysticism of Ordinary Life: Theology, Philosophy, and Feminism presents a new vision of Christian mystical theology. It offers critical interpretations of Catholic theologians, postmodern philosophers, and intersectional feminists who draw on mystical traditions to affirm ordinary life. It raises questions about normativity, gender, and race, while arguing that the everyday experience of the grace of divine union can be an empowering source of social transformation. It develops Christian teachings about the Word made flesh, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the Christian spiritual life, while exploring the mystical significance of philosophical discourses about immanence, alterity, in-betweenness, nothingness, and embodiment. The discussion of Latino/a and Black sources in North America expands the Western mystical canon and opens new horizons for interdisciplinary dialogue. The volume challenges contemporary culture to recognize and draw inspiration from quotidian manifestations of the unknown God of incarnate love. It includes detailed studies of Grace Jantzen, Amy Hollywood, Catherine Keller, Karl Rahner, Adrienne von Speyr, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Michel Henry, Michel de Certeau, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Gloria Anzaldua, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Alice Walker, M. Shawn Copeland, and more.

A chance meeting with a mother of six inspires a young American, James Robertson, who has just lost his wife in childbirth, to visit her spiritual director, Peter Calvay, who lives in the Outer Hebrides. In the first part of the book - The Hermit, the young man learns how to pray and how to meditate according to the ancient Christian tradition. In the second part of the book The Prophet, Peter is presumed lost at sea and James is invited to order his personal effects. He finds details of Peter's own spiritual journey that inspires James to deepen his own spiritual life.This part is crammed with good practical advice on prayer for the reader as well as describing the deeply human story of the young woman with whom Peter falls deeply in love. Eventually Peter turns up alive and well and in the third part of the book - The Mystic - the two meet again this time on the mainland where Peter has come to attend his mother's funeral. Peter uses the story of his own parent's love for each other as the perfect paradigm with which to explain the mystic way. The teachings of the "Cloud of Unknowing" and the great mystics St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Avila are explained with great clarity by paralleling the mystic life with married life. Deeply moving lessons are drawn for those committed to each way that can lead to the fullest possible experience of love here on earth.

Tap Into the Wisdom of the Mystics

"For too long the moral has been a substitute for the mystical. This fine study places the mystics back at the center of Christianity. These spiritual elders tell us that all true religion must be grounded in experiential knowledge of God, 'a lump in the throat, ' and not just ideas about God."
--Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, New Mexico

"In this day and age when our feet and our hearts seem to go in so many different directions--how good it is to find in this book an offering of earthy men and women whose feet and hearts were drawn like a magnet to the Divine. The Way of the Mystics will be a very good companion for anyone who is searching for intimacy with God. I joyfully recommend it."
--Macrina Wiederkehr, O.S.B., monastic, author, spiritual guide

"John Michael Talbot is a faithful worshiper of our Savior, whose music and meditations not only refresh many, but whose witness reminds us of the breadth of the scope of vital, living witness throughout the whole Body of Christ, and how much we who love Jesus Christ have to give to each other of our mutual growth and benefit."
--Jack W. Hayford, chancellor, The King's College and Seminary, Los Angeles, California

This distinctive comparison of Islamic and Christian mysticism focuses on the mystic journey in the two faith traditions - the journey which every believer must make and which leads to the Divine. The author clears away misconceptions and highlights similarities and differences in the thought and lives of six key mystics: Al-Kalabadhi, Al-Daylami, Al-Qushayri, Julian of Norwich, Thomas A. Kempis and Teresa of Avila. He considers the ways of Perfection on the Mystic Path and asks in what ways these authors have embarked on the mystic journey. He looks at the themes they have in common, as well as their differences, and asks how they envisage the concept of 'union' with the Deity. Readers will gain a broad understanding of the interdisciplinary and intertextual nature of the subject, as well its the diverse intellectual and historical contexts. Key Features Highly interdisciplinary: embraces both Eastern and Western mystical traditions Surveys themes as diverse as secular chivalry and union with the Divine Examines the role of al-Khidr/ al-Khadir/ Elijah/ Elias/ St George in both the Islamic and Christian mystical traditions Considers the negative and positive articulations of each tradition Assesses and compares three major Islamic and three major Christian mystics A companion volume to Islam, Christianity and Tradition: A Comparative Exploration by Ian R. Netton (978 0 7486 2392 1)

Bulgakov] was a torchbearer for what was coming to be called Sophiology.... His championship of Sophia was clearly an attempt to revitalize Orthodoxy and to reestablish the spirit of the divine feminine, so that the Church should not remain off-balanced by its Christocentric view. -Caitlin Matthews, author of Sophia-Goddess of Wisdom: The Divine Feminine from Black Goddess to World Soul There is a great hunger to recover the feminine aspect of the Divinity. But much searching has left Christians disappointed and seeking the "Goddess" elsewhere. In this brave theological work, Bulgakov shows how the Divine Sophia, in whom all things are created, is present in the Holy Trinity itself and how, as the "creaturely Sophia," she works together with her divine counterpart in the work of the Holy Spirit for the redemption of the world.

Volume 3 of Boris Mouravieff's Gnosis contains ancient keys to a tradition of Christian esotericism that was necessarily hermetized 1800 years ago and has since remained unpublished, surviving to the present only in unwritten form.

Apophatic theology, or negative theology, attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God. It is a way of coming to an understanding of who God is which has played a significant role across centuries of Christian tradition but is very often treated with suspicion by those engaging in theological study today. Seeking the God Beyond explores the difference a negative theological approach might make to our faith and practice and offers an introduction to this oft-misunderstood form of spirituality. Beginning by placing apophatic spirituality within its biblical roots, the book later considers the key pioneers of apophatic faith and a diverse range of thinkers including CS Lewis and Keats - to inform us in our negative theological journey.

Through the 'dark night of the soul' to the depiction of the erotically-charged union of the soul and God, the poetry and prose works of the Spanish friar John of the Cross (1542-1591) offer a striking account of the transformation of the individual in the course of the Christian life. John of the Cross: Desire, Transformation, and Selfhood argues that these writings are animated by John's own creative and subtly conceptualized notion of erotic desire. John's understanding of desire has the potential to enrich recent theological discussion of the subject, but it has been curiously neglected in past scholarship. To correct this lacuna, this study undertakes a detailed historical analysis in three parts. Firstly, it attends to the patristic, medieval, and sixteenth-century Spanish influences on John's writings, showing how John reworks a long tradition of biblical, Christian, and Platonic reflection on the concept. Secondly, it traces the importance of desire through John's writings, demonstrating how he develops the theme through his poetry, his anthropology of the soul, and his account of the spiritual ascent. Thirdly, it explores the reception of his writings in the twentieth century, demonstrating how particular modern philosophical and theological commitments have prevented scholars from recognising the rich and distinctive shape of John's theological vision. John's account of the transformation of the self, with its hopeful vision of the graced transformation of the soul's desires, has significance beyond the constrained modern categories of systematic theology, Christian spirituality, pastoral theology, and mysticism-it is a vision that is worthy of recovery today.

The success of books such as "Elaine Pagels' Gnostic Gospels" and Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. Many people now are delving into the byways of this tradition of inner Christianity, hoping to find an alternative to stale dogmas and blind beliefs. Among the most compelling of these lost traditions is Gnosticism. "Forbidden Faith" explores the legacy of the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, from its influence on early Christianity to contemporary popular culture.

In the Christian tradition, especially in the works of Paul, Augustine, and the exegetes of the Middle Ages, the body is a twofold entity consisting of inner and outer persons that promises to find its true materiality in a time to come. A potentially transformative vehicle, it is a dynamic mirror that can reflect the work of the divine within and substantially alter its own materiality if receptive to divine grace.

The writings of Hadewijch of Brabant, a thirteenth-century beguine, engage with this tradition in sophisticated ways both singular to her mysticism and indicative of the theological milieu of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Crossing linguistic and historical boundaries, Patricia Dailey connects the embodied poetics of Hadewijch's visions, writings, and letters to the work of Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Marguerite of Oingt, and other mystics and visionaries. She establishes new criteria to more consistently understand and assess the singularity of women's mystical texts and, by underscoring the similarities between men's and women's writings of the time, collapses traditional conceptions of gender as they relate to differences in style, language, interpretative practices, forms of literacy, and uses of textuality.

Mystics and Miracles offers twenty-four compelling biographies that explore the lives of ordinary people chosen by God to do his extraordinary work. From visions and healing to prophecies and miracles, mystics provide a direct connection between the human and the divine.

The first woman known to have written in English, the fourteenth-century mystic Julian of Norwich has inspired generations of Christians with her reflections on the "motherhood" of Jesus, and her assurance that, despite evil, "all shall be well." In this book, Denise Baker reconsiders Julian not only as an eloquent and profound visionary but also as an evolving, sophisticated theologian of great originality. Focusing on Julian's Book of Showings, in which the author records a series of revelations she received during a critical illness in May 1373, Baker provides the first historical assessment of Julian's significance as a writer and thinker. Inscribing her visionary experience in the short version of her Showings, Julian contemplated the revelations for two decades before she achieved the understanding that enabled her to complete the long text. Baker first traces the genesis of Julian's visionary experience to the practice of affective piety, such as meditations on the life of Christ and, in the arts, a depiction of a suffering rather than triumphant Christ on the cross. Julian's innovations become apparent in the long text. By combining late medieval theology of salvation with the mystics' teachings on the nature of humankind, she arrives at compassionate, optimistic, and liberating conclusions regarding the presence of evil in the world, God's attitude toward sinners, and the possibility of universal salvation. She concludes her theodicy by comparing the connections between the Trinity and humankind to familial relationships, emphasizing Jesus' role as mother. Julian's strategy of revisions and her artistry come under scrutiny in the final chapter of this book, as Baker demonstrates how this writer brings her readers to reenact her own struggle in understanding the revelations. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Though he lived in the thirteenth century, Meister Eckhart's deeply ecumenical teachings were in many ways modern. He taught about what we call ecology, championed artistic creativity, and advocated for social, economic, and gender justice. All these elements have inspired spiritual maverick Matthew Fox and influenced his Creation Spirituality. Here, Fox creates metaphorical meetings between Eckhart and Teilhard de Chardin, Thich Nhat Hanh, Carl Jung, Black Elk, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, and other radical thinkers. The result is profoundly insightful, substantive, and inspiring.

The theft of the Nanteos Cup from a private home in Wales in 2015 - and its even more remarkable recovery two years later - made the headlines in most major newspapers and featured on BBC Crimewatch. People who had never heard of the cup began asking what it is - a question that has occupied people for the past three hundred years, since word of this mysterious vessel first began to filter out to the world. Now it is on display to the public, for the first time since the nineteenth century, at the National Library of Wales. Though unremarkable to look at, stories of the cup's powers and of the miraculous cures experienced by those who drank from it have been in circulation for years. At some point it became associated with one of the most enduring stories of all time - the Holy Grail. Written by three experts, The Nanteos Grail collects together for the first time records of the history of the vessel from its first appearance in the Middle Ages to the present. It will appeal to all those interested in historical mysteries and to seekers of the spiritual history of the Grail.

Advent is close, expectation is holding its breath. The angels hover high above. Come, begin your journey - Hope Was Heard Singing can be used as part of a daily discipline for Advent, or as a book to dip into. It is a collection for personal reflection, and a rich resource, from an original voice, for congregations and small groups searching for material relevant to the 21st century. There are prayers, meditations, poems, a few wee plays thrown in for good measure and Bible readings on Advent themes. Much of the material was tried and tested at Dunblane Cathedral, where Sally is Associate Minister. On the hillsides, hope was heard singing unexpected Hallelujahs. In a Bethlehem backwater, hope hovered and love was born. And now, as the wise journey and the powerful start to pace the floor and mumble into sleepless nights, we gather - the light of the world is here. The job now is to keep it burning.

David Brown argues for the importance of experience of God as mediated through place in all its variety. He explores the various ways in which such experiences once formed an essential element in making religion integral to human life, and argues for their reinstatement at the centre of theological discussions about the existence of God. In effect, the discussion continues the theme of Brown's two much-praised earlier volumes, Tradition and Imagination and Discipleship and Imagination, in its advocacy of the need for Christian theology to take much more seriously its relationship with the various wider cultures in which it has been set. In its challenge to conventional philosophy of religion, the book will be of interest to theologians and philosophers, and also to historians of art and culture generally.

Originally published in 1975, Experience of the Inner Worlds is a classic magical textbook of the Western Mystery Tradition. Covering a wide range of topics within a Christian-oriented Qabalistic framework, Gareth Knight explains the difference between magic and mysticism, natural and revealed religion, monism and theism. He also covers the practicalities, examining methods of inner plane communication, contact with the Masters, the 'consciousness' approach of Carl Jung, the vision of Dante and the archetypal power of the Hebrew alphabet - all within the context of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. The book also contains powerful visualisation exercises and examples of communication with angelic and elemental contacts. While this book can be used as a course of self-instruction, it is also an important modern reference book of magical theory and practice, and has been used for decades by students of Western Qabalah and magic.

Steiner immerses the reader in the evolving stream of 11 mystics who appeared in central Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries, who resolved the conflict between their inner perceptions and beginnings of modern science.