"The Classics series, which has inspired many less successful
imitations over the years, has fulfilled its promise and given us
an invaluable resource of the soul." The Catholic Historical Review
Jean Gerson: Early Works translated and introduced by Brian Patrick
McGuire preface by Bernard McGinn "However much advanced
scholarship and great learning in God's law may be quite suitable
for the person who wishes to come to the height of contemplation,
nevertheless sometimes such knowledge blocks this pursuit. Learning
is not in itself a problem. Rather, it is the arrogance and the
self-inflation that the learned person derives from his knowledge.
For it is clearly impossible to reach true contemplation except
through humility, as the Apostle teaches (1 Cor 3:18). For if
anyone, he says, seems wise in this world, he must become a fool in
order to be wise. In other words, he should take on humble
understanding and consider himself a fool with regard to God's
wisdom. From The Mountain of Contemplation [2] Jean Gerson
(1363-1429), chancellor of the University of Paris from 1395 until
his death, was one of the outstanding theologians and preachers of
his time. Today he is all but forgotten, except in terms of his
role in resolving the schism of the Western Church. Gerson deserves
to be seen as a man of great passion and learning. He sought to map
the path to the contemplative life in a way that made it accessible
to groups outside the universities. Partly because of continuing
closeness to members of his family, especially his sisters, Gerson
insisted on writing many of his works in French. His Mountain of
Contemplation is a major event in the history of language and in
terms of gender relations in the religious life. Gerson knew how
innovative his approach was, for he opened his treatise with the
words: "Some persons will wonder and ask why, in a matter so lofty
as that of the contemplative life, I choose to write in French
rather than in Latin, and more to women than to men." Thanks to
Gerson's personal letters, translated here for the first time, it
is possible to get close to the doubts and pain of a man who sought
the vision of god and yearned for affective bonds. Gerson's life
and writings can be seen as a search for unity in the midst of a
rich and chaotic age whose spirituality we are only now beginning
to appreciate. In giving advice to confessors, attacking the
Romance of the Rose, preaching on the feast of Saint Bernard of
Clairvaux, discerning between true and false revelations, and in
outlining his Practical Mystical Theology, Gerson emerges as one of
the most articulate voices of a Christian spirituality that
transcends the Middle Ages and speaks to our time.
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