Nouryeh, Christopher 2015 1-4955-0385-2 236 pages This is a new and different psychoanalytic interpretation of the Old Testament Joseph Story which examines different cultural perspectives including the Christian, Hebraic and Qur’anic versions of this familiar religious story.
Davies, Daniel M. 2021 1-4955-0850-1 228 pages Dr. Davies considers the spiritual nature of the creation of and eventual fall of nations. This essay looks at the centuries to create an historical model of nation creation and what leads to its fall.
Nouryeh, Christopher 2012 0-7734-3669-3 328 pages This book investigates the presuppositions, namely ethics, spirituality and psychoanalysis, of the concept of shura, and how they can be applied in the art of governmentality.
Stepp, Perry Leon 1996 0-7734-2409-1 120 pages Since the original stating of the "corporate personality" several studies have redefined its limitations, showing, first, that a corporate self-understanding is neither specifically primitive nor specifically Hebraic and, second, that the Old Testament from the beginning maintains a tension between group and individual responsibility. This study refines the understanding of "corporate personality", returning finally to a passage pivotal for the understanding of corporate identification in New Testament Theology, Romans 6:1-14. This passage as a whole, and in particular Paul's particular choice of words in Romans 6:5, cannot be properly understood without a proper grasp of the concept of corporate identification.
Jeffrey, J. Elizabeth 1989 0-88946-315-8 197 pages A study of the 10th-century Blickling homiliary, one of the most important and least-studied collections of Latin / Anglo-Saxon sermon literature.
Breslauer, S. Daniel Daniel 2011 0-7734-2531-4 220 pages This is a reflection on the teachings of Abraham Joshua Heschel, a teacher to an entire generation of rabbis. Breslauer looks at Heschel as an “ethical scholar,” a teacher of both Jewish and non-Jewish traditions, and a Jewish Kabbalah mystic. The book addresses Heschel’s concern that a spiritual crisis existed for all religions. In particular, Breslauer’s examination of Heschel’s development of the “depth-theology” concept to address the spiritual crisis is the central focus of this book. Breslauer draws attention to Hesechel’s use of Jewish tradition and his understanding of God, not as a physical being, but rather as a form of human emotions, to inspire a type of charismatic spirituality which all people can share as an answer to the divine pathos. By looking at the teachings of Heschel, Breslauer offers to the reader a sense of social and personal responsibility to guide them while they have their brief moment on earth.
Dallaire, Michael 2001 0-7734-7550-8 196 pages This book proposes a method for educating for spirituality in our contemporary North American culture. The method is grounded on the traditional Ignatian method of contemplation-in-action, reconstructed to foster political spirituality suitable for our global age. The book brings the concerns of social and political action directly into the discussion of spirituality. As a work in philosophy of education it will be of particular interest to professional educators, as well as to students of religion, social work, international development, and social ethics.
Pursiful, Darrell J. 1993 0-7734-2376-1 208 pages This book begins with the assumption that cultus in Hebrews is a mode of discourse whereby the author intends to communicate something important about his conceptualization of Christian existence. He is seen to be quite at home with the attitudes and assumptions about ritual common in pre-industrial societies, and the work concludes that the Hebrews was in fact written as a pastoral response to a need for cultic religious expression. Given the supreme importance of cultic religious expression in antiquity, for Christians to find themselves without an external cultus presented a grave crisis of faith. They study examines why cultus boasts such a central role in pre-industrial religion, and then offers some suggestions toward incorporating the cultically-centered spirituality of Hebrews into modern Christian devotion.
Wray, Grady C. 2005 0-7734-5999-5 240 pages Winner of the Adele Mellen Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship
The works that Sor Inés de la Cruz (1648/51–1695) wrote specifically for the church have largely been neglected until now. This book on the devotional exercises of one of Mexico’s most highly acclaimed writers provides a passageway into the relatively unexplored religious area of her life and adds another layer of understanding to the rest of her writings. Relatively untouched by critical review, the Ejercicios / Exercises were thought to have little, if any, literary value in comparison with her more canonized output. However, this insightful study and annotated bilingual translation gives this prominent writer the attention she deserves as an author of religious and devotional texts. The author examines the thematic, rhetorical, historical and scientific elements of late seventeenth-century colonial Mexico and their impact on the Ejercicios / Exercises. He also highlights how the Ejercicios / Exercises function as a theologically sound Church document that offers meditations and exercises on humility, obedience, the Incarnation and the Immaculate Conception. As part of this process, he signals how Sor Juana’s religious discourse provides important continuity with her secular production. The publication of this annotated bilingual edition offers Sor Juana’s English-speaking audience the opportunity to experience her prowess as author of devotional literature.
Roman, Christopher 2005 0-7734-6081-0 252 pages By using the familial relationship as a referent for their metaphors, mystics speak of the ways in which they understand God’s motherhood, fatherhood, childhood, brotherhood, sisterhood and spousehood. In the same way, these mystics indicate the spiritual possibilities of family relationships. Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe use metaphorical discourse that creates familial relationships between themselves and God, their community, and ultimately, their readers. For these mystics interested in seeing God in the everyday, the divine and secular cannot be separated.
Richardson, Herbert W. 2016 1-63313-003-7 172 pages This book is a collection of letters, individual cases, informal meditations, and academic essays written over the past twenty-five years on the author's reflections on reincarnation and the conditions necessary for experiencing it. It argues that reincarnation requires an expansion of human consciousness to something greater than what is regarded as normal today.
Sandoz, Jeff 2004 0-7734-6465-4 230 pages This book offers a practical and pragmatic synthesis of ideas related to recovery from alcoholism with the central focus upon spiritual experience. Beginning with an excursion through the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Sandoz sheds light upon the pathway through which successful AA members have trodden for over 60 years. The background history, the development of the 12 Step Program and the daily maintenance practices are all key elements which lead to the spiritual experience. Throughout the remainder of the book the singular focus of a spiritual experience is woven from a series of parallel threads – threads which are taken from the various sources including psychology (in the ideas of Carl Jung and William James), development in the theory of Erik Erikson regarding ego strength and maturity), mythology (in the characters portrayed from ancient to modern myths), counseling (in the use of metaphors), brain physiology (in understanding the functioning of the various anatomical structures), research (in recognizing the multifaceted aspects of recovery) and diverse concepts from Eastern Mysticism. Taken together, this book offers an extensive and comprehensive array which provides clarity to the process of addiction and recovery.
Hegy, Pierre 1996 0-7734-8765-4 213 pages This work presents biographies of three outstanding contemporary women, Maisie Ward, Evelyn Underhill, and Mollie Rogers. It offers an overview of the paradigmatic changes in spirituality from obedience to healing. Finally, four chapters develop feminist metaphors.
Lamp, Jeffrey S. 2000 0-7734-7833-7 260 pages This book examines the influence of Jewish wisdom traditions on Pauls thought and theology. It also evaluates background sources and contains an excellent bibliography on wisdom literature.
Dourley, John P. 1990 0-88946-244-5 112 pages Systematically covers Jung's criticism of biblical imagination, the Goddess as Mother of the Trinity, and Jung's appropriation of Eckhart to make the above points. The three sections of this work are entitled "Jung's Critique of Biblical Imagination: An Appreciative Undermining," "The Goddess as Mother of the Trinity," and "Jung and Meister Eckhart: Breakthrough to the Goddess."
Pettit, Norman 2004 0-7734-6359-3 312 pages This groundbreaking book details how various individuals left a mark on doctrinal history that would determine the course of New England spiritual life.
Amalraj, Loyola 2010 0-7734-3814-9 184 pages This study presents a psychological understanding of the prayer exercises of the mystics. It examines the spiritual unconscious, supporting its assertions with clinical evidence. The work asserts how contemplative prayer practices affect brain hemispheres by quieting the left brain and enabling the right brain to journey to the deepest part of consciousness.
Chapman, Tobias 1989 0-88946-340-9 120 pages Proposes that the most serious modern objection made to mystical beliefs - not that they are false, but that they are meaningless - is far too simplistic; and provides arguments for certain distinctively mystical doctrines from the point of view of contemporary analytical philosophy.
Boone, Tommy 2010 0-7734-3679-0 188 pages This book proposes that health care is not just about physical abilities but mental
and spiritual beliefs as well. The author argues for a more complex understanding of
the psycho-physiological connection and advocates for a more holistic approach that may presently be perceived as a radical way to think about the practice of exercise
and exercise physiology as a profession.
Shen, Leah 2022 1-4955-1029-8 484 pages From the Introduction: "The project investigates a poetics of creative kong (emptiness) by studying the philosophical origins of the notion of emptiness in Indian Buddhism as well as its development in China from ancient times through the 17th century. I argue for the philosophical and religious significance of kong in the Chinese context as being open-minded, non-obsessive, and creative. The poetics and aesthetics of kong owes a significant debt to Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. The senses of kong enabled the writers and artists of the late Ming and early Qing to link with the immanent vividness of the world, and to evoke their creativity in literary and artistic practices when they tried to establish a close relationship to nature, instead of interfering with it." (pg. 2)
(Hardcover with color illustrations)
Michael, Aloysius 2024 1-4955-1244-4 96 pages This is a softcover book.
"At age seventy, I began collecting the maxims of the sages about the art of living, dying, and living again, wisdom sayings of seminal poets who drank life to the lees (dregs), of scientists peering into the cloud of quanta, of mystics and monks seeking the unified filed of mind and spirit, and of ordinary people with extraordinary perception." -Dr. Aloysius Michael
Grudzen, Gerald J. 2007 0-7734-5208-7 280 pages This study examines the cross-cultural transmission of medical knowledge and theory between Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities in the Medieval period. The monastery of Monte Cassino in Southern Italy became the pivotal center for the transfer if Arabic medical science into the Latin West at the end of the eleventh century. Special attention is given to the debates over the precise relationship of the body and soul, one of the central concerns of contemporaneous philosophy and theology.
Schlee, LindaSue Francisca 2004 0-7734-6547-2 242 pages This study examines a key concept in the two most significant of the sixteenth-century Spanish mystical writers. Treating their writings both as literary and theological works, it reviews the Biblical, liturgical and historical roots of the symbolic and metaphorical meanings of water in Christian thought, and shows how this imagery is extended in the key writings of St. Teresa and San Juan. Finally, it situates their work in the context of Christian spirituality.
Harris, E. Lynn 1992 0-7734-9872-9 184 pages Though much work has been done in the fields of Catholic and Oriental spirituality, Protestant spirituality has been neglected. After a brief biography of Tozer, this study compares Tozer's mysticism to thirty-five mystical classics he recommended, such as John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, etc. The focus is on the nature of contemporary Protestant mysticism and the examination of a twentieth-century figure operating within a very conservative section of Protestantism who was influenced by mystical prayer. The position which Tozer reached may be of value to others also having to cope with the pressures of contemporary life in a metropolitan environment.
Cleve, Gunnel 1993 0-7734-0596-8 201 pages Among the major religious treatises written in fourteenth-century England, The Scale of Perfection of Walter Hilton maintains a secure place. The Scale is a guide to the contemplative life in two books of more than 40,000 words each and is notable not only for the careful exploration of its religious themes, but as a principal monument of Middle English prose.
Although we know relatively little about the author of the treatise, we have more information about Walter Hilton than is known about many authors of medieval texts. He was a member of the religious order known as the Augustinian Canons, and died at the Augustinian Priory of Thurgarton in Nottinghamshire in 1396.1 There is reason to believe that he was trained in canon law and studied at the University of Cambridge. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it is thought to be around 1343.
Mulder Jr., Jack 2005 0-7734-5856-5 292 pages Mysticism is often characterized by, among other things, the annihilation of the self and union with God. On a standard reading of Kierkegaard’s insistence upon the absolute distinction between Creator and creation would force him to reject anything like mystical union with God.
For Kierkegaard, when we attempt to secure some meaning for our lives that transcends the limits of those lives themselves, we meet with utter failure because of our finitude and, ultimately, sinfulness. Thus, we must “die” to our human longing to secure this meaning on our own, and must receive it from God through grace.
Johns, David L. 2004 0-7734-6222-8 195 pages There have been many studies on the theme of Christian mysticism; few have explored the connection between mystical experience and ethics like this work. This work will contribute to the renewed interest in Hügel himself, and also to the general theme of mysticism and ethics. This book will offer the scholarly community an opportunity to engage an enormous intellect whose work is startlingly relevant to our current theological and ethical discussions and whose significance extends well beyond the role he may have played in a brief ecclesiastical controversy at the turn of the twentieth century.
Davidson, Phebe 1995 0-7734-8878-2 132 pages This volume offers an eclectic assortment of new readings of spiritual narrative, indicative of both the liveliness and breadth of current scholarly interest in spiritual narrative as a subject for serious intellectual discussion and exploration. What all of these essays have in common, aside from the rather broad subject designation of spiritual, is a recognition that spiritual narrative has almost always co-existed with its secular counterpart, often in the same text, and that it has served (and continues to serve) as the paradigm for narrative forms heretofore viewed in other contexts, whether as fiction, autobiography, or political tract. The complexity of vision offered in these readings is compelling and provocative.
Culliton, Joseph T. 1982 0-88946-964-4 312 pages Eleven original essays on non-violence according to the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Christian leaders/theologians.
Basinger, Randall 1986 0-88946-327-1 125 pages Presents an assessment of recent discussions of the concept of miracle that have taken place within the analytic tradition.
Goto, Shoji 2007 0-7734-5351-2 208 pages This book attempts to reveal the Eastern roots of the transcendentalist thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Not only modern England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, but also ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China were favorite hunting grounds of knowledge for Emerson. Thoreau recommended the Bhagavad Gita enthusiastically, asserting that the book deserves to be read with reverence even by Yankees. There was probably no one in the West who so ardently loved and recommended Hindu literature as Thoreau. Be this as it may, the Eastern side of both of these men’s thought is widely neglected in studies. This work seeks to mend this blind-spot in the scholarly approaches to Emerson and Thoreau.
Valeska, Jan 1995 0-7734-8896-0 104 pages This book studies the issue of whether and how, when directly pursuing the experience of ultimate reality, it is possible to spell out this authentic experience and the chief paths leading to it using the language of philosophy. It probes the central themes of spirituality such as absolute love, truthfulness of faith, etc. The outcome is an experimental verification of the viability of the original conception of the non-intentional philosophy of transcendence which functions outside the limited framework of both objectifying natural theology and anthropocentric phenomenology of religious experience. Proceeding from an independent scrutiny of the external prerequisites of philosophical theology, this study shows just how various methodologically elaborated perspectives serve to pinpoint (both practically and theoretically) the unique, unexchangeable character of a lively relationship with a transcendental God and its transforming potential. Unlike the hitherto most advanced Lévinasian philosophical rendering of this relationship, this approach has not been abstracted to mere ethical commitment, but has been thematized in its polyfunctionality. Accent is placed on its structured universal dynamics and its precise distinguishing criteria, which are given by the nature of transcendence itself.
Dolphin, Kathleen 2014 0-7734-3519-0 290 pages The first book to argue that spirituality and practical theology can be integrated by using Catholic theologian Edward Schillebeeckx’s understanding of the role played by human experience in the methodologies of both spirituality and practical theology. His sermons, considered as enactments of practical theology, explore various dimensions of this spirituality/praxis-oriented theology, and how he uses the category of human experience therein.
Thomas, Kenneth 2008 0-7734-4926-4 156 pages In contrast to recent historiography, this work reasserts the argument that slaves were not merely the victims of a brutal regime, but lived largely separate lives within a distinct sphere.
Hessel-Robinson, Timothy 2012 0-7734-3921-8 244 pages This text is the first to employ and semiotic theory, gender and sexuality studies to render a fresh reading of Taylor’s erotically charged devotion
Kochetkova, Tatjana 2007 0-7734-5412-8 484 pages This book traces the quest for self-realization that inspired the Russian Cultural Renaissance at the turn of the twentieth century, also called the Silver Age, from its fin-de-siècle inception until the present day. Following the historical periods under consideration, the study breaks into three parts: the first is concerned with the quest for transcendence in Vladimir Solov’ëv’s theory of Divine Humanity; the second considers the way in which Solov’ëv’s Silver Age philosophical and poetic followers utilized and developed his ideas about self-realization; finally, the third considers contemporary discussions regarding the possibility of transcendence and self-realization. This book goes beyond mere historical-philosophical curiosity: it is an attempt to understand the idea of self-realization in a global context.
Harper, Katherine Anne 1990 0-88946-061-2 336 pages An iconological exploration of the seven Hindu female deities known as the Saptamatrikas ("Seven Mothers"), undertaken in order to inquire into the nature of Saptamatrikas icons, identify the inchoate elements that gave rise to their introduction into the Hindu pantheon, and offer an interpretation of their religious function.
Cobb, Carl W. 1996 0-7734-8889-8 136 pages The major contribution of Spiritual Sonnets resides in the aesthetic quality of the poetic translations. The Sonetos espirituales is one of Jiménez's important books of poetry, which develops the specific and limited theme of the poet's soul in loving contact with nature, itself, and an idealized beloved. These translations follow Jiménez's original Petrarchan form faithfully.
DiSalvo, Angelo J. 2005 0-7734-5850-6 268 pages The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Spain produced a plethora of religious literature. The writers of mystical literature, such as Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross, are very well known. However, there are other work by religious writers such as Malón de Chaide, García Gómez de Cisneros, Alonso de Madrid, Luis de Granada, El Beato Orozco, Tomás de Villanueva and Ignatius of Loyola. These writers describe the process of devotional reading, mental prayer, meditation, contemplation, and spiritual as well as ascetical exercises in a context which is more methodical in nature.
Rees, Margaret Ann 2007 0-7734-5517-5 248 pages Following an earlier monograph,Doña María Vela y Cueto, Cistercian Mystic of Spain’s Golden Age (Edwin Mellen Press, 2004), in which the life and spirituality of this almost unknown Cistercian nun living in the Spanish Golden Age, Dr. Margaret A. Rees now reproduces two works by Doña María Vela y Cueto. The first volume presents her Libro de las Mercedes, consisting of the spiritual diary of this nun who, being cloistered in the city of Avila, had witnessed the reforms and influence of St. Teresa d’Avila and St. John of the Cross who recalls and records her own mystical experiences. Included in the second volume is her Vida, an autobiographical work composed in obedience to her spiritual director and reflecting the trials which could afflict a nun striving to stretch the boundaries of convent life as she aimed for sainthood.
Evans, James H. 1987 0-88946-560-6 185 pages An interpretation, based on the assumption that liberation is a central motif in the faith of Afro-Americans, of selected literary works in the Afro-American tradition.
McCarthy, Caritas 1986 0-88946-530-4 280 pages A biography of the founder of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus in England, Cornelia Peacock Connelly (1809-1879): a mother of five, originally a wealthy Philadelphia Presbyterian, then an Episcopalian, whose case for canonization now lies before the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Greene, David B. 2012 0-7734-2591-8 136 pages This book is based around reports from people who have listened to certain pieces of sacred music (that is, pieces with a liturgical text or biblical allusions) and have said that hearing the music is itself an encounter with the divine. While relating to the music, these people find that relating to the music is a relation to God. The music as such becomes inaudible, and disappears into an encounter in which they address and are addressed by God, or the Risen Christ, or the Eternal Infinite.
The book’s project is to elaborate on these reports, first by dwelling on the meaning of “relation” then by drawing parallels between the reports and the writings of Martin Buber on the I-Thou relation and its contrast to the I-It experience, and finally by describing the salient aspects of the music in order to specify just what is this hearing that is a relating, an encounter.
Although many pieces could have been chosen as examples of this kind of hearing and this kind of spirituality, the book takes only three so that it can describe them in considerable detail and depth. These pieces : Three Movements from Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, the resurrection music from Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.
Harper, Albert W. J. 1993 0-7734-9875-3 136 pages This book is an examination of the perennial wonderment, characteristic of human consciousness, essential in order to cope with the inability of reason to fully explain all the events of experience
Sawicki, Bernard 2005 0-7734-6199-X 600 pages Two poles orient and organize both the content and form of this study, namely the idea of the absurd, and that of Christian monasticism. These poles delineate three different but complementary dimensions of the work: the analysis and description of the very idea of the absurd, an attempt at a general survey of the idea of Christian monasticism, and the correspondence between them rendered by the notion of theological reception. The goal of this study is to compare the theoretical vision of monasticism with some aspects of modern philosophical thought. Here the form of presentation is as important as the material presented ,and their mutual dependence and correlation defines the character of the work. At times, it is an explanatory text, descriptive and speculative in character (Part One), and at other times we enter into documental, reflexive and even meditative areas (Part Two and Three). Many of the same issues, ideas and problems recur in different contexts, as if viewed and exposed from different angles and perspectives. The discourse as a whole is crafted in a kind of spiraling movement, inviting the reader to various resumptions, retrospectives and returns.
Masuku, Francis G. 2007 0-7734-5248-6 396 pages This book explores the manner in which Christian spirituality encounters Lomwe traditional spirituality, in an attempt to understand the kind of spirituality the Lomwe Catholic Christians in Malawi are now living. After examining Lomwe traditional spirituality within the broader context of African spirituality, the work explores the roots of the present cultural-religious encounter by analyzing the way in which missionaries introduced Christianity in Malawi. The study then moves on to consider the present tensions between Christian and traditional spiritualities in pursuit of the possibility of an integrated ‘African Christian spirituality’. This study will appeal to those scholars who are interested in inculturation, interreligious dialogue, and the relevance of Christian spirituality among the people of different cultures in the world.
Naseri, Amir 2022 1-4955-0893-5 440 pages From the author's preface: "This book comes with a completely brand-new scientific and spiritual theory that for the very first time try to explaining the universe, existence, the whole being and even the non-being or nought in scientific terms and manner."
Aldrin, Viktor 2011 0-7734-1543-2 252 pages Examines elaborate prayer practices among peasant communities in late medieval Sweden. The work focuses on the perspectives of ideals and practices, namely the standards of prayer, devotional prayer, and prayer in times of need and prayer cultures.
Hudson, Yeager 1995 0-7734-9043-4 400 pages Ours is a time when we need to be reminded that forcefully-expressed ideas have in fact wrought huge changes in the world -- sometimes of great good, sometimes of overwhelming evil. The theme of these essays is that the hope of the next century of human history hangs on our ability to recapture our faith in the social power of ideas.
Di Salvo, Angelo J. 2000 0-7734-7874-4 240 pages This study contains a thorough outline and explanation of the inner way of spiritual Recollection as developed in Spain at the end of the 15th century and throughout the 16th. The literature followed the religious tradition called affective spirituality that can be traced back to Augustine through Francis of Assisi and Bonaventure and included many Germanic mystics. All these currents converged in Spain, producing such writers as Pedro de Alcántara, Juan de Avila, Barnardino de Laredo, Francisco de Osuna, Teresa de Jesús, and Juan de la Cruz.
James, Nancy C. 2007 0-7734-5289-3 276 pages This work includes an essay examining the apophatic mysticism of Madame Guyon, the French mystic and writer, along translations of portions of her works, letters and poems. Annotations provide needed information to understand both the history of this important era and Guyon’s influential theology of pure love.
Michael, Aloysius 2024 1-4955-1267-3 268 pages This is a softcover book.
"On days of uncertainty about life and death, existential insecurity, and the essential void within, I would read a few pages from Chodron and go on my walking meditation in nature. The good nun was a wonderful guide on my journey, but the old Catholic, Jansenistic roots ran deep in the soil. My religious neurosis. My default position. Simply my old habits. ...My Jansenistic curse, I surmised, could be a gem with an outer hard shell. I looked for a guide who could crack it open. ...Doing what I have to do. Waiting, walking, and breathing. Just being aware that I am, not what I am." -Aloysius Michael
Harper, Albert W. J. 1989 0-88946-842-7 116 pages A different approach to theodicy, whereas God as pure Godhead is eternal, without form and without property of any kind, it is humankind rather than God that is in need of vindication in the light of the disturbances and ills that we are called upon to bear.
Foster, Ann T. 1985 0-88946-555-X 208 pages Analyzes Roethke's religious ideas and spiritual practice. Uses his notebooks to view his poetry as structured by his mystical reading.
Michael, Aloysius 2024 1-4955-1259-2 96 pages This is a softcover book.
"There are many simple things we can do as we care for the soul and body: simple recollection and focus, living in the moment, silence as opposed to constant distraction without texting. Simple but seemingly challenging." -Dr. Aloysius Michael
Grayston, Donald 1985 0-88946-758-7 220 pages This closely detailed analysis of five versions of Thomas Merton's classic work in spirituality, Seeds of Contemplation, traces and documents Merton's growth as a Christian contemplative and spiritual theologian between the years 1948 and 1961.
Steele, FJ 1996 0-7734-4212-X 232 pages Based on extensive manuscript research in British Libraries, a close reading of the relevant primary sources, and a wide survey of the secondary literature, presents much new evidence for the engagement of the laity in the Christian life. It reveals that in the 13th - 15th centuries the development of a lay spirituality emerged that has been largely ignored to date.
Firestone, Randall S. 2006 0-7734-5905-7 144 pages The mystics of all of the major religions have made many incredible claims throughout the ages – even going so far as to say that this world is merely an illusion. Over the last several decades, various philosophers have argued that mystical claims are mistaken due to unintentional self-delusion on the part of the mystic. This book is the first to bring together the six major claims made by mystics, the philosophical attacks that have been made on these claims, and the best responses the mystic could make to these attacks. The author demonstrates that the philosophers have not dealt the knockout punch that they have imagined, and that it is still an open question whether the claims made by the mystics should be believed.
Frost, William P. 1992 0-7734-9192-9 404 pages This study offers a wealth of information about the claims and beliefs of the New Age as well as an immense background in the physical, biological, neurophysiological, cultural anthropological, psychological, and quantum theoretical facts which are part of the learned discussions of this form of holistic spirituality. A substantial selection of foundational aspects, e.g. the relation between science and religion, the scientific approach to the holistic spirituality.