Love Burning in the Soul: The Story of Christian Mystics, from Saint Paul to Thomas Merton - Softcover

Harpur, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590301129 ISBN 13: 9781590301128

Publisher: New Seeds, 2005

Synopsis

The heart of the Christian faith is a direct encounter with God so profound that it can be referred to as union. It is an experience that cannot be described in words, but it can be glimpsed—in the radiant lives of the men and women called mystics. Here James Harpur presents the stories of some of the most influential Christian mystics from the past two thousand years. He provides their historical and ecclesiastical contexts, as well as appreciations of the unique contributions of each of them to the ongoing articulation of the way of love and union. Love Burning in the Soul is a comprehensive and highly readable survey of the great Christian mystical tradition for everyone. Included are:

Clement of Alexandria * Gregory of Nyssa * John Scotus Eriugena * Bernard of Clairvaux * Hildegard of Bingen * Francis of Assisi * Mechtild of Magdeburg * Meister Eckhart * John Tauler * Jan van Ruysbroeck * Gregory Palamas * Richard Rolle * Julian of Norwich * Catherine of Siena * Jacob Boehme * George Fox * Teresa of Ávila * François Fénelon * Jean Pierre de Caussade * William Blake * Pierre Teilhard de Chardin * Thomas Merton * Many others

About this title

About the Author:

James Harpur studied Classics and English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has had a lifelong interest in the spiritual and mystical aspects of religion. He has written a number of books on religion, particularly the Christian mystical tradition, including Sacred Tracks: Two Thousand Years of Christian Pilgrimage and The Atlas of Sacred Places. He is also a prize-winning poet whose three collections of verse reflect his interest in the Christian contemplative tradition.

From Booklist:

Harpur's popular introduction to 2,000 years of Christian mysticism sets particular mystics in historical context. Defining a mystic as someone who has direct experience or awareness of God, he turns first to Jesus' mystical experiences in the Gospels and to the writings of Paul and John. Subsequent discussions cover the twelfth-century greats Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, and Meister Eckhart; England's Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, and the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing; the continental saints Catherine of Siena and Catherine of Genoa; the Protestant Jacob Boehme; Quaker founder George Fox; the Counter--Reformation Spaniards Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross; the quietist Madame Guyon and Francois Fenelon; mystical English Romantic poets Blake and Wordsworth; and from the twentieth century, Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Merton. One chapter is devoted to the Orthodox tradition, and the epilogue mentions the recent growth spurt in Christian spirituality in Taize, France, and Iona, Scotland; the retreat movement; and the Creation Spirituality of Matthew Fox. Altogether useful. June Sawyers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: New Seeds
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1590301129
• ISBN 13: 9781590301128
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256