Organizations and Institutions Books

It might seem that "formal" prayer would result in a stifling intellectualism that could not really bring about a radical healing and wholeness to the human person, or would neglect the dimension of the healing of emotions. Hildebrand, philosopher-theologian extraordinaire, author of Transformation in Christ, The New Tower of Babel, The Art of Living, In Defense of Purity, The Heart: Source of Christian Affectivity, etcetera, leads the reader into the art of ancient worship in the Liturgy, and into the Heart of God where He can transform one's heart unto a willingness and conformity to the will of God, unto a knowing of oneself via relationship with God, and toward a joy linked to the Beatific vision. The man whose prayer life is "formal" is drawn by God through the prayer of the Church, and could only come to be softened and changed at his center, to desire the Gospel life, to gain a new personalized compassion for all the people of God, whose transformed heart makes him a new creation in Christ; the worshipper unfamiliar with "formal" prayer, through learning to be in conformity with the Church, will enter and experience the deepest awe and reverence of the Sacrifice of the Mass as the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and come to experience the very holiness of God.

History is full of examples of ecclesial disconnect -- the lack of a connection between the ideas of the church and the worship of the church and the social responsibility and action of the church. This still is a problem in many denominations and individual churches within denominations -- just what is the connexion between how we worship and how we act outside of worship? Shouldn't there be some connexion? Shouldn't what we do in church both influence and reflect what we do outside of church? Shouldn't our worship transform us, and, if yes, what is the nature of this transformation in the world?

This book, 'Liturgy and the Moral Self: Humanity at Full Stretch Before God,' edited by E. Byron Anderson and Bruce T. Morrill, is a tribute and witness to the work of liturgical theologian Don E. Saliers, who challenged both the church and the academy with finding the ways in which prayer and worship form the Christian life, and ensuring that the rhetoric and the reality match.

'In a day concerned more with promoting "good" feelings, enthusiasm, self-certainty, and self-fulfillment, Saliers' concern for the formation of the deep affections of the Christian life is perhaps most radical in his attention to the formation of those affections that address the apparent lack of certainty in the Christian life. In summoning the Christian community from what he calls "presumptuous prayer", Saliers summons us to liturgical practices of invocation, beseeching, lamentation, and confession by which, in addition to thanksgiving and praise, we name the fullness of human life, our experiences of God's absence as well as God's presence.'

The book begins with an essay by Saliers, in which he lays forth some guiding ideas for beginning the search for a connexion between liturgical practice and ethics, most especially as they reflect upon the prayerful formation of the self in community, and the development and expression of the ethics of Christian character.

From this beginning, the book proceeds in several parts. The first part begins exploring the tradition, practice and beliefs behind liturgical theology. This might well be summed up by the essay title by James F. White: How do we know it is us? The essays in this section different traditions, high, low and broad in liturgy, and the attendant assumptions and expressions that are valid for the communities.

The next part explores the formation of character. Many parts of the liturgy are deeply reflective of who we are as individuals and communities. Are we musical? Are we movement-oriented or stillness-oriented? Are we contemplative? Anderson's essay in this, subtitled Hymning the Self Before God, discusses the importance of hymnody, the style of hymnody, the reasons why changing music or hymnals is so volatile: the music is an integral part of the soul. We sing because it expresses who we are, Anderson writes. Later, he writes, 'We know that the act of singing identifies us as singers. But in singing a hymn, we identify ourselves also with a particular text and tune, even in only momentarily.' Further essays on prayer also serve to illuminate this topic.

The final section discusses the connexion of words and music, including a discussion of liturgical music and and essay of reflections on writing, prayer and practice entitled Clunky Prayers and Christian Living. In this essay, Brian Wren writes: 'Do they matter, these clunky prayers that spill out Sunday by Sunday onto worship bulletins in so many mainstream Protestant churches?' By exploring the spirit of worship, what works and what doesn't, he begins to details that do not occur to the regular parishioner, even the one who recites the clunky prayers week after week for years.

Saliers claims the last word, clarifying at the end of this work yet more questions, foundational and ongoing, as well as his concern that the knowledge of God cannot be without a form of recognising how God is known. Sustaining aspects of the knowledge of God are either upheld or drowned by liturgy; the glory of God is expressed or masked -- the community needs to be aware of what is happening in what they're doing. Saliers calls for an always-reforming spirit (semper reformanda) that is akin to the very call of the gospel itself, to a radical reconnexion with God made new in each place, by each community, in each time.

Ron Anderson is a professor and friend of mine, teaching at Christian Theological Seminary. It has been honour to have been instructed by him, to assist in teaching with him, and to be able to review this book.

"Each new book of John Westerhoff's cements my belief that he is one today's prophets. This latest work is an exciting synthesis of family, story, ritual, and church that shows us what we can be as a people of God when we integrate our ministries. I highly recommend it for all in parish ministry who are trying to put it all together and create the living faith community for which we yearn." -- Delores Curran (from the back cover of the book)

Living What You Believe: Wisdom From The Book Of James is the collaborative effort of Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier and designed to take the reader on a guided tour of the Book of James to learn how to embrace a hands-on, concrete faith that will enable him or her to truly live out what they profess to believe as Christians. The issues and elements surveyed within the context of the Book of James include temptation, relationships, speech, finances, good works, prayer, and planning -- all for the purpose of encourage and instructed Christians to live wisely and well within the framework of the Gospel. Living What You Believe is a highly recommended addition to personal and small group New Testament and Christian Life studies.

The first word of the Rule of St. Benedict is 'Listen'. This rule, composed centuries ago for Benedict's community, and continued by communities across the world to this day, is a powerful way of living into the fullness of God's grace and love. However, as the title of this text by Esther de Waal indicates, it is not always an easy rule, nor one that is immediately grasped and completely understood.

The monastics and oblates of Benedict's orders take vows, typically being poverty, obedience, chastity and conversion of life (the oblate's vows are modified to reflect the reality of living outside the enclosed monastic community, but the vows are derivative of the same root). It is the last vow, conversion of life, that perhaps at the heart of this book. Conversion in this context is not a once-for-all, 'road to Damascus' kind of experience, but rather a daily decision to continue working toward a new kind of life.

De Waal's first chapter deals with healing - we live broken lives in a broken world, and not just in the physical well-being sense. Using images from the biblical texts such as the Garden of Eden and the Cross, prayers from St. Anselm and the text of St. Benedict, she weaves ideas of healing, wholeness, and fullness even as we recognise our short-comings and brokenness. God accepts us for who we are at each point, but calls us to a perfection that we can never really attain. If this seems like a paradox, you're on to something.

The next chapter is entitled 'The Power of Paradox'. The monastic movement has always had at its heart a paradoxical call to be individual (the Latin root of the word monastic is mono, meaning 'one' or 'singular') in the context of community. The Christian call to be in the world but not of the world, to resist the world yet work within the world, is another such paradox. De Waal illuminates several such paradoxes, including the primary Christian paradox of the Cross, both an image of death and life, of defeat and of victory.

'Paradox' is sometimes considered a fancy word for contradiction. Benedict's Rule seems full of contradiction, just as life seems many times. Benedict looks to today as the primary focus of activity and energy, but also looks forward to the future as the most important. Benedict requires a life of service to others and the practice of hospitality, but also emphasises the need for solitude and withdraw from the world.

De Waal explores through the Rule of Benedict what it means to live with oneself, living with others in community, living in the world, and being both together and apart. Each person is endowed with gifts and graces, and has the potential for us to see Christ in them, if we will be attentive ('listen') and lose ourselves that we might also be Christ-like for the sake of others.

Contradictions that de Waal highlights include the difference between desert and marketplace (the early Desert Fathers were never quite as removed from the world as they might have wanted; the marketplace is not an 'unholy' or 'ungodly' place necessarily, for St. Paul often did his teaching while plying his trade as a tent-maker in the marketplace). Whichever avenue is taken, desert or marketplace, de Waal emphasises the necessity of prayer as an anchor - de Waal uses the example of Thomas Merton, a man in solitary prayer also completely involved with the world at large.

Saying 'yes' to the call of Benedict, to live a spiritual life, to live a life in the tensions of the contradictions, is never a simple intellectual assent, but rather one that has to come with the complete person, body and soul. It has to do with recognising the paschal mystery as both folly and wisdom, and recognising ourselves as having to always repeat the yes. According to de Waal, echoing the idea of conversion of life being an ongoing task, one must say 'yes' every day, repeating the'yes' and asking for blessing each night, and passing on the task to oneself and to others on a constant basis.

De Waal's reflections are not simple and easy. A small-format book, if one were reading for the words alone, the text could be completed in a matter of an hour or two, but this would be to lose the richness of Benedict's (and de Waal's) insights and images. This is a book for longer-term meditation, to be read as lectio divina, to be read for inspirational guidance, to be taken in small pieces like rich chocolates, to be savoured and appreciated slowly for the full experience.

This book is an excellent reminder of a shared central rite among Christians. People from all traditions, from the liturgical to the free church, will benefit from reading this book and using it as a starting point for contemplation and further study.

"Read the acts of Sts. Anthony, Macarius, Pachomius..., the Egyptian Monks, of those who lived in the Holy Land or in the Thebaid. ...implant in the darkness of the West and in the cold of Gaul the light of the East and the ancient fervor of Egyptian religious life." Jean Leclerq, Ancient traditional Spirituality, pp. 112,113



Monastic History:
Overflowing from Egypt, monasticism has flourished both in the Eastern Orthodox churches from early Christian times to present, and within the Roman Catholic church since the late antiquity to Medieval ages. Christian monasticism was started in the mountainous eastern deserts of Egypt in the fourth century AD, by Saint Anthony the Great, who sought a higher level of spiritual experience and encountered St. Paul of Thebes, the first Egyptian hermit. Cenobetic monastic orders were organized by Saint Pachomius (d. 346), with the first communities of cenobites in upper Egypt.

Monastic Vocation:
Monasticism refers to a way of life adopted by those early faithful, who have elected to pursue divinization, an ideal of perfection, by deserting the world, through kenotic grace, within cenobetic or solitary schemes of devoted life.
The desert fathers have had deep and enduring influence in shaping of Christian ideals, and were the founding and leading abbots in Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Traditionally, monasticism embraces both the life of the hermit, characterized by progressive state of solitude, and the life of the cenobite, that is, the monk living in a community offering fellowship and a limited space for solitude. Ascetism, was a basic tool for monastic practices, which was based on the tradition of disciplined self-denial, and obedience to the elder. This asceticism could include Silence, fasting, denial of personal possessions, even of books, and a denial of bodily comfort, with vows to poverty, hand work, and celibacy. Athanasius the champion of Orthodoxy, recounting the spiritual struggles of St. Anthony, provided an ideal pattern of the ascetic life. The work became very popular in the West, and sparked intellectuals' attention, contributing greatly to the interest in monastic life in Western Christianity. Pilgrims to the Holy land made trips to the desert including Rufinus and Jerome, whose letters and works catalyzed the move among the educated around the empire (St. Arsenius).

Latin Monastic Tradition:
Two of the most influential in Spirituality as Evagrius Ponticus, and John Cassian who established the first European monasteries according to the Pachomian ideal, and wrote the first Monastic manuals, the institutes and the Conferences. "If Benedict created the institutional frame of Latin monasticism, then Cassian helped define its inner life, its mystical aspirations," wrote Wm. Harmless, Desert Christians, pp. 373.
The Benedictine rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia (6th century), formed the basis of life in most monastic communities until the twelve century. The schema faded out until St. Bernard of Cleurvaux restored it to its original zenith. Among the principal monastic orders that evolved in the Middle Ages were the Carthusians in the eleventh century and the Cistercians in the twelfth; the Mendicant orders, or Friars, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Carmelites arose in the 13th century.


Theognosis; Learning Spirituality:
Theognosis, the knowing of God, has always been a means for a unity in love which transcends all knowledge. This ultimate end is union with God or, partaking in the nature of God, the theosis of church Fathers Ireneus and Athanasius. The eastern tradition whose masters were Origen, Evagrius, and Dionysius, the pseudo Areopagite, has never made a definite distinction between mysticism and theology; between personal experience of the divine mysteries. In a certain sense all theology is mystical, inasmuch as it shows forth the divine mystery of revelation. On the other hand, mysticism is frequently opposed to theology as an unutterable mystery which surpasses our understanding faculties to any perception of sense or of intelligence, to be lived rather than known. We should, look for a profound change, an inner transformation of spirit, enabling us to experience it mystically, far from being mutually opposed, theology and mysticism support and completement each other.

Sacred Learning:
Medieval monks pursued their learning from three sources: Holy Scripture, writings of the Fathers, and classical literature. Study of grammar was intended as an `introduction to Scripture.' The monastics used to learn through meditative reading; seeking an appreciation of the ultimate goal as desire for heaven. The scholastics, when studying the text, sought mere knowledge. The monastic Scriptural trio (reading, meditation and prayer) produced a recalling and pondering of Scripture, an early tradition of the Desert Fathers, as exposed in "The Word in the Desert. This intimate knowledge of Scripture offered the ability of mystical pilgrimage of the entire Bible, granting them a pictorial Biblical imagination, which Cyril of Alexandria was its grand master. Early monastics have had the Scriptures on instant mental recall. Monastic exegesis was, according to Origen of a multiple themes that animated Biblical scripture that fostered the desire for heaven. Since Scripture was not a source for knowledge but the message of salvation from God, in reading it became mystical, but stayed literal because of the interest in grammar. The Old Testament was not viewed in its historical perspective, but as history of salvation's first part. The most read and commentated book of Scripture was the Song of Songs, a tradition initiated by Origen. While the scholastics interpretation was abstractly as God's relation to the Church, the monastics saw it as God's intimate personal relationship to the faithful in person; expressing their ultimate goal in life, and representing their whole theology.

Leclercq presents his Study:
Having declaring himself, a supporter of twelfth-century monastic theology, Dom Leclercq presents his book in ten chapters, grouped in three sections, addressing its formation, sources and its fruits. Right from the beginning, in a concise introduction, Dom Leclercq presents a distinction between monasticism and scholasticism, such distinction is radically clear in the three parts of his study of the monastic Culture. Roman Catholic Monasticism reached its apex in the twelfth century when, an often quoted, scathing condemnation of Byzantine monasticism was launched by Eustathius, bishop of Thessalonica. In Leclercq's eye twelfth-century Latin monasticism reached its apex in Bernard of Clairvaux. Most theological interest, is devoted to the 13th century, whose writers were scholastics, academics of ecclesiastic background. Leclercq keeps isolating monastic from scholastic theology, whose target was to acquire knowledge, pursuing a venue of objective analysis of his inquiry. The monastic, were just eager to know God, in subjective means of his own existence and within Scripture, earning Leclercq support within the two groups. Scholastic theology that stemmed from the University of Paris was debated orally before it was written. Monastic theology, based on patristic writings was literate from the start.

Latin Monastic Culture:
Benedict prescribed the goal and system of monastic culture: the pursuit of God through the meditated reading of the Scriptures and the Fathers. To this Gregory added an essential doctrine, that of the desire for God and the possession of God which alone satisfies that desire. Though rising to the highest office, Gregory wrote of the Christian life as a life of detachment and desire: detachment from the world and from sin, and an intense desire for God. The Christian who rightly appreciates his own sinfulness and consequent misery experiences a double `compunction': a compunction of fear and a compunction of desire, ending up with a hurting spirit, agitated over the misery of sin, but firm in its desire for God. Himself buffeted by suffering, Gregory saw that man must make himself compassionate and responsive to this caring pressure from God in tears of repentance, the soul commits an eagle like flight reaching a high standard into God to find love and peace. This flight into God has a beneficial service to God. Alas, the soul falls back, weary, but hopeful to recover and soar upward again. Gregory, called the dialoguist in the Eastern Church, because of his outstanding contribution to the experiential monastic tradition.

Sources of Monastic Culture:
Leclercq definition of the sources of monastic culture, in four headings: devotion to heaven, sacred learning, ancient traditional spirituality, and liberal studies. Defining that experience which "induces the desire to reach the culmination of this experience," Medieval monastic culture depended on two sources, textual literary sources absorbed in meditative reading, and experience. Summarizing the content of monastic culture her pronounced in two words: grammar and spirituality. The most important of the themes which kept the monks faithful to the vision of Gregory, was their devotion to heaven, clearly traced in their writings under the topics of the heavenly Jerusalem of which the monastery is a mundane icon, to which is attached the Old Testament concepts of Temple and Tabernacle, mediaeval monks were fond of dwelling on Christ's ascension and of his Transfiguration, similar to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Dom Leclercq Concluding:
The learned abbot concludes his work with a brief epilogue on Literature and the Mystical Life. Even though the monasteries were not always centers of spiritual life, there were periods when they were revived, producing an appreciable corpus of literature, that kept alive the Scriptures ancient commentaries and the Fathers writings. It was the writing of mystics who were motivated in learning that stimulated a desire for God, the product of great cultural and of spiritual attainment. Leclercq reminds us in the first sentence of his preface that he is a monk addressing other monks. It is therefore only to be expected that he should present a very favorable history of medieval monasticism. It has become trendy for modern historians, even evangelical historians, to strive for objectivity in the name of academic excellence. This produces church histories devoid of reference to God, something that would have been absurd to Leclercq and his beloved monks alike. The distinction Leclercq draws between monastic theology and scholastic theology could be applied to contemporary studies in church history.

Dom Jean Leclercq:
"Dom Jean Leclercq, OSB, a monk of Clairvaux Abbey in Luxemburg, died on October 27, 1993 in his monastery. For more than sixty years he resolutely used his great erudition for the service of the future of monasticism. He united together a confidence in monastic tradition which he knew so well and a great hope in contemporary humanity, its bold research and its spiritual possibilities which frequently remained unexplored. He was remarkable in the fact that, without holding any particular official place in the monastic order, yet his influence was definitive in many areas." Fr. de Bethune, In Memoriam

A Concise Review:
The book is what the subtitle proclaims it to be: a study of monastic culture, in medieval Europe. The reader who is foreign to the main outlines of monastic history is advised to read "Seek Learning and Revive the Love for God,' a Guide by Didskalex.

Evolution of the Monastic Ideal from the Earliest Times Down to the
Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism

I was pleasantly surprised after picking up this book. Great design , meaty, fun, informative. It's sort of a scholarly book combined with a rambling read. Reeve enters the domain of love in various forms , eros, thanatos, sentimentality, pornography and covers it with many examples from movies and literature. There are gems of reading here, I started it thinking it might be another evil little boring book with a nicely designed cover and found myself hoisting up the chair and reading and reading and reading -- straight through in one sitting. I also like a book where when people are cited the notes are complete and clear -- they are here. You won't find it beach reading to be sure, there is no dominant story as in something like Fermat's Theorem. But neither is it pulpy schmaltz. Desire this book (a nod to Lacan) and enjoy it. I have no idea who this author is, ans surprisingly he or she is a philosopher -- a clear one at that! How oddly refreshing!

The Spanish Inquisition evokes an image of inquisitors bringing innocent people to trial, rendering them guilty of heresy and burning them at the stake. Torture, confessions made under duress, and the murder of large numbers of Protestants are visualized. Inquisitors and their informants were everywhere, and watched everything. These perceptions of the Spanish Inquisition have come from numerous sources, including books, articles, movies, and are ingrained in many people's view of the Inquisition. The question raised, then, is how historically accurate are these portrayals? Was this the way thing were always done, or is there another side to the story?

While not attempting to take on the challenge of the Spanish Inquisition in its entirety, Sara Nalle presents us with a very different picture of the Inquisition and the inquisitors than are normally seen in the literature. Nalle introduces us to Bartolomé Sánchez, a man who condemned the Catholic Church, the priesthood, the Holy Trinity, and then announcing that he was the second savior, sent to finish Christ's work. Sánchez was taken before the Inquisitor, Cortes for trial.

Cortes is atypical of the traditional view of the inquisitors as bloodthirsty men driven to exterminate those who did not profess the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Sánchez's claim that the Holy Spirit was not part of the Trinity, but that rather Mary was, certainly disturbed Cortes. Sánchez also refused to show deference to the cross, which he stated was evil, because it was a tool of those that killed Christ. Yet, through all of those things, Cortes, the inquisitor, sought a way for Sánchez to escape a death sentence.

Nalle constructed Mad for God from the trial records of Sánchez, and therefore she derived the account from the official records of the Inquisition's offices. While the possibility exists that there were omissions, the record appears to give a balanced view of the events that transpired in the courtroom.

This is very well written book, that sheds some light on the Spanish Inquisition, and provides a different view than is often seen in books and movies. It is easy to read, very well noted, and you may very well finish it in only one or two sittings.

Thorough, informative, scholarly, and entertaining even if you don't recognize the music cited. This compact little book is well worth the price. It's filled with (to me) unexpected interpretations, usually going back to the root words and how they've been translated and mistranslated over the centuries. Terrien deepened my understanding and appreciation of this strangely haunting song from Luke.