Traditions of Christian Spirituality
This important series seeks to make the riches of selected traditions available to a contemporary public. The books in the series offer excellent introductions to some of the major Christian traditions showing the key themes and values of their spirituality. They also highlight the relevance of themes and values to the experience of modern day readers. Authors in the series have been chosen for their knowledge of a particular tradition and also for their ability to write in an acessible style.
Series Editor: Philip Sheldrake
Margaret Paton
· Mackillop’s Canonisation by the Pope is imminent
. Australia’s first saint
. Founder of the order Sisters of St. Joseph
Many books have been written about MacKillop’s remarkable life. In The Ground of Her Loving Margaret Paton delves more deeply into what inspired this great Australian, and her devotion to children and to the poor. She describes the articulate intelligence which
enabled her to stand her ground against bishops, and her generosity of spirit which led her to forgive everyone who had wronged her. It is moving to read
the loving advice she gave to the sisters, to recognise her lack of self importance, and her openness to whatever was to be.
Paton draws out links with the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola, Simone Weil and Evelyn Underhill, who wrote, as Mary MacKillop did, about the adorable will of God. She also draws interesting comparisons between MacKillop and Sr. Helen Prejean, with whom Mary MacKillop courageously shared a willingness to be with prisoners facing the death penalty.
Price: £10.99 Pages: 161 ISBN: 9780232527995
What would the giants of theology say to us today?
In Faith Maps a theologian of great flair and originality ‘translates’ the voices of several leading thinkers into a series of reflections on faith and contemporary
life and culture. The result is both a delightful introduction to theology and religion for students and general readers and a thought-provoking improvisation on familiar themes that will delight specialists.
Gallagher devotes a separate chapter to each of ten writers who have explored the credibility of religious faith, beginning with John Henry Newman and ending with Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, due to visit the UK later this year. But, he writes, ‘I do not simply report on what they say. I offer a brief summary of their ideas but I also “translate” their vision into a more contemporary and less specialist idiom. What would they say today? Or, what do they inspire in me? As in music, they are variations on a theme with considerable freedom to go beyond their explicit statements.’
PUBLISHING end October - any orders placed now will be delivered early November
Why study theology through G.K. Chesterton?
Best known as journalist, playwright,novelist and poet, G.K. Chesterton never thought of himself as a theologian. Nevertheless he could not help thinking theologically – even when he was making jokes – and his writings illuminate the profoundest religious themes.
Famous for his intellectual defence of Christian belief in his books Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man – which helped to convert C.S. Lewis – he rescued Christian truth from becoming a purely academic exercise.
Like Lewis, Chesterton, one of the great converts of the twentieth century, draws us directly into theology through his encounter with the Word of God. A master of Christian apologetics, Chesterton shows us the faith of the Catholic Church as most of us have never seen it before: as “a new continent full of strange flowers and fantastic animals, which is at once wild and hospitable.” Essential reading for anyone who already loves Chesterton, the book is also and more importantly a new kind of introduction to theology. It throws fresh light on the oldest of questions: the existence of God, the nature of man and the Church, the meaning of Christ, and the call to holiness.
This lively and insightful exploration of Reformed identity first traces the historical development of the Reformed tradition, from Calvin and Zwingli to the Iona Community and Taizé, before comparing and contrasting theology and the practice of prayer across a variety of Reformed writers.
Election, its Biblical roots and socio-political consequences, is at the core of Reformed experience, and David Cornick considers how the doctrine of election was appropriated, and its effect on spirituality.
‘In comparison to other religions, Christianity is not always associated in people’s minds with spirituality. This is a great pity, for Christianity East and West over two thousand years has given birth to an immense range of spiritual wisdom. There is a widespread hunger for spirituality in all its forms, and this is an opportune time for a new series which will help more people to be aware of the great riches available within Christian tradition.’
Philip Sheldrake, series editor
A clear and inclusive account of the broad, rich, and developing core of Anglican spirituality as it has evolved through history.
A survey of 'spiritualities of the Spirit' embracing both the Pentecostal tradition and the charismatic movement in the major western churches.
There are an estimated 500 million ‘Pentecostal’ or charismatic Christians, often belonging to relatively new churches, and they make up the most vibrant and fastest-growing parishes and communities in the world. Yet as Mark Cartledge shows, charismatic spirituality has been a feature of Christianity from the earliest days, even if aspects of it have often been marginalized and ignored.
His masterly introductory survey, ideal for both the general reader and the student, traces the movement back to the Bible and the work of Tertullian, to Montanism, Simeon the New Theologian, Joachim of Fiore, John Wesley, and recent charismatic and neo-charismatic renewal sources.
THIS TITLE IS TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK!
An absorbing study of two of the most distinctive expressions of Anglo-Saxon civilisation: literature and Anglican spirituality.