Of Martyrs, Monks, And Mystics [Hardcover]

Everywhere there are voices calling for a new Reformation, marked by a return to the older sources of Christian wisdom, and for drinking anew the inspiration of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, the church fathers, those from the monastic tradition and the medieval Christian mystics. This anthology of original sources in contemporary English, structured in a meditational mode, could well be the rich resource you are looking for in hearing the ancient Christian wisdom. Here are the deep wells of theological and spiritual insight that could guide you in walking a renewed path of faith in our precarious world. These voices from the past may well help you in living against the tide of late modernity with its rationality and utilitarianism that cannot sustain a well-lived and well-loved life. This book could sustain the hope for a renewed world through life lived in the presence of the healing and empowering God. This is a remarkable collection of quotations from the communion of Saints across the ages, which will deeply enrich your soul, and transform your identity as a Christian. I know of no other spiritual treasury like this. It should be at every Christian's desk or bedside. --James M. Houston, Board of Governor's Professor, Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver [This] is a remarkable collection . . . The result is a sparkling array of freshness from many lesser-known lives such as Gertrude the Great, Macarius of Egypt, and the Dutch poet Hadewijch conversing with us alongside Julian of Norwich, John Cassian, and Clare of Assisi . . . [T]his is a book that not only needs to be read slowly and prayerfully but also applied and lived as present-day wisdom. --Trevor Miller, Abbot of Northumbria Community The early fathers and mothers of the Church have provided us with a well of wisdom that was fed by their openness to God, so much so that their words flowing from that relationship have almost the quality of scripture about them. Charles has lowered l£