Category Archives: Book Chapters

Essay: Quaker Mysticism and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, by Emily Griesinger

Posted on June 18, 2020 by

In her essay, Emily Griesinger agrees with those who say Virginia Woolf should not be considered purely a secularist despite her rejection of traditional Christianity. Indeed, in a careful reading of Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, Griesinger argues that there’s … Continue reading →

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Essay: The Literary Genre of the Spiritual Canticle of John of the Cross, by David B. Perrin

Posted on February 12, 2020 by

Does identifying the genre of a spiritual work simply place it in a literary category where it can be compared to other works in the same genre? Or does knowing the genre help the reader come to a deeper understanding … Continue reading →

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Essay: A Distinctively Christian Contemplation: A Comparison with Other Religions, by Glen G. Scorgie

Posted on July 30, 2019 by

This essay by Glen G. Scorgie appears in Embracing Contemplation: Reclaiming a Christian Spiritual Practice which according to the publisher “offers a distinctly evangelical consideration of the benefits of contemplation.” In their introduction to the volume, the book’s editors write that Scorgie . . … Continue reading →

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Essay: ’To Gaze on the Beauty of the Lord’: The Evangelical Resistance and Retrieval of Contemplation, by Tom Schwanda

Posted on June 25, 2019 by

This essay by Tom Schwanda appears in Embracing Contemplation: Reclaiming a Christian Spiritual Practice which according to the publisher “offers a distinctly evangelical consideration of the benefits of contemplation.” In their introduction to the volume, the book’s editors write that … Continue reading →

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Essay: Paul Baynes and Richard Sibbes, by Tom Schwanda

Posted on April 12, 2019 by

This essay appears in Protestants and Mysticism in Reformation Europe, a multi-author collection of essays described as “an expansive view of the Protestant reception of mysticism, from the the beginnings of the Reformation through mid-seventeenth century.” Tom Schwanda begins his … Continue reading →

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Essay: Apocalypses and Mystical Texts: Investigating Prolegomena and the State of Affairs, by Pieter G. R. de Villiers

Posted on November 22, 2018 by

In this essay which introduces a volume of essays exploring the nature and origin of Jewish mysticism and its relation to Christian mysticism, Pieter de Villiers describes modern developments in the study of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic and mystical texts.  … Continue reading →

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Essay: Henri de Lubac (1896-1991) and Contemporary Mystical Theology, by Andrew Prevot

Posted on March 28, 2018 by

Appearing in A Companion to Jesuit Mysticism, Andrew Prevot‘s essay argues for the presence of a mystical theology throughout much of Henri de Lubac’s writings even though he never devoted a work exclusively to it. Here is Prevot’s concluding paragraph: This … Continue reading →

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Essay: ‘Like a word still ripening in the silences’ Rainer Maria Rilke and the transformations of poetry, by Mark S. Burrows

Posted on February 22, 2018 by

In this essay, Mark Burrows, Poetry Editor of the SSCS journal Spiritus, explores Rilke’s focus on the role of the imagination in our inner transformation. Our fragmentary lives can be made whole through the power of the kind of archetypal … Continue reading →

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Essay: Rewilding Christian Spirituality: Outdoor Sacraments and the Life of the World, by Lisa E. Dahill

Posted on November 19, 2016 by

Lisa Dahill contributed this essay to the collection she co-edited with Jim B. Martin-Schramm, Eco-Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2016; pp. 177-196). In it, she addresses the problem of “the disconnection between much of contemporary … Continue reading →

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Essay:The Intersection of Sacramentality and Materiality: Testimony, by Rebecca A. Giselbrecht

Posted on October 24, 2016 by

Prof. Giselbrecht’s essay which appears in Sacramentality and Materialty: Locating Intersections (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016, pp. 183-190), a volume she co-edited with Ralph Kunz, begins with reference to the verbal exclamations of Mary and Hannah when they experienced God’s Spirit opening their wombs. She … Continue reading →

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