Find out more about forthcoming publications from the St Mary's University Press.
For the first time, Jean Baruzi’s seminal work Saint John of the Cross and the Problem of Mystical Experience, published in 1924, is being translated into English by Wanyoung Kim. Baruzi was a French scholar and historian of religions who taught at the College Stanislas in Paris. Baruzi's text provides an in-depth study of the philosophy of mysticism as embodied by St John of the Cross, focusing on his mystical experiences and the development of his "Mystic Way" from initial negation to the theopathic state. Baruzi meticulously examines primary and secondary sources in French, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, English, and other languages, offering a rich biographical portrait of St John alongside detailed analyses of his writings, particularly ‘The Dark Night’, ‘The Ascent to Mount Carmel’, ‘The Spiritual Canticle’, and ‘The Living Flame of Love’. The translation will be a rich resource for scholars and advanced students of spirituality, theology, philosophy, and history, filling a significant gap in English-language literature on St John of the Cross.
Wanyoung Kim is a Korean-American philosopher, translator, and psychologist. She was educated at the European Graduate School, New School for Social Research, Purdue University, and Capella University. Wanyoung has previously translated Alain Badiou, Maurice Blanchot, and Gilles Deleuze, and her previous book publications include Cosmophenomenology (2019) and Nietzsche’s Cosmopsychical Infinity (2016).
Over 50 years after the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, tensions remain in the Church over the Old and New Rites – tensions which theologians and liturgists have not been able to resolve. Consequently, the aim of this book is to bring about liturgical reconciliation among Catholics of the Latin Rite through constructing a theology based on people’s actual liturgical experiences. In this respect it is innovative and unique, though very much rooted in the synodal process initiated by Pope Francis, in that it draws on actual testimonies of Catholics about their experiences of liturgy in the New and Old Rites, and uses these as the starting point for theological reflection.
Therefore, this book seeks to overcome “liturgy wars” and contribute to Pope Francis’ call for liturgical unity by a radically new approach to liturgical theology based on the actual liturgical experiences of lay Catholics. Testimonies of people’s actual experiences of the Roman Rite of Mass, specifically the choice they make to attend Old or New Rite (or both), responded to by a mixed group of scholars and pastors: a diocesan priest/moral theologian on “deep listening”; a Melkite priest/theologian looks at liturgical diversity and the unifying power of church architecture; a lay woman theologian examines multi-sensory liturgical experience in relation to catechesis and also disability; an Orthodox priest looks at Orthodox liturgical reform (“conservative” versus “traditional”) in dialogue with the West; a contemplative nun on non-verbal aspects of the liturgy and the resources for unity they can offer; and a priest/theologian of the arts questions logocentric theologies of the liturgy and exposes the destructive role of weaponization of liturgy. A concluding chapter calls for an urgent renewal of liturgical anthropology.
Editor descriptor
Fr (Rev Dr) Dominic White is Prior of St Dominic’s Priory, London, and Acting Director of Research at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge. His theological interests focus especially on theology of the arts, and the implications of the arts for metaphysics, liturgy and spirituality, especially mysticism and spiritual cosmology. Fr Dominic is the author of The Lost Knowledge of Christ: Christian Cosmology, Contemporary Spiritualities and the Arts (Liturgical Press, 2015), and How Do I Look? Theology in the Age of the Selfie (SCM, 2020).He is an organist, pianist and composer, and co-founder of the Friends of Sophia group.
Edited by Prof Peter Tyler.
Variously known as ‘The Jerusalem of the West’ and ‘The City of Three Cultures’ for many centuries, Toledo, Spain was the place where Eastern and Western cultures met and cross-fertilized. The scholarship of Toledo was instrumental in ensuring the first translation of the Qu’ran out of Arabic by a group of scholars working in the famous ‘School of Translators’ and to this day the unique blend of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures is seen in the literature, art, and spirituality inspired by this great city.
This book arises out of a historic meeting in 2022 when a group of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish practitioners and scholars met over a week to discuss ways in which the inspirations of medieval Spain could help our present world-crisis of mistrust and misapprehension. To this end the group looked at conflicting views of Spanish Convivencía (‘Living Together’) and how the lessons and warnings of medieval Spain might resonate today in our own highly charged situation of inter-faith conflict and suspicion.
Having been initiated by Catholic scholars at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, the inspiration of the dialogues was to deepen interfaith understanding, following the template set by St Pope Paul VI in his 1965 Encyclical, Ecclesium Suam and recently revived by Pope Francis in his latest Encyclical Fratelli Tutti (2020). As a further goal, following well-publicised incidents of radicalised violence in the UK in recent years, we aimed to reach out to and support those working directly to nurture community cohesion, especially within religious ministry.
Accordingly, the book will contain chapters inspired by the writing, of amongst others, Professors Sara Sviri and Harvey Hames of Israel; Archbishop Kevin McDonald and Bishop Anthony Ball, Professor Peter Tyler, Dr Michael Kirwan SJ, Dr Zin Defoufi, Fr Alex Ezechukwu OCD, Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi, and Sr Jo Robson OCD.
We anticipate that the book will be of great interest to a number of different but inter-connected audiences, primarily: pastoral workers and ministers who want to understand more about interfaith dialogue; ministers of religion who want to understand more about other faiths; psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors and pastoral workers, and therapists working with people of different faiths, especially around deradicalisation; undergraduate and postgraduate students of theology, philosophy, and psychology; and seminarians and those in training for ministry and leadership. The outputs will also be of interest to radicalised members of society in need of reintegration into mainstream religion; and lay people with an interest in religious history and practice including humanists and atheists, as well as Buddhists and other non-Christians. The principles of dialogue espoused will be of wider application to other situations.
Anticipated publication: September 2024.
Edited by Christine Edwards-Leis and Mark Price (St Mary’s University, School of Education).
Foreword by Maria Svensson (University of Gothenburg).
In this collection, contributors from a variety of disciplines at St Mary’s University as well as Germany, United States of America, and Zimbabwe provide a critical context for the exploration of the complex ways that pedagogy impacts the stakeholders of universities.
The authors present a critique of the way they meet the challenge of engaging learners, across all levels of higher learning, in developing critical dispositions within their discipline while seeking the skills and knowledge required for them to flourish in modern life. Creative, digital technologies feature in some of the narratives while others explore the relationships between individuals within disciplines, professions, and across institutions. The authors question and probe their professional contexts so as to better understand and react to the multiple curricula, political and neoliberal tensions of modern universities.
Divided into several themes, the text provides current thinking from cross-disciplinary and international perspectives to inform colleagues and students across the sector globally.
Anticipated publication date: Spring 2024.