Spiritual Grammar

Spiritual Grammar identifies a genre of religious literature that until now has not been recognized as such. In this surprising and theoretically nuanced study, F. Dominic Longo reveals how grammatical structures of language addressed in two medieval texts published nearly four centuries apart, from distinct religious traditions, offer a metaphor for how the self is embedded in spiritual reality. Reading The Grammar of Hearts (Nahw al-qulūb) by the great Sufi shaykh and Islamic scholar 'Abd al-Karīm al-Qushayrī (d. 1074) and Moralized Grammar (Donatus moralizatus) by Christian theologian Jean Gerson (d. 1429), Longo reveals how both authors use the rules of language and syntax to advance their pastoral goals. Indeed, grammar provides the two masters with a fresh way of explaining spiritual reality to their pupils and to discipline the souls of their readers in the hopes that their writings would make others adept in the grammar of the heart.

What does it mean for the spirit world to be real? Scholars from different disciplines investigate this topic focusing on the role played by the spiritual realm in Pentecostalized Africa. The grammatical angle of their research proves to be a fruitful avenue to clarify the kind of reality or realities the spirit world has. This novel approach takes us beyond most existing research by investigating the often unaddressed assumption that we know what it means for the spirit world to be taken as real. This volume shows the importance of paying close attention to the grammar according to which people speak of spirits, Spirit, witchcraft, ancestors and other aspects of the spirit world.

Between the years 350 and 500 a large body of Latin artes grammaticae emerged, educational texts outlining the study of Latin grammar and attempting a systematic discussion of correct Latin usage. These texts—the most complete of which are attributed to Donatus, Charisius, Servius, Diomedes, Pompeius, and Priscian—have long been studied as documents in the history of linguistic theory and literary scholarship. In Grammar and Christianity in the Late Roman World, Catherine Chin instead finds within them an opportunity to probe the connections between religious ideology and literary culture in the later Roman Empire. To Chin, the production and use of these texts played a decisive role both in the construction of a pre-Christian classical culture and in the construction of Christianity as a religious entity bound to a religious text. In exploring themes of utopian writing, pedagogical violence, and the narration of the self, the book describes the multiple ways literary education contributed to the idea that the Roman Empire and its inhabitants were capable of converting from one culture to another, from classical to Christian. The study thus reexamines the tensions between these two idealized cultures in antiquity by suggesting that, on a literary level, they were produced simultaneously through reading and writing techniques that were common across the empire. In bringing together and reevaluating fundamental topics from the fields of religious studies, classics, education, and literary criticism, Grammar and Christianity in the Late Roman World offers readers from these disciplines the opportunity to reconsider the basic conditions under which religions and cultures interact.

A Grammar of Holy Mystery is about Christian spirituality. It is about mysticism as a firsthand encounter with the presence of God—unfathomable, unnamable, mysterious, fulfilling. It is about classical Christianity, the way of transforming truth found in Christ, taught in Scripture, lived by saints, sages, and mystics, and passed on as a sacred trust through the centuries. Being neither liberal nor conservative, but simply Christian, it is ecumenical in spirit. For those traumatized by harsh or shallow churches, A Grammar of Holy Mystery points the way out and shows the way to a faith that renews the mind, restores the spirit, and gladdens the heart.

A Grammar of Christian Faith is a two-volume set that aims to confront the widespread disarray in the language and practices of Christian faith today. As a 'grammar,' it explains how Christian faith provides special ways of speaking and acting that make sense of human life by giving it meaning, practicality, and hope. It advances the thesis that learning how to speak Christian language in worship and life is crucial to learning how to be a Christian. Rather than supposing that Christian language and theology need continual updating in order to be relevant to the world, Jones urges the church to recover anew how Christian concepts and understanding are intended to form Christian life in all its rich depths. Construing theology as confessional theology in the context of the church, Jones understands the church as that liberative and redemptive community called into being by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to witness in word and deed the triune God for the benefit of the world. The full range of doctrinal themes that are deemed essential to the witness of the church are explored, including clear explanations of why they are essential and how they are to be understood. In pursuit of a truthful and beneficial witness of the church, the work centers on a trinitarian understanding of God, in which God freely and lovingly interacts with the world as Creator, Reconciler, and Redeemer. The work throughout affirms the belief that the gracious triune God is the Ultimate Companion who will redeem all creation.