St John Of The Cross The Imagery Of Eros

Saint John of the Cross is one of the greatest figures in the history of Western mysticism and one of the greatest poets of the Spanish language. This book examines his thought and then applies it to contemporary issues and culture. No other book engages John of the Cross with contemporary philosophy and theology.

This volume contains carefully chosen texts that give a picture of the “essential” St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), a Spanish Carmelite. Included are selections from The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night, and Spiritual Canticle.

Simon D. Podmore claims that becoming a self before God is both a divine gift and an anxious obligation. Before we can know God, or ourselves, we must come to a moment of recognition. How this comes to be, as well as the terms of such acknowledgment, are worked out in Podmore's powerful new reading of Kierkegaard. As he gives full consideration to Kierkegaard's writings, Podmore explores themes such as despair, anxiety, melancholy, and spiritual trial, and how they are broken by the triumph of faith, forgiveness, and the love of God. He confronts the abyss between the self and the divine in order to understand how we can come to know ourselves in relation to a God who is apparently so wholly Other.

This book is a significant contribution to the literature on mysticism and the epistemology thereof. It is recommended to all those interested in the mystics and in the question of the cognitive value of mysticism.' Review of Metaphysics March 1992.

St. John (San Juan de la Cruz) is one of the greatest mystics and poets in any language. This is a new introduction and translation of St. John'' poetry (presented in both Spanish and English) and prose commentaries that includes his biography, providing an integrated vision that resurrects the power of his poetic voice.

At the heart of poetic tradition is a figure of abandonment, a woman forsaken and out of control. She appears in writings ancient and modern, in the East and the West, in high art and popular culture produced by women and by men. What accounts for her perennial fascination? What is her function—in poems and for writers? Lawrence Lipking suggests many possibilities. In this figure he finds a partial record of women's experience, an instrument for the expression of religious love and yearning, a voice for psychological fears, and, finally, a model for the poet. Abandoned women inspire new ways of reading poems and poetic tradition.