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Vladimir Solovyev was one of the great Russian philosophers and mystics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His work, as Janko Lavrin put it, “centered on the human religious longing as understood in its most profound and vital sense. Culture itself, that is, true culture as distinguished from a mechanical civilization, was in his opinion inseparable from religion. Regarding an organic relationship between God, Man, Society (collective humanity), and the World (nature) as essential for a complete life, Solovyev could not imagine any of these four elements being omitted without distorting the whole of existence. And the main cause of religious principle (God) has been, or is being, eliminated out of the consciousness of modern humanity. His own philosophic work thus became an endeavour to ‘bring all elements of human existence – individual and social – into the right relation with the ultimate principle of all life, and through and in it also to a harmonious relation with each other’. In such a harmony alone he saw a promise and a prospect of the highest realization of existence on earth, of the ‘integral fullness of life’.”
In this book, originally entitled Plato, Solovyev details how Plato's concept of eros is transcended and transformed by the Christian concept of spiritual eros. This is an important work for understanding both Solovyev's mysticism and the development of his mature philosophy and thought, since this work was written late in his life.
This book is now available, and includes a new essay by Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, an internationally known specialist in Russian religious philosophy.
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Awakening the Contemplative Spirit: Writing, Gardening, and the Inner Life
Arthur Versluis
“In Awakening the Contemplative Spirit, Arthur Versluis provides us with a strong antidote to despair and a much needed tonic to fortify our search for inner meaning in these troubled times.”
David Appelbaum, SUNY, New Paltz; editor of Parabola magazine and the SUNY series on Western esotericism; author of Disruption and other books.
“Awakening the Contemplative Spirit is a beautifully composed study of contemplation by Arthur Versluis, one of America’s wisest and most knowledgeable commentators on spiritual and religious matters. Versluis holds, quite rightly, that the contemplative life is the true path to peace and goodness and the only sure antidote to the turmoil and violence of modern life. This life, he reports, can be cultivated through a variety of daily activities, from gardening to writing to solitary walks. Along the way, we can’t do better than to join in what he terms the “convivium of ideas,” that is, the great chorus of thoughts and visions of contemplatives of the past, and one of the joys of this book is discovering anew the inner dimension of familiar voices – Emerson, Thoreau – and encountering for the first time some remarkable but unknown figures, such as the 17th-century English visionary, John Pordage. Versluis believes that contemplation can transform not only the individual but the larger society; if so, this big-hearted book is a strong first step.”
Philip Zaleski, Smith College; editor of The Best Spiritual Writing series; author of The Recollected Heart and Gifts of the Spirit.
In Awakening the Contemplative Spirit, Arthur Versluis explores the ways that writing and the contemplative life intertwine with one another, for in his view, writing is both preparation for and a natural expression of the contemplative life. In Awakening the Contemplative Spirit, we explore the contemplative life that can be found anywhere that there is a contemplative spirit that thrives in solitude and in the beauty of nature.
Versluis writes that ultimately “the contemplative life and the writing life are one. Both are ways of coming to realize a vital inner life. Both are deeply akin to the gardening life, too: one must remain diligent, alert, disciplined, laboring always to cut away weeds and to nourish the tender new life we have planted, to bring it to fruition. What the gardener does for the garden, the writer does by writing, and the contemplative does in inner life: bring them to spiritual harvest.” This book points us toward awakening the contemplative spirit and toward this spiritual harvest.
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Christian Kabbalah by Ernst Benz
Available initially only from our online store, this is the great scholar Ernst Benz's introduction to Christian Kabbalah. Christian Kabbalism is the interpretation of Kabbalistic themes in the context of the Christian faith, or an interpretation of Christian doctrines utilizing Kabbalistic methods and concepts. Its beginnings are generally traced back to Count Pico de la Mirandola, the well-known renaissance philosopher and creator of a Christian neo-Platonism. The great surge of mysticism within the theology and theosophy of German pietism led not only to a renaissance in the study of the Kabbalah within Protestant theology, but also to a positive evaluation of the religious content of the Kabbalah in its own right. This work includes illustrations of the famous Kabbalistic master tablet of Princess Antonia and discusses in detail the work of the great Christian theosopher Friedrich Christoph Oetinger.
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Announcing Great Works of Christian Spirituality: The Wisdom Series
Now Available on Sale: Only $19.99 for all three titles; usually $12.95 apiece, ($38.85 for all three) in stores
The Wisdom of Meister Eckhart
The Wisdom of Jacob Böhme
The Wisdom of John Pordage
click here for more information on these three titles
The aim of the Great Works of Christian Spirituality series is to make available some of the most profound works in the Christian spiritual tradition in clear, accessible new editions. All of these works have as their focus deepening the reader's spiritual life through direct inner experience. Produced with great care, these are books meant to be studied and contemplated for a lifetime.
all books 5.5"x7.5" and under 100 pp.
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SHAKESPEARE THE MAGUS
The only book to analyse fully the magical dimensions of Shakespeare’s plays.
Although many books have been written about the works of William Shakespeare, this is the first to focus in depth on the subject of magic in Shakespeare's plays. Astrology, herbalism, white magic, sorcery, ideas on the nature of good and evil, all are woven into the very fabric of Shakespeare's great dramas. Why are these esoteric themes so deeply embedded in these plays, and what do they tell us about the nature of human life today? To answer these questions is to come to understand much more clearly the nature of creativity, Shakespeare's greatness, and why he may well be called "Shakespeare the Magus."
Full cover color, pb., acid-free paper, 155 pp.
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Table of Contents includes 1. The World of the Magus 2. Longaevi and Other Beings 3. Astrology and Shakespeare 4. The Sacred Lore of Plants 5. Darkness and Evil 6. Siren Songs: Enchantments and Illusions