Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1353/scs.2023.a909118
Reviewed by: The Nineteenth-Century Salesian Pentecost: The Salesian Family of Don Bosco, the Oblates and Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales, and the Fransalians by Joseph Boenzi, SDB et al. Mary Frohlich, RSCJ (bio) The Nineteenth-Century Salesian Pentecost: The Salesian Family of Don Bosco, the Oblates and Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales, and the Fransalians. Introduction, Editing, Translations and Commentaries by Joseph Boenzi, SDB, Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, Suzanne C. Toczyski, and Wendy M. Wright. The Classics of Western Spirituality Series. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2022. $49.95 hdbk. This is one of those books that few will read from cover to cover, but many will be glad to have it available for consultation. The excellent historical introductions and selected texts bring to focus the central influence of Salesian spirituality in nineteenth-century spirituality, especially in France. Francis de Sales (1567–1622) was enormously popular in his time, but the only religious congregation that he successfully founded (in partnership with Jeanne de Chantal) was the Visitation. His desire to found a congregation of priests did not materialize in his lifetime. His writings, especially Introduction to the Devout Life and Treatise on the Love of God, proved to have enduring value and quickly became regarded as classics, thus extending his influence. This volume demonstrates how that influence blossomed afresh in the nineteenth century, incarnating elements of his original vision in concrete and extraordinarily effective ways. De Sales was known for preaching and practicing a spirituality of simplicity, humility, and gentleness. He regarded human tenderness and affection as precious manifestations of the love of God, and on that basis he promoted kindness and friendship as essential ministerial virtues. By the nineteenth century, the Jansenistic stream that had also been born in seventeenth-century France had devolved into a rigid, scrupulous, fire-and-brimstone mentality that tended to predominate in the popular mind as well as in official Church teaching and preaching. In that context, each of the figures covered in this book felt a call to counter the harshness of the prevailing spirituality with Salesian gentleness and kindness. They also were inspired by de Sales's fervent desire to use means of preaching and pastoral care that would impact people on the affective level and lead to real conversion. The founders of the Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales of Annecy, for example, reclaimed the practice of the parish mission and developed it with impressive rituals and theatrical performances to create a highly immersive form of communal experience (42). Louis Brisson, one of the founders of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, wanted Oblates to be fervently apostolic rather than placing themselves apart from and above the people, as was the priestly style o
由:《19世纪慈幼会五旬节》:《唐·博斯克的慈幼会家族》、《圣方济·德·萨勒斯的椭圆形和椭圆形姐妹》、《圣方济·德·萨勒斯的女儿们》和《约瑟夫·伯恩兹的法兰克人》等人著。19世纪慈幼会五旬节:唐·博斯科的慈幼会家族、圣方济各·德·萨勒斯的椭圆形和椭圆形姐妹、圣方济各·德·萨勒斯的女儿们和弗兰萨利人。Joseph Boenzi, SDB, Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, Suzanne C. Toczyski和Wendy M. Wright的介绍、编辑、翻译和评论。西方灵性经典系列。马华，新泽西:保利斯特出版社，2022。hdbk 49.95美元。这是一本很少有人会从头到尾读完的书，但很多人会很高兴有它可供咨询。优秀的历史介绍和精选文本带来集中的核心影响慈幼会灵性在19世纪的灵性，特别是在法国。弗朗西斯·德·萨勒斯(1567-1622)在他的时代非常受欢迎，但他成功创立的唯一一个宗教集会(与珍妮·德·尚塔尔合作)是探访会。他想建立一个牧师团体的愿望在他有生之年没有实现。他的著作，特别是《虔诚生活导论》和《爱神论》，被证明具有持久的价值，并迅速被视为经典，从而扩大了他的影响。这本书展示了这种影响如何在19世纪重新开花，以具体和非常有效的方式体现了他最初的愿景。德·萨莱斯以宣扬和实践简单、谦卑和温柔的精神而闻名。他认为人类的温柔和情感是上帝之爱的宝贵表现，在此基础上，他提倡善良和友谊是牧师的基本美德。到19世纪，同样诞生于17世纪法国的詹森派已经演变成一种严格、严谨、火气十足的思想，这种思想倾向于在大众思想以及官方教会的教导和布道中占据主导地位。在这样的背景下，本书中的每一个人物都感受到一种召唤，要用慈幼会的温柔和善良来对抗主流灵性的严酷。他们也受到德萨勒斯的强烈愿望的启发，希望利用说教和教牧关怀的手段，在情感层面上影响人们，并导致真正的皈依。例如，安纳西的圣方济各·德·萨勒斯传教士会的创始人重新采用了教区传教的做法，并通过令人印象深刻的仪式和戏剧表演来发展它，以创造一种高度沉浸式的公共体验形式(42)。路易斯·布里森是圣方济各·德·萨勒斯主教会的创始人之一，他希望主教们热切地像使徒一样，而不是像当时的牧师风格那样，把自己置于人民之外或之上。他指示他的祭司们把自己抹去，这样救主就可以通过他们行事，并注意用他们像基督一样的行动而不是他们的言语来传教(161-62)。其他核心的慈幼会主题也在这些运动中出现。博斯科(Don bosco)在意大利创立的世俗和宗教运动——本书中唯一介绍的非法国团体——将注意力集中在“最小的”和最被忽视的邻居身上，用关爱和实用教育欢迎被遗弃和无家可归的年轻人。圣方济各·德·萨勒斯的女儿会是由卡罗琳·卡罗莱·德·马尔伯格(Caroline carr de Malberg)创立的一个单身和已婚平信徒妇女的协会，她继承了德·萨勒斯的特殊关怀，提供了一种圣洁的方式，可以在平信徒的生活要求中生活。这些侧面人物所描述的大多数灵性都是实际的、苦行的、使徒式的，而不是沉思的或神秘的。这可能更多地说明了他们选择写下来的东西，而不是他们实际的内心生活。这里提供的大多数文本都是按照诸如告诫或生活规则，圣徒传记或鼓励信等类型编写的。唯一一个更神秘的部分是在描述玛丽·德·查普伊修女收到的内部通讯，她是……
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1353/scs.2023.a909105
Taylor Worley
"All Things Visible and Invisible":Conceptual Art and Contemplation Taylor Worley (bio) In his "Sentences on Conceptual Art," the artist Sol LeWitt asserts that, "Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach."1 While it may seem that the author was using a religious term for rhetorical effect, it should be noted that this statement actually begins his list of thirty-five discreet aphorisms on conceptual art. More than that, biographers have noted that LeWitt possessed and drew from several sources on Jewish mysticism in his personal library.2 For his part, LeWitt's exploration into more conceptual modes of art making was fueled in large part by his fascination with representing the relationship between the concept of an artwork and its physical realization. Hence, he preferred serialized sets of instructions for realizing drawings on the walls of gallery spaces, which opened the concept to a potentially unending array of diverse manifestations. His question revolved around pushing a singular idea to its fullest, most generative expression. For LeWitt, simple instructions produce beautiful results. Take, for example, his 1971 work entitled Wall Drawing #63: A wall is divided into four horizontal parts. In the top row are four equal vertical divisions, each with lines in a different direction. In the second row, six double combinations; in the third row, four triple combinations; in the bottom row, all four combinations superimposed. While titles like these are certainly precise to the point of tediousness, many people, perhaps, would be surprised to discover that the same artist is responsible for numerous visually pleasing and lovely wall drawings situated with care in major museums around the world. In this way, then, what may appear as nothing more than a novel form of iconoclasm in contemporary art is, in fact, LeWitt's attempt to reshape visual art practice in ways that might protect the mysterious space between the artist's inspiration and its physical manifestation. In other words, art's meaning constitutes more than its surface in image, symbol, or language. Indeed, there is much more of conceptual art's story that remains to be told where it concerns its "mysticism." While short-lived as a distinct art movement, conceptual approaches show up in contemporary art to a significant degree today. The influence can be seen in everything from land art, installation art, performance art, social practice [End Page 229] art, video art, new media, and digital art. The artworld has absorbed conceptualism's introspective approach and its liberated stance toward materiality.3 The diffuse influence of conceptualism is, however, not an accident. In fact, the early pioneers of Conceptual Art refused the term 'conceptualism' in hopes of avoiding the formation of another, easily caricatured modernist "-ism."4 By most accounts, their insistence has proved effective, and today's creative possibiliti
艺术家索尔·勒维特(Sol LeWitt)在他的《论观念艺术的句子》(sentence on Conceptual Art)中断言:“观念艺术家是神秘主义者，而不是理性主义者。他们轻率地得出逻辑无法得出的结论。虽然作者似乎是在使用一个宗教术语来达到修辞效果，但应该注意的是，这句话实际上是他关于概念艺术的35条谨慎格言清单的开头。不仅如此，传记作家们还注意到，勒维特在他的私人图书馆中拥有并借鉴了一些关于犹太神秘主义的资料就勒维特而言，他对艺术创作的更多概念模式的探索在很大程度上是由于他对表现艺术概念与其物理实现之间关系的迷恋。因此，他更喜欢在画廊空间的墙壁上实现绘画的系列说明，这将这个概念打开了一个潜在的无穷无尽的各种表现形式。他的问题围绕着将一个单一的想法推向最充分、最具创造性的表达。对勒维特来说，简单的指令能产生美妙的效果。以他1971年的作品《墙画#63》为例:一面墙被分成四个水平部分。最上面一排是四个相等的垂直分区，每个分区都有不同方向的线。在第二行，六个双组合;在第三行，四个三重组合;在最下面一行，所有四种组合叠加在一起。虽然像这样的标题肯定是精确到乏味的地步，但许多人可能会惊讶地发现，同一个艺术家负责许多视觉上令人愉悦和可爱的壁画，这些壁画被精心放置在世界各地的主要博物馆里。因此，在当代艺术中，看似一种新形式的反偶像主义，实际上是勒维特试图重塑视觉艺术实践，以保护艺术家的灵感与其物理表现之间的神秘空间。换句话说，艺术的意义不仅仅是由图像、符号或语言构成的。事实上，关于概念艺术的“神秘主义”，还有更多的故事有待讲述。作为一种独特的艺术运动，概念方法虽然昙花一现，但在当代艺术中却在很大程度上出现了。这种影响在土地艺术、装置艺术、行为艺术、社会实践艺术、视频艺术、新媒体和数字艺术等各个方面都可以看到。艺术界吸收了概念主义的内省方法及其对物质的解放立场然而，观念主义的广泛影响并非偶然。事实上，观念艺术的早期先驱们拒绝使用“观念主义”一词，希望避免形成另一种容易被讽刺的现代主义“主义”。在大多数情况下，他们的坚持被证明是有效的，今天的创造可能性似乎是无限的。虽然观念艺术可以采用不同的方法来处理物质性，并涉及不同的关键问题，但在其基本的反思特征中似乎有一个统一的特征。的确，艺术史学家托尼·戈弗雷(Tony Godfrey)这样描述概念主义的心理框架:“我们被强迫去思考自己在思考。”与此相关的是，戈弗雷反思道，“因为作品不采取传统形式，它需要观众更积极的反应，实际上可以说，观念艺术作品只真正存在于观众的精神参与中。”从这个角度来看，概念主义并不是简单地破坏艺术的审美优先性，而是利用所有可用的认知策略，使视觉艺术体验中变得陈旧的东西变得陌生。但与此同时，观念艺术当然不能被指责过于努力，因为这个原因，它似乎是当代艺术中最不引人入胜或最不受操纵的形式。如果感觉概念性作品几乎不存在，那是因为对反思的邀请不是强制性的或严厉的。因此，戈弗雷总结道:“观念艺术的遗产不是一种历史风格，而是一种根深蒂固的质疑习惯。正是在质疑的过程中，主体、读者或观众成为了他自己。“正如戈弗雷的评价所表明的那样，概念主义……
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1353/scs.2023.a909121
Reviewed by: Modern Mystics: An Introduction by Bernard McGinn Glenn Young (bio) Modern Mystics: An Introduction. By Bernard McGinn. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2023. viii + 340 pp. $49.95. I admit to having felt some disappointment when Bernard McGinn announced that the seventh volume of his landmark study of Western Christian mysticism—The Presence of God—would bring the series to an end. That volume dealt with mysticism in the seventeenth century, a time he characterized as a crisis for mysticism that paused its further development. My disappointment was that this series, which has been so important to students of mysticism, would not go on to consider some of the compelling mystical figures who are closer to our own time. It was thus with joy that I heard the news that McGinn was writing this new book, Modern Mystics. While not technically a volume of The Presence of God, it might well be seen as a fitting coda to that series, as it addresses the development of Christian mysticism in the twentieth century. The book begins with an introductory chapter that offers a description of mysticism in general as well as a discussion of particular themes that are prominent in modern mysticism. This is followed by ten chapters, each of which addresses a twentieth-century mystic: Charles de Foucauld, Thérèse of Lisieux (who did not live into the twentieth century, though her influence was felt beyond her years), Elizabeth of the Trinity, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Edith Stein, Dag Hammarskjöld, Simone Weil, Henri Le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda), Etty Hillesum, and Thomas Merton. Some observations about the diversity of the figures on this list are in order. While it is true that the mystics included here are predominantly Catholic, other traditions are represented. Dag Hammarskjöld's roots were in Lutheranism, and McGinn uses this as an opportunity to provide a brief survey of modern Protestant mysticism. Etty Hillesum was Jewish. And while Swami Abhishiktananda was a Catholic, he also incorporated significant elements of Hinduism into his mysticism. It is also noteworthy that the list of figures addressed is evenly divided between female and male mystics. The book ends with a brief chapter that asks what it might mean for present-day people to read mystical texts. In the book's introductory chapter, McGinn provides an in-depth discussion of his heuristic description of mysticism as "that part, or element, of Christian belief and practice that concerns the preparation for, the consciousness of, and the effect of what the mystics themselves have described as a direct and transformative [encounter with] the presence of God" (11). Following this, he names themes that are especially prominent in twentieth-century mysticism. These include "visions and [End Page 358] ecstasy" and "suffering and dereliction" in mystical consciousness, the relationship of "action and contemplation (the political and the mystical)," a "holistic perspective" that gives
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1353/scs.2023.a909109
Joy Moore
Before Poetry Joy Moore (bio) I In the time preceding poetry A friend of mine says that eleven is the best possible age, eleven teetering toward twelve, un-self-conscious and easily animated by imagination and particular delights. That pre-teen need to fit in still slinking around the edges. I remember self-consciousness awakening in me at that age, but if I think of being eleven, what inevitably arises first, still holding sway in me, is the church bells of the Episcopal school I attended in fifth and sixth grades. The bells rang before weekly chapel, a service unfamiliar to me, Baptist child that I was, and their sound comforted me, ringing out across the courtyard where I moved awkwardly, inarticulate in middle-school insecurities. They made music of the sky for a few minutes and sang of something else beyond the fenced-in world in which I moved each day. What I remember more viscerally than their ringing is the time I was assigned to set them going: another student and I are standing in a tiny room opposite the altar, the massive rope suspended from a bell so high its brass blends into the tower's shadows. I take a turn pulling on the rope with all my eleven-year-old might, my body briefly lifting off the floor. In the momentum, in that singular glory, I pull again and again, and the bell gains its swing and sings. From those years, it isn't an index of learning but a collage of things that return to me: beakers from a science fair project, the monkey bars on my first and very lonely day at that school or how I later sat with other girls in the bathroom, giggling over stolen notes. Not who liked whom, but the tornado gray tile, the stormcloud wall of the locked stall. And especially those church bells, still ringing somewhere inside me, down the arcades of my ribs and limbs. Though I lacked reflection for this then, what I was learning was inextricably bound to being-in-the-world, my whole self encountering in the sensible world, in things themselves, the visible and invisible, audible and silent, overt and intuitively sensed. Much of this learning was subterranean and not at all the world that I was being taught to inhabit. We sat still in desks and were taught things that did somehow accumulate into working knowledge of the world. In chapel, we sat [End Page 316] in pews and listened to the priest, just as I sat each Sunday listening to my father preach. Some of it stuck. The stories themselves, for one: Joseph in a dungeon interpreting a baker's and cup-bearer's dreams, for instance. The details surrounding me, too, like the blue-cushioned pews, the pearl-beaded purse of the woman who gave me a peppermint each week, the brass offering plate with its red velvet center, and a giant wall map in my Sunday school classroom. Imagine the stories we could tell through the catalogue of things that accumulate in early memories. But for so long, my sense of this was hidden in forests of intuition, and in the daylight of days, I was taught reverence f
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.1353/scs.2023.a909120
Reviewed by: Life to the Whole Being: The Spiritual Memoir of a Literature Professor by Matthew Wickman David B. Perrin (bio) Life to the Whole Being: The Spiritual Memoir of a Literature Professor. By Matthew Wickman. Provo, UT: BYU Maxwell Institute, 2022. 227 pp. $19.95 pbk. It is not obvious that a book such as Life to the Whole Being would be subject to a critical analysis of its research, methodology, and contribution to scholarship—all elements typically included in a book review for an academic journal such as Spiritus. As the subtitle indicates, this book is largely autobiographical—in the genre of spiritual memoir—and hardly academic in the strict sense of the word. So, why would such a book be subject to review in the academy from the perspective of the field of Christian spirituality and not, let us say, as a piece of literature perhaps best reviewed from within the fields of literary and cultural studies, the fields of expertise of the author? Read on dear reader, read on. For this is the precise question this review intends to respond to, all the while keeping in focus the book's research, methodology, and contribution to scholarship. For quite some time, research in Christian spirituality has struggled with the implicit self-implicating nature of the discipline. Can the field of Christian spirituality hold its own against the expectations of the academy that research be as objective as possible, as analytical as possible, and thus instill greater confidence in the veracity of its results—all the while acknowledging the self-implication dynamics at play in the field of Christian spirituality? The dust has largely settled on this question, and the verdict is in: Christian spirituality as a research field of study is a self-implicating endeavor. The explorer in the field of Christian spirituality is part of the reality under scrutiny. And we see this reality in full flight in Wickman's Life to the Whole Being. Not only is Wickman trying to plumb the truth and meaning of a range of topics in Christian spirituality in general but also, and perhaps more significantly, the author is searching directly for personal identity in it all. Christian spirituality is a field of study where one subjects to critical inquiry, for example, the beliefs, practices, and history of the field and, often by implication, one's own personal clarity around beliefs, practices, and history. This is the research undertaken in Life to the Whole Being. The author is the subject of his own research in the pursuit of finding clarity on his own beliefs, practices, and history, but not just for his personal edification. The research is far broader than this. The book was written as a case study that has as its ultimate goal a deepening of understanding of the truth claims of the issues studied from within the perspective of the faith-based community to which the author belongs: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What methodology does the author use to un
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