_Studies in Spirituality_ 7 (1997). 319pp. The Netherlands: Kok
Pharos, 1997. ISSN: 0926-6453.    
 
Reviewed by David A. Salomon, University of Connecticut,
das93006@uconnvm.uconn.edu.

The seventh volume of _Studies in Spirituality_ offers an
eclectic mix of articles related to mysticism and spirituality.
Sixteen articles in three languages (English, French, and German)
cover figures as disparate as the Desert Fathers and Karl Rahner,
and topics as varied as early Christian mysticism and
contemporary pastoral issues. 

Kees Waaijman's essay on discernment is a clear and well-written
piece that examines the concept of discernment, which comes out
of the concept of diakrisis, in John Cassian. This is
particularly timely given the recent publication of Cassianþs
_Conferences_ by Paulist Press in their Ancient Christian Writers
series. Waaijman traces the þdevelopmentþ of discernment as a
spiritual practice and evaluates its impact of the history of
spirituality.

Michael Plattig and Regina Baumer's piece on the Desert Fathers
studies the roles of the exercitant and his spiritual director in
the anchoritic period. The spiritual director, they suggest,
might be compared to the modern day therapist in his role in the
exercitantþs (or patientþs) spiritual development.

Basil of Caesarea, a neglected figure in English language
scholarship, is studied in Geert Franzaenburg's "Basic of
Caesarea as a Spiritual Teacher." The thesis of the essay is that
"A teacher of spirituality should teach spirituality as well as
live it, in order to show the living importance of spiritual
doctrines. Basil of Caesarea is an example of this" (55). This is
somewhat questionable in our arena--Mystic-L--where we aim at an
academic discussion of mysticism. This issue has been much bashed
around as of late. The assertion that someone cannot teach
spirituality without being a spiritual person himself is, to me,
somewhat absurd. There is a difference between teaching and
preaching. Can not a devout Catholic, who believes God created
the world and all that is in it, teach the theory of the Big Bang
in the physics classroom? Similarly, can not a person who does
not follow any traditional religious belief teach the history and
content of mystical writing? 

An essay on William of St. Thierry from Hein Bloomestijn comes to
us just as the Cistercians ready to celebrate the 900th year of
their foundation. Bloomenstijn examines the three stages of
mysticism in the _Golden Epistle_; however, his interpretation
does not follow Evelyn Underhillþs purgation, illumination, and
union. Here instead we find discernment, an interiorizing of
human powers and capacities, and a final stage in which a union
produces a discovery and view of the
Divine.                                           

Albrecht Classen, a scholar familiar to anyone who works on
German literature or mysticism, writes of "Binary Oppositions of
Self and God in Mechthild von Magdeburg." The essay serves as an
examination of self-identity and Godhead in Mechthild's mysticism

Mark Burrows explores issues of suffering and asceticism in
Julian of Norwich's _Revelation of Love_ while Franz Wohrer
explicates _The Cloud of Unknowing_ as an exemplum of late
Medieval apophasis; Wohrer's essay is lengthy but well-
documented.

Charles Andre Bernard continues his fine work in an essay on
negative theology and what he terms "symboles informels" or "non-
formal symbols." Beginning with the Pseudo-Dionsysius, Bernard
delves deep into the dark and silent work of apophasis as one
finds it in _Mystical Theology_.

Recently, more work is being published on twentieth-century
theologians such the Rahners and Henri de Lubac. James Keating
examines Karl Rahner's writing on prayer and ethics in an essay
that furthers our understanding of the role of prayer in theology
and spirituality.

Pierre Loudot's long essay on Henry Le Saux, a Benedictine who
left his monastery in 1948 to pursue a life of Hinduism. Loudot's
study (in French) is an interesting introduction to a figure,
of whom, to be honest, I was not previously aware.

One of the most evocative essays in the volume is "The
Interculturality of Mysticism," by Eckard Wolz-Gottwald. With the
growth in our field and the explosion in þNew Ageþ spirituality,
this essay offers a methodology for studying and discussion
spirituality and mysticism in an intercultural atmosphere.

Arthur Versluis, a member of Mystic-L, gives us "Christian
Theosophy and Ancient Gnosticism." This examination of
Gnosticism, tracing it from its early days in Christianity up
through the nineteenth century, is of particular interest given
an apparent resurgence in study of Neo-Platonic and Gnostic
ideas. 

"Knitting Together Mind, Body and Spirit" is Janet K. Ruffing's
contribution to the volume. Ruffing, a professor of spirituality
at Fordham University, studies spiritual themes and constructs in
contemporary Christian women's spirituality. Case studies are
interspersed with commentary.

In "Hierophanic History and the Symbolic Process," Victoria
Kennick Urubshurow responds to Paul Ricoeur's "Toward a
Hermeneutic of the Idea of Revelation" where he writes of a
"generative poetics that would be for large works of literary
composition what generative grammar is to the production of
sentences following the characteristics work of a given
language." The article is reprinted from _Religious Traditions_
13 (1990) and will be of particular interest to those of us who
meld literary study with religious study.

Anke Hoenkamp-Bisschops' "The Available Pastor" discusses the
psychological complications in the pastoral profession. 

Alois M. Haas continues his fine work with "Mystik in Unserer
Zeit," the volume's only German language essay, asks the
interesting question (which I repeat from the article's English
summary): "What can mysticism offer in our modern times, which
are characterized by secularlity, materiality, consumption and
separation?" The author finds the answer in a Middle High German
term, "Gelassenheit," which means "to leave behind all material
and spiritual possessions of our human being" (309).

The volume closes with several pages of Book Notices--brief
announcements with short annotations--which are new to this
journal. On the whole volume seven of _Studies in Spirituality_
continues to impress with its breadth and scope of topics. Well-
worth reading and even more well-worth having your university
library begin its subscription.