SPIRIT MATTERS – Reaching for the Divine

Jesus and Philosophy by Don Cupitt

Don Cupitt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cupitt) has been a theologian at Cambridge for over 40 years, writing over 40 books in that time. He came to public attention with the broadcast in 1984 of the BBC television series The Sea of Faith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Faith_(TV_series)). The programme dealt with the history of Christianity in the modern world, focussing especially on […]

Jesus and Philosophy by Don Cupitt Read More »

The Idea of the Holy by Rudolph Otto

A classic of religious philosophy, The Idea of the Holy (1917) by Rudolph Otto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Otto) has been revered by generations of lay readers as well as divinity students. In the work, Otto introduces the concept of the ‘numinous’ which he defines as a ‘non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the

The Idea of the Holy by Rudolph Otto Read More »

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James

When William James (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_james) went to the University of Edinburgh in 1901 to deliver a series of lectures on ‘natural religion’, he defined religion as ‘the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine’. Considering religion,

The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James Read More »

Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung

Most autobiographies cover the main events of a life with the reader often left with only glimpses of the inner life of the author. Carl Jung’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung) autobiographical  Memories, Dreams, Reflections (first English translation 1963), focuses on the great psychologist’s spiritual and intellectual awakenings. The descriptions of his visions, dreams and fantasies, which he considered his

Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung Read More »

No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton

Trappist monk Thomas Merton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton) wrote more than 70 books on spirituality, social justice and quiet pacifism. In No Man is an Island, he provides meditations on the spiritual life in sixteen thoughtful essays, beginning with his classic treatise ‘Love Can Be Kept Only by Being Given Away.’ This sequel to Seeds of Contemplation (1949)

No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton Read More »

The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day

This inspiring and fascinating memoir, subtitled, ‘The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist,’ The Long Loneliness is the late Dorothy Day’s compelling autobiographical testament to her life of social activism and her spiritual pilgrimage. A founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and long-time associate of Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day was eulogized in the New

The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day Read More »

Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown

This is the definitive biography of one of the Christian Church’s most prominent figures. St. Augustine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Augustine) was born in A.D. 354 in the town of Thagaste in North Africa to a pagan father and a Christian mother. From these inauspicious beginnings, he would eventually become one of the most influential thinkers in the history of the

Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown Read More »

The Secular Meaning of The Gospel by Paul Van Buren

In the 1960s within academic theology a movement emerged called ‘The Death of God’ theology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_God_theology). Acknowledging the increasingly secular temper of the age, attempts were made to re-cast religious beliefs and theological notions in terms that could be accepted by secular minded people. The conviction was that religious belief and practice were not worthless

The Secular Meaning of The Gospel by Paul Van Buren Read More »

A History of Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch

How did an obscure Jewish religious sect in Roman occupied Judea go from nothing to become the world’s most dominant organised religion? Why did any one of the hundreds of other obscure cults such as Mithraism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism) not meet with the same success? There have been hundreds of histories of Christianity, each positioned somewhere along the spectrum

A History of Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch Read More »

Scroll to Top