Dark Night of the Soul - Softcover

St. John Of The Cross; Peers, E. Allison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1684221196 ISBN 13: 9781684221196

Publisher: Martino Fine Books, 2017

Synopsis

2017 Reprint of 1953 Edition.  Originally published in 1953 as Volume One of the The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, translated and edited by E. Allison Peers from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa published in 1935.  In this work, a spiritual masterpiece and classic of Christian literature and mysticism, the author addresses several subjects, among them pride, avarice, envy, and other human imperfections.  His discussion of the Dark Night, which considers afflictions and pain suffered by the soul, is followed by an extended explanation of divine love and the soul's exultant union with God.  The Dark Night (from which the spiritual term takes its name) narrates the journey of the soul from its bodily home to union with God. It happens during the night, which represents the hardships and difficulties met in detachment from the world and reaching the light of the union with the Creator. There are several steps in this night, which are related in successive stanzas. The narrative explains the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God.  This fine translation by E. Allison Peers is considered one of the faithful that has appeared and a preferred rendering of the original Spanish.

 

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Review:

Almost every believer feels forgotten by God sometimes. Even Christ cried out on the cross, "Oh God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Dark Night of the Soul, a 16th-century mystical text written by the Carmelite monk St. John of the Cross, ranks among Christianity s most helpful answers to this enduring question. In St. John s vision of spiritual life, the pain of separation from God is to be embraced, not avoided. "The dark night is about being fully present in the tender, wounded emptiness of our own souls," explains translator Mirabai Starr--although she grants that modern culture makes such acceptance hard to attain. "We tend to see difficult feelings as a form of illness, which we hope to conquer, cure, and expel. [St. John of the Cross] has a far greater imagination of human life: his goal is not health but union with the divine." Several fine English translations of Dark Night already exist; Starr s, however, is distinguished by its ecumenism. Minimizing the explicit scriptural references of the original text, she makes the treasures of Dark Night more accessible to readers of all religious traditions. --Michael Joseph Gross

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About this edition

• Publisher: Martino Fine Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1684221196
• ISBN 13: 9781684221196
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 124