Adventures in Prayer: Reflection on St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross and St Therese of Lisieux

(Paperback)

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One of the most respected and adventurous of writers on the mystical traditions of Christianity, himself a Carmelite, Noel Dermot O'Donoghue has gathered together his definitive reflections on the three great mystical doctors of the Catholic Church: St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross and St Therese of Lisieux. These inter-related essays are the fruit of a lifetime, written in O'Donoghue's richly poetic way. Praise for O'Donoghue's book Heaven in Ordinarie 'Searching and moving... combines the sensibility to language and feeling of a poet with an astonishing intellectual boldness... a wonderful and visionary account of orthodox Christianity.' Rowan Williams

Reviews

"Burns and Oates and Continuum have done a singular service by making available to North American readers of the work of Noel Dermot O'Donoghue who was a lecturer in Philosophical Theology and Director of Studies in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh until he retired in 1988. Anyone who has read other books by O'Donoghue will recognize in the book under review the lively, creative, imaginative and even at times whimsical mind of a scholar who was an incisive reader of the three Carmelite doctors of the church, Teresa of Jesus, John of the Cross and Therese of Lisieux to whom are devoted the three parts of this book. Unfortunately O'Donoghue is an excellent guide to the writing s of these Carmelite doctors of the church. He walks through their texts with insights that even seasoned readers will find enlightening. He was especially helpful to the modern reader with his ability to bring earlier language into a modern idiom. I highly recommend O' Donoghue's Adventures in Prayer as a genuine adventure in reading Carmelite classics with a guidance of a gifted scholar who has engaged texts with rare verve and uncommon insight. I expect that anyone who reads this text will want to sample other books by this learned Irishman who spent much of his life in Scotland teaching and writing with a truly creative imagination." -- Catholic Books Review
"In church libraries, Adventures in Prayer would be useful as a reference source for a serious study of prayer." R Stooksberry, Congregational Libraries Today, January/ February 2008 -- R Stooksberry
'One of the most perceptive spiritual writers of our time' - Religious Life Review * Blurb from reviewer *

Author Bio

Noel O'Donoghue is the author of many books and articles on Christian mysticism and theology. He was lecturer in Philosophical Theology and Director of Studies in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh until his retirement in 1988.