A Couple Book Suggestions Close to My Heart

Benjamin Burns
Benjamin Burns Member Posts: 8
edited November 20 in Resources Forum

Starting to dip my toes into the Logos community after using the software off and on for years...

I posted a couple book suggestions over at UserVoice yesterday that are very close to my heart, and I hope might be of interest to some of you as well (and if so, perhaps you would consider voting for them).

Sermons for Sundays and Festivals by Saint Antony of Padua

Many know St. Anthony as a finder of lost objects.  Some are aware of a couple of the miraculous stories from his life.  Few are aware that some of his writings, particularly these sermons covering every Sunday of the year, plus many major feast days, are extant.

His exegetical style is rich and engaging, tying together the daily readings with other references in the Old and New Testaments and various Church Fathers.  His rebukes cut to the core, and yet he soothes the wounds with hope and urgently calls one to action.

This is the only English translation of his sermons that I am aware of, and even then it is fairly obscure.

The Spiritual Writings of Denis the Carthusian

Vices and Virtues by Denis the Carthusian

Then there are two books of translated work from the corpus of Denis the Carthusian (sometimes spelled Denys or Dionysius), a monk from the late Middle Ages.  Unlike St. Anthony's writings, I have not read Denis yet, however Carthusian spirituality has always been very close to my heart (St. Bruno is my patron saint), and the Medieval Church a point of research interest.

Denis wrote extensively both on theology and mysticism / contemplation, and thus he was unofficially given the title "The Ecstatic Doctor."  Although a cause for sainthood has never been advanced for him, Denis' writing was very influential at his time, and he was respected enough that St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and others styled him "Blessed" unofficially.

Like St. Anthony, his original corpus of writing was not collected into a definitive edition until recently (seems to be around 1896-1935 for Denis, and not until 1979 for a definitive edition of St. Anthony), and only these efforts (linked above) have been made to translate him, outside of some quotes in various commentaries (e.g. The Bible in Medieval Tradition series).

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