The English literary critic Cyril Connolly once wrote that ‘Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice’. Accepting that as a definition, most writers presumably aim to produce literature. Yet comparatively few achieve this goal. Much of this issue of The Way deals with that minority, writers whose work can be returned to repeatedly and is capable of yielding new thought and insight in each such rereading. Some of the articles deal with explicitly spiritual topics. Others, through autobiography, poetry or the crafting of prose, explore the times in which a writer lived. Each shows how its subject still has something of relevance to say to our own times.
Thomas W. Jodziewicz, ‘Just What Does Hippo Have to Do with Philadelphia?’, 7–17
The relationship between wisdom and knowledge has long been debated by philosophers and others. Thomas Jodziewicz takes up this theme by contrasting the lives and autobiographical writings of Benjamin Franklin and Saint Augustine of Hippo. who are alike i
Sylvie Robert, ‘Spiritual Midwifery’, 19–30
Many terms are used to describe someone who attempts to help others explore their spiritual experience: director, accompanier, soul-friend and more. Here Sylvie Robert suggests that the image of a midwife assisting at a birth can throw useful light upon aspects of the relationship between the director and the one receiving direction.
Oonagh Walker, ‘‘A Profitable Penance’: Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner and David Jones’s Engravings’, 31–46
The Jesuit house of studies in Oxford, Campion Hall, possesses a set of engravings illustrating Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by the Welsh artist David Jones. Oonagh Walker shows how these might promote reflection upon the themes of sin and reconciliation, and how these themes can challenge the contemporary Church.
Chad Thralls, ‘Grace Is Often Unexpected’, 47–50
In his letter to the Romans, St Paul makes the surprising assertion that ‘all things work together for good for those who love God’. Drawing on the writings of two winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Annie Dillard and Mary Oliver, Chad Thralls asks how it is possible to make sense of Paul’s claim in a world where ‘bad things happen to good people’.
Frans Kurris, ‘Creative Celibacy’, 51–59
Frans Kurris is a retired Dutch Jesuit with a long experience in pastoral ministry. Reflecting on a lifetime of living vowed celibacy, he offers a positive account here of a gift from God which needs to be continually nurtured. A culturally creative engagement with the world is, for Kurris, central to this nurturing.
Stephen Platten, ‘One Foot in Eden: Edwin Muir and Religion Outside Paradise’, 61–75
The writings of the Orcadian poet Edwin Muir were powerfully influenced by both the landscape and the Calvinist Christianity in which he was raised. Later on, marriage and a move away from the Orkneys broadened his outlook. Stephen Platten, the bishop of Wakefield, considers how Muir’s life-story shapes his presentation of ‘religion outside Paradise’.
Michael Campbell-Johnston, ‘Pedro Arrupe Remembered’, 77–89
Pedro Arrupe (1907–1991) was undoubtedly one of the most influential, and controversial, Jesuit superiors general ever. Michael Campbell-Johnston worked closely alongside him for almost a quarter of a century, helping to implement their shared vision of ‘a faith that does justice’. Here C-J (as he is always known) offers a personal reminiscence of the man whom he regards as ‘the founder of the modern Society of Jesus’.
Anne Mouron, ‘Praying without Images: Some Medieval Advice’, 91–101
Imaginative contemplation, often associated with Ignatian spirituality, builds up mental pictures to help the one praying approach God. But some other spiritual traditions take an opposite path, eschewing images altogether. Anne Mouron here presents a medieval text, The Manere of Good Lyvyng, written to guide women religious in this prayer without images. She will shortly be publishing a scholarly edition of the text.