In Eager to Love: the alternative way of Francis of Assisi, Richard Rohr OFM (Hodder & Stoughton, £9.99; Tablet price £9) has produced something miraculous: a fun, back-to-basics spirituality guide that manages to be both commonsensical and mind-bendingly Other at the same time. Here’s a version of Franciscan spiritual praxis that’s entirely accessible without being hollowed out or prettified – in fact, it’s impossibly demanding, but joyous with it. Fabulous.
David Adam’s The Awesome Journey: life’s pilgrimage (SPCK, £8.99; Tablet price £8.10) is something rather more sober, but just as demanding in its own way: an inner pilgrimage, in print. Adam (formerly vicar of Holy Island) is not only a skilled weaver of prayers but a spiritual director and retreat leader of many years’ standing, and the product of all this experience is impressive: a genuinely illuminating written meditation, easy to read but challenging – in the right way – to follow.
Christian Bobin is one of those authors who are wildly popular in the francophone world but barely known in the anglophone one. The Eighth Day: selected writings of Christian Bobin (Darton, Longman & Todd, £12.99; Tablet price £11.70) is the first collection of his writing to appear in English. And there is something peculiarly French in these short essays on life, death and God: the simple observation of heart-rending things; the cool, lucid language that strips away comfort. Pauline Matarasso’s translation conveys it beautifully.
17 December 2015, The Tablet
Speed Reading
Kirsty Jane McCluskey selects three new spirituality titles
La douce turns sour
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