Ursula King

Offering both a concise introduction to the spiritual vision of the mystic and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and a fascinating survey of contemporary themes in spirituality through a Teilhardian lens, this revised edition shows how Teilhard's perception of Christ in all things was the key to his holistic vision.

CPA AWARD WINNERIPPY AWARD WINNER""This may be the book to hook a new generation on the religious power of Teilhard's vision of divine presence in matter and the evolving universe."" --Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ""From the viewpoint of our present understanding of the universe it could be said that Teilhard is the most significant Christian theologian since Saint Paul . . . "Spirit of Fire" is especially clear in its exposition of the mystical dimension of Teilhard's life within this context."" --Thomas BerryIn the twenty years since the original publication of "Spirit of Fire" the influence of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin--renowned French Jesuit theologian, mystic, and scientist--has continued to spread. He is widely regarded as one of the true prophets of our age, bringing Christian theology into creative dialogue with the new cosmology, expanding the dialogue between religion and science, and opening up profound dimensions of the human condition. The text of Ursula King's lucid biography is enhanced quotations from Teilhard and scores of photographs that document his dramatic life--from the trenches of World War I, to his groundbreaking paleontological research in China and travels in the Gobi Desert. This revised edition, which includes a new chapter on Teilhard's legacy, is the ideal introduction to the life and thought of a remarkable man whose vision and life-affirming spirituality speak even more vitally to the concerns of our time.

An in-depth examination of Teilhard de Chardin’s knowledge of the Middle and Far East, especially China, his comments on eastern religions, and his comparative reflections on mysticism and spirituality. †

The Search for Spirituality offers a comprehensive overview of the incredibly rich and diverse spiritual landscapes of our world, and explores the global search for a spiritual life at an individual and social level, inside and outside religious traditions, and in the secular world.

The Search for Spirituality offers a comprehensive overview of the incredibly rich and diverse spiritual landscapes of our world, and explores the global search for a spiritual life at an individual and social level, inside and outside religious traditions, and in the secular world.

Gender, Religion and Diversity provides an introduction to some of the most challenging perspectives in the contemporary study of gender and religion. In recent years, women's and gender studies have transformed the international study of religion through the use of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural methodologies, which have opened up new and highly controversial issues, challenging previous paradigms and creating fresh fields of study. As this book shows, gender studies in religion raises new and difficult questions about the gendered nature of religious phenomena, the relationship between power and knowledge, the authority of religious texts and institutions, and the involvement and responsibility of the researcher undertaking such studies as a gendered subject. This book is the outcome of an international collaboration between a wide range of researchers from different countries and fields of religious studies. The range and diversity of their contributions is the very strength of this book, for it shows how gendering works in studying different religious materials, whether foundational texts from the Bible or Koran, philosophical ideas about truth, essentialism, history or symbolism, the impact of French feminist thinkers such as Irigaray or Kristeva, or again critical perspectives dealing with the impact of race, gender, and class on religion, or by deconstructing religious data from a postcolonial critical standpoint or examining the impact of imperialism and orientalism on religion and gender.

Ursula King’s Christian Mystics tells the story of sixty men and women whose mystical devotion to God transformed the times in which they lived and still affects our present-day search for spiritual meaning. Moving from key figures of the early Christian age to the great mystics of modern times, special emphasis is given to the great high points of mysticism in the medieval, early modern and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The lives of visionaries, including Clement of Alexandria, Saint Bonaventure, Blaise Pascal and Simone Weil are studied in detail. It reveals the richly diverse expressions that mystical experience has found during two thousand years of Christian history and shows how it underpins Christian ritual and doctrine as a source of spiritual inspiration for all believers. Beautifully illustrated and written by a prominent name in the British academic world, this significant text has received high acclaim and is the only book to feature biographies of key mystics.

This book looks at contemporary understanding and practice of spirituality under three major perspectives.

Introduces sixty men and women whose great devotion and mystical relation to God transformed the times in which they lived and continues to affect our search for spirituality today.

In the autumn of 1988 a group of Israeli women donned prayer shawls, took up the Torah, and gathered at the Wailing Wall to pray. The religious leaders of the State of Israel were appalled and proposed that the holy relics, so defiled, be burned. The Catholic Church has steadfastly refused to ordain women as priests. Examples of exclusionary practice abound in all the major religions. In the face of such attitudes and practices, how can women share fully in the spiritual wealth of which our religions are the expression? To what extent are patriarchy, androcentrism, and sexism inherent in all religious institutions? How is the women's movement linked to the age-old quest for spirituality, the search for meaning, for ultimate values, for liberation and transcendence? Ursula King believes that in recounting their own experience, women everywhere are expressing a new view of the world and a new spirituality for themselves and a response to the needs and opportunities of the age. In this book she explores the implicit and explicit demands of feminism, and discusses themes posed by women mystics, by goddess-worship in other cultures and in our own, by historical matriarchy, by feminist theology. Women and Spirituality is concerned with important issues of personal and social change, and the perspectives they open to non-violence, peace and the protection of the ecological matrix that supports our existence. It gives a wide-ranging account of women's relations with the world's religions and the spiritual dimension of human life.

Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a French Jesuit theologian and scientist renowned for his pioneering field work in paleontology and human origins. His visionary writings on the reconciliation of faith and evolutionary theory aroused the suspicions of the Vatican and he was forbidden to publish on religious matters during his lifetime. After his death, the publication of his many books marked him as one of the most influential Catholic thinkers of this century. As Ursula King shows, Teilhard's personal spirituality consisted in seeing all things in Christ, and Christ in all things. This holistic vision was the underlying key to his life and thought. In successive chapters King goes on to show how many contemporary theological discussions - concerning the sources of Christian spirituality, the role of mysticism, the dialogue among faiths, the voices of women, the debates about environmental issues, the transformation of Christianity in a postmodern world, and the dialogue between faith and science - were prefigured in Teilhard's work.

Taking a critical look at feminism and exploring its explicit and implicit spiritual dimensions, this revised and updated new edition of Women and Spirituality engages in a reflective dialogue with contemporary women's voices. It asks to what extent patriarchal oppression and androcentric thinking are inherent not only in Christianity but in all religious beliefs, practices and institutions. This is the only book which provides a comprehensive survey of current discussions in feminist theology and spirituality and offers a wide-ranging account of women and world religions and raising thought-provoking questions about the spiritual dimensions of human life.

Taking a critical look at feminism and exploring its explicit and implicit spiritual dimensions, this revised and updated new edition of Women and Spirituality engages in a reflective dialogue with contemporary women's voices. It asks to what extent patriarchal oppression and androcentric thinking are inherent not only in Christianity but in all religious beliefs, practices and institutions. This is the only book which provides a comprehensive survey of current discussions in feminist theology and spirituality and offers a wide-ranging account of women and world religions and raising thought-provoking questions about the spiritual dimensions of human life.