A Soul-Centered Life

by Demkovich, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780814655122
• ISBN10: 0814655122
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-15
• Publisher: Michael Glazier

Summary

People today are searching for meaning and purpose. They know that something is missing in their lives and long to fill this void. Many books on spirituality attempt to fill this need, and the approaches are nearly as numerous as the searchers themselves. Such a widespread desire in the human heart speaks to the spiritual hunger at the core of each one of us. It is this hunger of both the head and the heart that Michael Demkovich sees as key to spiritual integration. In this volume readers will rediscover that "there really is something more to life, and spirituality meets the mystery of this something more." A genuine spirituality must address two essential characteristics:

Author Biography

Michael Demkovich, OP, is the Gerald Vann Visiting Lecturer in Catholic Thought and Life at Blackfriars, Oxford. He is the founding director of the Dominican Ecclesiai Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and holds his doctorate from the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. He is the author of various articles and Introducing Meister Eckhart (Ligouri, 2006).

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Understanding Spirituality	p. 1
Challenges	p. 3
Perspectives on Spirituality	p. 5
Spirituality as Liturgy	p. 6
Spirituality as Academic Discipline	p. 10
Spirituality as History	p. 16
Spirituality and Theology	p. 18
Keeping the Spiritual Life Alive	p. 20
The Life of the Soul	p. 22
The Intellectually Meaningful Life	p. 25
The Morally Desirable Life	p. 28
Soul-centered: Psyche or Animal	p. 30
Animation?	p. 31
Important Benefits	p. 33
Animating Spirituality	p. 36
Methodology: What Does Spirituality Examine?	p. 38
How the Factors Work	p. 39
Approaching Spirituality	p. 45
Summary	p. 48
Spiritual Animation	p. 51
Run the Good Race: The Ascetical Approach	p. 55
Meet an Ascetic: Maximus the Confessor	p. 55
Ascetic Spirituality	p. 58
Early Christianity	p. 63
My Struggle Is One with Christ	p. 65
Christian Asceticism: The Victor's Crown	p. 69
Conclusion	p. 74
The Word Made Flesh, Dwelling Among Us: The Mystical Approach	p. 76
Meet a Mystic: Catherine of Siena	p. 76
Mystical Spirituality	p. 78
Christ Our Light and In His Light We See Light	p. 83
Christian Mysticism: Union with God	p. 88
Conclusion	p. 94
God's Beauty Fills the Earth: The Aesthetical Approach	p. 96
Meet an Aesthetic: Ignatius of Loyola	p. 96
Aesthetic Spirituality	p. 101
A Changing World	p. 101
Christian Aestheticism: God in Spirit and in Truth	p. 109
The Grandeur of God	p. 116
Conclusion	p. 121
Lord, When Did We See You in Need? The Social-Critical Approach	p. 123
Meet a Social-Criticalist: Mother Teresa of Calcutta	p. 123
Social-Critical Spirituality	p. 127
Modernity	p. 128
Post-Modernity	p. 129
Christian Social-Critical ism: Those Poor or Afflicted in Any Way	p. 133
Conclusion	p. 141
Conclusion	p. 143
The Study of Spirituality: Do You Love Me? Feed My Sheep	p. 145
The Critical Study of Spirituality: Be Transformed by the Renewal of Your Mind	p. 147
Animating Spirituality	p. 150
Index	p. 153
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.