Great Spirits 1000-2000 : The Fifty-Two Christians Who Most Influenced Their Millennium

by O'Grady, Selina; Wilkins, John

• ISBN13: 9780809105465
• ISBN10: 0809105462
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Paulist Pr

Summary

So who were the most influential Christians of the second millennium? Any list of people will necessarily be subjective, but when the editors of the London Tablct decided to honor the Great Spirits of the age they settled on fifty (later fifty-two) men and women who, together, sum up what the Christian life is all about. They include popes and bishops, theologians, writers, reformers, men and women -- but also hermits and mystics, artists, social activists and more than a few eccentrics. In the reading of their stories, we find out who we are, where we have come from and where we are going. Many of the Great Spirits here are canonized saints, but not all of them. Some people who exercised enormous influence in their day fell outside the pale of predictable sanctity, yet they represent to us the mysterious working of God in the world. As Kathleen Norris remarks in her foreword to the American edition, "This book refreshes us with its refusal to offer up plastic saints. But it also makes clear that acknowledging the fact that these 'great spirits' were in fact ordinary people, irritable, rash, vain and all too often prone to failure, does not diminish them or dilute the divine mystery that illuminates their lives."

Author Biography

Selina O'Grady is a freelance writer from Great Britain, where she has also worked as a television and radio producer. She presently lives in California and has completed an anthology on experiences of faith John Wilkins has been editor of The Tablet, an international Catholic magazine, since 1982. In 1996 he won the John Harriott Memorial Prize for contributions to religious communication. He has been a writer and presenter for the BBC World Service as well as a visiting scholar at Clare College, Cambridge

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Selina O'Grady
John Wilkins
Foreword	xi
Kathleen Norris
Anselm (c. 1033-1109)	1	(4)
Benedicta Ward
Theodosius of the Caves (c. 1010-1074)	5	(4)
Simon Franklin
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)	9	(4)
Kate Brown
Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153)	13	(4)
Christopher Holdsworth
Peter Abelard (1079-1142)	17	(4)
David Luscombe
Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)	21	(4)
Frances Teresa
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)	25	(4)
Eamon Duffy
Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-c. 1328)	29	(4)
Denys Turner
Dominic (c. 1170-1221)	33	(4)
Richard Finn
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274)	37	(4)
Herbert McCabe
Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373)	41	(4)
Roger Ellis
Gregory Palamas (c. 1296-1359) by Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia	45	(4)
Sergius of Radonezh (c. 1314-1392)	49	(4)
Sergei Hackel
Julian of Norwich (c. 1342-c. 1420)	53	(4)
Sheila Upjohn
Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)	57	(4)
Tina Beattie
Thomas a Kempis (c. 1380-1471)	61	(4)
Melanie McDonagh
Fra Angelico (c. 1400-1455)	65	(4)
Michael Adams
Martin Luther (1483-1546)	69	(4)
David Yeago
Erasmus of Rotterdam (c, 1467-1536)	73	(4)
James McConica
John Calvin (1509-1564)	77	(4)
David Fergusson
Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)	81	(4)
Michael Paul Gallagher
Thomas More (1477-1535)	85	(4)
Lucy Beckett
Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)	89	(4)
Shirley du Boulay
John of the Cross (1542-1591)	93	(4)
Rowan Williams
Mary Ward (1585-145)	97	(4)
Lavinia Byrne
George Herbert (1593-133)	101	(4)
Philip Sheldrake
Blaise Pascal (123-162)	105	(4)
Alain Woodrow
John Bunyan (128-188)	109	(4)
N. H. Keeble
George Fox (124-191)	113	(4)
R. Melvin Keiser
Johann Sebastian Bach (185-1150)	117	(4)
David Maw
John Wesley (1703-1791)	121	(5)
Leslie Griffiths
William Blake (1757-1827)	126	(5)
Jill Paton Walsh
Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833)	131	(4)
Richard Price
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)	135	(4)
George Pattison
Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)	139	(4)
James McCaffrey
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881)	143	(4)
Irina Kirillova
William (1829-1912) and Catherine (1829-1890) Booth	147	(4)
Roy Hattersley
John Henry Newman (1801-1890)	151	(4)
Owen Chadwick
Karl Barth (1886-1968)	155	(4)
George Hunsinger
Pope John XXIII (1881-1963)	159	(4)
Richard McBrien
Swami Abhishiktananda (1910-1973)	163	(4)
Michael Barnes
Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916)	167	(4)
Ian Latham
Pam Ware
Edith Stein (1891-1942)	171	(4)
Eugene Fisher
Dorothy Day (1897-1980)	175	(4)
Robert Ellsberg
Simone Weil (1909-1943)	179	(4)
David McLellan
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)	183	(4)
Edwin Robertson
Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)	187	(4)
Kathryn Spink
Oscar Arnulfo Romero (1917-1980)	191	(4)
Michael Campbell-Johnston
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)	195	(4)
Lawrence Cunningham
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)	199	(4)
Leslie Griffiths
Wesley Williams
Pope John Paul II (1920- )	203
George Weigel