Cover image for Our hearts are restless : the art of spiritual memoir
Our hearts are restless : the art of spiritual memoir
Title:
Our hearts are restless : the art of spiritual memoir
Author:
Lischer, Richard, author.
ISBN:
9780197649046
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
New York : Oxford University Press, 2023.
Physical Description:
viii, 379 pages ; 24 cm
Contents:
Introduction: The artistry of the soul -- Restless traveler: Augustine of Hippo -- Traveler's rest: Augustine of Hippo -- Journey through purgatory: Thomas Merton -- Seeing is believing: Julian of Norwich -- Camera obscura: Emily Dickinson -- The uncertainty principle: John Bunyan -- Persecution and defiance: Agnes Beaumont -- Ruined: Peter Abelard -- What will survive of us is love: Heloise of Paris -- The radiance of a yellow star: Etty Hillesum -- Last lessons: Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- Surprised by death: C.S. Lewis -- An illness and a healing: Reynolds Price -- The little way: Thérèse of Lisieux -- Witness: Harriet Jacobs -- A life for the poor: Dorothy Day -- A revised itinerary: Kathleen Norris -- Adventures with Jesus: Anne Lamott -- A ministry in the South Bronx: Heidi Neumark -- Autobiography as exorcism: James Baldwin -- A snake handler's faith: Dennis Covington -- The long way home: Richard Rodriguez -- Epilogue: Whole life.
Summary:
"The personal narrative, be it autobiography or memoir, tells what it is to live and die in the world. Spiritual memoir adds two further dimensions. First, belief or unbelief in God is not incidental to the narrative but crucial. The narrator and other characters must determine how the judgment or grace of God will influence the conduct of their lives. Some memoirs tell how the narrator came to faith; others examine what Augustine calls "the life of faith." Second, spiritual memoir entails the (usually) implied offer: "What happened to me, dear reader, can also happen to you, but in a different way, of course." This is the gospel of memoir. Our Hearts Are Restless explores the nature of spiritual memoir via a close reading of twenty-one memoirs or memoir-like works. The author engages in personal reflection with the memoirists and facilitates roundtable discussions among them. The work displays the diversity of spiritual memoir by following seven paths: conversion (e.gs., Augustine, Merton), mystical vision (Julian of Norwich, Emily Dickinson), excruciating doubt (Bunyan), devastation (Abelard, C.S. Lewis), life-long pilgrimage (Harriet Jacobs, Dorothy Day), daily adventures and challenges (Lamott), and nomadic, sometimes angry expressions of faith (Baldwin, Rodriquez). The names above are meant as samples of the book's diversity. If there is a theological argument in this study, it is this: there is no argument and no authoritative theology apart from the lives of God's people and the circumstances in which they live. "The glory of God," said St. Irenaeus, "is a human being fully alive.""--
Holds: