History of Christian Spirituality

by Urban T. Holmes III

Book Overview

This modern classic explores the key concepts and people who have shaped our Christian spiritual heritage.

Concise and readable Holmes begins this introduction to Christian spirituality with the Jewish antecedents, and proceeds through the New Testament period, monasticism, the Middle Ages, Byzantine spirituality, and the modern period. Holmes ends his overview with key contemporary figures such as Simone Weil, Thomas Merton, and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0819219142
• ISBN13: 9780819219145
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Morehouse Publishing
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Remarkable clarity

This book give a most concise and remarkably clear expose of the development of Christian spirituality through the last 2,000 years. This is an amazing achievement on the part of the author - given the scope of the subject matter. It's an invaluable resource for anyone researching Christian spirituality, methods of reflection, or prayer. And it has many excellent references for followup if required. I found it to be the most helpful single reference source on the topic I've ever encountered. It cannot be too highly recommended.

The Introduction is worth the price of the book

This work is a collection of spiritual biorgaphies and Urban T Holmes analyzes the spiritual approaches of great Christian thinkers, looking specifically at different spiritual approaches. The introduction is fantastic. Holmes looks at the ways that people approach God on a matrix. In crude terms less technical than those used by Holmes, he contrasts a head approach with a heart approach, and a focus on the revealed things about God and a focus on the unknown mystery of God. It is really a great study of spirituality.