St. John of the Cross (San Juan de La Cruz): Alchemist of the Soul: His Life, His Poetry (Bilingual), His Prose

by Antonio T. De Nicolas and Saint John of the Cross

Book Overview

St. John (San Juan de la Cruz) is one of the greatest mystics and poets in any language. This is a new introduction and translation of St. John'' poetry (presented in both Spanish and English) and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557780897
• ISBN13: 9781557780898
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Paragon House Publishers
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The Inquisition is alive in Chicago

In answer to Culver's review I am surprised at his effort to turn a complex time in history into a veridical, simple one. Juan de la Cruz is the proper Spanish name, not John of the Cross, and the reasons for the distinction are given in the book. To what Christianity does Culver refer, Protestant, Catholic? This was the time of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, of Catholics killing Protestants and viceversa in the name of "their" Christianity. Yes, the Saint influenced T.S Eliot, the book shows T.S. Eliot plegiarized the Saint. The reason I wrote the book and translated the Saint's prose and poetry is because the English translations I had come across were not accurate or faithful to the Saints intentions, not even to his grammatical ones. It is not often that a Castilian can translate into English, and this is my advantage, and hopefully my service to the reader. And by the way, the same Church that canonized him had the Inquisition investigating him up to the eve of his canonization together with those other Spanish mystics Teresa de Avila and Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Peace. Antonio de Nicolas

Selected life details and writing excerpts

Organized approach to life, poetry and prose tracing the spiritual journey made by St. John. Life details are summarized into a chronology. The original Spanish and English translation of famous poems such as "Dark Night" are included. The prose focuses on the Saint's explaination of the poems and omits portions written to address the Inquisition.