Overview

This volume presents for the first time English-language translations of twelve sermons by St. Claude La Colombiere. Canonized in 1992 by Pope John Paul II, Claude was a 17th-century Jesuit priest who authenticated the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart. Like St. Francis of Assisi, Claude had been a man of privilege, and was a literary figure with a reputation as a master of Christian eloquence. He died a martyr at the age of forty-one. Each sermon in this volume addresses a different issue under the general theme of Christian conduct. Together these sermons present the notions central to Claude's preaching and general attitude, above all the ideas of habituation and confidence in God. Preaching during Claude's lifetime developed under a variety of influences, most notably the thematic sermons of the late medieval period and the humanistic retrieval of classical letters during the Renaissance. Claude worked within and helped to create the stylistic conventions of the day by drawing on scripture and the Church Fathers in an attempt to convert his listeners. Taking a hybrid approach to his craft, he brought a balanced use of rhetorical art into the pulpit so as to please as well as to instruct and move his audience, hereby promoting the development of French classicism in the second half of the seventeenth century. In his commentary on the sermons William O'Brien examines the dynamic vision of the human person that emerges from St. Claude's preaching and considers what this might mean for readers of today. While offering a historical-literary study of his preaching, the work is located firmly in the contemporary quest for a new unity between the theoretical and the practical in Christianity. What results is a book with a unique appeal. General readers interested in their own spiritual growth, as well as scholars and students of religious history, theology, and French literature, will find this book to be a valuable resource.

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9780875804729

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Reviews

William P. O'Brien's introduction bears all the marks of first-rate scholarship and his translation of La Colombiere's sermons is intelligent, smooth, and lucid. (Harvey D. Egan, SJ, Boston College)

O'Brien makes superb use of the French critical edition of the texts, as well as the primary and secondary sources requisite for such a translation. He stays close to the French for the English translation, but uses sound judgment suiting the text to the contemporary English reader. -Journal of Jesuit Studies O'Brien's introduction bears all the marks of first-rate scholarship and his translation of the sermons is intelligent, smooth and lucid. -Harvey D. Egan, S.J., Boston College This work reveals a largely ignored side of La Colombiere, that of a preacher who focused on virtue ethics, on the vocation of all Christians to imitate the saints by living lives of virtue, and thus through virtuous habits to overcome sin and follow the saints to heaven. -Thomas W. Worcester, SJ, College of the Holy Cross

Author Information

William P. O'Brien, SJ, is assistant professor of Christian spirituality in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University.

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