Overview

Guyon’s theology and spiritual writing opened new doors to people from all walks of life who yearned for spiritual joy and wisdom. These new translations include her popular A Short and Easy Method of Prayer, as well as her biblical commentary on the Song of Songs, where poetic imagery comes to life with its refreshing sense of God’s desire to join with all humanity. Guyon always writes of the pure love of God, like a human kiss, that leads to the fulfilling union with the divine. The Complete Madame Guyon also presents examples of her passionate poetry, some of which has never before been translated into English. Guyon expresses the range of feelings involved with living in a relationship with God and her ideas about the real involvement of the divine within the human heart. Nancy James’s historical introduction explains the events of Guyon’s life first as an aristocratic wife and mother of five, and later as a widow traveling around Europe as an author, who ended up incarcerated in the Bastille by the direct order of Louis XIV. Guyon suffered ten years of incarceration, along with accusations of heresy. Cleared of all of charges at the end of her life, in all of her writing Madame Guyon testified to the goodness and holiness of God. Guyon’s prolific writings include: A commentary on every book in the Bible  Her lengthy Justifications, detailing her defense of her orthodoxy The essence of her theology encapsulated in A Short and Easy Method of Prayer and her Commentary on the Song of Songs, identified by the 17th century Catholic Inquisition correctly as Guyon’s crucial thought, and placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. Today spiritual readers will benefit from Madame Guyon's most expressive and clear thoughts on the power of loving God in her two classic books A Short and Easy Method of Prayer and her Commentary on the Song of Songs.

Full Product Details

9781557259233

Table of Contents

Reviews

Thanks to Nancy James's scholarly labors, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe, more widely known as Madame Guyon (1648-1717) will hopefully become a household word, at least among students of mysticism. By no means an uncontroversial thinker, twice imprisoned for her allegedly heretical ideas, and defended by one bishop (Fenelon) and attacked by another (Bossuet), Madame Guyon's ideas, especially her concept of self-annihilation in the soul's union with God, will likely arouse challenge, even today. We owe Dr. James an enormous debt for her translation of Madame Guyon's works and popularization of her ideas. Through Dr. James's work we can gain insights into not only mystical theology but also seventeenth-century French secular and ecclesiastical politics. -Dr. Peter C. Phan, The Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Theology Department, Georgetown University

Thanks to Nancy James's scholarly labors, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe, more widely known as Madame Guyon (1648-1717) will hopefully become a household word, at least among students of mysticism. By no means an uncontroversial thinker, twice imprisoned for her allegedly heretical ideas, and defended by one bishop (Fenelon) and attacked by another (Bossuet), Madame Guyon's ideas, especially her concept of self-annihilation in the soul's union with God, will likely arouse challenge, even today. We owe Dr. James an enormous debt for her translation of Madame Guyon's works and popularization of her ideas. Through Dr. James's work we can gain insights into not only mystical theology but also seventeenth-century French secular and ecclesiastical politics. --Dr. Peter C. Phan, The Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Theology Department, Georgetown University

Author Information

Nancy C. James received her MDiv from Virginia Theological Seminary and her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. An ordained Episcopal priest, James serves as a chaplain at the Washington National Cathedral and a Priest Associate at St. John’s, Lafayette Square, as well as other churches in the Washington D.C. area.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available