Amazon’s #1 New Release in Mysticism is now available!Rediscover mystics Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross and their enduring visions of a better world. Enkindling Love is the fifth book from author Gillian Ahlgren, professor of theology and church history at Xavier University, international speaker and spiritual immersion director.
To order, visit:
Gillian T. W. Ahlgren is internationally recognized as one of the leading scholars of Teresa of Avila. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where she studied under Bernard McGinn and spent several years doing archival work in Spain to support the writing of her dissertation. She is Professor of Theology and Church History at Xavier University (Cincinnati), where she teaches courses in the Christian mystical tradition and is the Founding Director of the Institute for Spirituality and Social Justice.
Her first book, Teresa of Avila and the Politics of Sanctity (Cornell University Press, 1996), was praised for the depth and energy of its research and its thorough analysis of the theological and political issues of sixteenth-century Spain. Her study of Francisca de los Apóstoles, a contemporary of Teresa’s who was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for alumbradismo (“false mysticism”), received the 2006 award for Best Translation from the Society for the Research of Early Modern Women. Her Entering Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle: A Reader’s Companion is considered a definitive work for understanding Teresa’s core mystical text.
In Enkindling Love: The Legacy of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, she highlights the fruits of Teresa and John’s collaboration, exploring the insights of two of history’s greatest mystical teachers.
For more information, visit www.gillianahlgren.com
“With prose that is as lucid as it is lyrical, Enkindling Love is a gift. This guide to Teresa and John’s major works reveals the Spanish mystics as passionate teachers and systematic theologians determined to share their transformative experience of God’s love. Gillian Ahlgren makes accessible their major insight: the inherent coherence between contemplation and loving action in the world.” read more
“Gillian Ahlgren offers a valuable guide for reading selected texts from both Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle and John of the Cross’s major works. Her careful choices and explanatory interpretations throughout the book emphasize the central theme these two eminent mystical theologians accent in their writings: a transformative love, a profound union with God that awakens love far beyond the boundries of the individual self. Bookended between a comprehensive introduction influenced by much of the latest historical, literary, and theological scholarship related to the Carmelite Saints and a final erudite chapter tracing the complicated reception history of their legacy, Enkindling Love illumines a pathway into some of the most remarkable contemplative writings of Christianity. If offers to readers the transformative energy these works of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross convey.” read more
“Readers familiar with Gillian Ahlgren’s earlier writing on Teresa of Avila have come to expect first-rate scholarship coupled with profound insight. Enkindling Love lives up to the author’s high standards. Ahlgren’s new book not only deepens our understanding of two of Spain’s greatest mystics, but also guides us toward a more intimate, authentic relationship with God.” read more
Rediscover mystics Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross and their enduring visions of a better world. Enkindling Love is the fifth book from author Gillian Ahlgren, professor of theology and church history at Xavier University, international speaker and spiritual immersion director.
View the trailer
To order, visit:
