"Charles Healey is a member of the faculty of the Pope John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts. This overall view of spiritual schools, movements, and writers developed from his summer courses at Creighton University in Omaha. He covers the early church; Eastern monasticism; early Western spirituality; the early, high, and late Middle Ages; and Byzantine, Reformation, 17th-century French, English, post-Enlightenment, and 20th-century spirituality. He provides bibliographical footnotes, a classified bibliography, and an index." --W. Charles Heiser in Theology Digest, Summer 2000
"An excellent introduction to the "spiritual heritage" of the Christian community, this volume takes the interested reader from the spiritual writers of the early Church up to the present day. While written as a text for a course on Christian Spirituality in the summer graduate school at Creighton University, it would also well serve anyone interested in learning who the basic Christian spiritual writers are, what they taught/teach and how they related to their time. It is organized chronologically and then topically, with similar writers of a period being grouped together, showing interrelationships and development. Covering the entire Christian spiritual world, this is a comprehensive yet compact (for the wide subject matter) overview of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant world of spirituality. While obviously based on the great classic histories in the field, especially A History of Christian Spirituality (Louis Bouyer and others) and P. Pourrot's Christian Spirituality, this volume is more compact and selective, thus fulfilling its set task of being an introduction. It could best be used in conjunction with the Paulist Press' series, Classics of Western Spirituality, from which many excerpts are taken and cited, and contains excellent translations and introductions to the most pertinent materials.... Altogether an excellent introduction, thoroughly readable to the "average" adult reader seeking further information and/or growth in the Christian life. Highly recommended. --Cecil R. White in Catholic Library World, December 2000
"Healey had a modest goal in providing this introductory overview of our Christian inheritance: not to replace the standard surveys of the history of spirituality by Louis Bouyer, Cheslyn Jones, Bernard McGinn, and others, but to make their research more accessible through detailed footnotes and to put their critical insights into a manageable context. His book is the fruit of teaching graduate students at Creighton University for many summers. It is a descriptive guide providing basic information, not a critical analysis involving complex and nuanced evaluation. Healey judiciously selected representative exponents of the schools and movements beginning with the Apostolic Fathers and proceeding through the Second Vatican Council. He notes the cultural, political, economic factors operative in each period covered by his twelve chapters, enabling students to recognize the relationships among various schools and movements; e.g., how pietism emerged from a polemical, over-speculative climate; the toxic influence of the Enlightenment; the upheaval occasioned by the industrial revolution. He avoids giving isolated lists of names, dates, works, thereby showing how spirituality reflects the flow of history. His chapter on the Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican contributions reflects an ecumenical appreciation of our Christian heritage. I think that he struck a judicious balance between biographical detail and spiritual content. Brief passages from classic writers whet the reader's appetite for more. His selected bibliography includes the basic classical works and their translations. But if Healey had included reference to the more recent New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality he could have enabled interested readers to pursue controversial issues more readily. And an index of subjects or at least major themes would have been a fine complement to his index of names. Spirituality is enjoying a renaissance if we judge by the increasing number of academic courses being offered and the extended space bookstores allot to its many forms. Teachers, however, lament that students lack basic knowledge of the tradition, while students complain that they are overwhelmed by the amount of material confronting them. The students to whom I recommended this basic guide found it a helpful, realistic textbook." --Dominic Maruca, S.J., St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore in Theological Studies, June 2000
"With the publication of this book, Father Charles Healey makes a major contribution to anyone who is interested in the 2000-year history of Western spirituality. At present, no Catholic book in America provides the reader with a one-volume introduction to the major figures of our spiritual heritage. The book does not give a firm definition of spirituality but generally acknowledges that it focuses on "God, the human person, and the way, the means, or the journey by which the human is united with the divine." The book then takes the reader on a gentle ride from martyrdom as the first standard of holiness in the early Church to Dorothy Day in 20th-century urban America. Of particular interest to diocesan priests is the careful attention that Father Healey gives to the Circle of Berulle and the key figures in the French School of the 17th century. These men developed the last systematic spirituality for parish priests until today. Yet little is written in English about them. The fact that the founders of the Vincentians, the Sulpicians and the Eudists were all participants in this circle speaks to the impact that it has had on the way seminarians are formed to this day. Particularly helpful parts of the book are the sections that Father Healey includes on Byzantine, Anglican and Protestant contributions to spirituality. He places them in the historical context of the Catholic Tradition so that the reader has a more complete grasp of the spiritual currents of each period. The section on European spiritual writers, for instance, includes both the Catholics -- Columba Marmion, Caryll Houselander and Pierre Teillard de Chardin -- and the Protestants -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer and C.S. Lewis. The survey ends with the close of the Second Vatican Council. If this book does nothing else, it points to the obvious -- the way to God is long and winding. This book is a valuable addition to a priest's library as well as parish and school libraries." --Rev. Don Piraro in The Priest, June 2000
"Healey writes in a fine, firm English style, perhaps somewhat unexpected in a work of this kind. The reviewer, whose reading in the field is fairly extensive but haphazard and without the insight that comes from formal study, found this an excellent book. Given the vastness of the enterprise, there is a proportionality and balance about the treatment of individuals and movements that make the book a source of quick and useful reference to the spiritual thought of the ages. Such pieces have always seemed to provide an almost necessary resource, especially for those interested in a field without formal involvement in it. A special value is the inclusion of representatives of other Christian traditions, treated positively and with respect. Also useful is the recognition that "spirituality" is an implication of texts that do not always fit the traditional mold of "spiritual writing," central as it is. The reviewer greatly appreciated these efforts to interface with other strains of culture, religious and general. A carefully produced manual recommended to students and readers in this field. --Francis H. Agnew, C.M. in Pastoral Life, March 2000
"An illuminating look at the abundant history of Christians and their faith from the earliest writings after the New Testament to the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960's. The author is Catholic and a teacher of related courses, but he has made a 'sincere attempt to do justice to the Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican contributions.' This single volume comprises more than 400 pages of fascinating comment and citations that help answer the question: 'How has Christian humanity understood what it is to seek God and to know him?' One of the predominant themes in the early writings of the Apostolic Fathers was a call to preserve unity. Curiously, nearly 2,000 years later, Pope John XXIII sought to 'eradicate the seeds of discord and promote peace and unity among all.' Healey describes the 3rd and 4th century rise in withdrawal and monasticism in the Eastern part of the Roman empire, and the contribution to early Western spirituality by such saints as Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine. The roles of St. Gregory, Celtic events and Benedictine developments in the early Middle Ages brought about 'a time of renaissance and reawakening. The mendicants come to life in Healey's discussion of the Franciscan and Dominican movements. This is followed by a fascinating look at Byzantine and Protestant history, including Luther's rise, along with that of the Calvinists, Anabaptists, Mennonites, and the Amish. Other chapters examine post-Reformation French and English spirituality, Orthodoxy in Greece and Russia as well as developments in the United States. This book helps readers respond to God's grace and enables acceptance of 'others without demanding that they be like us.'" --The Book Reader, Fall/Winter 1999-2000
"Christian Spirituality: An Introduction to the Heritage by Jesuit Fr. Charles J. Healey, is a helpful resource. Healey begins with the Apostolic Fathers and concludes with Vatican II in detailing the spiritual heritage of the Church. Those who seek an introduction to the rich legacy of Christian spirituality will be well served by this former professor in Creighton University's well-respected Christian Spirituality graduate program." --Fr. William C. Graham in "Bookshelf," National Catholic Reporter, December 24, 1999
