In this series, we highlight books we think our readers may enjoy, written by authors affiliated with the Collegeville Institute.
The Text of a Coptic Monastic Discourse, On Love and Self-Control
Cistercian Publications, 2017
by Carolyn M. Schneider, 2011 Resident Scholar
This book introduces a beautiful Coptic discourse on love and self-control in its first English translation. Although the text is attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria, there are reasons to doubt this. Exploring issues of authorship and context, Schneider locates the origins of On Love and Self-control to the Upper Egyptian Pachomian monastic community as it experienced a crisis in the mid-fourth century. She then traces the varied forms and uses of the discourse through the history of the Egyptian church to the present, showing how the different moments in the story of the text mark shifts in the meaning for people as well. Readers interested in ancient monastic scholarship will enjoy The Text of a Coptic Monastic Discourse, On Love and Self Control.
i have stared down winters
Lulu.com, 2016
by Oluwatomisin Oredein, 2015 summer writing workshop participant
Identity is complex and incongruent. It comes in faith-form and race-form; it is gendered, cultured, classed, and sexed. It holds that which constitutes the crux of being. In the chapbook i have stared down winters Oluwatomisin Oredein explores the faith of form – the details of identity, through her eyes – in everyday matters and wonderings and within tensive subjects such as race, culture, and current events. i have stared down winters challenges readers to interrogate identity as entrance into rather than escape from reality.
Gomorrah, Baby
Anchor & Plume, 2017
by Natalie Vestin, 2013 and 2015 summer writing workshop participant
Walking through a city unearths the stories under the crumbling limestone, cobblestone alleys, old churches, and winding river. In Gomorrah, Baby, Vestin melds photography, short fiction, and prose poem to write a love letter to the city of Saint Paul. Text and image reveal the stories we tell ourselves about the places we live and what we choose to notice. Glimpses of God, nightmare, myth, and human life formed by strange geography of the cityscape recur throughout the book. Weaving love story and ghost story, Gomorrah, Baby illuminates the human struggle for intimacy with something greater than self.
Like this post? Subscribe to have new posts sent to you by email the same day they are posted.
Leave a Reply