In the English-speaking world Bossuet is perhaps chiefly remembered for his controversy with Fénélon; in France (at least in secular France), as one of the greatest prose stylists in the language.
In the English-speaking world Bossuet is perhaps chiefly remembered for his controversy with Fénélon; in France (at least in secular France), as one of the greatest prose stylists in the language.
And yet Bossuet was an authentic spiritual master in the tradition of St Francis de Sales, whose special gift was to blend devotion and common sense, vast learning and the practical experience of souls. His usefulness to us as we enter the new millennium lies, firstly, in that he contrived to lead a devout life (and helped others to do so) in that most worldly of worlds, Versailles under Louis XIV.
Secondly, he evolved a sound and simple approach to God among the currents of true and false mysticism in which pious souls were often too terrified to venture. The most remarkable thing about Bossuet's direction of souls is that he strives to make them independent of himself by teaching them to trust the Holy Spirit completely, to obey Him, and to be faithful to His inward guidance.
With the single exception of Dr. Patrick Riley's recent edition of Bossuet's political writings, this is the only currently available English selection of a great classic of French spirituality, an author whose prose has been described as "taking on the colours of poetry and soaring on the steady wings of an exalted imagination."
This is the third title in the Columba Series.
Letters of
Spiritual Direction, by Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (trans. G. Webb and A. Walker).
72 pages, paperback. ISBN 1 901157 56 3.
£3.95 ; $5.00 in the U.S.A.
Published by The Saint Austin Press.
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