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Classics of Western Spirituality [CWS] is an English-language book series published by Paulist[1] Press since 1978, which offers a library of historical texts on Christian spirituality[2] as well as a representative selection of works on Jewish, Islamic, Sufi and Native American spirituality. Each volume is selected and translated by one or more scholars or spiritual leaders, with scholarly introductions and bibliographies of both primary and secondary materials. The series contains multiple genres of spiritual writing, including poems, songs, essays, theological treatises, meditations, mystical biographies, and philosophical investigations, and features works by famous authors such as Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther, as well as lesser-known authors such as Maximus the Confessor and Moses de León.

CWS was originally planned by an editorial board of some thirty scholars to "[foster] more enlightened spiritual direction and fruitful meditation practices", and was projected to contain sixty volumes.[3] The series was also conceived to support scholarship in the field, which until then was hampered by lack of western language translations, introductions, notes, or other critical apparatus for its foundational texts. Today it comprises more than 130 volumes, and for ease of reference has been thematically subdivided below into pre-Reformation Christianity (57 volumes), Christianity after the Reformation (47 volumes) and Judaism, Islam and Native American[4] religions (28 volumes).

The series was almost immediately "acclaimed as one of the most important religious publishing events of recent years."[5] An early reviewer remarked that "the impression left by a preliminary contact with this courageous attempt to open the vast treasures of Western spiritual classics to present-day readers is one of astonished admiration. It is a triumph of editing and the printer's art."[6] More recently, in assessing the impact of the series as a whole, one scholar concluded that CWS has been responsible "not only in making the acknowledged classics of the tradition more available, accessible, and better known but also in the process (...) expanding and deepening the canon of classics and thereby both broadening and refining the definition of 'classics' and of 'spirituality' itself."[7]

Pre-Reformation Christianity

Post-Reformation Christianity

Judaism

Islam

  • Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari: Songs of Love and Devotion, translated by Lourdes Maria Alvarez (2009, ISBN 9780809145942)
  • Early Islamic Mysticism: Sufi, Qur’an, Mi’raj, Poetic and Theological Writings, edited by Michael A. Sells (1996, ISBN 0809104776)
  • Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes, translated by William C. Chittick and Peter L. Wilson (1982, ISBN 080912372X)
  • Farid ad-Din Attar’s Memorial of God’s Friends: Lives and Sayings of Sufis, translated by Paul Edward Losensky (2009, ISBN 9780809145737)
  • Ibn 'Abbad of Ronda: Letters on the Sufi Path, translated by John Renard (1986, ISBN 080912730X)
  • Ibn Al 'Arabi: The Bezels of Wisdom, translated by R. W. J. Austin (1980, ISBN 0809123312)
  • Ibn ‘Ata’ Illah Iskandari/Kwaja Abdullah Ansari: The Book of Wisdom/Intimate Conversations, translated by Victor Danner and Wheeler M. Thackston (1978, ISBN 0809121824)
  • Knowledge of God in Classical Sufism: Foundations of Islamic Mystical Theology, translated by John Renard (2004, ISBN 0809140306)
  • Nizam Ad-Din Awliya: Morals for the Heart, translated by Bruce B. Lawrence (1992, ISBN 0809104512)
  • Sharafuddin Maneri: The Hundred Letters, translated by Paul Jackson (1980, ISBN 0809122294)
  • Umar Ibn al-Farid: Sufi Verse, Saintly Life, translated by Thomas Emil Homerin (2001, ISBN 0809105284)

Native American Spirituality

  • Native North American Spirituality of the Eastern Woodlands: Sacred Myths, Dreams, Visions, Speeches, Healing Formulas, Rituals and Ceremonials, edited by Elizabeth Tooker (1979, ISBN 0809122561)
  • Native Meso-American Spirituality: Ancient Myths, Discourses, Stories, Doctrines, Hymns, Poems from the Aztec, Yucatec, Quiche-Maya and Other Sacred Traditions, edited by Miguel León-Portilla (1980, ISBN 0809122316)

References

  1. ^ "Publisher Series: Classics of Western Spirituality | LibraryThing". LibraryThing.com. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  2. ^ "Classics Of Western Spirituality | Yale Divinity School Bookstore". www.yaledivinitybookstore.com. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  3. ^ Quoted in Slade, H.E.W. (1980). "The Classics of Western Spirituality". Theology 83: 228–29.
  4. ^ Schneiders, Sandra (2005-04-01). "Impact of Classics of Western Spirituality on the Discipline of Christian Spirituality". Jesuit School of Theology.
  5. ^ (October 1978). "Briefly Noted". Worldview 21: 57–58.
  6. ^ Slade, H.E.W. (1980). "The Classics of Western Spirituality". Theology 83: 228–29.
  7. ^ Schneiders, Sandra M. (2005). "The Impact of the Classics of Western Spirituality Series on the Discipline of Christian Spirituality". Spiritus. 5: 97–102.

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