'My aim in this book is to show clearly that the ... Dominican tradition ... is capable of shedding light on the questions of men and women today and suggesting a way of dealing with them. These questions are ultimately a variant of the one central question of human existence, bound up with a particular time, place and person: the question of a good and meaningful life ... my starting point is the basic conviction that a religious and dedicated life cannot be lived anywhere else than in the midst of our turbulent culture, which constantly makes us uncertain ... this book is deliberately written from the perspective of someone who in ecclesiastical jargon is called a "lay person".' From the Introduction by Erik Borgman 'This book is a highly attractive and stimulating exposition of Dominican spirituality by Erik Borgman, a Dutch Lay Dominican. The central intuition of the book is that Dominican spirituality is founded on the encounter of God in all of human experience. Dominic's experience in the early thirteenth century was born in opposition to Catharism, which maintained that God was remote from us and that there was a fundamental opposition between the divine and this material world. But for Dominic it is here, in our lives, with all their creativity and goodness, their mess and confusion, that God is to be found. Our mission as preachers pushes us "to enter the unrest of the street and the inn, politics and journalism, welfare, teaching and science, in the belief that the holy, the traces of the Holy One, are to be found there". Even in the most difficult situations, when all is dark, God is waiting to be discovered. "If Dominican spirituality has a core, then it would be this insight into the unexpected and unheard-of nearness of God'. This is the good news that the Order of Preachers was founded to preach and the source of the happiness of the preacher."' From the Foreword by Timothy Radcliffe OP

Father Hinnebusch received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford where he studied prior to his assignment as professor of history at Providence College. He subsequently spent three years doing research at the Historical Institute of the Dominican Order in Rome where he published The Early English Friars Preachers. For many years he taught Church History at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. A contributor to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Catholic Youth Encyclopedia and the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Fr. Hinnebusch was also the author of Renewal in the Spirit of St. Dominic (1968).

Caribbean Studies Association Barbara T. Christian Literary Award Negotiating Respect is an ethnographically rich investigation of Pentecostal Christianity—the Caribbean’s fastest growing religious movement—in the Dominican Republic. Based on fieldwork in a barrio of Villa Altagracia, Brendan Jamal Thornton examines the everyday practices of Pentecostal community members and the complex ways in which they negotiate legitimacy, recognition, and spiritual authority within the context of religious pluralism and Catholic cultural supremacy. Probing gender, faith, and identity from an anthropological perspective, he considers in detail the lives of young male churchgoers and their struggles with conversion and life in the streets. Thornton shows that conversion offers both spiritual and practical social value because it provides a strategic avenue for prestige and an acceptable way to transcend personal history. Through an exploration of the church and its relationship to barrio institutions like youth gangs and Dominican vodú, he further draws out the meaningful nuances of lived religion providing new insights into the social organization of belief and the significance of Pentecostal growth and popularity globally. The result is a fresh perspective on religious pluralism and contemporary religious and cultural change. A volume in the series Latin American and Caribbean Arts and Culture, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Names and celebrates aspects of the Dominican tradition that are at the very core of its spirituality. One of the things which has characterized the Dominican spirit from the beginning is a sense of openness to the world. This book presents the Dominican vision of life.

The spirituality of St. Dominic and his early followers was a force in 13th-century Europe. Here is a selection of works that represent the simplicity, ruggedness and clarity of the Dominicans' biblically-based, Christ-centered spirituality.

A beautiful book of meditations on various Christian virtues or charisms as reflected in the lives of nine holy Dominican men and women. Manifesting the special grace and spirit given to St. Dominic, these outsanding lives are shining examples for modern Christians on how to make the Gospel teaching incarnate in today's world. Saints portrayed include Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Martin de Porres, Fra Angelico, Peter of Verona, Catherine de Ricci and others. Charisms highlighted by each life include prayer, joy, poverty, study, friendship, art and more. The lives of the saints occupy a special place in the history and spirituality of the Catholic Church. The men and women in this book form a comprehensive image of one of the most significant movements in the history of Western Christianity: the Dominican order, whose particular charism emphasizes the sanctification of the intellect and importance tht sacred truth holds in the life of the Christian believer.

Spirituality has to do with a whole Christian vision of life, not simply with methods of prayer or contemplation. The author approaches the subject through the idea of 'imperfection', tracing this theme through a series of spiritual writers from different periods of Christian history. These are penetrating and illuminating studies which show how from the start and throughout its history the Christian vision is not one for an elite but for everyone, sinners all. The religion of the Cross is the religion of failure turned to account, creatively.