New Book coming out soon
My good friends, my new book is coming out soon. We’ve completed the final edits and now we are in the typesetting phase. Just a few more perfections need to be made to make this book a reality for you.
My thanks to Angelico Press and their team for bringing this book to reality. It has been a 5 year project and I’m so happy to see it so close to being in your hands.
Now live! Please listen to my interview on my research of Adrienne Von Speyr, a Christian mystic and doctor, by the great James Ellis, host of the popular philosophy podcast, Hermitix. We discuss my book Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr alongside discussion on the Trinity, obedience, Ignatius of Loyola, Hans Urs von Balthasar and more.
Listen to the interview here or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Good news. I just submitted my next book maunscript - God Alone: Meditations on Holy Saturday, Mercy, and Compassion. I'm so excited for you all to read it. 93,000 words of goodness.
Here's a few lines from the Preface:
This book is about compassion — true, authentic compassion. The book comes most immediately out of my involvement with a religious movement called Heart’s Home who have used the spirituality of Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967) and Catherine Doherty (1896–1985) to serve the poorest of the poor through offering their compassionate presence. ... I believe that God alone has loved us to the utmost extent and God alone can save us. This book in eleven chapters seeks to make a complete sketch of a compassionate theology of Holy Saturday in which one theological moment will be used to interpret the most important aspects of Christianity with the hope that this theology makes Christianity relevant to you. Or, put differently, you will come to know the compassionate presence of Jesus Christ in your life.
The book will be available through Fortress Press, who published my previous book. We will have some work to do to bring it to you as soon as possible, but please keep praying and following here for news about when it is available. I can't wait for you to read it!
Lord our God give your children ready perseverance and loving care. You know all too well what we are like, moved by your goodness when it comes to us unexpectedly, dismayed by your severity when it reveals itself to us with its demands. When we live through happy or hard days Lord, we think of you, seeing what comes from you but in the monotony of every day, we grow lukewarm, we forget you, we keep you far from our thoughts and from our action as if we needed you only on the eventful days, as if we wanted to have you at our disposal.
We beg you, change this. Let us turn back while there is time, act decisively, tear out our tepidity, replace it with fire, cold or with both at once. Only allow your spirit to blow on us. Destroy everything that is not yours and let us think no thought whose center is not you so that by this destruction we are compelled to a livelier love. We do not demand of this love that it be painful or delightful only that it be yours forever. Lord, give us the grace to offer you again and again what you have given us. Only in this way will we unprofitable servants not remain fruitless. Bless your love in us so that it may yield the fruits that you desire.
Amen.
prayer from Adrienne von Speyr - more at adriennevonspeyr.net
Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr, my book is available.
“Sutton’s deep penetration into Adrienne’s mystical gifts offers an excellent introduction to her unique vision and also helps hit the ‘reveal codes’ button for von Balthasar’s theology.” - Rev. Raymond Gawronski, S.J.
I don’t write here to sell books, but do share what I create in my writing and teaching. My newest book captures the foundation of my theological and spiritual work as I develop the profound mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr. You can find out more about it here.
If you’ve read my book, would you please considering sharing it with others by reviewing it in journals or online?
“In this significant monograph, Sutton brings expositional clarity and conceptual rigor to the extensive textual legacy of Adrienne von Speyr. It is a real accomplishment.” Dr. Paul Nimmo
All your help sharing my book gives me support to work on the next book, which will be available soon. I can’t wait to share this new one with you.
“This book has the potential to do for Adrienne von Speyr’s theology what Father Edward Oakes’ Pattern of Redemption did for Hans Urs von Balthasar’s in the mid-1990s, in this case by accessibly introducing Adrienne to a generation of students and scholars.” Dr. Matthew Levering
Please read and share my book. You can find it in print and as an ebook. Thank you for caring to share these ideas.
The kind, Cyrus Olsen of the University of Scranton, reviews my book, Heaven Opens:
"The central thesis of the book is that the fulfilled mission of the Son opens heaven “to the Trinity and reveals the original image of the eternal, immanent relations of triune love”. Given that the bulk of von Speyr’s work is untranslated, Sutton’s study of the German and French renders a great service to the church and the academy in English-speaking contexts. ... Von Speyr needs an apologist capable of accounting for her analogical imagination if her trinitarian theology is to be taken more seriously today. ... Sutton may be poised to deliver an account."
Review PDF here. Citation: Cyrus P. Olsen, III (2014). Horizons, 41, pp 401-402 doi:10.1017/hor.2014.66
My new book Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr is available today.
It's available as a Paperback from Fortress Press and Amazon and also available as a Kindle or iBooks.
However you choose to read it, please write a review to let others know what you think. Please let me know too.
May Adrienne pray for us.
"Hans Urs von Balthasar is increasingly acknowledged as one of the greatest theologians of the Christian tradition. Unquestionably, he was master of Western civilization as few have ever been and brought all into the key of Christ. His spiritual mentor in this vast undertaking was Adrienne von Speyr, whose work von Balthasar held to be more important than his own. Karl Rahner famously observed that the Christian of the twenty-first century would be a mystic-or not be at all. Adrienne von Speyr models this for us: she was gifted with a 'cataract of mystical graces.' Matthew Lewis Sutton's deep penetration into her mystical gifts offers an excellent introduction to her unique vision and also helps hit the 'reveal codes' button for von Balthasar's theology."
"This book has the potential to do for Adrienne von Speyr's theology what Father Edward Oakes's Pattern of Redemption did for Hans Urs von Balthasar's in the mid-1990s, in this case by accessibly introducing Adrienne to a generation of students and scholars. Focusing on the center of her thought-the opening of heaven through Christ's obedience so that we can share even now in the relationships that characterize the life of the divine Trinity, in light of her own experience of mystical penetration into the Father's sending of the Son and Spirit-Matthew Lewis Sutton ably presents Adrienne's teaching on the full panoply of theological topics. The convergence of her theology with von Balthasar's is striking."
"Matthew Lewis Sutton's thorough, unpretentious, and lucid introduction to the person and work of Adrienne von Speyr is now the standard guide in English. Indeed, I suspect it will remain the standard for many years to come. If you're looking for an excellent introduction to Adrienne von Speyr, look no further."
"Matthew Lewis Sutton's explication of Adrienne von Speyr's insight into Christian spirituality untangles the style of the mystical writer, giving the reader access into the deep vision of this contemporary woman, which is too often dismissed as simplistic due to her uncomplicated language by some and as impenetrable due to her circular manner of her writing by others. Sutton's work uncovers wealth within subtlety and gives access to a truly inspired writer for sincere seekers of God's presence in the world. It is a must-read for those who have approached von Speyr but found her difficult to follow."
Please preorder Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr.
Now available for preorder: my new book Heaven Opens: The Trinitarian Mysticism of Adrienne von Speyr.
Adrienne von Speyr was one of the most important mystical theologians of the last century, heralded by figures like John Paul II and T.S. Eliot. However, her work has been eclipsed in many ways by her personal connection to Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Heaven Opens provides one of the first comprehensive accounts of von Speyr's theology.
My book argues that the eternal, immanent relations of the Triune God ground the mystical theological vision of von Speyr. Rooted in this vision of divine love, von Speyr's work is an account of the opening of heaven, a revelation of the Trinity's interior life turned outward to the world, that links intimately to the sacraments, prayer, the church, and the ethical life of obedience. In von Speyr's mystical theology, God as Triune journeys to us in order to brings into the inner life of the Trinity. Here, von Speyr's work is for the first time given an independent hearing, expositing its content, features, and connections, and assessing its contribution to contemporary Catholic theology.
Please preorder Heaven Opens
Hello, faithful reader,
;)
And I also host this one: vonspeyr.net. This one is all about Adrienne von Speyr (the other one is all about somebody else). I hope you will come to know Adrienne.
