In this - the first in English by a writer of growing importance in France - the foundations are laid of a theology of culture in the tradition of de Lubac and J. H. Newman. The modernist crisis is examined from an unusual angle, and understood as never before. The fate of the Catholic liturgy in the wake of the Second Vatican Council is examined and the need for a recovery of the sense of the sacred becomes clear. In reaffirming the importance of symbolism and sacrament, in resisting the temptations of integralism and extreme traditionalism, Jean Borella recalls us to the adventure of becoming human reminding us of the patristic and Orthodox teaching on deification, and helps to re-open in us the place where 'God awaits our waiting on him' - the place where God's promises and our deepest desires are fulfilled beyond measure.

The Sense of the Supernatural

Borella, Jean

Religion & Spirituality

UNKNO

For three centuries, Christian philosophers and theologians tried to preserve God's transcendence by denying any continuity between the natural and the supernatural. In so doing they inadvertently played into the hands of those who wanted to push God to the margins, or even to deny him altogether. The result was to lay the foundations of modernism, as well as secular humanism. In this book, the foundations are laid of a theology of culture in the tradition of de Lubac and J.H. Newman. In reaffirming the importance of symbolism and sacrament, in resisting the temptations of integralism and extreme traditionalism, Jean Borella recalls us to the adventure of becoming human.

Christian Books & Bibles

A selection of key writings from the French religious philosopher, Jean Borella.Gathering key writings from the French religious philosopher Jean Borella’s works, this book moves the reader from the immediacy of the physical world to a world deep within ourselves. Throughout Borella’s writings, there is a “resurrectional” power to his words, a way of seeing things that “makes all things new,” that endows us with an ability to look anew on Christ and his Body the Church. Translator and editor G. John Champoux has used a selection from Saint Bonaventure’s The Soul’s Journey into God to preface each of Borella’s writings and to show how these insights can take us from our ordinary surroundings into our innermost world.

The Secret of the Christian Way: A Contemplative Ascent through the Writings of Jean Borella (Western Esoteric Traditions)

State University of New York Press

A selection of key writings from the French religious philosopher, Jean Borella. Gathering key writings from the French religious philosopher Jean Borella’s works, this book moves the reader from the immediacy of the physical world to a world deep within ourselves. Throughout Borella’s writings, there is a “resurrectional” power to his words, a way of seeing things that “makes all things new,” that endows us with an ability to look anew on Christ and his Body the Church. Translator and editor G. John Champoux has used a selection from Saint Bonaventure’s The Soul’s Journey into God to preface each of Borella’s writings and to show how these insights can take us from our ordinary surroundings into our innermost world.

René Guénon's explication of the principles of an interior understanding of sacred forms has established his reputation in the West as the master theorist of esoterism. But till now his doctrine has not been the focus of thorough study in Christian circles, and this has had serious consequences. Guénonian Esoterism and Christian Mystery is the first major work to combine an analysis of Guénon's ideas about esoterism with a critical examination of their application to Christianity in terms of data provided by Christianity itself. But to accomplish this, such data cannot simply be surveyed superficially-it must be known firsthand; hence the abundance of citations and references in this text. Such an approach not only lets us decide about certain issues, but may also help us rediscover an all too misunderstood facet of the revelation of Christ. Jean Borella taught philosophy at the University of Nancy until 1995. A Platonist by formation, he has been strongly influenced by Guénon and Eastern metaphysics. But his deepest inspiration derives from unceasing meditation on the Christian faith, which led him to undertake the present searching critique of 'Guénonian Christianity'. A religious philosopher, he strives to hear the reverberations awakened in human thought by revelation.

Guenonian Esoterism And Christian Mystery

Champoux, G. John

Sophia Perennis

René Guénon's explication of the principles of an interior understanding of sacred forms has established his reputation in the West as the master theorist of esoterism. But till now his doctrine has not been the focus of thorough study in Christian circles, and this has had serious consequences. Guénonian Esoterism and Christian Mystery is the first major work to combine an analysis of Guénon's ideas about esoterism with a critical examination of their application to Christianity in terms of data provided by Christianity itself. But to accomplish this, such data cannot simply be surveyed superficially-it must be known firsthand; hence the abundance of citations and references in this text. Such an approach not only lets us decide about certain issues, but may also help us rediscover an all too misunderstood facet of the revelation of Christ. Jean Borella taught philosophy at the University of Nancy until 1995. A Platonist by formation, he has been strongly influenced by Guénon and Eastern metaphysics. But his deepest inspiration derives from unceasing meditation on the Christian faith, which led him to undertake the present searching critique of 'Guénonian Christianity'. A religious philosopher, he strives to hear the reverberations awakened in human thought by revelation. "Rene Guenon was one of the great metaphysical minds of the last few centuries, and it was a great loss to the Catholic Church when he converted to Islam.  Prof. Borella shows in this landmark study exactly where Guenon's work remains of perennial value for Christians, but also demonstrates the limitations and personal idiosyncrasies which led Guenon to distort some of the most important elements of Catholic and Orthodox doctrine.  Prof. Borella's book may well stimulate the recovery of authentic metaphysics within the Church for which Guenon longed, but which he despaired of seeing in his lifetime." -Stratford Caldecott Editor, Second Spring, Director (UK) of the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture

The Crisis of Religious Symbolism & Symbolism and Reality

Combined here in one volume are two books, The Crisis of Religious Symbolism and Symbolism and Reality. Although published seven years apart, these two works are integral to one another. Symbolism and Reality represents a kind of sabbath rest--its subtitle says “reflection”--after the mighty works of The Crisis of Religious Symbolism, where the deep structures of three hundred years of Western philosophical and cultural development are brought to the surface, analyzed, and made meaningful in the light of what Jean Borella has termed “the metaphysics of the symbol.” Together, these two books represent a cleansing and restoration of a Christian vision of the world. Through Jean Borella’s witness to the death and resurrection of religious symbolism presented here, we are given entrance to a world renewed in Christ.
 “Borella’s writing shines with wayside jewels of intuition, as well as proceeding with a rich vein of theological reasoning.”--Malachi Martin

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis

Combined here in one volume are two books, The Crisis of Religious Symbolism and Symbolism and Reality. Although published seven years apart, these two works are integral to one another. Symbolism and Reality represents a kind of sabbath rest--its subtitle says "reflection"--after the mighty works of The Crisis of Religious Symbolism, where the deep structures of three hundred years of Western philosophical and cultural development are brought to the surface, analyzed, and made meaningful in the light of what Jean Borella has termed "the metaphysics of the symbol." Together, these two books represent a cleansing and restoration of a Christian vision of the world. Through Jean Borella's witness to the death and resurrection of religious symbolism presented here, we are given entrance to a world renewed in Christ.
 "Borella's writing shines with wayside jewels of intuition, as well as proceeding with a rich vein of theological reasoning."--Malachi Martin
 The French Catholic religious philosopher Jean Borella (b. 1930) taught metaphysics and the history of ancient and medieval philosophy at the University of Nancy II until his retirement in 1995. Besides the present works on sacred symbology, he has also written important texts on charity, analogy, Christian gnosis, mystical theology, and sacred exegesis. His latest work is To the Biblical Sources of Metaphysics (2015).

Angelico Press

In Christ the Original Mystery (a republication of the work issued in 2004 as Guénonian Esoterism and Christian Mystery), René Guénon's insights into the problems of the modern world, symbolism, and metaphysics are masterfully situated by Jean Borella within the horizons of the Christian Mystery, the sacraments, and the mystical way.

Christ the Original Mystery: Esoterism and the Mystical Way, With Special Reference to the Works of René Guénon

René Guénon’s explication of the principles of an interior understanding of sacred forms has established his reputation in the West as the master theorist of esoterism. But until now his doctrine has not been the focus of thorough study in Christian circles. Christ the Original Mystery (a republication of the work issued in 2004 as Guénonian Esoterism and Christian Mystery) is the first major work to combine an analysis of Guénon’s ideas about esoterism with a critical examination of their application to Christianity. Here Guénon’s remarkable insights into the problems of the modern world, symbolism, and metaphysics are masterfully situated by Jean Borella within the horizons of the Christian Mystery, the sacraments, and the mystical way. “In this brilliant study of Christian esoterism and mysticism, Jean Borella accomplishes several urgent goals: he establishes a nuanced definition of esoterism that respects the fundamental priority of divine revelation; he demonstrates the myriad ways in which René Guénon, father of modern esoterism, misread the Christian mysteries by ignoring the testimony of scripture and the early Church Fathers; and he points the way towards a life-giving exploration of the Christian inner life based on the orthodox teaching of deification. This last achievement may be the book’s highlight, as Borella introduces his readers to a number of little-known or forgotten texts of the highest order, including the anonymous The Evangelical Pearl, Benedict of Canfield’s The Rule of Perfection, and Louis Laneau’s On the Deification of the Just—works of profound Christian spirituality.”—PHILIP ZALESKI, Research Associate, Department of Religion, Smith College; co-author of Prayer: A History “René Guénon was one of the great metaphysical minds of the last few centuries. Jean Borella shows in this landmark study exactly where Guénon’s work remains of perennial value for Christians, but also demonstrates the limitations and personal idiosyncrasies that led him to distort some of the most important elements of Catholic and Orthodox doctrine. This book may well stimulate the recovery of authentic metaphysics within the Church for which Guénon longed, but which he despaired of seeing in his lifetime.”—STRATFORD CALDECOTT, author of The Radiance of Being: Dimensions of Cosmic Christianity “Exhaustively documented and brilliantly conceived, this monumental treatise refutes a Guénonian thesis regarding the limits of Christianity and reaffirms the Patristic doctrine of theosis as the consummation of the Christian Way.”—WOLFGANG SMITH, author of Christian Gnosis from St. Paul to Meister Eckhart

Christ the Original Mystery: Esoterism and the Mystical Way, With Special Reference to the Works of Rene Guenon

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Borella, Jean. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Borella, Jean

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Borella, Jean. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Sense of the Supernatural

The Sense of the Supernatural

The Secret of the Christian Way: A Contemplative Ascent through the Writings of Jean Borella (Western Esoteric Traditions)

The Secret of the Christian Way: A Contemplative Ascent through the Writings of Jean Borella (Western Esoteric Traditions)

Guenonian Esoterism And Christian Mystery

Guenonian Esoterism And Christian Mystery

The Crisis of Religious Symbolism & Symbolism and Reality

The Crisis of Religious Symbolism & Symbolism and Reality

Christ the Original Mystery: Esoterism and the Mystical Way, With Special Reference to the Works of René Guénon

Christ the Original Mystery: Esoterism and the Mystical Way, With Special Reference to the Works of Rene Guenon