In No Strange Land

In No Strange Land: The Embodied Mysticism of Saint Philip Neri by Jonathan Robinson of the Oratory, 274 pages

In No Strange Land is not quite a biography, although it has biographical elements, and Robinson has clearly put a great deal of thought and study into his understanding of St Philip Neri's life and work.  Robinson's main goal, however, is to examine the ways in which mysticism is inevitably embodied within a religious context, and that it cannot be abstracted outside of that context without serious deformation.  This presents a direct challenge to the school of thought which is epitomized by William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience.

While Robinson's study of mysticism is a solid contribution to an unfortunately underdeveloped field, it is the biographical elements of his book that will interest most readers.  St Philip Neri lived in a time of crisis and upheaval in the Church and in the world, and pursued his own unique vocation of reform and renewal, crafting a work that has reverberated down the centuries.  Sadly, he still has not received a great biographical study, but Robinson, like Bl John Henry Newman before him, provides fragments towards one.