The Bonds of Love: St. Peter Damian's Theology of the Spiritual Life

St Peter Damian (1007-1072) is an exceptional example of a paradox that is found in many saints and thinkers through the ages (St Jerome, St Bernard, St Bridget of Sweden, St Teresa of Avila and Thomas Merton come to mind) - of a lifelong tension between two competing vocations: the call to solitude and holiness and the call to prophetic social and ecclesial engagement.The author has explored this tension throughout his adult life, both in his published work and in his own life as an Episcopalian/Anglican priest and later bishop. Damian's "The Book of 'The Lord be with you'" is a profound exploration of the spirituality of solitude, whereas his "Book of Gomorrah" is an intense attack on clerical sexual abuse which has helped to give Damian a new recent prominence in the light of the huge challenges facing the Church today.The Bonds of Love shows that the paradox at the heart of Damian's life and everything he cared about was rooted in the remarkable theology of love which finds express