With great deftness, Fr. Robinson traverses biographical, historical, and theological domains as he examines the nature of experience, the roles of knowledge and love in prayer, and the primacy of grace in the accomplishment of salvation. Informative and engaging, In No Strange Land is an outstanding contribution to Renaissance biography, historical theology, and the study of mysticism.
Editorial Reviews
"Anyone interested in St. Philip Neri will surely find something of great value here. In a way, it is a study of 'mysticism' in which Philip is the case-study. A wide-ranging and wise book."--JOHN RIST, author of Real Ethics and Plato's Moral Realism
"In this lucidly argued and very readable book, Fr. Jonathan Robinson interweaves an attractive portrait of the great sixteenth-century reformer St. Philip Neri with an equally persuasive reworking of themes in classical Catholic doctrine of the spiritual life, thus inviting readers to reflect on our own hopes for sanctity in the midst of an indifferent and even deeply hostile cultural environment."--FERGUS KERR, O.P., author of Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians and After Aquinas
"A resident of Rome cannot avoid walking streets where even after more than four centuries the memory of St. Philip Neri remains alive. Turning a corner on some narrow Roman lane, as it were, in Jonathan Robinson's new book we encounter this remarkable saint--one of the great mystics of the Church, a living witness to us, as much as to his contemporaries, of the reality and mercy of God. Father Robinson breaks new ground in this highly original study of St. Philip Neri, presenting a new perspective on the character and mission of the saint."--ARCHBISHOP J. AUGUSTINE DI NOIA, O.P., Assistant Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; author of The Diversity of Religions: A Christian Perspective
"Jonathan Robinson offers an intensely thoughtful and impressively well-informed investigation of Filippo Neri and his age--subtly nuanced but clearly and cogently expressed, imbued with deft humor and wry understatement. An intriguing account of a remarkable individual's life and faith, this book also figures as a major achievement in the field of contextual history--illuminating the human realities of sixteenth-century Florence and Rome."--EDWARD GOLDBERG, author of After Vasari and Jews and Magic in Medici Florence