Robert Bellarmine: Spiritual Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality)

This was a difficult book for me to complete. St. Robert is very doctrinaire, in my opinion, and the subject matter can be considered quite controversial. His writings drew me in a closer, more meaningful relationship with our God. I wish our church would pay more attention to and expound on the church's teachings more like St. Robert. If you are a cafeteria Catholic, lukewarm, or liberal, save your money. You will not be happy with the positions taken by Saint Bellarmine and you probably are happy where you are. You may want to borrow the book from a Catholic who takes his or her faith more seriously. I'm sorry if my frankness and up-front opinion is offensive to you. If you find it objectionable, please ask our God to forgive and enlighten me.

A book for mature Christians to learn how to live in order to have a good death.

Perfectly described! Exactly what I expected. A theological reference book.

I received the book quickly and in great condition. Awesome and intense reading

Book arrived in good condition and I found it quite interesting regarding the life of St. Robert Bellarmine. The second part of the book, one of his classic writings on the spiritual life, was uplifting as well as very informative.

IT'S JUST GREAT WRITING BY MY NAME SAINT![[ASIN:0809128756 Robert Bellarmine: Spiritual Writings (Classics of Western Spirituality)]PLEASANTLY SURPRISED!!! TO THINK I MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS BOOK AND HIS SPIRITUAL INSIGHTS. (A DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH INDEED)

This is only indirectly a review of the work of the authors/editors of this book, rather the massive effort at what might be called "soft focus" intellectually in this whole series of the Classics of Spirituality. I give the whole series point, which I remember well from my time in the Roman Catholic Church for their physical attractiveness as books. But I also remember well the sense in the whole series that inconvenient contradtictions in the details of various spiritual figures were being edited out or put into a "soft focus". Yet I only recently realized why. The original Editor in Chief of this whole affair, Richard Payne, has apparently benefitted from the tendency of the Roman Catholic Church to push forward characters who advance their agenda in inter-religious dialogue. Payne went on to produce a video series called SaintsAlive for catholic cable that is just the perfect representative of the essentially propagandist nature of this man's effort in life apparently. His video on Robert Bellarmine, as described on a show from with Mitch Pacwa (available online) , is just the most ridiculous miss-mash of intellectual history it is hard to even comprehend it. And that this is the same man who was the overall Editor of this Spirituality series, and apparently was pushed by Catholic influences to get on Interfaith Dialogues inferences, just shows the incredible reach and unfair nature of Catholic ambitions, which by the way flout some of the better aspects of the tradition. A big for instance, is that Payne claims in the cable interview that Bellarmine's Thomistic thought is the the foundation of American Constitutional Law and ideals of the Founders. LOL!!!! He actually claimed on TV that American notions of equality and separation of powers comes from the Medieval era. And in the SaintsAlive show the example they have come out of the saint's mouth, are so vague as to be ridiculous as to any direct connection the US founder's ideas. What an intellectual malfeasance. I marvel that this can be the same person who was Editor of this series. No wonder Catholic approaches to interfaith dialogue have been so vexed. It just shows what lengths they will go to. What kind of specious reasoning is being put forth by this character, Mr. Payne. He is welcome to his belief, but he is not welcome to massively represent intellectual history. . It is a shame that the Catholic Church has participated in this misrepresentation of simple intellectual history. The propagandistic reason seems clear judging from his SaintsAlive show on ireneus of Lyon where he commits a really an atrocity of misjudgment. It is claimed there Freemasonry's ideals were somehow the source for Nazi ideas. This is such a whopper of lie it is hard to even fathom of it. It is simply false as to history, yet they dimly bear false witness in a giant way. Freemasonry's ideals were a true verifiable source for the ideals of the Founder's of the US, and so this assertion is just a bit of craziness, how could the same this vision be related to totalitarianism. . But it is indicative of the nonsense that gets put forth from some ( not all!) Catholic apologists. Shame on them truly in their actions to their fellow citizens, It is the opposite of intellectual integrity.