Review by Choice Review
Books that compare thinkers without direct historical or intellectual links to each other frequently lose vision and bite very quickly. Not so this study by Nava (Univ. of Arizona) of Weil and Gutierrez--it keeps focus on a transcending larger picture, namely, the importance of an essential unity of activist, prophetic thought, and mystical, contemplative thought. This focus then allows Nava to show how that unity of mystical and prophetic thought is essential to understanding both thinkers, and vice versa. Thus the book is helpful on two fronts: as a contribution to contemporary moral theology and philosophy, and as a contribution to understanding Weil and Gutierrez themselves, who have too often been falsely pigeonholed as strictly mystical or prophetic, but certainly not both. Nava shows significant distinctive contributions each thinker makes to the larger unified picture--e.g., Weil's penetrating understanding of tragedy and its relation to God's goodness--and he brings the best of contemporary scholarship on mysticism to bear on his subject. He does not gloss over important differences where they exist. Warmly recommended for courses and collections in contemporary theology, ethics, moral philosophy, and mysticism. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and researchers. E. O. Springsted Princeton Theological Seminary
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
