Ilia DelioRecensioni

intro to life, thought, writing

Like much of Ilia Delio’s writing I found this short book challenging at times, stretching me intellectually to a point where I couldn’t quite grasp and internalise the ideas and concepts Sr. Ilia was trying to convey.

But I persevered, reading some of the chapters twice and using the reflections at the end of each chapter, and having now finished the book I can say that this was time well spent.

I particularly enjoyed the last three chapters of the book.

Three of the greatest minds in Franciscan theology, Ilia Delio, O.S.F., Franciscan Keith Douglass Warner, O.F.M., and Pamela Wood, come together to discuss one of the greatest crises of our time—the destruction of the Earth. This book takes both a theological and practical approach to developing a Franciscan spirituality of the earth. Four sections highlight the distinct relationships creation has with the world: incarnation, community, contemplation and conversion. In this meticulously researched book, the authors propose ways in which we can all understand our own roles in relationship to the Earth and ways in which we can make it better.

Dense and hard to consume very much at a time, but really good. It's not a book that I particularly enjoyed reading, just because it was so much to take in...but a good deal of the material has become some of my core beliefs! I could make a book just from my highlights. She quotes Teilhard de Chardin so much that at times I wondered if I should have just read his works instead.

This book provides a fine stimulus for further reflection on this view, so fundamental to the spiritual vision of Francis and Clare. Dr. Delio here traces teh theme of God and creation from the time of the conversion of Francis through the first century of Franciscan life and thought, which culminated in the work of John Duns Scotus.

Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love explores Clare's deep desire to live the gospel life, more precisely, her desire for all of us to reflect on Christ and his crucifixion in order to see our own strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, our capacity to love. Ilia Delio illustrates how Clare, through her life, her writings, letters, prayer and example, is truly a mystic who helped generations of Catholics clearly see how Christ took on human flesh, not just to suffer and die for us, but to help us all in turn reflect back the face of Christ to the world.

Clare was not simply a follower of Francis, she was a formidable, resolute, devout and loving saint whose life centered on this essence of human identity—Christ is in each of us—and who sought to teach us to just be ourselves and to let God dwell within us. In Clare of Assisi: A Heart Full of Love, Ilia Delio shows us just how Clare's simple, but powerful beliefs transformed the way we all think about Christ—even today.

This is a book about catholicity. I hope you will not put it down too quickly if you are not Catholic, because it is not exactly about the Catholic Church but about 'catholicity' or awareness of how sun, moon, stars, Kepler, Saturn, maple trees, muddy rivers, amoeba, bacteria, and all peoples of the earth form a whole. 'Catholicity' is from a Greek word, 'katholikos', which means "of the whole" or "a sense of wholeness". This book is about wholeness and wholemaking that emerges from the nexus of catholicity, cosmology and consciousness.

This short book is dense, and rewards close reading. Delio critiques the medieval cosmology which has formed the basis of theology since Thomas Aquinas and argues for a theology based on "new" cosmology, i.e., the Big Bang theory, evolution and quantum relativity. She is, as this summary suggests, quite daring and her ideas stirred me.

A creative reconfiguration of Christian dogma in the light of the cosmology introduced into our world by quantum physics.

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From the General Introduction
The purpose of this second volume in the Series is threefold :
(1) To elaborate on the fundamental theme of “The Sacred Book Called Creation” as that was identified in the first volume in this Heritage Series by Kenan B. Osborne, The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition, Tracing Its Origins and Identifying Its Central Components (The Franciscan Institute, 2003).
(2) To illustrate the deep exchange which exists in our Tradition between experience, praxis and thought, between spirituality and theology, shown so clearly in Dr. Delio’s reflections on pietas, cortesia, the prayer of the Canticle, haecceitas and “Creation as Beloved.” The implications of this unified vision are indicated clearly in the conclusion, “What is Ours To Do.”
(3) To establish an initial theological base from which our readers can see connections between the Franciscan Tradition and contemporary modes of thinking in science, physics and environmental studies.

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