In No Strange Land: The Embodied Mysticism of Saint Philip Neri

by Jonathan Robinson

In No Strange Land illuminates the richness of mysticism--in the life of Philip Neri--as an “experience of the activity of God.” The life of the Apostle of Rome demonstrates that it is primarily people, not arguments, that reveal the mysteries of God. Philip’s experience of God, his mysticism, was given him for the sake of others. Furthermore, that experience itself was embodied; that is to say awakened, nourished, and brought to fruition within the religious tradition into which he was born, and from which he lived--in particular the Church of Renaissance Florence and Rome, with its own particular appropriation of Christianity. It is this sacramental life that places mysticism beyond the merely private and esoteric, and allows for the mystic, in Newman’s phrase, “to use this world well.” 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. “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 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

Genres: Religion

308 pages, Paperback

Published June 23, 2015

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was quite a dense read. Jonathan Robinson, founder of the Oratory in Toronto, sythesizes a lifetime of learning into this book. The introduction (which is rather long) outlines his goal for the book, which is to provide an account of St Philip Neri's mysticism by looking into the environment in which he lived, but also examining this with definition of 'mysticism'. To provide a proper explanation of mysticism, Robinson prefers the approach of Aquinas to that of William James, which he finds reductionistic and materialistic. However, finding Aquinas too scientific, he chooses to use the "purgative, illuminative, and unitive" way of St Gregory of Nyssa to supply a model for his inquiry. Each chapter broadly follows St Philip's life and examines it to see how it affected his spirituality, which varying degrees of success. The author frequently gets lost in philosophizing to the point where the saint is almost completely obsured.

Robinson takes a look into the spiritual and political environment of Florence in the decades preceding St Philip's birth, and pays particular attention to St Catherine of Siena and Savonarola, both of whom had positive impacts on his pysche. While Savonarola and Philip would both win converts by their charisma, St Philip would ultimately reject the harsh ways of the former in favor of a gentler, kinder approach that won souls through friendship.

As mentioned earlier, there are times when St Philip seems to be crowded out by theory and jargon. Robinson tries to synthesize the various biographies that have been written about the saint, weighing evidence about certain events or aspects of his life. This is well and good, but Robinson occasionally appears all too ready to excise with his academic scalpel anything that sniffs of hagiography.

If you wish to gain a better picture of this great saint, at least of a more general nature, I would recommend Paul Turks'"St Philip Neri: Fire of Joy". I applaud Fr Robinson for probing an interesting topic and valuable insights, but I finished the book thinking his research had led him to stray too far from the subject matter.

[Stephen Duquaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed opinions on this book. I like that he did thorough research on the facts of St. Philip’s life and explained fabrications that hagiographies have proposed. It gave me a better picture of the real St. Philip Neri. However, this was actually part theology textbook, part philosophy textbook, and dry history textbook. It was difficult to get through parts and even whole chapters because he seemed to get lost in explaining spiritual theology and human anthropology. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this book to an average Catholic. One must be well versed in philosophy and theology before reading this book.

[Tyler Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half mystical theology/Christian mysticism and its history, half biography. Interesting to learn about the man who Tolkien chose as his patron saint, and who JH Newman (MY patron) chose as his. Great example of a Catholic reformer. But even more fascinating was the unfolding of mysticism throughout Christian history, the putting of Greg of Nyssa and Theresa of Avila in conversation with each other, and so forth (even Luther is mentioned a handful of times, though not exactly positively). Great read. Not too difficult.