Saint Catherine of Siena: Mystic of Fire, Preacher of Freedom
Author: Paul Murray O.P.
Date: 2020
Publisher: Word on Fire
Institute
ISBN: 978-1-943243-64-8
pp. 184 hbk
If ever the
world needed the help and wisdom of Caterina di Giacomo di Benincasa, St Catherine of
Siena, it is now. In Professor Murray’s eyes, the ‘mystic of fire’, as he calls
her, speaks as clearly and loudly now as she did 650 years ago in her beloved
native Italy. ‘For all her brilliance’, as he writes in the Introduction to his
new book on her, ‘Catherine comes across to us more as an apostle than an
intellectual, more as a preacher than a scholar’ (iv). In this respect she
shares her theological method with her great late medieval sisters, Julian of
Norwich and Teresa of Avila (proclaimed, like Catherine, a Doctor of the
Church, 50 years ago in 1970 by St Pope Paul VI) - not scholastic but rather
women who speak to the hearts and minds of the faithful by means of direct
expression and exhortation. We will look in vain for a Summa from these women but rather, according to Murray, what we get
from Catherine is a ‘Summa set on
fire, her writings characterized not by academic speculation but rather by a
passionate and anguished concern for the salvation of the world’ (iv). And it is
on these dual aspects of Catherine’s message – her ‘mystical fire’ and her
‘preaching of freedom’ that Murray dwells in this attractive book. His work has
three distinctive parts. First, ‘Bondage into Freedom’, looks at the role of
freedom in Catherine’s writing. As unexpected as it is welcome, Murray wants to
show how the extraordinary and passionate life of Catherine, her brave
encounters with the ‘powers’ of her day, stem directly from a theology of
freedom that pervades her writing. To this end he brings her into conversation
with the first of two intriguing partners: the Renaissance Platonist and
philosopher, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. In the second part, ‘Fire and
Shadow: Catherine’s Vision of the Self’, Murray examines Catherine’s writing on
self-knowledge and, like freedom, the central role that this plays in her
message. Here he introduces his second conversation partner, the 20th
Century Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. In particular, he explores here the
notion of ‘shadow’ in Jung and Catherine. Finally, the last section, ‘Laudare,
Benedicere, Praedicare’ is possibly the most Dominican section of the book as
he emphasizes the importance of praise, blessing and preaching in Catherine’s
theology. Again, Murray’s exposition of Catherine’s approach to prayer, the
wellspring of Christian life; apostolic ministry, especially to the poor and
marginalized and evangelical proclamation of the Gospel, offers a substantial
pastoral (Dominican) theology of practice which he demands the reader takes
seriously as a call to a new ‘order of life’. As with so much of Murray’s
writing what is attractive in this new book is that the reader can approach it
on several levels. For the serious scholar of Christian spirituality there are
riches indeed here. The author’s own translations of Catherine’s writings,
especially her letters, are fresh and appealing and in themselves are worth the
read. However (scholar of Christian spirituality as I am) I turned first and
avidly to the chapters on Pico della Mirandola and Jung. I was not
disappointed. By placing Catherine into dialogue with Mirandola, one of the leading
lights of Renaissance thought, we see how Catherine was very much a daughter of
her times, fitting into the open and questing culture of early Renaissance
Italy. It is not for nothing that she was canonized by her fellow Sienese,
Aeneas Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) a renowned master of Renaissance scholarship.
It is doubtful whether (Anglophone) scholars of Catherine will have read much
of Mirandola and by including substantial extracts from his writings it is
hoped that the author will initiate a deeper interest in this key figure.
Mirandola’s notion of umanesimo -
humanity balanced between heaven and earth in a unique act of creation by God, as
expressed in the ‘Oration on the Dignity of Man’ – perfectly complements
Murray’s exposition of Catherine’s sacred humanity. As Mirandola expresses it
in words given to God the Creator in an imaginary conversation with Adam: ‘We
have made you neither celestial nor terrestrial, neither mortal now immortal,
so that, as the free and sovereign sculptor of your own being, you can fashion
yourself into whatever image you choose’ (p.30). In contrast, perhaps, Carl
Jung will be better known to readers of the book. Or is he? Following that
great Dominican son of Croydon, Victor White O.P., Murray questions some
received wisdom on Jung and quotes White with approval: ‘I think the
friendliness of Jung represents a far more serious and radical challenge to
religion as we know it than did ever the hostility of Freud’ (p.83). For White,
in his dialogue with Jung, this came down to Jung’s understanding of the shadow
and evil, which White, good Thomist that he was, interpreted through the
Angelic Doctor’s lens of ‘privatio boni’. In this respect Catherine too is a
true daughter of the Order as she proclaims that in God there can be no shadow
only ‘light surpassing all other light’ (p.84). In navigating these
psycho-spiritual rapids I usually advise students to recognise and acknowledge
Jung’s clinical importance and contribution whilst gently critiquing his less
well developed ventures into Christian theology. Fortunately Murray adopts a
similar tactic and accordingly allows us to see the profound psychological
wisdom of Catherine, tempered as always by her Dominican worldview. But for
those less interesting in academic disputes on the nature of evil, the book
will be equally rewarding. The final section, in particular, is a heartfelt
exposition of Catherine’s ‘practical theology’ by a celebrated modern master of
the subject. Throughout, Murray echoes Catherine in stressing that ‘I am not
writing to you about what God has done and is still doing, because there is no
language or pen up to the task’ (p.114), but rather rests his commentary on the
interface of ‘what can be said’ and ‘what cannot be said’. Catherine, through
Professor Murray’s pen, makes manifest the divine healing love of God that, as
I stated at the outset, the world sorely needs right now. A book to treasure
and return to.
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