My Book Reviews

Some books on Celtic Mysticism : Part 1 We Irish have always had a penchant for the mystical. According to Roman Catholic tradition , mysticism refers to a direct, intimate union and loving encounter with God. Key elements for the Church include contemplative prayer, transformative union  and sacramental participation . With this wide definition, the Church wishes t o exert its control on the experience of the divine, hence the emphasis on sacramental participation . The ministrations of the Church, through Scripture, sacraments and traditional practices allow for a privileged access as it were to the divine. We can make a generalisation here that the institutional church for much of its history was deeply suspicious of mystics because they seemed to want to make their own way to God without its intervention. However, for balance, I must point out that with regard to private revelation and mystical experiences the Roman Catholic Church recommends caution, discernment,...

For Shakespeare, being an actor, director and playwright, the stage was a central reality, both physical structure and potent image found throughout his broad corpus of work. Practically everyone who speaks English will have heard the famous line:  "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely player s.” This is the opening line of a well-known monologue called the "Seven Ages of Man" , spoken by the melancholy character Jaques in Act II, Scene VII of Shakespeare's play As You Like It . The full quotation looks like this, and I have reasons, which will become all too obvious soon, to look at its subsequent lines: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. I n this post, I wish to review one of the classic books of sociology: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, by Erving Goffman , first publish...