Publisher's Synopsis
Two powerful motives weave beneath the surface of our spiritual history: the desire to know and the desire to love. The secret history of the West is the story of saints, mystics, alchemists, poets, and philosophers trying to unite these two streams and celebrate the sacred marriage of Logos and Sophia, Word and Wisdom. This book, an impressionistic history of the Western spiritual tradition, follows the traces-from ancient Greece into modern times-of those who sought to know the world and themselves, while realizing that they must overcome themselves to love the world and each other.
"Christopher Bamford is one of the few who can wed sagacity and beauty. Reading a text like this sets the heart on fire with love of God and gratitude for those who have devoted their lives, with whatever measure of success, to the myriad paths of the Christian life." -from the Introduction by Philip Zaleski
"Admirers of Christopher Bamford have long waited the great work on the Christian esoteric tradition that they knew he harbored. Now it appears, with all the benefits of ripeness and a life lived with rare spiritual intensity. This is a book to be read and revisited as one's own wisdom grows, hopefully, to meet it." -Joscelyn Godwin, author of Harmonies of Heaven and Earth
"This profoundly spiritual book…reveals the hidden unity between matter and spirit, between humanity, nature and the divine. Bamford writes under the sign of Hermes and in the tradition of the great spiritual romantics Novalis, Goethe, and Blake. At heart, his work, like theirs, embodies the mystical currents of Christianity. We are fortunate indeed to have such a voice in times like these." -Arthur Versluis, author of Restoring Paradise, Wisdom's Children
Christopher Bamford is the editor-in-chief of SteinerBooks and Lindsfarne Books. A Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association, he has lectured, taught, and written widely on Western spiritual and esoteric traditions, and is a contributing editor to Lapis magazine. He is the author, translator, and editor to numerous books, including The Voice of the Eagle; Celtic Christianity: Ecology and Holiness; Homage to Pythagoras; Rediscovering Sacred Science; and The Noble Traveller. An essay of his was included in the HarperSanFransico anthology Best Spiritual Writing 2000.
