The Secret of the Christian Way

A selection of key writings from the French religious philosopher, Jean Borella.

A selection of key writings from the French religious philosopher, Jean Borella.

Gathering key writings from the French religious philosopher Jean Borella's works, this book moves the reader from the immediacy of the physical world to a world deep within ourselves. Throughout Borella's writings, there is a "resurrectional" power to his words, a way of seeing things that "makes all things new," that endows us with an ability to look anew on Christ and his Body the Church. Translator and editor G. John Champoux has used a selection from Saint Bonaventure's The Soul's Journey into God to preface each of Borella's writings and to show how these insights can take us from our ordinary surroundings into our innermost world.

Jean Borella is a retired Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at the University of Nancy II. He is the author of many books, including most recently, Le sens du surnaturel, Symbolisme et réalité, and Ésotérisme guénonien et mystère chrétien. G. John Champoux has also translated Jean Borella's The Sense of the Supernatural.

"A noted French professor of Christian theology, Borella combines careful historical scholarship with traditionalist (largely Guenonian) metaphysics to produce a series of poetically charged meditations on the Christian mysteries, which together constitute a kind of 'esoteric systematic theology.' This is unlike any other work I know. There are, of course, many other systematic approaches to doctrine, other sensitive analyses of fundamental religious symbols, and other claims to uncovering the esoteric essence of the Christian tradition. But this book combines them all, in a way that is consistently fresh and yet always thoughtfully grounded." — James S. Cutsinger, author of Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon

"By showing that authentic gnosticism is an example of the esoteric current found in all religion, this book balances many superficial judgments about gnosticism. It is an exceptionally penetrating view of a fascinating and widely misunderstood subject." — Jacob Needleman, author of Time and the Soul and coeditor of Modern Esoteric Spirituality