Desire, Darkness, and Hope

For some decades, the work of Carmelite theologian Constance FitzGerald, OCD, has been a well-known secret, not only among students and practitioners of Carmelite spirituality, but also among spiritual directors, spiritual writers, retreatants, vowed religious women and men, and Christian theologians.

This collection sets out to introduce the work of Sister Constance to a wider and more diverse audience––women and men who seek to strengthen themselves on the spiritual journey, who yearn to deepen personal or scholarly theological and religious reflection, and who want to make sense of the times in which we live. To this end, this volume curates seven of Sister Constance’s articles with probing and responsive essays written by ten theologians.

Contributors include:

• Susie Paulik Babka
• Colette Ackerman, OCD
• Roberto S. Goizueta
• Margaret R. Pfeil
• Alex Milkulich
• Andrew Prevot
• Laurie Cassidy
• Maria Teresa Morgan
• Bryan N. Massingale
• M. Catherine Hilkert, OP

Laurie Cassidy, PhD, is a theologian and spiritual director currently teaching in the Christian Spirituality Program at Creighton University. An award-winning author and editor, her books include Interrupting White Privilege: Catholic Theologians Break the Silence, edited with Alex Mikulich. Her latest book, The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-Incarceration: A Non-Violent Spirituality of White Resistance, is co-authored Alex Mikulich and Margaret Pfeil. As well as being an anti-racist activist, she has ministered in the area of spirituality for the past thirty years and provided spiritual direction, retreats, and workshops across the United States. Her research and writing explore the political and cultural impact of Christian mysticism in personal and social transformation.

M. Shawn Copeland, professor of systematic theology emerita at Boston College, is an internationally recognized and award-winning scholar. She is the author and/or editor of six books, including Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience and Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being, as well as articles and essays on spirituality, theological anthropology, political theology, social suffering, gender, and race.