A Light to the Gentiles

Description

Van Kaam authored this classic biography of Francis Libermann, a 19th-century French Jewish convert to Catholicism who was a member of the Spartan order. It is clear that the author’s love for Libermann deeply affected his own understanding of the dynamics of purifying formation, illuminating reformation, and unifying transformation. The “Jew of Saverne” understood the Paschal Mystery as few Christians have. Libermann carried the cross—his “crucifying epiphany”—with the joy of his “resurrection epiphany,” letting go of the “old man of flesh” and becoming a new man in Christ Jesus.

This is at once a work of exquisite scholarship and a labor of love that highlights the brilliance of a founder of a religious community, a great educator, and evangelizer, a suffering servant, and a man of immense gentleness and compassion for abandoned souls everywhere. No other life of Libermann so fills our spirit, heart, mind, and soul as this one. [Auth Adrian van Kaam /Pub Wipf & Stock]