Cambridge Platonist Spirituality edited by Charles Taliaferro, Alison J. Teply, Jaroslav Pelikan (Classics of Western Spirituality: Paulist Press) presents a collection of essays, poetry, and treatises by the Cambridge Platonists, a movement in philosophical theology that flourished around Cambridge University in the 17th century and left a profound impact on the shape of subsequent religious life in the English speaking world. This school of thought emphasized the great goodness of God, the concord between reason and faith, an integrated life of virtue, and the deep joy of living in concord with God.

In an important introduction, the editors situate the Cambridge Platonist movement in its historical and religious setting: the decades of turbulence and political crises surrounding the English Civil War. They then offer brief biographical portraits of the principal members of the movement: Benjamin Whichcote; Henry More; Ralph Cudworth; John Smith; Peter Sterry; and Nathaniel Culverwell.

Following the introduction is a representative sample of the Cambridge Platonist writings. Scholars and students of 17th-century England, Christian spirituality of the early modern era, intellectual history, and faith and reason will appreciate this treatment of the spiritual life and work of an often overlooked, but significant, movement.

Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola by Catherine Conybeare (Oxford Early Christian Studies: Oxford University Press) This literate and accessible study examines the profound impact Paulinus had on Christian thought during a crucial period of its development. The letters of Paulinus and his correspondents portray an early Christian 'web' of shared concepts, intellectual discussion, and group development. Catherine Conybeare examines how the very process of writing and transmitting letters between members of a community helped to bind that community together and to aid the creation of ideas that would continue to reverberate for centuries. Paulinus was key to that group iconic as a model of behavior, as a conversion success story, and as an intellectual contributor able to bridge the old world and the new. A subtext shows how this network of new converts that included Augustine among others Christianized Neoplatonism.

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