https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/15374 2026-08-24T11:15:18Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148601 Title: «L’hôte et la maison sont une seule et même chose.» La sapience accueillie et habitée dans La théologie mystique de Jean De Saint-Samson Authors: Camilleri, Charló Abstract: En 1655, Donatien de Saint-Nicolas, a publié Le Vray Esprit du Carmel, rassemblant divers entretiens que le maître spirituel Jean de Saint-Samson prononçait au profit de ses disciples. Ceux-ci ont ensuite été intégrés aux OEuvres complètes publiées en deux tomes entre 1658 et 1659. Dans ces entretiens, le maître, aveugle de son corps, éclaire l’audacieuse voie mystique de ceux qui s’engagent sur le chemin de l’intériorité, là où l’on prend conscience que l’on est accueillant de la Sapience qui l’accueille. [excerpt] 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148599 Title: “Our time, too, should have its own concept of God” : reimagining the divine in conversation with Titus Brandsma, Ken Wilber, Kevin Hart, and Jean-Luc Marion Authors: Camilleri, Charló Abstract: When Titus Brandsma delivered his 1932 inaugural address Godsbegrip (Concept of God), Europe stood on the precipice of terrifying ideological currents. The rise of National Socialism, with its racist idolatry of race and nation, was for Brandsma a renewed form of paganism“neo-paganism” in his words, threatening Christian spirituality and human dignity alike. Brandsma saw in Nazi ideology a perversion of authentic religious experience, a false god-image wielded to justify violence and oppression. His theological inter - vention was not merely academic; it was a prophetic call to articulate a concept of God rooted in human dignity, love, and mystery, capable of challenging totalitarian idols. Schoonenberg comments that “his recognition of God shaped his philosophy. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148290 Title: A spiritual phenomenology of miniature spaces : reading Gaston Bachelard’s The poetics of space Authors: Attard, Glen Abstract: Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) was a French philosopher whose intellectual journey led him from the sciences to poetics, and from epistemology to a deeply introspective phenomenology of the imagination. His early academic career was rooted in the philosophy of science, in which he made significant contributions to the understanding of scientific knowledge, discontinuity, and epistemological rupture. In the 1940s, however, Bachelard’s focus shi!ed toward a different kind of knowing, not analytic or empirical, but intuitive, poetic, intimate. The Poetics of Space (La poétique de l’espace) was published in 1957 near the end of Bachelard’s life. It stands as one of his most enduring and widely read works, partly because it marks a decisive turn away from scientific thought to phenomenological reflection. Bachelard does not analyse space as a geometric or physical category, but as something deeply lived and experienced, especially through poetic imagery. [excerpt] 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148289 Title: Spirituality as a discerned experience : the Maltese contribution Authors: Attard, Glen; Camilleri, Charló Abstract: For much of the twentieth century, spirituality within Catholic theological faculties occupied an ambiguous academic position. While spiritual traditions, mystical authors, and devotional practices were widely studied, they were o!en treated as supplementary to the core theological disciplines rather than as constituting a field with its own methodological integrity. Spirituality was frequently located at the intersection of dogmatic theology, moral theology, and pastoral formation, without clearly articulating its own object of study or research methodology.; This situation was not unique to Malta. Across many theological faculties, spirituality long remained a loosely defined area concerned primarily with the historical study of saints, spiritual writers, and devotional practices. Only gradually did scholars begin to argue that spirituality should be recognised as a distinct theological discipline concerned with the interpretation of lived faith and the processes through which human beings respond to the self-communication of God. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z