Spacious Joy

J.L. Chretien is a French philosopher and poet. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. He has published 30 books in French and received the Prix du Cardinal Lustiger from the Académie française in 2012 for his philosophical work.Anne Ashley Davenport is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Boston College.

• Translator’s NoteIntroduction: Spaciousness, Joy, and the Legacy of the Word “Dilation”Chapter One: St. Augustine and the Wide Offshore of DesireChapter Two: St. Gregory the Great: Amplitude Within a Narrow ConfinementChapter Three: The Dilated Runners of Psalm 118, from Henri Michaux to St. TeresaChapter Four: Mystical DilationsChapter Five: Bossuet on the Open RoadsChapter Six: Amiel and the Pathology of DilationChapter Seven: Return to Eden with Thomas TraherneChapter Eight: Whitman, Voyager Without LimitsChapter Nine: Paul Claudel’s Cosmic RespirationFurther Reading

Anne Davenport has with sensitivity and insight brilliantly translated the nuances of Jean-Louis Chrétien’s masterpiece on the deep nature of joy, which the modern world urgently needs with its overemphasis on rationality and self-centred individuality. Joy and space are explored through an expansion or opening of the heart, which render us more alive and vibrant, implying that we are fellow-breathers of each other and of all living things, which has implications for rebuilding communities and caring for the environment.