The Bride; Essays in the Church
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1959. First edition. Octavo, original teal cloth, gilt spine and front board, original dust jacket. Slight toning to original jacket. A nearly fine copy. Item #1427
"WE ARE IMMEDIATELY, IF WE SEEK THE HIGHEST MEANING OF HISTORY, ON A THEOLOGICAL PLANE"
First edition of Daniel Berrigan's second book—the follow-up to his debut book of poetry, Time without Number—complete with the original dust jacket illustrated by his sister-in-law, Carol Rizzo ("Mrs. Jerome Berrigan").
In a departure from Father Berrigan's first book, The Bride collects 13 meditations, drawn from the American Jesuit's classroom lectures, public addresses and radio sermons. Together they form a prose poem placing the Church at the center of sacred history in opposition to the secular world. Berrigan's Introduction asserts that "a scientific world has succeeded the one in which theology illumined man's conduct and gave it a direction; the new science has shown the pliability of time under its hand; it has crowded time with new discovery and sense experience, while offering neither direction nor meaning outside its own phenomenology; but in spite of radical limitation science holds out the hope of a secular unity and peace. One world, but no other world."
The Berrigan family was long involved in Catholic activism and Daniel was soon to enter the spotlight for his anti-war activities as "equal parts poet and agitator, dressed in beret and black turtleneck like a man in a Godard movie" (Paul Elie). Berrigan dedicated the book to his brother: "To Philip / serious serious My blood says / in its falling." Philip Berrigan was a Josephite priest (from 1955-1969) and Daniel's co-conspirator in nonviolent civil disobedience in the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament. Approbations, including the Imprimatur of Berrigan's future antagonist, Cardinal Spellman.
Price: $100.00