Saturday, August 9, 2008

Dom Anscar Vonier, Opera Omnia

As I have previously mentioned (see my posting of his essay on the Liturgy, and my own essay on Angels largely based on his works), the works of the Right Reverend Dom Anscar Vonier, O.S.B., Abbot of Buckfast (1875-1938) I consider very worthy of attention, being at once excellent spiritual reading and very accessible doctrinal theology, and over the past year especially I have been acquiring copies of them, having previously read his so-called Collected Works (in 3 volumes), which turned out to contain only 10 of his 15 books, to say nothing of treatises and articles. It has frustrated me that I haven't yet found a comprehensive bibliography of his published writings, but (with the exception of one book - see below*) I have now acquired all his works. (While in his Collected Works a prefatory note states that they have been lightly edited and abridged, I have not considered it worthwhile to buy individual copies of the ten works included.)

Collected Works Volume 1: The Incarnation and Redemption (contains The Christian Mind (1920), The Personality of Christ (1914), The Victory of Christ (1934) and The Divine Motherhood(1921));
Collected Works Volume 2: The Church and the Sacraments (contains The Spirit and the Bride (1935), The People of God (1937) and A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist, his most famous and influential work);
Collected Works Volume 3: The Soul and the Spiritual Life (contains The Human Soul and its Relations with Other Spirits (1920, 2nd ed.), Christianus (1933) and The Life of the World to Come (1926));
The Angels (1928);
Christ the King of Glory (1932);
Death and Judgement (1930);
The Art of Christ: Retreat Conferences (1927);
Sketches and Studies in Theology (1940) - a collection made by Vonier, but only published posthumously, of some of his articles.

I have also ordered Ernest Graf's Anscar Vonier, Abbot of Buckfast... (1957).

* The New and Eternal Covenant (1930) - this is the only work of his I have been unable to obtain, but I know a library (in Melbourne) that has a copy...

1 comment:

Fr Bernard said...

Googling Anscar Vonier, your post came right up. I'll be having my students read "The Human Soul" for a class on the theology of the human person next term.

Hope all's well. Cheers,
Fr Bernard