Savoring God
Comparative Theopoetics
Gloria Maité Hernández
Reviews and Awards
"Savoring God is an intensely personal book, the fruits of Gloria Maité Hernández's mature investment in two poems that she knows so very well, the Cántico espiritual of Saint John of the Cross and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa's Rāsa Līlā. This book is an exemplary instance of comparative reading, remarkably sophisticated in its attentiveness to each poem, a savoring of each word and every verse as these contribute to a cumulative passion for God. Savoring God is thus too an exemplary instance of comparative theology, the reading of texts intensified by mastery of and surrender to poetic form and suggestion." -- Francis X. Clooney, SJ, Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University
"Although separated by great distances of time and geography, the Rāsa Līlā and the Spiritual Canticle -- two classics of devotional love poetry -- illuminate each other in this extraordinary study by Gloria Maité Hernández. Hernández pays close attention to the rich tradition of commentary and theology that these texts have inspired, while never losing sight of their poetic and devotional power. As a work of both theological and poetic depth, Savoring God is a feast for all the senses." -- Ravi M. Gupta, Charles Redd Professor of Religious Studies, Utah State University
"Young women seek their hidden lovers in a forest. From this thematic coincidence in St. John of the Cross's Cántico espiritual and the Hindu Rāsa Līlā, Gloria Maité Hernández weaves an appreciation of poetry's capacity through sensorial devices to suggest the 'savoring' of divine encounter. Her reading and comparison of texts in Spanish and Sanskrit elucidates the poetry and the dense commentary that accompanies it. I learned from this book, about a poet I thought I knew well, and about a religious and poetic tradition about which I knew very little." -- Ignacio Navarrete, Professor of Spanish, University of California, Berkeley
