The Vassula Enigma
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Christian Churches have always recognised the existence of private revelation through which God speaks directly to souls endowed with a special charism. As with many well-known mystics such as St Catherine of Sienna or St Theresa of Avila, this type of revelation continues through writings given in our own day. Amongst these is True Life in God, from Vassula, the publication of which started in 1990. Since the publication of the writings in English, the work has been translated into over thirty languages and has given rise to a widespread following. Vassula fills large halls all over the world with enthusiastic audiences at the very time when the churches are being deserted.
What brings the crowds? Who is Vassula? Under what influence did she undertake to do this work which she asserts is dictated to her directly by God? Why are some priests convinced it is an authentic revelation? How is it that a woman without any theological training could write more than five thousand pages which conform to Scripture, to Tradition and to the works of the most learned theologians? Why did the Vatican give the Catholics a warning against Vassula's activities?
This book hopes to supply some answers and explanations to this phenomenon and these questions. It has been written without any positive or negative prejudice from a series of interviews Vassula granted to Jacques Neirynck. It modestly intends to supply information to the reader so that he or she can come to their own conclusions.
The author Jacques Neirynck was born in Brussels in 1931 and has had two simultaneous careers, one as researcher and teacher, the other as journalist and writer. His scientific career led him to be a professor in Lovanium University in Kinshasa, the Catholic University of Louvain and at the Federal Polytechnic in Lausanne. He also worked as a researcher, particularly for the Philips Research laboratory in Brussels. His specialisation is the Theory of Circuits and systems, a branch of mathematics applied to electricity systems. He has founded a scientific publication house, the Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes, where he managed the publication of a Treatise on Electricity in 22 volumes, translated into several languages.
His career as a journalist led him to edit several hundreds of articles on scientific and technical subjects for a general readership. In particular he collaborated with consumer information publications, as well as television and radio programmes. He was among the pioneers of a European consumer movement which covers five countries of the European Union today. As a writer, he has edited four essays and three novels. In 1999, Jacques Neirynck was elected a member of the Swiss Federal Parliament.
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