Department of Theology

A native of France, Professor Laude has been teaching at Georgetown since 1991. He is currently on the faculty of the School of Foreign Service in Qatar. A former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, he earned a M.A. in comparative philosophy from the University of Paris IV Sorbonne and, in 1985, a doctorate in French literature from Indiana University.

Professor Laude'’s scholarly interests lie in the relationship between poetry and mysticism, as well as in the Western representations and interpretations of Asian contemplative, mystical and wisdom traditions. He has extensively written and lectured on eminent and original figures of European spirituality such as Jeanne Guyon, Simone Weil, Louis Massignon and Frithjof Schuon. He is the author of Pray Without Ceasing: The Way of the Invocation in World Religion, Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom, 2006, Divine Play, Sacred Laughter and Spiritual Understanding. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2005, Singing the Way: Insights in Poetry and Spiritual Transformation. Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom, 2005, Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998): Life and Teachings. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2004, Patrick Laude, ed. Music of the Sky: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry. Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom, 2004, Massignon intérieur. Paris-Lausanne: L''Age d''Homme, 2001, Approches du quiétisme. Tubingen: Biblio 17, 1992. L''Eden entredit: The Way of Poetry: Essays on Poetics and Contemplative Transformation (2002), Massignon intérieur (2001), Lecture de La Chanson d''Eve de Charles Van Lerberghe (1994), Approches du quiétisme (1991), Les Décors de silence: essais sur la poésie de Georges Rodenbach (1990), and Exotisme indochinois et poésie (1990). He has also published numerous articles in academic journals including Symposium, Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques, La Revue Théologique de Louvain, Dix-septième siècle, Parabola and Neophilologus.