“Do I stay Christian?” A Conversation with Brian D. McLaren on a Significant Question for Our Time

May 30, 2022 By Carl McColman

Last Wednesday I had the distinct honor of being part of a group interview with leading Christian theologian Brian D. McLaren. The occasion was in celebration of Brian’s latest book, Do I Stay Christian? A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned. It’s a provocative title and, indeed, a provocative book. Brian is aiming to have a balanced but honest engagement with people who are identity as Christian, and/or participate in the institutional church, but now are considering... Read more

Upcoming Free Event: Carl McColman, Brian McLaren and others talk about Brian’s New Book, “Do I Stay Christian”?

May 11, 2022 By Carl McColman

Even the most committed Christian sometimes wonders if it’s worth it to participate in the institutional church. Religion can be a huge commitment of time and resources, and especially in our day, more and more people are saying “no thanks.” It’s an honest question that we all face sooner or later: “Do I stay Christian?” Now we have one of the leading progressive Christian voices of our time, Brian McLaren (who wrote the forward to my book Unteachable Lessons) reflecting... Read more

The Erotic Dimension of Mystical Spirituality (or, Why Do Mystics Love the Song of Songs?)

May 8, 2022 By Carl McColman

Almost from the beginning of the Christian era, mystics and saints and theologians and spiritual teachers have reflected on one of the most beautiful and poetic of the “wisdom writings” in the Bible to explore the mystery of the love of God and how that love seeks intimacy with us, God’s human creatures. I am referring to the Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon or the Canticle of Canticles. It’s not so much a “book” as... Read more

Divine Union is Embodied: Notes on the Incarnational Nature of Christian Mysticism

April 6, 2022 By Carl McColman

I’ve been working my way through Mystical Theology and Contemporary Spiritual Practice: Renewing the Contemplative Tradition, a book in Routledge’s “Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism” series. There’s a delightful essay in it called “Unlikely Mystics” about the sense of wonder and numinous reality that people encounter when visiting medieval cathedrals. Based on her research at Durham Cathedral in England, author Rosalind Brown describes the cathedral as “mystical space for ordinary people.” Telling the story of a visitor to the cathedral who had... Read more

The Christian of the Future — a New “Mystical Minute” Video for Contemplative Seekers

February 24, 2022 By Carl McColman

Friends, here is a new video I’d like to share with you. God willing, this will be the first of a series of videos I will be creating in the months to come. This video, like all my online content, is funded through Patreon. When I set up my Patreon account, I set several goals: commitments for new content or new projects that I would undertake when the number of patrons supporting my work reached certain levels. One of those... Read more

New Online Course: the Contemplative Wisdom of “Meditations on the Tarot”

January 18, 2022 By Carl McColman

Thomas Keating loved it. So did Basil Pennington and Bede Griffiths. In our time, Cynthia Bourgeault and Therese Schroeder-Sheker have praised it — enthusiastically. So why, pray tell, are these leaders of the contemplative community endorsing a book with a title like Meditations on the Tarot? Written in the 1960s and published only after the death of its author in 1973, Meditations on the Tarot is a unique book that explores the contemplative imagination — how our God-given powers of intelligence, intuition, insight... Read more

A Great Mystical Book — With a Surprising Title

December 28, 2021 By Carl McColman

I’ve recently been re-reading one of the most fascinating and unusual books of mystical wisdom to have been written within the last 100 years. This is actually my third time through the book, and I know I will read it again, certainly more than once. It’s one of those rare books that rewards multiple readings, each new journey through it yielding new insights. I’m not the only one who feels this way about this 20th-century contemplative masterpiece. Look at some... Read more

The New “My Sweet Lord” Video is Lots of Fun, But Misses the Point of the Song

December 21, 2021 By Carl McColman

Last week, the George Harrison estate released a new, “official” video for Harrison’s 1970 masterpiece, “My Sweet Lord” from his magnum opus All Things Must Pass. It’s a playful and fun video, with a kind of goofy X-Files plot, featuring a star-studded cast (Mark Hamill, Fred Armison, Vanessa Bayer, Weird Al Yankovic, Rosanna Arquette, Joe Walsh, Kate Micucci, Claudia O’Doherty, along with Harrison’s wife and son, Olivia and Dhani, and his former bandmates Jeff Lynne and Ringo Starr; conspicuous in their... Read more

Two Essential Questions for the Mystical Journey

December 14, 2021 By Carl McColman

I was speaking with a few friends of mine who are spiritual directors recently, and we were talking about the work they do accompanying people who seek to draw closer to God. If you are not familiar with spiritual direction, it is a ministry of interactive care, in which a person supports another in the journey into deeper intimacy with God. A spiritual director does not “direct” in the sense of giving orders, but may provide a sense of orientation... Read more