September 4, 2015

I love the Beatles, and like many Beatles fans, I think The White Album is one of their great masterpieces. And one of the best songs on The White Album is, without question, “Dear Prudence.” But did you know that the song was influenced by the music of the Gypsies, Transcendental Meditation, and the daughter (and sister) of Hollywood celebrities? “Dear Prudence” was written in early 1968, when the Beatles were in India, while John and George were studying Transcendental Meditation with the... Read more

September 2, 2015

Walk into a Catholic bookstore — or a general bookstore large enough to have a “Christian mysticism” section — and you will see books by or about Thomas Merton, Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila, along with anonymous works like The Cloud of Unknowing or The Way of a Pilgrim.  These are the “A-List” mystics: figures who are renowned for their sanctity, their wisdom, and their contemplative teaching. Anyone who is interested in discovering the wisdom of the mystics ought... Read more

August 28, 2015

A friend of mine, who is the executive director of a progressive Christian ministry, told me the story of meeting an activist who identifies as spiritual but not religious. At first, this person wasn’t even interested in talking to my friend. He saw a Christian as someone hopelessly irrelevant, part of the problem rather than the solution. Fortunately, my progressive Christian friend was able to communicate one essential detail. “I’m not here to convert you or to argue with you. I’m... Read more

August 26, 2015

One of my favorite quotations comes from Karl Rahner: “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist.” It’s a prophetic statement, from a man who died in 1984. When paired with the demographic realities of the last 30 years (Americans who identify as Christian comprised 85% of the population in 1985, but only 70% of the population today, while the so-called “nones” — people without religious affiliation — grew from 8% in ’85 to 16% today),... Read more

August 19, 2015

How can the wisdom of the monastery help folks like you and me — who are not monks or nuns — to grow spiritually? To answer that question, we can begin by looking at The Rule of Saint Benedict. The Rule of Saint Benedict remains one of the great classics of western spirituality, even though it was written for a very small and specific audience: monks and nuns. What on the surface looks like an administrative manual for the smooth operation of a... Read more

July 29, 2015

How, exactly, does Christian mysticism relate to all the other “mysticisms” of the world (Kabbalah, Sufism, Taoism, Vedanta, Zen, etc.)? A reader of this blog writes: I have been reading your Big Book of Christian Mysticism: on page 64 you say that “Ultimately … no absolutely clear distinction can be drawn between Christian and non-Christian mysticism.” This concerns me, because you *do* seem to say in other parts of the book that there *is* a clear distinction between the two... Read more

July 27, 2015

One of C.S. Lewis’s last, and best, books was called The Four Loves. Drawing from four different Greek words for love, the book celebrates affection, friendship, eros, and charity and considers the moral, ethical, and spiritual dynamics at play in each form of love. As worthy as Lewis’s writing might be, I think Jesus offers his own take on “four loves” that considers not the dynamic of love so much as the object of our love. Here are two Biblical passages that illustrate... Read more

July 22, 2015

If you are active in a church or other faith community, and you are drawn to (or practicing) silent prayer, if you talk about it with others you will likely, sooner or later, hear somebody say something along these lines: “Isn’t meditation Buddhist? Or Hindu? Christians don’t need to do that sort of thing.” “Sitting in silence? It’s just a waste of time. We are called to be serving others, not avoiding them.” “Contemplation and mysticism aren’t in the Bible.... Read more

July 22, 2015

One of my favorite contemporary authors is Mirabai Starr, who I first encountered through her vivid and accessible translations of some of the great Christian mystics.  Mirabai has emerged in the last few years as one of the leading voices in interspirituality. She is the author of Caravan of No Despair, God of Love, along with translations of mystics like John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Julian of Norwich. In this brief interview she talks about another topic dear to her heart: the Divine Feminine.... Read more

July 15, 2015

Recently a reader left the following comment on this blog: I have been reading and tried to practice the way of a contemplative life although poorly I believe. But my hunger for anything on the topic of contemplation continues. Recently I have also been enticed into “mindfulness” practices. Now what or how do you relation contemplation and Mindfulness? They’re beginning to sound that there is a correlation? Thank you! Thanks for your comment. First of all, we are all “poor”... Read more


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