Our blogger roundtable on Revelation of the Magi continues with a review by Amy Julia Becker of Thin Places. Becker raises two questions about the text for author Brent Landau at the end of her review; his responses follow. Read more

This fictional tale, which I found to be a fascinating and fun read, is absorbed with light and with the magi’s star and with the East and a place called Shir. It also concerns the history of the magi — a group that descends from the story of Seth in Genesis. And it’s a story of a mountain and a cave, a cave like the one in Bethlehem where Jesus was born. It is a story of promise that they would someday see a star and that star would lead them to Bethlehem. It’s quite fantastical and fun. Read more

How would you preach on a text from the Revelation of the Magi? Were there other forgotten manuscripts in the Vatican? As part of our blogger roundtable on this month's featured book, Revelation of the Magi, we invited several bloggers to submit questions for author Brent Landau's response. Read more

As you read the story, it seems as though God simply can’t contain God’s love for humanity. Like incense, the pages--which include black and white reproductions of several related medieval paintings--radiate divine grace, mercy, and love. Read more

As someone invested in the Christian contemplative tradition, I was fascinated from the very first chapter in Brent Landau's new book, Revelation of the Magi, in which the claim is made that the kings “were called Magi in the language of that land because in silence, without a sound, they glorified and they prayed.” Thus, irrespective of whether the historical Magi were contemplatives, we nevertheless have a strong early reference to a Christian community writing about the practice of silent prayer. Read more

"Be Love Now makes saints out of its readers. My heart flowed like melted butter while reading Ram Dass’ stories of the bliss he felt in the presence of his guru." Jim Burklo, a progressive Christian pastor reviews Ram Dass' new book. Read more

It’s so frustratingly perfect that Maharaj-ji would constantly reply to queries with “love people. feed people. remember God.” I can see it now – all of these smart westerners coming to him with all of these complicated problems and questions and then he would just look at you and say that. Over and over again. Ram ram ram ram ram. Over and over again. Ram ram ram ram. Read more

I’ve been reading Be Love Now and I love the way Ram Dass is revisiting his early experiences with Maharajji, looking back at the beginning, filling in the blanks in between the layers of the stories we’ve heard before. When I think about those first awful weeks after his massive stroke, when we didn’t know how much brain function he would recover and the prognosis looked grim, and then read the way his memories pour out in the new book, I’m so grateful for the round trip Ram Dass been able to make. Read more

"In our age that so frequently worships perpetual adolescence, Ram Dass’ work is a welcome contrast. His book’s principle strength is that it reflects his long life of regular spiritual practice. As an almost-octogenarian, Ram Dass’ most-recent reflections have a gravitas that wasn’t possible when he was forty years younger." Christian Pastor and Spiritual Director Carl Gregg offers our first post in our Blogger Roundtable on this month's featured book selection, Be Love Now, by Ram Dass. Read more

This week, we launch the new featured selection of the Patheos Book Club: Be Love Now, by Ram Dass. In the coming weeks, we'll be posting reflections from a variety of bloggers about the book and "the path of the heart" that has been Dass' spiritual journey. Today, we share some contemplations from Ram Dass as a way of introducing our featured book. Read more