Awaken Yourself…To a Free Book!

This post is part of the Patheos Book Club. Check out the Book Club for more posts on this book, an interview with the authors, and for responses from the editors.

Publishing is not dead. At least not as measured by the books that arrive on my doorstep every day to review and blurb. (Or maybe these publishers are all sending me books purely for my own edification. Bahahaha!)

About a lot of these books, I think: the folks who read my blog would probably like this. Some of those I get around to reviewing, and others get added to piles (with the best of intentions). Well, one came in the mail recently that I really do think will appeal to many of you. It’s Spirituality and the Awakening Self: The Sacred Journey of Transformation by David Benner.

Benner is a psychologist and spiritual director. In this book, he uses that expertise to examine mysticism, and to ultimately propose that mystical union with the Divine is possible. This isn’t a new proposal in Christianity, to be sure, but Benner’s book is significant for those of us who are drawn to mysticism but are also chastened by our training in the sciences. He writes,

Any awakening is, in effect, a response to an awareness of realities beyond our present self-organization. Such awareness of of these realities calls us to redefine and realign our self in relationship to transcendent realities that exist beyond our present awareness.

Patheos has a copy of this excellent book to give away. Anyone who signs up for my email list (or updates or confirms their subscription) will be entered to win. You can do that here. I’ll draw a name at random on the Monday after Easter.

[UPDATE: The book was won by Michelle Colon — Congrats!]