The Big eBook of Christian Mysticism?
It looks great on a Kindle!
Amazon’s announcement yesterday of several new versions of the Kindle, including a reader that retails for only $79 and their first color reader (for a mere $199), should convince even the most confirmed skeptic that not only are e-books here to stay, but that they will follow the path of the MP3, and only become increasingly popular as a reading format. My latest sales report for The Big Book of Christian Mysticism shows that e-book sales account for almost 25% of the book’s total sales (impressive, since it is currently only available on the Kindle, although my editor assures me that the Nook and Kobo versions are in the works). I think we can safely assume that the percentage of e-book sales, especially on new books, will only grow over time.
To me, there’s no point in arguing over the merits of paper books versus e-books, or getting self-righteous because studies show that people are more likely to browse e-books than read them thoroughly, yada yada yada. We are all entitled to our opinions, but the e-book is not going anywhere (and neither is the paper book). To me, e-books represent just one more format for books, along with the various formats already available: hardback books, trade paperbacks, and mass market paperbacks. Just as the paperback did not kill the hardback, so the e-book will not totally render paper books obsolete. As an author, I’m happy to see my books available in as many formats as possible — after all, I want to reach as many readers as possible.
So, with all that in mind, I thought I’d post links to the various available e-book formats of my titles, current as of today. Obviously, there are some gaps that still need to be filled in (and my agent has already gotten an earful from me about this). But whether your favorite e-reader is the Kindle, the iPad, the Kobo, or the Nook, you can find at least one or two of my books for your reading pleasure. Just follow the links…
Kindle Versions:
- The Big Book of Christian Mysticism
- The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Celtic Wisdom
- Magic of the Celtic Gods and Goddesses
- Before You Cast a Spell
- When Someone You Love is Wiccan
- The Well-Read Witch
Nook Versions:
- The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Celtic Wisdom
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Paganism
Kobo Versions:
iBook Versions:
Of course, if you are like me and still prefer the old-fashioned paper & glue & ink type of book, you can always order The Big Book of Christian Mysticism or The Lion, the Mouse and the Dawn Treader or any of my other books in all their low-tech glory.
Happy reading, my friends!
Thank you…
St. Vincent's Archabbey
Thank you to Joann D. of Tucker, GA, who recently donated $32 to help me send copies of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism to two monasteries. Thanks to her generosity, today I’ll be mailing copies of the book to St. Leo’s Abbey in St. Leo’s, Florida, and St. Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
That brings us up to thirty-four monasteries, convents, and retreat centers where donated copies of the book have been sent. I’m asking the monasteries to please place the books in their libraries, and/or their guesthouse libraries, where hopefully the books can be a blessing for individuals making retreats.
There are still plenty of spiritual communities and centers where I’d like to send a copy of the book. Do you think you could help out? Click here for more details.
Four interesting articles
How important was Christianity's role in bringing about the abolition of slavery? Image via Wikipedia
I’ve recently read four interesting articles online.
- In Spiritual but Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me, UCC Minister Lillian Daniel takes aim at those who reject traditional religious affiliation but who retain a sense of themselves as “spiritual” beings. She sees such a position as shallow and narcissistic, and suggests that such persons find themselves more “fascinating” than ancient religions, but in truth such self-centered thinking is ultimately “bland.”
- In response, Religious Studies professor Kate Blanchard wrote Spiritual But Not Religious? Come Talk to Me, in which she assails traditional Sunday-morning religion for being, well, boring. She understands that S.B.N.R. persons often must show great courage to disaffiliate from patriarchal, abusive, or otherwise controlling forms of religious communities, and basically implies that “bland” liberal churches need to do something more than just criticize those who identify as S.B.N.R. if they want to win them over.
So what do you think, dear readers? Are spiritual-but-not-religious people bland, or is it the churches they left behind that are truly bland?
Now for the second set of articles I’ve recently read:
- In Confessions of an Ex-Moralist, atheist philosopher Joel Marks argues that too much atheist thinking about morality and ethics remains influenced by religious and metaphysical thinking, and that a truly secular ethics needs to be free of any appeal to some sort of transcendental principle like “goodness” or “rightness.” Instead, Marks declares that what drives the moral and ethical views of most people is nothing more than their own preferences and desires.
- Catholic apologist Mark Shea responses to Marks in his article Fool Says in His Heart There is No God. Shea gives Marks props for taking his atheist beliefs to their logical conclusion, but then insists that any kind of ethical or moral system totally divorced from religion or belief in God will eventually devolve into “might makes right,” with the desires of the stronger inevitably trumping the wants of the weaker. Shea insists that, for example, only belief in God led to the abolition of slavery — implying that, in a fully secular society, sooner or later slavery will make a comeback.
Even though I am hardly a secularist, I don’t think Shea makes a very convincing argument, and this is because I know that Christian thinkers have for most of the church’s history defended slavery as much as they’ve attacked it — just as, even today, some Christians vigorously support the death penalty while others oppose it. So Shea’s argument seems to be pretty much a straw man. But what do you think? Is a truly secular ethics possible? Or is it doomed to collapse under the inherent injustice of what Christians call “fallen human nature”?
Hold me in Stone Mountain
The hottest new voice in contemporary Christian music simply has to be Jamie Grace, a teenage musician from Atlanta. Her single “(I love the way you) Hold Me” featuring tobyMac, is just pure pop confection, the kind of song that you love to sing along to (which is a good thing, because it gets stuck in your head). I especially like the video for the song, because it was partially filmed at Stone Mountain park, about six miles from where I live (about a minute and 29 seconds into the video you get a nice glimpse of the Atlanta skyline from the top of Stone Mountain — a view I’ve enjoyed many times).
Enjoy!
This Weekend: from the Mountains to the Inner City
Holy Family Episcopal Church
If you live in North Georgia, I hope I’ll see you at one or both of these events this weekend.
Saturday I’ll be leading a day-retreat at Holy Family Episcopal Church in Jasper, Georgia, in the beautiful north Georgia mountains. Our theme is Contemplation and Emergence. I’m very excited about the combination of poetry, storytelling, lectio, silence and sharing that will encompass our time together as we explore how an ancient practice (contemplation) remains relevant today (emergence). We gather from 9 to 3, with no set fee but a suggested donation of $25. Lunch is included, thanks to the hospitality of the church and one of its members. Visit the event’s Facebook page for more information.
Then on Sunday evening I’ll be visiting Neighbor’s Abbey, a neo-monastic community in southwest Atlanta, to explore the connections between the Rule of Saint Benedict and the neo-monastic movement (especially the 12 Marks of a New Monasticism). To learn more about Neighbor’s Abbey, visit their Facebook page. Or just come on by: we’ll gather at 5 PM at 635 Dill Ave. SW, Atlanta GA 30310.
I hope I’ll see you at one or both of these events!
“Eleven years of Catholic education had told me nothing about Christian meditation.”
Here’s an interesting article published the other day in the Utah Statesman by a fellow named Michael Sowder: Finding Home in India. The author tells the story of his spiritual journey, and it’s a story I’ve heard again and again. Basically, it runs like this: born into a Christian family, Sowder (and countless others like him) finds himself befuddled by the sterile Christian education he received as a child. Eventually he goes on to find meaning and insight in contemplative spirituality outside of the church. And then, only then, does he finally realize that Christianity has a splendid heritage of mystical spirituality all its own. Sowder writes about discovering a copy of Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation on his parents’ bookshelf, and being shocked to discover that a Christian writer understood about meditation and contemplation!
Just a thought for any Christian educators who might be reading this: a few generations ago, Christianity could afford to ignore its own mystical heritage, because in most places it was the only game in town (even as recently as 1950 or 1960, many American communities only had two significant faith presences: Christianity and Judaism, and since Judaism is as much about ethnicity as about faith, for most people it is not generally a faith to convert into). But this simple past is gone. Between the ongoing flow of immigration on the one hand and the growing number of Christians who abandon their faith for Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or some other faith on the other, not to mention the emergence of “new age” and “spiritual but not religious” sensibilities which create the existential possibility of cultivating spirituality outside of traditional religious structures, Christianity is now a religion that has to compete (sorry to use such a crass term, but there it is) with other faiths for the hearts and minds of its children.
When Karl Rahner said “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist” perhaps he was speaking prophetically about Christianity’s need to articulate its own message as an alternative to other mystical traditions like Vedanta or Tibetan Buddhism. If Christianity can be honest, and serious, about its own contemplative heart, then I believe many young people who abandon Christianity for other faiths (or to be s.b.n.r.) might stick around. Of course, they’ll probably be like me, dedicated to interfaith dialogue and eager to appreciate the many points of similarity among the world’s spiritual lineages. But that is a good thing. If Christianity chases away its young people who embrace inter-religious dialogue, it will gradually shrink into a shrill, almost-exclusively-fundamentalist religion, bitter and spiteful toward the rest of the world (and, therefore, utterly unfaithful to its own message of compassion, forgiveness and love).
It’s interesting that Sowder describes his childhood experience of Catholicism as “bored by what seemed its excessive ritualism and over-preoccupation with moralizing.” If the church loses her mystical heart, that’s all that’s left: empty ceremonies and shrill invectives against what it deems immoral. What amazes me is not how many people leave such a desiccated religion — I’m amazed that many people choose to stay. Talk to the young people in your church (and not just the ones who always volunteer as acolytes or lay readers). Chances are, the honest ones will tell you that going to mass (or to services) is supremely boring, even if the church has “contemporary” music. Furthermore, if they’re really honest they’ll point out that Christianity, in their eyes, seems to be little more than a highly-funded, complexly-organized campaign against abortion, homosexuality, and extra-marital sex. My dear readers, please do not get hung up on how conservative (or how liberal) our moral theology should be: my point is that if we are only talking about moral theology, we may as well start selling the real estate now, because the church will sooner or later drive itself out of business.
I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I think Karl Rahner (and Michael Sowder) can help us explore at least one important strategy for communicating Christianity to our children: we need to share with them the splendors of contemplation. I’m not saying we should expect a classroom full of 10-year-olds to be meditating like Zen monks. But I do believe we can introduce inner exploration to children. Combining that with education about the beauty and splendor of the contemplative tradition (where, to quote Trappist author Michael Casey who writes in Fully Human, Fully Divine, “According to the teaching of many Church Fathers, particularly those of the East, Christian life consists not so much in being good as in becoming God”) and maybe there will be hope that Christianity will survive into the future — only not a ritualistic/moralistic Christianity, but a truly mystical, contemplative, joyful and serene Christianity, dedicated to loving and serving its neighbors as itself.
Interfaith 9/11 Memorial Service in Decatur, GA
Candles lit for peace at the 9/11 Memorial Service, Decatur, GA, 9-11-11
Several hundred people of various faiths, ethnic backgrounds, and nationalities gathered together at the Decatur Hotel Ballroom in downtown Decatur, GA yesterday evening to commemorate the tragedy of September 11, 2001 — and to celebrate and work toward a brighter future based on cooperation, dialogue, peace and understanding. Sponsored by a consortium of organizations including the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta and the Interfaith Community Institute, along with an assortment of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh communities, this program — part ceremony, part rally — brought members of all the above faiths, along with Unitarians, Bahais, people with no faith, and (I would assume) others, together for networking, small group sharing, storytelling, a moment of silence, remembering, and — perhaps most important of all — hope.
My friends Gareth and Br. Shankara were part of the organizing committee, and another friend, Phil Foster, read a poem, “For the Falling Man,” by Annie Farnsworth from her Bodies of Water, Bodies of Light. This moving work pondered the humanity behind those who fell (or jumped) off the Twin Towers, plummeting to their death on 9/11. 
Phil was joined by renowned storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy, who read from her lovely book, 14 Cows for America. As you can see in the photo, the evening ended with a candlelit chant for peace, the participants holding their tapers high in a gesture of hope. I stood arm in arm with Gareth and Br. Shankara, a Buddhist, a Christian, and a Vedantist, three brothers from different mothers. It was a lovely evening.
Meeting Jane Tomaine
Episcopal priest Jane Tomaine has written a wonderful book on Benedictine spirituality called St. Benedict’s Toolbox. Tomorrow she is presenting a one-day workshop on “Benedictine Spirituality: Living Intentionally in a Distracted World” here in Atlanta, and alas, I won’t be able to attend — I’ll be busy co-leading a retreat at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit on “the Wisdom of the Christian Mystics.” As much as I love leading retreats at the Monastery, I was a wee bit grumpy about not being able to make it to Jane’s event, as its topic sounds so, well, useful — and appropriate to my own sometimes-too-distracted life.
Happily, my friend and fellow Lay Associate Nancy, who is on the committee that sponsored Jane Tomaine’s visit to Atlanta, decided to bring her out to the monastery this afternoon, and I was able to meet her, chat about current authors we both enjoy, and talk Nancy into taking this photo of us.
Jane Tomaine and Carl McColman at the Abbey Store, September 9, 2011
Some New Books to Explore
If this were an ideal world and I had all the time in the universe to do everything I would like, I’d be reading all sorts of books — and writing lengthy reviews of many of them on this blog. But, alas, ours is not an ideal world, and so like everyone else I have to make do. And so, in that spirit of making do, here are a few brief comments about some interesting books that have come to my attention lately. Some of them are new and some have been around for a while, but I think they are all worth a look. If my brief comments pique your interest, then please click on the cover images or the title links to purchase your own copies. I should also mention, in the interest of full disclosure, that each of these books (except for the Merton titles) were sent to me gratis from the publishers. Of course, there are plenty of other books that publishers send me that I never mention on the blog, so I hope you’ll take my words at face value.
First of all, for all you breviary addicts (I know you’re out there), two of my favorite young writers — Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove — have joined forces with Enuma Okoro to develop Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. This ecumenical/interdenominational resource offers a weekly round of evening prayers, along with a complete annual cycle of morning prayers, a mid-day office, and a selection of prayers for special occasions. Various saints and heroes of the faith are commemorated, ranging from Thomas Merton to Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr. to dear Saint Benedict. As someone who has prayed the Roman liturgy for some time now, there are to my mind real limitations to this breviary: no office of compline, no structuring of the Daily Office to echo the cosmos and the human lifespan in each daily round of prayers. But I don’t this book is intended to replace existing liturgies like the Roman or Anglican offices. Rather I think it’s meant to be an introduction to liturgical prayer for a young generation of evangelicals, who have grown up in a church where singing contemporary praise music is about as liturgical as it gets. In that sense, I think this a brilliant and much-needed resource. And for liturgy snobs like me, it’s a wonderful addition to the library, with some wonderful prayers and commemorations geared toward a spirituality anchored in the call to justice. Another nice touch: each month the book features one of the “twelve marks” of neo-monasticism.
There are a lot of books available on Benedictine spirituality. Many of them are written by laypersons who may never have lived in a monastery (authors like Esther de Waal and Norvene Vest); others are written by monks but primarily for monks (Terrence Kardong, Adalbert de Vogüé). Please don’t misunderstand me — most of such books are wonderful, and I don’t mean to criticize the authors I’ve listed; I like works by all of them). But what makes Lessons from Saint Benedict: Finding Joy in Daily Life a noteworthy book is that its author, Donald S. Raila, is an oblate master at a large Benedictine abbey, specifically writing for oblates: men and women who are not monks, but who have placed themselves under the spiritual guidance of monks and who seek to conduct their secular lives according to the wisdom of Benedict. Buddhists talk about “taking refuge” as the initiation into the life of following the dharma; for Benedictine oblates (and their counterparts, lay Cistercians), there is a similar sense of “taking refuge” under the guidance of the monks at a particular monastery. As the master of oblates at St. Vincent’s Archabbey, Fr. Raila writes a quarterly letter to the oblates on an aspect of the Rule and Benedictine spirituality; this book gathers 26 of those letters. Raila’s writing is homey and down-t0-earth; he recognizes that the key to applying Benedictine wisdom is to see how it makes a difference in the most ordinary circumstances of life, from travel delays to hernias to a wristwatch that runs just a few seconds slow each day. Raila understands that spirituality is all about the slow and unglamorous transformation of every moment of life, and his thoughtful but accessible insights are ideal invitations to meditation and reflection.
The Sin Eater: A Breviary is not a liturgical work per se, but an anthology of poems and photographs evocative of a lost age of Celtic spirituality. Undertakers Thomas and Michael Lynch (father and son) share an Irish eye for beauty that can be found hidden in the most stark and unadorned of places; this cycle of carefully structured poems, each illustrated by a sombre black and white photograph, invite the reader into the life of Argyle, the titular sin-eater and perhaps Thomas’ alter ego. The sin-eater is a liminal figure (neither pagan nor priest, neither therapist nor healer, neither magician nor mystic) who symbolizes — or, perhaps, sacramentalizes? — the borderlines between religion and spirituality, between culture and nature, between death and life, all situated in the hidden-away setting of the Lynchs’ ancestral Irish home. Earthy, blunt language of death and decay — but also eros and irony — dance through these poems, where the hidden presence of the Divine is found not through pious formula, but evoked by honesty and wonder.
Finally, I’d like to briefly mention a series of books published by Fons Vitae, celebrating the ecumenical and interfaith dimensions of Thomas Merton’s work. These collections: Merton & Buddhism, Merton & Hesychasm, Merton & Judaism and Merton & Sufism, gather together writings of Merton with relevant essays by Merton scholars exploring his relationship with each of four traditions outside his own. These books certainly will help to solidify Merton’s reputation as the patron saint of ecumenical and interfaith contemplatives. Grab the one that most appeals to you — or if you are as intellectually curious as Merton himself, read all four.
Quote for the Day
Then you should readily and trustfully commit yourself and all that concerns you to the unfailing and most sure Providence of God, in silence and peace. He Himself will fight for you, and will grant you a liberty and consolation better, nobler, and sweeter than would be possible if you gave yourself up day and night to your fancies, to vain and wandering thoughts, which hold captive the mind, as they toss it hither and thither, wearying soul and body, and wasting uselessly alike your time and strength.
Accept all things, whatsoever their cause, silently and with a tranquil mind, as coming to you from the fatherly hand of Divine Providence.
— Albert the Great, On Union with God
