• Mary Margaret Funk, Thoughts Matter
• Seamus Heaney, Seeing Things
• Gareth Higgins, How Movies Helped Save My Soul
• Robert Kee, Ireland: A History
• Gordon Lathrop, Holy Ground
• Gordon Lathrop, Holy People
• Gordon Lathrop, Holy Things
• John Paul Lederach, Building Peace
• John Paul Lederach, Preparing for Peace
• John Paul Lederach, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace
• Carl McColman, The Big Book of Christian Mysticism
• Carl McColman, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Celtic Wisdom
• John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
• John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us
• Seán Ó Duinn, Rites of Brigid
• Seán Ó Duinn, Where Three Streams Meet
• Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers
• Walter Wink, Naming the Powers
• Walter Wink, Unmasking the Powers
• John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus

I’m sure there are others that I missed (if anyone who was on the retreat reads this and thinks of a book that was part of the retreat experience for them, please let me know and I’ll add it to this list).

It is my understanding that the first book club to include The Big Book of Christian Mysticism in its catalog was the One Spirit Book Club, which could be described as the “New Age” (or “Mind/Body/Spirit”) book club. This is not terribly surprising, as I have had books in their catalog before (and, indeed, the last of my Celtic books, 366 Celt, is still listed as available on their site). Visit this link to order either of my books through One Spirit: www.onespirit.com.

But then there is the Crossings Book Club, which caters to Christian readers. Since most of my books published in 2005 or earlier would only have marginal interest to devout Christians, it’s not surprising that I’ve never had a book in the Crossings catalog — at least, not until now. This morning I received notification that The Big Book of Christian Mysticism is indeed listed on their website. So… if you want to order a copy through Crossings, visit this link: www.crossings.com.

I just think it is supremely cool to see this book accepted by both the Christian and the Mind/Body/Spirit communities.

@mccolman I am enjoying the balances that you have struck with your Big Book, depth and brevity, seriousness and levity.

Anyone else care to review it on Twitter (or Amazon, or anywhere else)? I hope you’ll do so. If you do comment on the book on Twitter, please include this hashtag in your tweet: #BBOCM

Thanks!

First, to deepen my sense of Irish history (particularly in relation to the politics of Northern Ireland over the last 50 years), I’m reading Ireland: A History by Robert Kee. It’s a sobering look at just how troubled Eire has been, with its sad legacy of colonialism and religious persecution.

To deepen my sense of the central spiritual question of the retreat — how to integrate contemplation and activism, particularly nonviolence — I’m looking at three books. Resistance and Contemplation: The Way of Liberation by James Douglass is a Vietnam War-era classic that considers this all important relationship between silence and peacemaking: what Douglass calls “The Yin and Yang of the Non-Violent Life.” Meanwhile, William H. Shannon’s Seeds of Peace: Contemplation and Non-Violence considers this issue particularly in regard to the thought of Thomas Merton. And Una Kroll’s Vocation to Resistance: Contemplation and Change provides an Anglican and woman’s perspective to the connection not only between contemplation and peacemaking, but also environmentalism, reconciliation, and resisting the idolatry of our consumer culture.

Finally, just to keep things light, I’m checking in with an old friend: John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, which seems as relevant, and poetically luminous, as ever.

So there you go. If you aren’t coming to Northern Ireland with us, at least you can explore the same spiritual geography with these books.

July 3, 2010: My copy of "The Big Book of Christian Mysticism" arrives. I am thrilled, even though the book doesn't seem that big.

On Saturday I received my first copy of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism.

I am thrilled. Even though it’s nine months late (it originally was meant to be published in the fall of 2009), and even though it has to be the world’s smallest “big book” (!), I am just so happy. It has been a dream of mine to write an introductory book on Christian mysticism since, well, before my first book was published. So today I am pleased to stand up for daring to believe that dreams do come true. Because sometimes they do.

Now, about the book’s title. People have been teasing me about it for months now (one of the monks at the monastery where I work has taken great delight in saying, “Oh, yes, Carl wrote the book on Christian mysticism!”). I suspect that the teasing (good natured and otherwise) will only increase once people get the book in their hands. And this is for a very simple reason: my “big book” just isn’t that big.

I keep thinking about the model of Stonehenge in This is Spinal Tap.

There’s a story here. Originally my editor and I had envisioned a much bigger book than what the final product turned out to be. Indeed, my contract called for a 500 page manuscript. But as time went on — and the economy tanked — not to mention my own reservations about writing such a lengthy tome, we decided to aim for a more modest (and, therefore, less expensive) work. The final page count clocks in at just over 300 pages. So the “big book” morphed into a much more “normal sized” book.

However, we never bothered to change the title that originally was attached to the 500 page concept. The supersized title remained even after we decided to make this a book of mere mortal proportions.

So think of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism as having gone through the dryer and shrunk a little. It may be smaller than you expected. But no matter how average the book’s dimensions may be, the topic itself remains, well, magnificent.

Even if I do say so myself. 

David recommended three books to me:

Exploring Celtic Spirituality by Ray Simpson
Restoring the Woven Cord by Michael Mitton
Colonies of Heaven by Ian Bradley

I haven’t read any of these, and it looks like they’re not readily available in the USA. But if you live in the UK (or are willing to pay a premium price for a secondhand copy), they sure look interesting.

Scattered throughout this blog and website are links to various books — books I’ve written, books written by people I’ve interviewed (like John O’Donohue), or books that I’ve reviewed, recommended, or otherwise mentioned once or twice. These links take you to Amazon where you can purchase the book — and if you do so, I get a small commission in the form of a credit that I can use at Amazon (to feed my own book habit).

I thought it might be fun to see which books sell the best through the links on this site. Amazon actually has records back to the beginning of 2005 — so here is a look at over five years’ worth of books that people who like to read my blog, like to buy. The list is ranked by number of copies ordered (when different editions of the same book sold through my site, I combined the numbers to rank the work rather than the edition, but on this list I’ve only included the best-selling edition of each work).

The list does contain a few surprises. While I am humbled by the fact that the number one title is not by me (!), I am gratified that the second position is held by my forthcoming book, on the strength of pre-orders alone. I’m not surprised that the author aside from myself who appears most often is the aforementioned John O’Donohue, for several reasons — he would naturally appeal to both my “Celtic” and my “Christian mysticism” readers; his bestselling Anam Cara is, despite the Irish versus Anglicized spelling, the same as the URL of my blog; and ever since his untimely death, my interview of him (and my brief tribute) have been among the most heavily visited pages on this site.

So, here you go: the Website of Unknowing’s bestselling books, from January 2005 to June 2010:

1. Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue
2. The Big Book of Christian Mysticism: The Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality by Carl McColman
3. The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counseling by Anonymous
4. The Aspiring Mystic: Practical Steps for Spiritual Seekers by Carl McColman
5. 366 Celt: Year And A Day Of Celtic Wisdom And Lore by Carl McColman
6. The Revelation of Divine Love in Sixteen Showings by Julian of Norwich
7. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Celtic Wisdom by Carl McColman
8. The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See by Richard Rohr
9. Mysticism: The Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness by Evelyn Underhill
10. Embracing Jesus and the Goddess: A Radical Call for Spiritual Sanity by Carl McColman
11. The New Jerusalem Bible : Saints Devotional Edition edited by Bert Ghezzi
12. To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue
13. Spirituality: A Post-Modern and Interfaith Approach to Cultivating a Relationship with God by Carl McColman
14. Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John O’Donohue
15. Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong by John O’Donohue
16. Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
17. The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism edited by Bernard McGinn
18. Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians by Candace Chellew-Hodge
19. The Mist-Filled Path: Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, and Seekers by Frank MacEowen
20. Beginning Contemplative Prayer: Out of Chaos, Into Quiet by Kathryn J. Hermes
21. Magic Of The Celtic Gods And Goddesses by Carl McColman and Kathryn Hinds
22. Punk Monk: New Monasticism and the Ancient Art of Breathing by Andy Freeman and Pete Greig
23. The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing by William Johnston
24. Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality by J. Philip Newell
25. The Interior Castle by Teresa of Àvila

On one level, this may seem counterintuitive. Business books are about setting and achieving goals, cultivating ambition, striving for the prize. Contemplation — well, that’s about obedience, and humility, and self-forgetfulness. How can these two entirely different sets of goals be woven together?

A good question, but not hard to answer. Consider the old feminist joke: “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards while wearing heels.” Contemplative Christianity operates with the clear recognition that God is in control, God calls the shots, God leads the dance. We, meanwhile, need to learn how to gracefully follow. Our sinfulness, our resistance to spiritual growth, is the mystical equivalent of being saddled with “high heels.” So we have to overcome our resistance, allow God to take the lead, and then put our own effort into being present and available for the joyous dance we are called to dance.

So that’s where the “skinny” books come in. When I’ve taught classes or conducted retreats, the single most common complaint I hear about a spiritual practice involves finding the time to make it happen. That’s where focusing on time management comes in. The corollary to this is the question of perseverance: how to foster the discipline to keep a spiritual practice going, once it’s been started. Here’s where willpower becomes important. Finally, having a clear sense of the “goal” (continual conversion into the love and joy and peace of Christ, etc.) and recognizing the steps necessary to reach that “goal” (participation in the sacramental life, lectio divina, contemplative prayer, spiritual direction, etc.) are all key elements to fostering a “successful” contemplative practice. Even the “art of persuasion” applies, since a contemplative must be “persuaded” of the value and importance of his or her practice.

I couldn’t help but put words like “goal” and “successful” in quotation marks, because the tension between worldly ambition and spiritual surrender remains. I don’t suppose that business books will ever replace inspirational or mystical writing for those of us seeking to cultivate a closer relationship with God — just as it seems a bit out of kilter to think about “success” or “setting and achieving goals” when it comes to meeting and courting one’s spouse. Still, the reality of finding time every day to pray, learning to overcome resistance, dealing with setbacks (such as temporary interruptions to the routine), and establishing a positive habit of practicing the presence of God… these down-to-earth objectives of a mature and adult spiritual life just might benefit from the insights of my “skinny” friends.

The Big Book of Christian Mysticism on Amazon.com

…and if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy, now’s a great time to do so!

In his last book, Letters to Malcolm, C. S. Lewis all but declares that he is not a mystic. Comparing mystics to those who climb mountains, Lewis tells Malcolm, “You and I are people of the foothills.” Of course, one of the paradoxes of mysticism is that the true mystic is humble, and a humble person is far less likely to think of himself or herself as a mystic. So, the less inclined a person is to think of himself or herself as a mystic, the more it is conceivable that he or she actually is one.

C. S. Lewis may well be the poster child for this line of thinking. Despite his protest to the contrary, much of Lewis’ writing — particularly his fictional works, such as The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Perelandra, and Till We Have Faces — positively shines with poetic descriptions of luminous, otherworldly beauty and the shimmering encounter with the Divine. Meanwhile, Lewis was known to be fond of many of the greatest visionaries and contemplatives of the Christian tradition, such as Julian of Norwich or Walter Hilton. Perhaps the most renowned author of popular Christian literature in English in the twentieth century really does deserve to be counted among the greatest of Christian mystics?

I think so. And I’ll tell you a little secret: I say as much in my forthcoming book. When I included Lewis in my listing of “the communion of mystics,” I thought I was going out on a limb. But that was before I discovered — and devoured — David Downing’s wonderful book about Lewis’ relationship with mysticism. Downing, a respected Lewis scholar, has put into words in this marvelously accessible book what I had merely intuited: that Lewis, beneath his natural shyness and humility, truly thought like, talked like, wrote like, and in all likelihood experienced spirituality like, a great Christian mystic.

Some readers may be wondering “What is mysticism, and why is this relevant to Lewis?” Downing does a splendid job at explaining mysticism and its uniquely Christian expression. Frankly, the first chapter, “The Mystique of Mysticism,” is alone worth the price of the book, so elegant and accessible is its treatment of this notoriously difficult subject. But from there, Downing goes on to consider the role that mysticism played in Lewis’ own spirituality, considering the mystics that Lewis read, his dealings with Evelyn Underhill (the greatest British authority on the subject during Lewis’ lifetime), and then, finally, the witness of his writings. Downing pays particular attention to Lewis’s speculative fiction, The Space Trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia. In several characters in these novels, particular Ransom in the trilogy and Reepicheep in the Narniad, Lewis presents figures who experience the profound transformation that comes with a sustained contemplative spirituality.

Downing also devotes attention to Lewis’ criticism of mysticism, particularly the ersatz types already gaining currency in his day, including shallow forms of syncretism and narcissistic spiritualities of experience. He shows that Lewis’s concerns about mysticism really are consistent with the overall tradition, which has always had a clear understanding of the difference between authentically Christian and heterodox expressions of spirituality. In other words, when Lewis attacked mysticism, it generally was not Christian mysticism he critiqued, but one or another form of generic or secularised mysticism that for Lewis, as an orthodox Christian, simply was not good enough.

Like other figures of the recent past, Lewis ultimately stood for a kind of “democratic” mysticism that was available to all people, not just clergy or monastics, not just those who are educated or especially holy. Ordinary children as in the Narnia books, or an undistinguished layman as in the space trilogy, are fully capable of being ushered out of the ordinary confines of their lives “into the region of awe.” Lewis wrote beautifully and poetically of the ramifications of such a possibility, and our tradition is the richer for it. Then along comes David Downing, who has done a first-rate job at making Lewis’s mysticism plain for all to see.