Hello friends, here’s just a friendly reminder to pre-order your copy of Read the Bible Like a Mystic today.
Where to buy Read the Bible Like a Mystic:
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Broadleaf Books
Bookshop.org • Books-a-Million
www.anamchara.com (autographed copy)
Pre-ordering books help with the publication launch. When the big retailers like Barnes & Noble or Amazon get pre-orders for a book, they will increase their inventory levels which makes the book more visible to shoppers (whether in person or online). Plus, the publisher is more likely to give the book more of a publicity push at the time it is released.
So if you enjoy this blog or my Substack newsletter or any of my previous books, please go ahead and place that pre-order today — and you’ll be among the first readers to get a copy when it publishes in June.
So pick your favorite retailer from the list above, click on the link, and place your pre-order today!
One more reminder: if you order the book from Anamchara.com, you’ll get an autographed copy. Why not order your personal copy from here and then order copies for friends from retailers? 😇
Advance Praise for Read the Bible Like a Mystic
If you’ve been hankering for a deeper engagement with the Bible but find yourself put off by the heavy-handed ways in which its teaching is so often delivered these days, Carl McColman proposes a refreshing alternative: why not learn to read the Bible like a mystic? In this delightful, non-technical book, he lets you in on an open secret known to Christian monks and mystics for nearly two thousand years: that reading the Bible is not about dogma and certainty; it’s an open-ended engagement with the Infinite which calls on the best of your own creativity and spiritual imagination and prizes the unique authority of your own experience. Drawing on the lives of mystics both ancient and contemporary, he shows you how this engagement works and the surprising places it can lead you if you’re willing to take it seriously and work at it patiently.
— Cynthia Bourgeault, author of The Wisdom Way of Knowing and The Wisdom Jesus
Read the Bible Like a Mystic is for anyone who has ever felt astonished, mystified, or frustrated by Christian Scripture. Particularly for those who’ve known the pain of Scripture weaponized against them, and for those who’ve attempted to make sense of its complexities, but experienced a mix of headache, disagreement, longing, and wonder, Carl McColman’s wise book is an honest, helpful guide. It acknowledges this ancient text as imperfect. It invites us to enter it as a kaleidoscopic conversation that includes puzzling and problematic passages plus sage and sublime poetry and prose singing of cosmic love for earth and all creatures on it. Into this centuries-old mess and gorgeousness, Carl brings a trusted, intelligent, kind, and down-to-earth questioning. He approaches this revered religious bestseller in the humble spirit of interdependence with earth and with local-and-global communities in need of neighborliness, equity, and justice. His book is itself a dialogue about actually reading and engaging with the Bible, not literally nor shallowly, but contemplatively. We’re invited to explore a mystical sensibility that opens to new possibilities in our relationship with this enduring anthology. Carl’s book is a valuable conversation starter for us all!
— Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, poet and award-winning translator of The Cloud of Unknowing, Practice of the Presence by Brother Lawrence, and Hildegard of Bingen
Carl McColman’s Read the Bible Like a Mystic is a vital guide for those seeking a deeper, more transformative relationship with Scripture. In a time when the Bible is often misused to divide, oppress, and harm, McColman invites us to rediscover its power as a source of justice and profound spiritual wisdom. This book is a must-read for anyone yearning to engage the sacred text with fresh eyes and a contemplative heart.
— Brandan Robertson, Pastor and Author of Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table
Carl McColman writes from a heart transformed by mystical love and invites the reader onto a powerful journey of seeing scripture in new ways. What a gift this book is, to help save the ancient texts sacred to Christian and Jewish traditions from fundamentalist agendas, and to invite us into ways of reading that are spacious, imaginative, and full of mystery and wonder, and overflowing with deepened love and transformation. Carl gives his readers a generous map to the heart of wisdom through imaginative encounters with the sacred texts. Highly recommended reading for all contemplatives.
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, online Abbess of Abbey of the Arts and author of over 20 books on the contemplative path
Carl McColman asks if the Bible can be saved—saved, that is, from the dead literalism that prevails today. His answer is a powerful and resounding yes. No one should presume to assert what the Bible says or does not say without understanding the truths that McColman presents here. This book is urgently needed.
—Richard Smoley, author of Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition
In these times of fear and exile, we are grasping for wisdom to survive. When our terror and alienation get projected onto the Bible, we sadly distort the wisdom we are desperately reaching for. Carl McColman, in this book, is offering us an invitation and instructions on how to pause and reorient our minds and hearts towards mystery and wholeness– mystic consciousness — so that we may truly discover the wisdom we seek in the Bible, and experience the heaven on earth we can create.
— Pamela Ayo Yetunde, ThD, Pastoral Counselor and Author of Casting Indra’s Net and Dearly Beloved: Prince, Spirituality, and This Thing Called Life
There are a lot of reasons that mystical theology and biblical theology have parted company in the last five hundred years. In this simple, but profound, book, written for the lay person, Carl McColman makes a compelling case for bringing them back together. At the heart of biblical theology is an encounter with the living God. The same is true of the heart of mystical theology. Despite all of the ways that the Bible has been used and misused, can we again bring that encounter to our reading? McColman shows us how. This book will expand your imagination, give you new ways to read the Bible, return you to old stories, and introduce you to unexpected companions.
—Amy Frykholm, author of Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography and Christian Understandings of the Future
Carl McColman’s Read the Bible Like A Mystic doesn’t shy away from the hard parts of the text, nor does it excuse them away. Instead he invites us into a new way of reading: one less focused on historicity and doctrine and more focused on connecting to the heart of the Divine. For those who have been hurt by the Bible, for those who find it confusing or out dated, for those who used to read it and are longing to find a way back in, this book is for you. This is an invitation to read with the heart, in the tradition of the many mystics of Christian tradition. Accessible, invitational, and filled with wisdom; this is a guide to reading in a new way.
—Shannon T.L. Kearns, author of No One Taught Me How to Be A Man: What A Trans Man’s Experience Reveals about Masculinity and co-founder of queertheology.com
Read the Bible Like a Mystic is a refreshing book that allows readers to find the pearls of wisdom hidden in the biblical stories. Carl McColman’s mysticism of the ordinary invites the reader to approach the biblical stories as a contemplative so to reveal the awe and wonder of God as Infinite Love.
— Cristobal Serran-Pagan y Fuentes, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Palacký University, Czech Republic and editor of Merton and the Tao
Some read the Bible thinking it’s a menu. Mystics read the Bible knowing it’s the meal: internalizing its wisdom and making it a part of their being and becoming. Carl McColman’s Read the Bible Like a Mystic is a powerful invitation to pick up the Bible and “come and eat” (John 21:12). I hope you are brave enough to accept it.
— Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent.
In this urgently needed book, Carl McColman gets straight to the point: the conventional sales pitches for why the Bible should (or should not) matter no longer work. In a world where we have a rational explanation for almost everything but yearn for meaning, the Bible’s potential for individual and cultural renewal must lie in the realm of imagination, mystery, and mysticism. Turns out, this was the Bible’s domain all along! Read the Bible Like A Mystic will help you to see what has always been hiding in plain sight. Get ready for an infusion of beauty, wonder, and meaning that you won’t be able to unsee!
— Heather Hamilton, author of Returning to Eden: A Field Guide to the Spiritual Journey
Carl McColman has written this treasure of a book “in the fullness of time” as many spiritual seekers today long for a deeper, more authentic sense of the Spirit in their daily lives. Read the Bible Like a Mystic spotlights luminous not-to-be-missed passages of the Bible that, together with Carl’s expert and insightful guidance, serve as holy reminders to us that the infinite spirit of God within and all around us can be discovered, encountered, and intimately known when we engage certain sacred texts of scripture with a mystic’s “listening heart and wondering mind.” This must-read book will be an always-at-your-side resource that you will recommend to your friends who are just beginning their spiritual journey, as well as to those with years devoted to the richness and power of Scripture. It is that eye-opening!
— Caroline Oakes, author of Practice the Pause: Jesus’ Contemplative Practice, New Brain Science, and What It Means to Be Fully Human
With Read the Bible Like a Mystic, Carl McColman does something beautiful: by reflecting on the potential to transform the way we appreciate the Bible, we can actually appreciate our own complex lives more and rest in the abiding presence of God that soaks us all with love. Above all, this is a book that helps me breathe.
— Stuart Higginbotham, Episcopal priest, Assistant Professor in the Practice of Spiritual Formation and Ministry, Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and Author of The Heart of a Calling and Bones of Light: Poems of Spiritual Imagination
Read the Bible Like a Mystic offers a renewed approach to reading the Bible, that is invitational, freeing, and allows for the truth of our own lives to flourish. Carl McColman offers us a way to shake up the status-quo and transcend our preconceived notions about the Bible, all while bringing us back to the root of Christianity.
—Cassidy Hall, author of Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality
Carl McColman’s latest book, Read the Bible Like a Mystic, is a stirring invitation to embrace the Bible as a book of wisdom. With great candor and courage, he suggests that we abandon the literal reading of fundamentalists, retain the important but limited reading of academic scholars, and move beyond both to embrace a contemplative reading of the Bible that allows for mystery and unknowing.
Just as the practice of meditation and contemplation can expand the heart and mind, so too can this book. McColman’s extensive and personal experience combined with his approachable writing style has produced a truly inspired work. This is an important book for the current spiritual climate and I highly recommend it for contemplatives everywhere.
— Mark Dannenfelser, Co-Host of the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast produced by Contemplative Outreach International
What’s the Book About?
There is a better way to read the Bible: with the eyes of a mystic and the heart of contemplation.
Can the Bible be saved? Many Christians and others, including many contemplative practitioners, are troubled by how difficult passages in the Bible can be used to promote sexism, homophobia, hostility to other faiths, and other problems–but a sterile, “academic” reading of the sacred text seems spiritually unfulfilling. Carl McColman, author of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism, reminds us that there is an ancient “third way” of approaching the Bible: reading scripture like a mystic. This contemplative approach to the Bible understands that much of the sacred text was never meant to be taken literally, yet this approach maintains that spiritual wisdom, guidance in prayer, and encouragement for meditation are encoded throughout the sacred text.
Read the Bible like a Mystic will help Christians find an expanded relationship with their sacred textbook, and it will also invite all people–Christian and non-Christian alike–to bring together the wisdom of the written word with the wisdom of the contemplative life and the call to foster peace, justice, and equality in our world. Whether you come to the Bible from a preexisting interest in Christianity or mysticism, this book shows how contemplative wisdom unlocks the liberating power of the Word for our time.
Pre-Order Today!
Where to buy Read the Bible Like a Mystic:
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Broadleaf Books
Bookshop.org • Books-a-Million
www.anamchara.com (autographed copy)
