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January 2025

January 12, 2025

“This Loving, Uniting Embrace”: the Holy Ordinary

Today's guest post is by Mark Longhurst, author of The Holy Ordinary: A Way to...

October 2022

October 03, 2022

Gnosis and Mysticism

A reader of this blog named Brian writes: Carl, How would you compare and contrast...

April 2022

April 06, 2022

Divine Union is Embodied: Notes on the Incarnational Nature of Christian Mysticism

I've been working my way through Mystical Theology and Contemporary Spiritual Practice: Renewing the Contemplative Tradition, a...

December 2021

December 28, 2021

A Great Mystical Book — With a Surprising Title

I've recently been re-reading one of the most fascinating and unusual books of mystical wisdom...

November 2021

November 04, 2021

Putting the “Christian” into “Christian Mysticism”

Mysticism crosses all religious and spiritual boundaries. In other words, mysticism — like prayer or...

May 2021

May 24, 2021

Union, Intimacy, and Love: the Dynamics of Christian Mysticism

The best way to understand Christian mysticism (if "understanding" is even a possibility, given the...

May 08, 2021

Why Julian of Norwich Matters to Me

I first "met" Julian of Norwich through reading Evelyn Underhill's magisterial book Mysticism: The Nature and...

January 2021

January 28, 2021

Do We Lose Our Identity When We Become One with God?

A reader named Allen writes... I have heard some mystics talk about when we die...

November 2020

November 13, 2020

Video: Mysticism and the Bible — Three Contemplative Verses

"Is mysticism in the Bible?" It's a question I get asked from time to...

June 2020

June 18, 2020

A Drop of Water is Not the Ocean (Understanding Christian Mystical Teachings of Union and Nonduality)

A reader named Beth writes: Hi Carl, I started reading "The Big Book of Christian...

April 2020

April 08, 2020

“Don’t Call Yourself a Mystic” — How Kenneth Leech’s Challenge Helped Me To Embrace Contemplative Practice

In my book Unteachable Lessons I talk about Kenneth Leech, the Anglican priest who wrote a...

November 2019

November 08, 2019

Contemplation, Community, and the Institutional Church: Has the Time Come to Be “Mystical But Not Religious”?

I often get asked if Christian mysticism needs the institutional church. Do you have to...

May 2019

May 06, 2019

I’m Uncomfortable with the Notion of the “False Self.” Here’s Why.

A reader named Dave recently sent this question to me: Hi Carl, could you please...

March 2019

March 08, 2019

Five Ways to Think About Christian Mysticism

Mysticism is a notoriously squirrelly word to try to define. In The Big Book of Christian...

February 2019

February 23, 2019

Walter Hilton: A Contemplative Guide Who Will Take You Back to the Basics

Twice this month, the lesser-known English mystic Walter Hilton has shown up on this blog....

September 2018

September 25, 2018

Is Mystical Experience the Antidote to Nihilism?

In response to my previous post from last October, Why Experience Is Not the Foundation of...

September 08, 2018

Contemplation and Ecstatic Experience

A reader named Kevin wrote and asked me: What's your view on the phenomenon of...

July 2018

July 26, 2018

God Listens… Within You

Today's guest post is by Mark S. Burrows, translator of Rilke's Prayers of a Young...

July 05, 2018

The Slowing: On the Contemplative Gift of Poetry

Today's guest post is by Mark S. Burrows, translator of Rilke's Prayers of a Young...

May 2018

May 22, 2018

Mysticism, Separation, and Unity

A friend on Facebook a few weeks back asked me what is the relationship between...

February 2018

February 01, 2018

The Ethics of Sharing Mystical Knowledge: Meister Eckhart and the Cloud Author

Pick up any edition of The Cloud of Unknowing, and you are likely to find...

December 2017

December 15, 2017

Seven Lessons on Prayer I learned from Julian of Norwich

The great medieval mystic Julian of Norwich is renowned for her theological optimism ("All shall...

October 2017

October 11, 2017

Coming in April 2018: The Little Book of Christian Mysticism! (Pre-Order Your Copy Today)

I have a new book coming in April 2018: The Little Book of Christian Mysticism!...

May 2017

May 08, 2017

How Julian of Norwich Changed My Life

Julian of Norwich, the author of Revelations of Divine Love, had a series of visions...

March 2017

March 03, 2017

Why Evelyn Underhill Remains Required Reading After Over 100 Years

A Book for All Time: Why Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism Still Matters For pretty much...

February 2017

February 24, 2017

What is Christian Mysticism? (Video)

Last week I posted a video about Julian of Norwich which is the first of...

January 2017

January 01, 2017

A Christian Mystics Bibliography

In my books The Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Christian Mystics: 108 Seers, Saints and Sages, I suggest...

September 2016

September 28, 2016

Why I Wrote a Book About Christian Mystics

When Peter Gabriel came to Atlanta in 2003, my wife Fran and I were able...

June 2016

June 22, 2016

Reviving an old page from my first blog

Reading books about the spiritual life can be a substitute for actually devoting time each...

June 15, 2016

Contemplation and Peace

A Facebook friend shared with me that she has been "thinking about contemplative prayer as a...