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Contemplative

2022-05-11T09:26:38-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Upcoming Free Event: Carl McColman, Brian McLaren and others talk about Brian’s New Book, “Do I Stay Christian”?

Last updated on: May 11, 2022 at 9:26 am By Carl "Skye" McColman

Even the most committed Christian sometimes wonders if it’s worth it to participate in the institutional church. Religion can be a huge commitment of time and resources, and especially in our day, more and more people are saying “no thanks.” It’s an honest question that we all face sooner or later: “Do I stay Christian?” Now we have one of the leading progressive Christian voices of our time, Brian McLaren (who wrote the forward to my book Unteachable Lessons) reflecting... Read more

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Brian McLaren

Carl McColman

2022-05-08T14:09:21-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Erotic Dimension of Mystical Spirituality (or, Why Do Mystics Love the Song of Songs?)

Last updated on: May 8, 2022 at 2:09 pm By Carl "Skye" McColman

Almost from the beginning of the Christian era, mystics and saints and theologians and spiritual teachers have reflected on one of the most beautiful and poetic of the “wisdom writings” in the Bible to explore the mystery of the love of God and how that love seeks intimacy with us, God’s human creatures. I am referring to the Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon or the Canticle of Canticles. It’s not so much a “book” as... Read more

2022-04-27T13:13:25-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

An Open Letter to a Priest Who Posts Hostile Political Posts on Social Media

Last updated on: April 27, 2022 at 1:13 pm By Carl "Skye" McColman

With the news that Elon Musk is acquiring Twitter, once again the question of how social media functions (or ought to function) in our society is back on peoples’ minds. Ever since I saw the movie The Social Dilemma, I have been conscious of the challenges that social media brings to our common life. Chief among those challenges is the question of how we navigate our social and political differences and disagreements. Christians are not immune to these social and... Read more

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2022-04-06T13:14:09-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

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

Last updated on: April 6, 2022 at 1:14 pm By Carl "Skye" McColman

I’ve been working my way through Mystical Theology and Contemporary Spiritual Practice: Renewing the Contemplative Tradition, a book in Routledge’s “Contemporary Theological Explorations in Mysticism” series. There’s a delightful essay in it called “Unlikely Mystics” about the sense of wonder and numinous reality that people encounter when visiting medieval cathedrals. Based on her research at Durham Cathedral in England, author Rosalind Brown describes the cathedral as “mystical space for ordinary people.” Telling the story of a visitor to the cathedral who had... Read more

2022-02-24T11:32:22-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Christian of the Future — a New “Mystical Minute” Video for Contemplative Seekers

Last updated on: February 24, 2022 at 11:32 am By Carl "Skye" McColman

Friends, here is a new video I’d like to share with you. God willing, this will be the first of a series of videos I will be creating in the months to come. This video, like all my online content, is funded through Patreon. When I set up my Patreon account, I set several goals: commitments for new content or new projects that I would undertake when the number of patrons supporting my work reached certain levels. One of those... Read more

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2022-01-18T13:31:46-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

New Online Course: the Contemplative Wisdom of “Meditations on the Tarot”

Last updated on: January 18, 2022 at 1:31 pm By Carl "Skye" McColman

Thomas Keating loved it. So did Basil Pennington and Bede Griffiths. In our time, Cynthia Bourgeault and Therese Schroeder-Sheker have praised it — enthusiastically. So why, pray tell, are these leaders of the contemplative community endorsing a book with a title like Meditations on the Tarot? Written in the 1960s and published only after the death of its author in 1973, Meditations on the Tarot is a unique book that explores the contemplative imagination — how our God-given powers of intelligence, intuition, insight... Read more

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2021-12-29T09:26:05-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Great Mystical Book — With a Surprising Title

Last updated on: December 29, 2021 at 9:26 am By Carl "Skye" McColman

I’ve recently been re-reading one of the most fascinating and unusual books of mystical wisdom to have been written within the last 100 years. This is actually my third time through the book, and I know I will read it again, certainly more than once. It’s one of those rare books that rewards multiple readings, each new journey through it yielding new insights. I’m not the only one who feels this way about this 20th-century contemplative masterpiece. Look at some... Read more

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Meditations on the Tarot

Valentin Tomberg

2021-12-22T15:40:05-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The New “My Sweet Lord” Video is Lots of Fun, But Misses the Point of the Song

Last updated on: December 22, 2021 at 3:40 pm By Carl "Skye" McColman

Last week, the George Harrison estate released a new, “official” video for Harrison’s 1970 masterpiece, “My Sweet Lord” from his magnum opus All Things Must Pass. It’s a playful and fun video, with a kind of goofy X-Files plot, featuring a star-studded cast (Mark Hamill, Fred Armison, Vanessa Bayer, Weird Al Yankovic, Rosanna Arquette, Joe Walsh, Kate Micucci, Claudia O’Doherty, along with Harrison’s wife and son, Olivia and Dhani, and his former bandmates Jeff Lynne and Ringo Starr; conspicuous in their... Read more

2021-12-14T17:55:52-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Two Essential Questions for the Mystical Journey

Last updated on: December 14, 2021 at 5:55 pm By Carl "Skye" McColman

I was speaking with a few friends of mine who are spiritual directors recently, and we were talking about the work they do accompanying people who seek to draw closer to God. If you are not familiar with spiritual direction, it is a ministry of interactive care, in which a person supports another in the journey into deeper intimacy with God. A spiritual director does not “direct” in the sense of giving orders, but may provide a sense of orientation... Read more

2021-12-02T09:05:47-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

New Editions of Some of My Older Books

Last updated on: December 2, 2021 at 9:05 am By Carl "Skye" McColman

My latest book, Eternal Heart, was published this past summer by Broadleaf. Broadleaf Books is an imprint of 1517 Media, the publisher that may be more familiar to you under the imprints Fortress Press and Augsburg Books. Working with Broadleaf has been a wonderful experience, and my relationship with them has just gotten a bit more “serious.” Broadleaf recently acquired the rights to take over publication of five of my older books, including my bestseller, The Big Book of Christian... Read more

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