Hungering for God? Answering the Contemplative Call (review)

Many people are expressing hunger for a deeper connection with God or the Divine or Something that they are not finding in conventional ways of being Christian.  Many others experience that hunger even as they participate in all the ways that churches offer to be in community.  In Answering the Contemplative Call:  First Steps on the Mystical Path, Carl McColman offers wisdom from the millennia of Christian contemplative practice and experience.  I want to say he is “demystifying mysticism,” but it would be more accurate to say that he offers clear and practical ways to become more open to the mysteries of seeking intimacy with God.  Carl’s writing is, as always, amazingly clear and accessible to all who experience that yearning but aren’t quite sure what to do about it, while at the same time deeply grounded in his own spiritual practices and the wisdom received from other practitioners of contemplative praying.

Answering the Contemplative Call is both practical and profound, relying on the witness of so many who have tried to describe their own experiences of deepening intimacy with God.  And he avoids the temptation of so many who have sought to create a set of rules that are intended to guide but often become another “box” in which to contain the possibilities of transformation. The “promise and possibility of the mystical path [is] to hold and be held by God….that loving presence that truly, finally, makes all the difference in our lives—filling us with purpose, meaning and joy.” (p. 146)

As a contemplative and spiritual director, I recognize the value of what Carl offers here, as well as the gentle clarity with which he guides around some of the pitfalls inherent in seeking a deeper connection with God’s love.  I recommend this book for seekers, book study groups, students of contemplative tradition, teachers of spiritual formation, and those who serve as guides on the mystical path.

I received a review copy of this book from Speakeasy.com.