A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
Carl McColman offers a broad guide to Christian mysticism through Scripture, theology, history, major contemplative figures, prayer, embodiment, justice, and everyday practice. The expanded edition widens the range of voices and addresses how contemplation relates to action, making the field approachable without reducing mysticism to unusual experiences.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
It provides orientation before travelers enter dense primary texts or adopt a practice without context. McColman shows that Christian mysticism is not a marginal escape from Christianity but a diverse stream within it, shaped by doctrine, community, ethics, and discipline. Its role is a modern guidebook to a large territory, not a primary mystical work or complete history.
Good starting place if…
You are curious about Christian mysticism and want one readable overview of its history, themes, voices, practices, and relationship to ordinary life.
Know before you begin…
This is a contemporary synthesis, and the 2023 expanded edition is materially different from the earlier book with a similar title. Breadth requires compression: traditions, controversies, and individual mystics receive limited depth. McColman's generous framing remains a Christian interpretation and should not be used to make all mystical traditions interchangeable.
