Post-Christian life and society do not eliminate a desire for the transcendent; rather, they create an environment for new and divergent spiritual communities and practices to flourish. We are flooded with spiritualities that appeal to human desires for nonreligious personal transformation. But many fail to deliver because they fall into the trap of the self.
In the last book of the Ministry in a Secular Age series, leading practical theologian Andrew Root shows the differences between these spiritualities and authentic Christian transformation. He explores the dangers of following or adapting these reigning mysticisms and explains why the self has become so important yet so burdened with guilt--and how we should think about both. To help us understand our confusing cultural landscape, he maps spiritualities using twenty of the best memoirs from 2015 to 2020 in which "secular mystics" promote their mystical and transformational pathways. Root concludes with a more excellent way--even a mysticism--centered on the theology of the cross that pastors and leaders can use to form their own imaginations and practices.
Read before Using (Don't Skip)
1. New Mystics without God: Closed World Structures and Memoirists
2. When Dogs Bark during Paris Lockdown: Meet the Magnificent Jean-Jacques
3. Performing Selves Are So Guilty: Why Mysticism and Guilt Are Back
4. When the Everyday Houses a Mysticism without God
5. The [ Bleeping] Triangles Are Everywhere: How Triangulated Dilemmas and Conflicts Map the Mysticism of a Secular Age
6. Mystical Memoirists: Mapping the Spiritual Pathways of a Secular Age
7. Why Not All Mysticisms Are Equal: Welcome to a Smooth, Pornographic World Obsessed with Action
8. Why Passivity Is the Path
9. The Headless Man of Shadows: Into Negativity
10. When a Late-Night Talk Leads to Deconversion: Or, How We Keep from Hating the World
Index
Andrew Root (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he teaches on theology of ministry, youth ministry, and culture. He is the author of over 20 books on youth ministry and practical theology, including the acclaimed Ministry in a Secular Age series. Root speaks worldwide to church groups, university and college communities, youth workers, and other ministry professionals. He also hosts the popular and influential When Church Stops Working podcast.
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