<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: The one I would keep if I had to give up the others...
Review: An excellent description of the Christian mystical path, beautifully written, insightful, and quite practical and useful. If I had to lose all my other Christian mystical books but keep only one, this would be the keeper. Mind you, it is not a "scholarly" work in the usual sense. It is not a history of mysticism, nor an eleborate exposition of various issues in Christian spirituality. It is a handbook for mystics and contemplatives. What is especially nice is how the author uses the "Heroic Journey" as a model to understand the path toward enlightenment. Kerry Walters, unlike most writers in this genre, does not shmooze the reader with a wimpy, yuppie-oriented hot-tub "spirituality", but instead gives the reader something REAL: a GENUINE spirituality that requires DEATH!! Yes, death. In fact, DEATH not once but TWICE! If you can't handle that, well, then I guess you can get that cheap hot-tub mysticism in the New Age section, or you can get that tacky tired old-time religion at your local evangelical Christian bookstore. Soul Wilderness is too good a book to be lumped in with either of those. Get it!!
Rating:
Summary: A Keeper
Review: I bought a copy of this because I thought it was going to be about the desert fathers. I was wrong, but not dissapointed! Walters' book is one of the best books on mysticism and spirituality I've ever read. I especially like the early chapter on idols that we worship as God. This book is one that every religious library needs!
Rating:
Summary: A Keeper
Review: I bought a copy of this because I thought it was going to be about the desert fathers. I was wrong, but not dissapointed! Walters' book is one of the best books on mysticism and spirituality I've ever read. I especially like the early chapter on idols that we worship as God. This book is one that every religious library needs!
Rating:
Summary: Blessed words from a Mystic-Prophet
Review: I have never reviewed a book before but this book is so good that I must tell all who are interested in their spiritual well-being to read it! Walters has condensed 2000 years of Christian Mysticism into less than 150 pages. And it is done with words that ricochet right into the depths of your soul. The meaning of salvation has never been made more clear for those who desire to pursue the Spirit-Wind wherever He goes...
Rating: 
Summary: good but sometimes too deep
Review: the general ideaof this book is that there's nothing incompatible about being a mystic and a prophet. the mystical side gets us in touch with god, the prophetic side takes god into society to do good work. the chapter on being a prophet is really good, but the chapters on mysticism (dying in the desert) are over my head.
Rating:
Summary: I'm glad I read this
Review: This is a book that I will read again. It has taught me the importance of going into soul wilderness, and how important it is to come back out and minister to the world. Great concept, great writing, great insights.
Rating:
Summary: The one I would keep if I had to give up the others...
Review: This is by far the best book on desert mysticism that I have ever read. It challenged and stirred me in beautiful, engaging prose, and gave me the framework that I've been seeking in order to begin a serious study of Meister Eckhart, from whose well Walters has drunk deeply. Anyone with an interest in Christian mysticism who is open to being TRANSformed as well as INformed would benefit from this excellent work.
Rating:
Summary: Best book on mysticism I've ever read!
Review: This is the first book on spirituality I've ever read in one sitting (an all-nighter!), and I plan to read it again. It's a beautiful and insightful book, in spite of the author's modest claim that he's not a poet (he is, in this and his other books). Walters teaches us how to sink into the inner desert (the soul), discover our true selves and God there, and return to the world as prophets on fire with divine love. He says that human existence is a koan, a riddle that can only be cracked if we dare to go beyond the safe boundaries we've drawn for ourselves and jump into the desert. He's especially good at describing those "safe" places--all those "churchy" feel-good dens we burrow into to keep away from the fiery desert God. A frightening thought, but one (if he's right) that eventually frees us to become full fledged individuals. This book isn't for the timid--or maybe that's exactly who it's for. Reading Walters is a little like reading Kierkegaard. Be prepared to be shook up.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and liberating
Review: Walters has written a beautifully disturbing and liberating book. He makes mincemeat out of the comfortable spirituality and canned mysticism so popular in the religious marketplace today, and urges us to go into the inner desert with no provisions. Once there, he tells us that we'll die. That's the disturbing part. But Walters also argues (here's the liberating part) that in dying in the desert we discover who we really are and what's really important about God. If he's right, it seems a small price to pay. If you liked what Joseph Campbell did for the study of religion with his heroic journey approach, you'll like what Walters does for Christian belief in this book, because the whole book is really about the spiritual pilgrimage of Christians. But it also speaks to others (like myself) who don't claim to be Christian, but who are interested in mysticism and spirituality.
<< 1 >>
| 
