Book Review: Answering the Contemplative Call: First Steps on the Mystical Path, by Carl McColman. Hampton Roads Publishing, 2013. ISBN: 978-1-57174-677-1
“One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he was finished, his disciples asked him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples how to pray.’” (Luke 11:1)
It seems as though through the ages people have wondered how to pray and nurture their spiritual lives. Across the great religious traditions of the world, in each generation, manuscripts and books transmit the wisdom gained by those who have explored the inner dimensions of the soul. Following the tradition of teaching others to pray, Carl McColman’s new book. Answering the Contemplative Call: First Steps on the Mystical Path, draws from a wide range of sources within the Christian tradition and presents contemporary readers with a model for contemplative prayer.
Within Christianity, there are various schools of contemplative prayer often sharing roots in geography and history. While many writers look at each school independently from one another, McColman’s perspective considers common elements of the Cistercian Mystics in France (11th Century), the Rhineland Mystics (11th and 12th Centuries), the English Mystics (14th and 15th Centuries), and the Spanish mystics (16th Century) to provide the foundation for a contemporary path for Christian contemplation.
Unlike my own book on the spiritual path, The Good Road, which is primarily written for those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious, Answering the Contemplative Call is firmly rooted within the Christian tradition. Quoting freely from the saints and mystics of the Christian tradition, McColman makes these great works of spiritual literature accessible to the reader while organizing the spiritual path into three major movements: the recognition of the call; the preparation for the journey; and the embarkment on the adventure.
As a spiritual director working with people who understand their spirituality in a wide variety of ways, after reading Answering the Contemplative Call, I am now recommending the book to those with whom I work who are Christian ministers, seminarians, and church leaders. McColman uniquely bridges the heart of the Christian tradition with a vibrant living sense of the contemplative dimension of life often needed today. This book is rich in substance, well organized, and accessible for readers with some background in the Christian tradition.