Best of the Web: Christian Mysticism of the Future

For a while now, I've been wanting to do a "best of" series where I post links to what I consider to be some of the best web posts/articles that you can find on the internet.

Lately, I've been very busy writing articles, and so my posts here on my blog have taken a bit of a back seat to the rest of my writing. But since I've found time tonight to sit down and actually do something here, I thought it would be a good time to start this "best of" series.

My first pick comes from Carl McColman's delightful mystical Christian blog Anamchara: The Website of Unknowing. The post is entitled "Christian Mysticism of the Future" and its my favorite of all of Carl's posts. (And he's written quite a lot.)

By the way, after you've read this, be sure to check out the rest of his site. His last few blog posts alone are wonderful reading.

Christian Mysticism of the Future

One of my gripes with Phyllis Tickle’s book The Great Emergence is that she provides little or no insight into where she thinks the church is headed during this period of emergence. I think everyone kind of gets it that post-modernity is a hinge time, where we’re after something that no longer works (modernity) and we don’t really know yet what it is we’re before. (as an aside, I figure it’s either going to be a new renaissance that will make the 15th century look like a dress rehearsal, or else it could involve environmental devastation and resultant trauma on a scale never before imagined. And it all really boils down to how effectively we can curb our appetites!).

Okay, well, I can hardly whine about Tickle’s lack of forecasting, if I don’t do a bit of my own. So I’m working on a chapter in my book that will explore my conjectures about the future of Christian mysticism. This is utterly un-scientific: I am only basing my thoughts on what I have seen and read and intuited. So feel free to disagree — but if you do, please post a comment as to why. I’d be curious to hear what other contemplatives sense about where the Holy Spirit is leading us.

But for now, here are the seven characteristics that I (currently) believe will shape the future of Christian mysticism:

Christian mysticism in the future will be increasingly Trinitarian. I believe the success of William Paul Young’s The Shack is at least partially due to its lovely presentation of the trinitarian nature of God. Obviously, the Blessed Trinity has always been central to Christian theology, but I believe its importance will only increase, as a healthy alternative to monism and dualism — both of which have dogged Christian spirituality for too long.

To read the full article, go here.

Fast, Lift, Run, Eat

Before we get things started here, I haven’t been able to write quite as much as I want to on the blog. I have been busy, as with a great many of you, in all likelihood, with various holiday functions and I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a book I have been working on for almost two years—and should have had finished by now—on Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Dokkodo.” However, I will try to post at least one more essay/article—possibly two—to round out 2024. With that little aside out of the way, let’s get down to business. I had a question from a reader who wanted to know if I knew of any training program that was capable of both building muscle and burning bodyfat at the same time. If you’re unaware, it’s widely considered damn-near impossible to achieve that feat. Even guys on anabolics have a problem with doing such a thing, although the introduction of steroids, and other perfor...

Specialization Training

Some Thoughts on How and When to Follow Specialization Programs Whether You’re Trying to Improve the Size of a Bodypart or Increase the Strength on a Specific Lift This morning, I sat down with the intention of cranking out an article I had in mind for strength-specialization on a certain lift. But, as I was working on it, I started to think that perhaps I should just write a “general” essay regarding my thoughts on when and how to go about setting up a specialization program. The result is what you’re now staring at—I’ll save the other article I had in mind for another day. (Hopefully, at least. I forget more articles, unfortunately, than I actually write.) First things first, for the most part you shouldn’t follow specialization programs the majority of the training year. Specialization programs are needed when one of your lifts is falling behind the others—or if you’ve never really focus...

The Full-Body Big Barbell 5 Program

An 8-Week Program for Monstrous Mass and Power Gains Over the years, I have often received the following question from a reader (though it comes in various guises): “If you could only do one exercise for the rest of your life, what would it be?” I understand the question. Or, at least, I understand where the question comes from. Readers simply want to know what exercise I deem the best. The truth is that I never really answer that question. Mainly because I just don’t understand it. On what planet would I live where I could only do one exercise? But as said, I do understand the rationale for the question in the first place. And the answer I usually give is something along the lines of this: “Well, I don’t know about one exercise, but if I could only do a handful, they would be these (fill-in-the-blank).” And the truth is, if I’m being quite honest, that I don’t always give the same ex...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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