Both Alike to Thee - The Retrieval of the Mystical Way

By Melvyn Matthews

Book Overview

A treatment of thinking about the mystical way in spirituality. Drawing on academic research, Melvyn Matthews looks for a balanced view of the spiritual life which is open to everyone, not just a contemplative elite or those who have had particularly extraordinary experiences or visions of God. The study is based on the Bible, as well as on popular figures such as Thomas Merton and Teresa of Avila.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0281050309
• ISBN13: 9780281050307
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
• Length: 162 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An Anglican take on the Retrieval of the Mystical Way of Christ

Canon Melvyn Matthews has given us all a gift in this fantastic book on the necessity of retrieving the mystical core of the Church. He makes it clear throughout the book that this retrieval takes place not through personal, private, individualized experience but within the liturgical and sacramental life of the eccesial community. His theological scholarship is excellent, although I do think he unfairly characterizes Evelyn Underhill as a proponent of mysticism as "the flight of the alone to the Alone", whereas her thought and writing further developed into a completely liturgical and sacramental understanding of mysticism over time. He also quotes one of the foremost scholars of mysticism, Denys Turner, as saying that the practice of centering prayer "appears to be tied in with the achievement and cultivation of a certain kind of experience". NOTHING could be further from the truth, as anyone can see who reads the books of the most learned teachers of centering prayer (Cistercian monks Thomas Keating and Basil Pennington). The best thing about reading this book is that it made me see how the mystical way HAS ALREADY been retrieved in my own Episcopal parish. Not every Episcopal parish is the same, but there are many out there (mine is one) where contemplative Christians can find a home and much encouragement, support, and enchantment in the mystical way of Christ.