Riding with the Lion: 2christian Mysticism: Pathways to Transcendence

The journeys of contemporary spiritual seekers are often marked by the search not only for the soul's home but also for a true leader who, like Dante's Virgil, can accompany them on their quest of self-discovery. Markides here provides a kind of spiritual travelogue in which he chronicles his own search for authentic teachers of the sophia perennis. From his study of the Orthodox Christian mystical tradition, the author draws parallels with the spiritual principles enunciated in Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern systems of religious expression; he even counsels ways of distinguishing false teachers from true ones. Unfortunately, however, the book is marred by a soupy spirituality whose attempt to synthesize a variety of beliefs and practices into a universal spirituality represents the worst of the New Age. The book will, nonetheless, have wide appeal to those readers seeking the simple integrations of pop spirituality. (Jan.)