James K.A. Smith tells the reader that he has gone through periods of personal uncertainty, “a crisis of faith,” days “when the world goes dark,” and times when “sadness settles in.” Trained as a philosopher and as an experienced preacher of the Gospel of Christ, he thought that he could think his way out of such times. But then he couldn’t. He sets out to learn about his shadow side and discover a new openness to what life is offering. So, he writes, “This book is a philosopher’s journey back to the mystics as a way to learn how to live in the twenty-first century.”
Thomas Merton, Meister Eckhart, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, John of the Cross, and Teresa of Avila proved important to his process.
The lesson he learns from The Cloud of Unknowing is profound, changing his ways. As he explains, “Cloud’s admonition is simple: ‘don’t analyze.’… For those of us who pride ourselves on conceptual finesse and analytic precision, the counsel of Cloud arrives almost like an assault: ‘So let go of every clever, persuasive thought. Put it down and cover it with a thick cloud of forgetting.’… Here is what silence requires … surrender. Let it go. Lay it down. Don’t think; be. Wait.”
This is just one of a hundred examples of how Smith puts the mystics to work in reframing his life. The result is a beautiful book of experience, the author’s own, written in such a way that many will be able to learn from what he has undergone.
