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jdintr's review
5.0
This book was not what I had expected.
When one hears the phrase, "dark night of the soul," one thinks of emotional or spiritual anguish: an experience where one is either crushed or fixed by suffering, but May's approach is constructive if no equivocal.
There is goodness to be found in suffering, he writes in the introduction, just as evil can be found lurking in joyous times.
As his guides through the Dark Night of the Soul, May uses two 17th-century Spanish mystics, St. John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila. Their writings sought connection with the Divine, who envelopes our world as the stars envelop Earth. Only on the darkest nights, though, do they shine the brightest.
The book gets better the further it goes, charting the heart's course through struggles with temptation and addition, and even indicating signs of the dawn that follows.
Separated into seven succinct chapters DNOTS is a great guide for personal enrichment as well as for reading as a group in a book club or Sunday school.
When one hears the phrase, "dark night of the soul," one thinks of emotional or spiritual anguish: an experience where one is either crushed or fixed by suffering, but May's approach is constructive if no equivocal.
There is goodness to be found in suffering, he writes in the introduction, just as evil can be found lurking in joyous times.
As his guides through the Dark Night of the Soul, May uses two 17th-century Spanish mystics, St. John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila. Their writings sought connection with the Divine, who envelopes our world as the stars envelop Earth. Only on the darkest nights, though, do they shine the brightest.
The book gets better the further it goes, charting the heart's course through struggles with temptation and addition, and even indicating signs of the dawn that follows.
Separated into seven succinct chapters DNOTS is a great guide for personal enrichment as well as for reading as a group in a book club or Sunday school.
davidcalhoun's review
4.0
A lot of Christian mysticism which I’m still unsure about, but it’s illuminating. Interestingly, the dark night of the soul is different yet offen coincident with depression, is usually an ongoing process throughout life, and is essential for spiritual development. We pray for the easy way, but time and again the right path is the hard way...
l2intj's review
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Not exactly the most riveting read, but it had some interesting insights into the nature of "the dark night" and what it looks like in the modern world.
jtisreading's review
4.0
Read through this slowly. It is an excellent introduction and interpretative analysis of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila's work. As an existentialist, this area of Christian imagination is vital to thought and process. How can we understand and live within the darker parts of human life? How is existence that carried pain and anguish also an outpouring of something more? Is it?
John and Teresa both don't provide answers rather they provide a life path for engaging with these times and making some of the most beautiful observations.
May adds to these observations with the eyes of a psychiatrist. His interpretive nature works and combines with his faith to create a strong interpretation and engagement with these two Christian mystics.
John and Teresa both don't provide answers rather they provide a life path for engaging with these times and making some of the most beautiful observations.
May adds to these observations with the eyes of a psychiatrist. His interpretive nature works and combines with his faith to create a strong interpretation and engagement with these two Christian mystics.
davehershey's review
4.0
I have grown to appreciate the work of many of the great mystics and spiritual writers of the Church, with John of the Cross and Theresa of Avila being two of my favorites. This book is an analysis and commentary on their works from the perspective of a psychologist. The best thing about this book is to see how these spiritual writings from centuries ago resonate with contemporary psychology. In other words, Theresa and John did not just explore the depths of the human condition, but hit on much that is still proven helpful today.
If you never read John or Theresa and want to, this book could be a good introduction. If, like me, you have read them and often felt out of your depth, this book is helpful. There is so much here that I was challenged and moved by and I think the Church as a whole and individual Christians can only benefit by reclaiming the writings of thoughtful people like John and Theresa.
If you never read John or Theresa and want to, this book could be a good introduction. If, like me, you have read them and often felt out of your depth, this book is helpful. There is so much here that I was challenged and moved by and I think the Church as a whole and individual Christians can only benefit by reclaiming the writings of thoughtful people like John and Theresa.
kcmasong's review
5.0
One of the marks of a good writer is that he or she can mine new treasures in the writings of another by putting old ideas in a new light, making them all appear fresh, crisp, and in a wonderful way, a genuine new discovery of something that is in fact centuries old. Gerald May, a renowned psychiatrist, Methodist and spiritual writer, brings a breath of fresh air to the concept of the Dark Night of the Soul as popularized in the spiritual theology of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. May argues that there is nothing dark or sinister in the "Dark NIght". Faithful to its Spanish original Noche Oscura, the darkness is felt negative only because of the obscurity that one experiences as one enters into the threshold of spiritual growth. In fact, all of us, knowingly and unknowingly, experience this Dark Night as we grow slowly towards maturity in liberation from attachments and addictions and to the attendant transformations in regaining the freedom to genuinely love. Spirituality is about love, not so much in the experience of love that we give, but in the event of God loving us, and we coming to a deep awareness of this. We need to do away with with the common dualism prevalent in thinking about God and humanity, and instead be convinced of the truth that I am in God and God is in me.
This book is a must-read, not only for beginners who wish to know and understand deeply the mystical theology of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, but even for the well-seasoned readers of these Carmelite saints. It is seldom that one opens a book that makes one see the same things, but now opening a new vista to see aged gems sparklingly new. There is absolutely no room for regret in opening this book.
This book is a must-read, not only for beginners who wish to know and understand deeply the mystical theology of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, but even for the well-seasoned readers of these Carmelite saints. It is seldom that one opens a book that makes one see the same things, but now opening a new vista to see aged gems sparklingly new. There is absolutely no room for regret in opening this book.