Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality

We seem to be in the midst of a mindfulness storm.

Peter Tyler

Mindfulness was not just a practice of Jesus recovered today but has been a practice of the Church through the centuries, though often neglected and repressed.

Stefan Gillow Reynolds

Indeed, there seems today to be a mindfulness storm. Spiritus has noticed the storm in various religions, in secular practice, in therapy and psychology, in various academic disciplines, in the relatively new methodologies in contemplative studies, in sciences and ecology, in the study of play, and more. This essay will focus on four recent books specifically on Christian mindfulness in which a storm, or an Edenic garden, if you please, of mindfulness is lush and growing.

Spiritus has picked for review four representative books focused specifically on Christian mindfulness. The books look at mindfulness from the viewpoints of Christian traditions, theology, psychology, scripture, spiritual practice, modes of personal experience and more. Peter Tyler's book is excellent in all of these areas, Stefan Reynolds' book is very good, and Amy Oden and Tim Stead provide helpful books on mindfulness in scripture and spiritual practice.

One thing that the books mostly agree on is that the Christian church has, for centuries, neglected and repressed key components of mindfulness. These components include but are not limited to spiritual practice, the recognition of the sacred quality of the body and the earth, direct access to the soul and spirit through personal and communal liturgical experience, and a sense of divine presence. Many persons have left the church because of hierarchical power structures of neglect and disregard of body, mind, soul, and spirit. Mindfulness is often seen as a potential threat to entrenched power structures and patriarchal suppression. The books under review admit that they are not inventing the awareness and practice of Christian mindfulness. Rather, they are retrieving the roots of ancient practice within the church, they are developing contemporary methods of mindful experience and [End Page 356] practice, and they are recognizing the gift or grace of mindfulness to persons, communities, and creation itself.

Each of the books under review here takes a different perspective on how such repression contributes to loss of spirit and mindful ways of living. Each, however, finds value in the contemporary storm of mindfulness, varied as the violent storms of resistant hierarchy may be.

Many contemporary Christians view mindfulness (even as they practice it in some forms of prayer) with antipathy, resentment, fear, and as a threat to their faith and to their religion. Such perspectives view mindfulness as incapable of integrating any kind of Christian values or practice. Such viewpoints are unfortunate. These negative perspectives on mindfulness have a deadening effect on the works of Christian compassion, relationships with the "other," and communion with the God they proclaim. This, too, is a powerful storm. Two storms clashing can produce one storm that kills. What is a mindful reaction to these misunderstandings?

We will look first at the work of Peter Tyler because of the quality of his writing, his ability to explore the depths of ancient Christian writers' use of essentially mindful practices (see, for instance, his chapter that looks closely at Teresa of Avila, 61–91), and his uncanny ability to translate ancient Christian formation techniques into contemporary experience, practice and desire. Tyler does excellent work examining the cultures of both...