Andrew Root’s whole “Ministry in a Secular Age” series is a must read for Christians who want to get a handle on what time it is and significant reconsiderations of who we are, what we are about, and what we are doing. This concluding volume, The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms: Why Spiritualities Without God Fail to Transform Us, does not disappoint.

I always find it challenging to review works by Root in this series because there’s so much going on and it’s nearly impossible for me to keep it all straight. But here goes.

Root interlaces his experiences over the past few years, concluding in a gut-wrenching way, and in the process explains his interest in and consideration of what he deems “secular mysticisms.” In this he recognizes how modern Western society remains God- and spirituality-haunted, and the “secular mysticisms” are the ways in which many in society end up exploring spirituality in a secular age.

There are three main streams of mystical thought in this age: a “humanist” strand, a “counter-enlightenment” strand, and the “Beyonder” strand, according to his framework. He explains all three: the “humanist” one prevalent in liberalism and the pursuit of social justice; the "counter-enlightenment” as the one prevalent in conservatism in its current expressions; and the way he will advocate, the way of the “beyonder.”

He does well at showing how despite all their differences, the “humanist” and the “coutner-enlightenment” forms of secular mysticism all end up making it about the self and the development of the self, and in this he finds their great failings. He spends much time in the thought of Bul, Luther, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Rosenzweig, and others in expressing these limitations and encouraging cultivation of the “Beyonder” type of mysticism.

The “Beyonder” perceives a God greater than he or she and thus looks beyond him or herself in this kind of mysticism. In the end, the mystical path of the “Beyonder” is a kind of holy resignation, a submission to that which is beyond them and anything they could imagine. It’s a confession the self can only imagine, improve, and do so much.

As with all the books in the “Ministry in a Secular Age” series, it’s nearly impossible to do it any kind of justice in a short review. There’s a lot to process and consider here, and much that is profitable. ( )