Presents: Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark: Mysticism, Art, and the Path of Unknowing by JAMES K. A. SMITH
Interested in the intersection of contemplation, unknowing, and art? Join us for our next: Contemplative Conversation Circles: Small Groups Journeying, Learning, and Practicing Together via Zoom.
In our groups, we create a safe sacred container for conversation and practice as we journey together through books on contemplation, Christianity, and spiritual growth. Through shared ground rules and curiosity, we learn from each other, ourselves, and the text. Many participants stick with their groups for future studies and become ongoing groups.
Join us for our Contemplative Conversation Circles, where we will read James K. A. Smith’s Make Your Home in The Luminous Dark: Mysticism, Art, and the Path of Unknowing.
A 6-week Study: Beginning May 20th/21st/23rd. We meet for one hour via Zoom.
Meetings Times (Central Time):
Wednesdays at 11:00am
Thursdays at 11:00am
Saturdays at 9:00am
“As a philosopher whose business is to know, James K. A. Smith invites us into a different way of being―the experience of unknowing. In Make Your Home in This Luminous Dark, Smith shares his unknowable childhood experience of abandonment by his father, and his gentle book teaches liberation found in the down-to-earth contemplative wisdom of the medieval masterpiece The Cloud of Unknowing and of many other sages. May we join Smith in being vulnerable, open, beloved by God, and filled with wonder and loving.”
―Carmen Acevedo Butcher, core faculty member at Center for Action and Contemplation, and award-winning translator of The Cloud of Unknowing
About the Book
A philosopher journeys back to the mystics to learn how to live with uncertainty in the twenty-first century
How do we live when we don’t know what to believe, or who to believe, or how we could even know? In this deeply felt book, philosopher James K. A. Smith explores how radical uncertainty can be liberating, opening us to another way of being. The pain of his own profound uncertainty led Smith to a surprising source for modern consolation: the mystical experiences of St. Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing. These mystics testify to a deeper truth beneath distraction, anxiety, and fear: love.
Drawing on ancient traditions of contemplation as well as on contemporary novels, poetry, film, and paintings, Smith speaks to the fundamental yearnings that persist in late modernity, including the philosophical quest for knowledge and certainty. He shows us how the gifts of the Christian contemplative tradition and the riches of creative works embody a liberating spirituality that recovers the fullness of being human.
In bringing a philosopher’s questions to the mystics, Smith brings a mystical heart back to philosophy.
About the Author
James K. A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University. He is the award-winning author of numerous books, including You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit and On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. He lives in Grand Rapids, MI. His popular writing has appeared in magazines such as Christianity Today, Christian Century, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.
What Happens Next
All groups are hosted on The Contemplative Cathedral, an online platform that allows for sharing, discussion, access to Zoom links, and multi-model learning and engagement. You will receive an invitation to join the group in The Cathedral at least a week before we begin.