book reviews

Christian Mindfulness: Theology and Practice. By Peter Tyler. London, UK: SCM Press,
2018. 177 pp. A$35.00;

Living with the Mind of Christ: Mindfulness in Christian Spirituality. By Stefan Gillow
Reynolds. London, UK: Darton, Longman, and Todd, Ltd., 2018. 257 pp. $17.99;

Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality: Making a Space for God. By Tim Stead
Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017. 144 pp. $15.00;

Right Here Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness. By Amy G. Oden Nash-
ville: Abingdon Press, 2017. 112 pp. $14.99.

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 aca-
demic 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 compo-
nents 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 un-
der review admit that they are not inventing the awareness and practice of Chris-
tian mindfulness. Rather, they are retrieving the roots of ancient practice within
the church, they are developing contemporary methods of mindful experience and

SPIRITUS | 19.2 Spiritus 19 (2019): 356–377 © 2019 by Johns Hopkins University Press
practice, and they are recognizing the gift or grace of mindfulness to persons, com-
munities, 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 inte-
grating 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 pro-
357
duce 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 writ-
ing, 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 contemporary mindfulness and mindful-
ness from the Christian traditions. He also gifts the reader with practices in each
chapter that he links to the tradition he is exploring. Tyler creates reverberations
between tradition and practice that inform the reader both intellectually and
experientially. In reading Tyler, one begins to feel and understand something of the
power and peace of mindfulness. Tyler is also especially good at keeping the reader
attuned to the coincidence of opposites that inform and maintain mindfulness: for
instance, war and peace, silence and word, desert and garden, mind and heart.
During a bit of writing on silence in conversation he asks: ought not the practice of
mindfulness be called heartfulness rather than mindfulness? Showing his experience
with “heartfulness” and his skill in setting the tone of the book, he leaves the ques-
tion unanswered, leaving the reader to answer “yes” or “no” or simply to meditate
on the question itself.
Tyler’s core question throughout the book is, “How far, if at all, can mindful-
ness be accommodated into an established religious practice such as Christian-
ity?” (3). Tyler’s answer is not really an answer but an opportunity to orient his
(primarily) historical and theological exploration of the tradition in the context of
this question of accommodation of mindfulness in the of Christian traditions. His
explorations then focus on such questions and issues as: the question of “heartful-
ness” or mindfulness, the psychology of the desert, mental prayer from the Iberian
school, and the clarity of the heart in Thomas Merton. He often clarifies his un-
answered questions by focusing on opposites which together coincide, such as the
coinciding opposites of experience and theory or theology. To compare Christian
mindfulness with other traditions, he also goes outside the Christian tradition in a
section focused on “living the mindful life in the Indian tradition” (123–150).
The most meaningful and moving section is that on the “the mindful way” of
John of the Cross and especially of Teresa of Avila (61–91). Tyler looks at Teresa’s
book The Way as a model of mindfulness that has both a vertical axis toward
the transcendent and the earth, and a horizontal axis toward social justice and

Book Reviews
 soul care. He expresses mindful justice through both axes in terms of what Teresa
defines as “the three qualities at the heart of the religious life”: love of neighbor,
detachment, and humility (65). Among the four books we are examining, Tyler is
unique in focusing on the necessity of ethics and morality at the heart of contem-
plative mindfulness. In the structure of The Way, less than half is devoted to prayer
or mindfulness techniques, the remainder to ethics and compassion. Tyler writes:

Teresa devotes the majority of the text to the art of developing a balanced life
where we can harmonize the call of the Divine with our ordinary lives. This
is what the Buddhists call the development of Sila or right morality. Likewise,
for Teresa it is an essential foundation for the development of the Christian
contemplative life – without it, she will argue, all will be lost. (65)
358
To enhance the experiential or heartfulness perspective on mindfulness, Tyler
adds practices at the end of each chapter, which are linked to the theme and writers
from each chapter, adding an important experiential element to an already consis-
tently excellent analyses of the way of mindfulness. Christian Mindfulness: Theol-
ogy and Practice is just what it says it is and more. On the subject of Christian
mindfulness, Peter Tyler sets the standard for any book intended for the beginning
or more advanced reader seeking an understanding of the traditions, theology, psy-
chology, scripture, and prayerful and attentive practice of Christian mindfulness.
Within Tyler’s book one finds the “mind” and “heart” of Christian mindfulness in
the contemporary world. It is an excellent, highly recommended book, one of both
scholarship and wisdom.
Stefan Gillow Reynolds’ book, Living with the Mind of Christ: Mindfulness in
Christian Spirituality, is also to be recommended. Together with Tyler, the two au-
thors provide an advanced introduction to the topic of Christian mindfulness. The
two books outline the roots of the quest for understanding and practicing Christian
mindfulness as prayer, attentiveness, social justice, humility, and love of neighbor
and God. Reynolds, “Through the teachings of Jesus, and Christian mystics such
as Augustine and Meister Eckhart, Reynolds demonstrates that the practice of
mindfulness leading to silent meditation, recommended by many therapists, is not a
modern fad but has always had a place within contemplative Christianity” (En-
dorsement, Back Cover).
Indeed, while the word “mindfulness” is relatively recent within the Christian
tradition, its actual practice is ancient. What all of the works treated here have in
common is that, in their own way, they search for the roots of mindfulness within
Christian traditions. Reynolds’ book is not quite as readable as Tyler’s, nor as
adept in deciphering the Christian tradition of mindfulness into contemporary
language, but each author attempts to carve out a place where mindfulness dwells
and a space for Christian mindfulness to expand and grow. While Reynolds’ treat-
ment is not as deep, it is a solid and extensive exploration of Christian traditions of
mindfulness.
However, Reynold sidetracks an otherwise helpful book on Christian mindful-
ness by focusing on the relation between mindfulness, mysticism, and meditation.
This focus is often confusing and inconsistently started. “Mindfulness and Chris-
tian mysticism are not the same” (1). This may or may not be true, but overall it
does not help our understanding of mindfulness. Trying to explain mindfulness by

SPIRITUS | 19.2
listing aspects of mysticism which mindfulness is not weakens our overall under-
standing of what mindfulness might be.
An example of this comes from an otherwise compelling metaphor Reynolds
uses to open the book. We can call it the metaphor of the “train” and the “plat-
form.” In the metaphor we are asked to imagine a train and a platform which the
train is approaching. In Reynolds’ explanation, the train represents “journey”
while the platform represents “arrival.” Reynolds then asks us to see that mysti-
cism is like the journey of the train while mindfulness is like the arrival of the
train at the platform; the gap between train and platform is the breach between
mindfulness and what mindfulness is not: mysticism. Further, the journey of mysti-
cism “takes you somewhere where you are not” while the arrival of mindfulness
“encourages the experience of being where you are” (1). Thus, as there is a gap
between train and platform, so there is a gap between mysticism and mindfulness.
359
Where “you are” and where “you are not” is not helpful for the intentions of the
book and, beyond that, it is not completely true: there is a quality of arrival in
mysticism just as there is a quality of journey in mindfulness. I think perhaps the
real flaw is the use of both “journey” and “arrival” in the train/platform metaphor
as they are attached to the qualities of mysticism/mindfulness. Reynolds returns to
the “gap” again and again in the book as he traces the difference between mysti-
cism and mindfulness.
There is, according to Reynolds, also a gap between meditation and mindful-
ness; there is also, according to Reynolds, perhaps no gap at all. Yes, confusing
and inconsistent! On mindfulness and meditation Reynolds writes, “The former
(mindfulness) keeps the attention on oneself and the other (mediation) keeps at-
tention off oneself. Meditation leads to mindfulness, self-awareness in daily life.
Mindfulness practices can prepare the way and support a daily practice of media-
tion” (3). So, we have mysticism and mindfulness having to do with journey and
arrival and meditation and mindfulness having to do with attention: mysticism is
journey while mindfulness is arrival; meditation keeps attention off oneself while
mindfulness keeps attention on oneself.
If the reader of this review is a bit confused by now, such confusion reflects
this reviewer’s experience of reading Reynolds’s book. The core of the confusion is,
I believe, Reynolds’s attempts to define mindfulness by telling us what it is not – in
fact telling us repeatedly what mindfulness is not. I believe, from what he has to
say about it, that Reynolds has deep experience with meditation. Unfortunately, he
tries to turn that experience with meditation into a commentary on mindfulness.
It does not work. We are given by the end of the book a teaching on meditation
which, as Reynolds made clear from page 1, is not mindfulness. It is unfortunate
because he, like Tyler, delves into the Christian tradition by using examples which
would be more than helpful had Reynolds, as Tyler does, truly understood Chris-
tian mystical traditions. A single suggestion is an example. At the end of the book
Reynolds provides “Suggestions for Further Reading.” Under the heading, “the
schools and traditions within Christian mysticism” (245) there is only a single
suggestion: a book on Christian Contemplation. Apparently, there is a gap between
contemplation and mindfulness as well. Thus, if mysticism is not mindfulness and
meditation is not mindfulness and contemplation is not mindfulness, the reference
is not in itself a helpful reference for either mysticism or mindfulness.

Book Reviews
 Reynolds is very helpful with the positive therapeutic effects of the practice of
meditation. But, even where Reynolds is helpful in other areas, his attempts to turn
meditation, mysticism, contemplation, attentiveness, and cognitive therapy into
mindfulness are undermined by earlier claims that mindfulness is, really, none of
these.
The Forewords in Reynolds’s book by Laurence Freeman OSB and Professor
Anne Buttimer are quite good on the subject of mindfulness. But we reach the end
of Stepan Gillow Reynolds’s book with the following conclusion entitled, “Mak-
ing Depth Accessible.” “What we can learn from Christian mystics is that there is
not just one type of mindfulness. The real mindfulness need not stand up for there
are many ways of understanding and practicing such a universal human capacity.
There is a deepening of attentiveness, however. In Christian spirituality this is often
described as the journey from recollection to contemplation to union In modern
360
parlance: the three M’s of mindfulness, meditation, and mystics.”(220) Thus ends
the sentence, making the sentence a very incomplete sentence.
Throughout the book, meditation and mysticism were clearly described and
assumed not to be mindfulness. Will the real mindfulness “please stand up”!
Like Tyler, Reynolds mines Christian traditions for signs and practices of
mindfulness. Both writers ask and answer in detail the questions surrounding the
nature of mindfulness: what is it? Reynolds is less clear than Tyler though both
writers also look to Christian desert traditions as mindful environments for the
health of the soul, using contemporary insights into psychology and therapeutic
practice. Reynolds spends more time with Jesus as a teacher of mindfulness. Also,
like Tyler, Reynolds finds rich veins of mindfulness in the works of the Spanish
mystics, especially Teresa of Avila. Adding to Tyler’s method of exploration mind-
fulness in the Christian tradition through historical theology, Reynolds has short
sections on the work of Augustine, Meister Eckhart, Brother Lawrence and Thérèse
of Lisieux, and the philosophy of Kierkegaard and Simone Weil.
After the metaphorical “gaps” in Reynolds’ book, we come to a nice little
book by Tim Stead, Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality: Making Space for God.
Stead’s book is well focused, readable, and insightful. He stays on point, the point
being, mindfulness. Stead is not the deep and really very comprehensive writer
that Peter Tyler is. But if you are uncertain about what mindfulness is, teaching an
undergraduate class, or looking for an introduction for early graduate students,
this is a valuable book. He states clear questions about the subject and provides
even clearer answers. The section on “Books for Further Reading” is slim but in
a concise way that opens one to mindfulness and suggests general directions for
further exploration.
Stead’s primary question—a question which organizes and keeps the book on
point—is, “What might mindfulness have to offer Christianity?” (xiv) followed
by the simple yet core issue, “Does Christian mindfulness make sense . . . does it
make a difference?” (xiv). Other questions Stead raises that are key to the contem-
porary Christian quest for mindfulness include: Could it be that Christianity is still
learning” (about mindfulness)? Are we open to insights of other faith traditions? Is
there more of our own tradition that remains generally unexplored? Are we open
to the insights of science? Are we prepared for a new stage in Christian faith and
spirituality? An answer of “yes” to any of these questions is a key to the lock that
Stead does his best—and often his best is very good—to open. The final question,

SPIRITUS | 19.2
though, reveals that Stead has not, as do Tyler and Reynolds, explored the history
and theology of the Christian tradition.
Early in the book Stead gives a simple but meaningful definition: “mindfulness
can be described as being more fully aware of your own experience in the present
moment in a nonjudgmental way” (6). The four and very vital strands of this defi-
nition are: awareness, experience, the present moment, non-judgmental. The first
chapter is devoted to explaining these components of mindfulness and to teaching
mindfulness at the undergraduate level. The chapter is also rich with Stead’s own
experience teaching mindfulness and with experiential practices that complement
the more theoretical components of the chapter.
Although he does not explore the depths of the tradition, for anyone still
uncertain about Christian mindfulness he writes well enough to convince skeptical
readers that there are Christian elements of mindfulness in the tradition that have
361
value for practice and discussion today. Overall, one can appreciate Stead’s concise
writing and his ability to stay on track—unlike Reynolds—with the “three m’s”,
mindfulness, meditation, and mysticism. As mentioned, the book could be valu-
able to Spiritus readers as a text for undergraduates and early graduate students
and it gives full attention to the primary element of mindfulness that it sets out to
explore: attention.
Amy G. Oden’s book hints at the content in the title, Right Here Right Now:
The Practice of Christian Mindfulness. The book gives a brief outline of mindful-
ness but focuses primarily on practices of Christian mindfulness (49–86). Even
her definition of mindfulness points toward the importance of practices to hone
attention to God in the present moment as a primary aspect of mindfulness. She
writes: “Through the practice of mindfulness, we cultivate eyes to see and ears
to hear God’s very life in which we live and move and have our being, right here,
right now. Christian mindfulness is the practice of paying prayerful attention in
the present moment to God’s abundant life” (2, Oden’s emphasis). Mindfulness, as
she emphasizes, is a focus on practices of attention and, in particular, attention to
the present moment. As with Stead’s book, Oden gives a good Christian likeness
to mindfulness but is weak on some of the core components of mindfulness itself –
there is no sense of apophasis, absence, kenosis, or suffering in this book.
But instead of lingering on what the book lacks, it is more helpful to focus
on what the book provides. What it does provide is concrete practices to orient
the practice oriented reader in the direction of divine presence. The practices are
abundant and impossible to lay out in full here. But they can be summarized: free-
dom from reactivity and chronic anxiety; personal authenticity (the real self) and
authentic lives; stability, rootedness, and centeredness; gratitude and the practice of
gifts both given and received; hearts open to kindness to others and to the world;
what Oden calls the “abundant life in God/Christ,” although exactly what this
means is not made clear (16–23).
These practices are made concrete in the largest section of the book, Chapter
3, “Practices and Postures of the Christian Life.” (49–86) The practices are useful,
though primarily these turn out to be an overview of types of Christian prayer.
Still, the overview is useful in that it brings aspects of mindfulness to the reader’s
attention. A short section on scripture and the Christian tradition is shallow.
In summary, Right Here Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness,
brackets practices of Christian prayer with brief summaries of how the prayer

Book Reviews
 may be called mindfulness. The intent of this strategy is to cull components of
mindfulness from Christian prayer. The book would be of value for any reader
with an interest in mindfulness but has no experience or knowledge of the practice
of Christian prayer as mindfulness. It may also be of use to certificate courses on
spiritual direction and perhaps for M.Div. teachers of formation.
To summarize: Peter Tyler’s Christian Mindfulness: Theology and Practice
is most highly recommended for the readers of Spiritus. Tyler has set himself the
highest goals and—for an at-times difficult subject—writes a clear and coher-
ent book that achieves those goals. Tyler is not shy about exploring the relations
of Christian mindfulness to other religions and to forms of secular mindfulness.
He excellently probes Christian traditions from the disciplinary perspectives of
scripture, theology, history, therapy and psychology, prayer and practice, clarity of
heart, living the mindful life, and spirituality in its broadest sense.
362
Stefan Gillow Reynolds’ Living with the Mind of Christ: Mindfulness in
Christian Spirituality attempts much of what Tyler provides, but is less successful.
He ties himself in knots trying to distinguish the three “M’s”: mindfulness, mysti-
cism, and meditation. On the positive side he writes well on mindfulness as found
in some portions of Christian traditions and on certain other religions. He can be
recommended to Spiritus readers but only after they have read Tyler. In fact, hav-
ing read Tyler will prepare the reader for their own exploration, research, writing,
and teaching within the expanding field of Christian mindfulness.
Tim Stead’s Mindfulness and Christian Spirituality is recommended primarily
to teachers of undergraduate students in religious studies. Amy G. Oden’s Right
Here Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness may also be of value to
students pursuing a certificate in spiritual direction, and perhaps also to beginning
M.Div. students in formation.
This reviewer would like to make one additional recommendation. None of
the writers under review mentioned or cited Christophe André’s Looking at Mind-
fulness, but the book is informative and beautifully written and printed, deeply
rendering its author’s experience of heartfulness and understanding of mindfulness.
Of it, Jon Kabat-Zinn wrote: “A work of art in its own right and a meditative tour
de force.”

Steven Chase
Oblate School of Theology, Institute for the Study of Contemporary Spirituality

The Healing Power of the Santuario de Chimayó: America’s Miraculous Church. By

Brett Hendrickson. NY: New York University Press, 2017. 245 pp. $30.00

Situated in the Española Valley of central New Mexico not far from the pueblo of
the remaining indigenous Tewa-speaking people is El Santuario de Chimayó, one
of Americas most visited pilgrimage sites. Although the modest chapel, constructed
during 1813–16 and fabled for its miraculous “holy dirt,” has attracted the atten-
tion of numerous persons -including ecclesial officials, art preservationists, local
residents, devotional pilgrims and tourism boards -until the present study no one
has attempted a scholarly study of the colorful site and its complex history. Brett

SPIRITUS | 19.2
Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further
reproduction prohibited without permission.