Category Archives: Mysticism

Learning the Mystery of Contemplation

Posted on May 1, 2013 by John Armstrong

St. John Vianney (1786-1859),  a French priest who is widely respected for his pastoral work and parish ministry, once noticed an elderly man visiting his church every morning before work and every evening after work. One day, out of profound … Continue reading →

Posted in Contemplation, Mysticism, Prayer, Spirituality | 18 Comments

Day Two of the Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation in Mundelein

Posted on April 24, 2013 by John Armstrong

On the second day of our Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation last week we spent Friday morning sharing, praying and seeking to love one another as new friends in Christ. In a group of twenty-five people, many of whom only met the … Continue reading →

Posted in ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional-Ecumenism, Mysticism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church | 8 Comments

My Sisters the Saints (6) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

Posted on April 13, 2013 by John Armstrong

Colleen Carroll Campbell’s journey to femininity did not lead her to embrace a kind of Catholic “fundamentalism” with regard to the social, professional and economic gains that she had previously experienced because of feminism. John and Carroll Campbell clearly share … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Friendship, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future, Women in the Church | 2 Comments

My Sisters the Saints (5) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

Posted on April 12, 2013 by John Armstrong

As Colleen Carroll Campbell tried to settle into her new work at the White House she found that she had never been so profoundly challenged in her work but so deeply dissatisfied with her life in general. She writes: I … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future | Leave a comment

My Sisters the Saints (4) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

Posted on April 11, 2013 by John Armstrong

In the spring of 2001, five years after Colleen Carroll Campbell had moved from Memphis to St. Louis to write for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, she fell in love with John Campbell, a young physician in training who would … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future, Women in the Church | 5 Comments

My Sisters the Saints (3) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

Posted on April 10, 2013 by John Armstrong

As Colleen Carroll Campbell’s spiritual memoir, My Sisters the Saints, evolves we begin to understand how her relationship with men was being changed profoundly. These changes clearly grew out of the spiritual formation that was now powerfully shaping her life … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Love, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Spirituality, The Church, The Future | 9 Comments

My Sisters the Saints (2) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

Posted on April 9, 2013 by John Armstrong

Colleen Carroll Campbell’s new spiritual memoir informs the reader, very early in the book, of how her reading St. Teresa’s biography brought deep change. She understood anew why her parents read the lives of the saints as she found in … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, The Church, The Future | 3 Comments

My Sisters the Saints (1) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

Posted on April 8, 2013 by John Armstrong

Collen Carroll Campbell is an accomplished, award-winning author, as well as a print and broadcast journalist. I have followed her writing and professional career, at least from a  distance, since I read her first book, The New Faithful: Why Young … Continue reading →

Posted in Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future | 10 Comments

How Gnostic Is the God-Within Movement?

Posted on June 25, 2012 by John Armstrong

Ross Douthat, as I stated last Friday, believes that modern American Christianity has been co-opted by ancient Gnostic ideas. But his argument is actually better developed than that of many pop-evangelical apologists who make the same claim but with very … Continue reading →

Posted in American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, Mysticism, Orthodoxy, Religion, Spirituality, The Church, The Future | 1 Comment

The God Within

Posted on June 22, 2012 by John Armstrong

“The God Within” is the title of chapter seven in Bad Religion, New York Times columnist and Catholic author Ross Douthat’s important new book. Douthat suggests that if there is a representative religious pilgrim for our time it is magazine … Continue reading →

Posted in American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, Mysticism, Orthodoxy, Religion, Spirituality, The Church, The Future | 13 Comments