“Jim Marion’s book returns us to the central challenge Christianity ought to be handing us. Indeed, how do we put on the mind of Christ? How do we see through his eyes? How do we feel through his heart? How do we learn to respond to the world with that same wholeness and healing love? That’s what Christian orthodoxy really is all about. It’s not about right belief; it’s about right practice.” —Cynthia Bourgeault, author of The Wisdom Jesus What does it mean to follow the path of Christ today? Putting on the Mind of Christ is the first book to offer an integral understanding of the Christian spiritual path--one that examines the basic stages of spiritual development described by the great saints and sages, along with the psychological stages of development used by modern psychology. American mystic Jim Marion draws upon his own rich spiritual experience and deep understanding of scriptural models, to show readers how to emulate the developmental stages of the Christ: how to put on the mind of Christ to achieve spiritual illumination and communion with the Christ. He examines the seven levels of consciousness of the human personality mapped by the work of Jean Piaget, Carol Milligan, and Lawrence Kohlberg, and leads readers to the consciousness that Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven--the highest level of spiritual development. Marion shows how inner spiritual growth has always been the true essence of Christian practice and shares his own spiritual experiences within a "Christ-focused" framework. Pioneering, transcendent, and grounded, Putting on the Mind of Christ will permanently alter the landscape of 21st-century Christianity.

Do you feel stuck in your spiritual life, struggling with chronic sins or weaknesses that you are unable to get rid of? Do you feel that you have been moving within the same spiritual level and unable to breakthrough to soar to higher spiritual levels and enter into a deeper fellowship with God? This book will help you find your way out of spiritual limitations and struggles to enter into the unsearchable riches in Christ. It will take you step by step into the biblical revelation about the 'inner man' and 'being transformed into Christ-likeness'. In this book you will also find answers and explanations to questions like: What is the 'inner man', according to the biblical revelation? What are the different stages of spiritual growth? Is there a link between the spiritual growth and the 'inner man'? How is this all related to the formation of Christ in us; and how does this formation take place? The book also provides a discussion of the principles of the formation of Christ within us and their practical application as tools that help build our inner man. It then concludes with some amazing results of the formation of Christ in us. The purpose of this book is to help you find true release in your spiritual life, build your inner spiritual life, and enter into the unsearchable riches that have been granted to us in Christ. The revelation in this book is based on the biblical revelation and the teaching and life-experience of the fathers of the Church.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives. “Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center. Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet. Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.

“With his engaging blend of travelogue, conversations with a wise and charismatic spiritual father, and musings on the big questions of life and death, Professor Markides takes us as companions on his journey of discovery. The insights that he communicates with such enthusiasm are timely ones: here at last is a writer who challenges the seeker after mystical understanding and Eastern spirituality to discover Christianity.” —Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff, independent scholar and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology In Inner River, Kyriacos Markides—scholar, researcher, author, and pilgrim—takes us on a thrilling quest into the heart of Christian spirituality and mankind’s desire for a transcendent experience of God. From Maine’s rugged shores to a Cypriot monastery to Greece’s remote Mt. Athos and, ultimately, to an Egyptian desert, Markides encounters a diverse cast of characters that allows him to explore the worlds of the natural and the supernatural, of religion and spirit, and of the seen and the unseen. Inner River will appeal to a wide range of readers, from Christians seeking insights into their religion and its various expressions to scholars interested in learning more about the mystical way of life and wisdom that have been preserved in the heart of Orthodox spirituality. Perhaps most important, however, is the bridge it offers contemporary readers to a Christian life that is balanced between the worldly and the spiritual.

We live in a world characterized by intolerance, war, environmental degradation, and economic collapse. By contrast, is it possible to build a society in which tolerance, love, and peace are the abiding principles? In this positive and inspiring book, van Dijk shows how, beginning with our personal development, we can contribute to such a new and transformed world. She describes how we can develop a universal spiritual consciousness--what she calls "Christ Consciousness." The author emphasizes that the Christian mysteries took place on the physical plane, distinguishing with great clarity between Jesus as a human being, the incarnation of Christ on Earth, and the Cosmic Christ. She builds bridges between the spiritual research of Rudolf Steiner, the Nag Hammadi writings, and the gospels of Mary Magdalene and Judas, culminating in a comprehensive and wide-ranging picture of the Christ. By gaining insight into the nature of Christ's being and undertaking practical exercises described here, each of us can achieve the new Christ Consciousness. In ancient times, selected individuals underwent rites of initiation in secret mystery schools. Any student who made public the knowledge obtained there was put to death. In our time, however, the spiritual mysteries have become open and available to all. Initiation, van Dijk tells us, involves "walking the inner path to all-embracing love, which is known in Gnostic and esoteric lore as Christ, the highest divine Being," leading to sublime, cosmic-orientated consciousness that comes into existence when the higher self exists wholly within the individual human being.