Susan Pitchford is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Washington and a professed member of the Third Order, Society of St. Francis. She is the author of God in the Dark: Suffering and Desire in the Spiritual Life (Liturgical Press) and Following Francis: The Franciscan Way for Everyone. Susan lives in Seattle with her husband, Bob Crutchfield.
Tapping into a broad spectrum of Christianity’s ancient mystical
heritage, Susan Pitchford uses an accessible style and wry humor to
offer readers a fresh awareness and appreciation of Christian
mysticism and how it still thrives in the midst of today’s
fast-paced, hard-edged world.Liguorian
Tapping into a broad spectrum of Christianity’s ancient mystical
heritage, Susan Pitchford uses an accessible style and wry humor to
offer readers a fresh awareness and appreciation of Christian
mysticism and how it still thrives in the midst of today’s
fast-paced, hard-edged world.Liguorian
This remarkable book is a passionate call for the recovery of the
Catholic tradition of passionate spiritual search. With her
intensely personal and unflinchingly honest writing, the author
encourages the seeker on a journey through suffering and joy,
darkness and loneliness, towards enlightenment and union. Her
special friends and guides on the difficult yet wonderful journey
are the Beguine mystics of the fourteenth century, and other
eccentric and (as she says) 'weird' friends, ancient and
contemporary. This is a book for now: the author refuses to stick
with no longer relevant spiritual metaphors or to accept once
revered spiritual practices just because they are old. There is a
freshness here, and a delightfully frank humor, but most of all a
passionate love.Rosemary Luling Haughton, PhD (honorary),
theologian, author of The Passionate God, The Catholic Thing, Gifts
in the Ruins
Many Christians play it safe by practicing a tepid, no-risk
spirituality in which we domesticate the roaring Lion of Judah into
a nice, safe pussycat. Susan Pitchford’s beautifully written book
reminds us that an authentic relationship with God, others, and
self depends on an embrace of whole-bodied desire on the one hand
and the possibility of suffering on the other. This is a book that
liberates us to let God be both the passionate Lover and the
Roaring Lion God is.Kerry Walters
Author of The Art of Dying and Living
There be in God, some say, a deep but dazzling darkness.’ The 17th
century poet Henry Vaughan expresses a vital truth, which is
explored with intelligence, passion and humor by Susan Pitchford.
In spite of her disclaimers to be a theologian, her book is a
discerning work of the moral and theological imagination. It is an
exploration well suited for our times, marked as they are, by both
shallowness and fierceness in religion. The God of God in the Dark
is passionate and intractably mysterious. And because we are all
made in that divine image, so we too are driven by passion to
embrace the unknown. Spirituality isn’t a ‘product.’ It can neither
be bought nor sold and Susan Pitchford skewers this
misunderstanding with down-to-earth accessible writing, marked with
humor and honesty. The book is refreshing and yet stands in a long
mystical tradition. It is a great gift for a floundering, atomized
culture—water in the desert.Alan Jones
Dean emeritus of Grace Cathedral, San
Francisco
Honorary canon of the Cathedral of Our Lady of
Chartres
Author of Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality
“In an accessible style, laced with rich metaphors, wry humor, and
down-to-earth explanations, Susan Pitchford guides the reader to a
fresh knowledge and appreciation of the Christian mystical journey.
Since mysticism is about relationships, it inevitably involves
passion (the enemy of boredom and apathy), whose two faces are
desire (God desires us infinitely more than we desire God), and
suffering (life’s pain can be understood in positive, life-giving
ways).
Pitchford advocates a return to the mystical metaphor of the
spiritual marriage in a 21st century framework—an evocative,
potentially enriching challenge. Intimacy with God is viewed in an
inclusive way that resists the attitude that one size fits all.
Rather, mysticism is a way of intense prayer open to all the
baptized called and willing to follow the path of desire for God in
their daily
lives.
Pitchford takes a balanced approach to affirmative and negative
prayer forms, but she focuses on the positive or kataphatic way
that she believes has been neglected. Her favorite exemplars
include her ‘spooky sisters’—medieval beguines such as Beatrijs of
Nazareth, Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthilde of Magdeburg, and
Marguerite Porete; Teresa of Avila and Mother Teresa; Francis of
Assisi and John of the Cross. This book is an antidote to
contemporary cynicism and indifference, a goad to those who desire
to infuse their spirituality with new life and
vigor.”
Elizabeth
Dreyer
Department of Religious
Studies
Fairfield University, Connecticut
Susan R. Pitchford has penned (or at least word processed!) a new
book with a master’s touch in God in the Dark. Coming from a
Franciscan orientation she has tapped into a broad spectrum of the
ancient mystical heritage of Christianity in a way that speaks to
the average person in a fast paced, modern world. Readers will find
it a fine addition to their modern mystical books, or a great
introduction to the mystical tradition for new seekers and first
time readers.John Michael Talbot
Founder, and Spiritual Father
The Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage
Ask a Question About this Product More... |