www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Christian Mysticism book review

� Evolution of Consciousness is a book that merits serious and quality attention. The author lived as a monk and has some refreshing ideas on Christianity.
The book is appealing in particular because it explains the Christian mysteries so everyone can understand them. The book evolves in stages as the reader is taken on a transforming journey through the layers of the mind, the parts of the mind and evolution. Among the themes explored are: Christ Consciousness, Trinity, and the Soul. It answered many questions that I had and it leads one to Christian Mysticism.
I would recommend Evolution of Consciousness as a resource for spiritual renewal because the book outlines, with specific and practical guidelines, a life any person in the world�no matter their station�might adopt with great benefit. Here is ancient Christian wisdom written so contemporary Christians may understand.


somasoma77@hotmail.com

This book has nothing to do with "Christian mysticism" -- it is completely oriented toward New Age concepts of the evolution of the mind. I would stay far away from this stuff!

Fr. Deacon Edward

Dear Soma,

There is only one way that the mysteries can be revealed, and that is by opening one's heart to Christ and letting him in. It is 'never' through one's mind.

Zenovia

Zenovia, EXACTLY! That is one small problem with many of the 'methods of mediation/mental prayer' in some traditions, they have employed 'visualization' which is open to a LOT of problems...because the mind, being fallen (like the rest of our human nature) is allowed to be the tool of the evil one, who helps us create idols in the mind...often without even know it...and then offering them homage. The heart is THE place where we can worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

Thank you for your excellent comments.

In Christ,
Your brother,
+Fr. Gregory

soma:

I hope that your parish priest didn't give you this book. As the previous three posters so well put it, it is one dangerious source for the Christian.

The Enemy has lots of answers and some of them can even seem to be true, but they always contain some fatal flaw. And something that is 99% true and 1% fatal flaw is still too dangerous for us.

I'd advise you to be very careful with the sources you use to nourish your faith. There are many dangerous sources even in Catholic bookstores and the unsuspecting can damage themselves by reading without some guidance. Find yourself a good, solid priest who can be your spiritual director. Ask him his opinion of the New Age. Then flee any one that responds as if it were nothing.

In Christ,

BOB

post on www.byzcath.org, 9 March 2005


I did some checking after reading this post. I thought all of you might be interested in what I found.

I checked Amazon.com (the online bookstore) for reviews of this book. It turns out that "Evolution of Consciousness" is not listed at http://www.amazon.com. I found this to be odd, since most books from reputable publishers are listed there.

So, I performed a Google search. Specifically, I searched http://www.google.com for "evolution of consciousness Christ Trinity." I found three "reviews" of the book. Here are the links:

http://www.christianmystics.com/cgi/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=Books;action=display;num=1096663931

http://community.christianitytoday.com/cgi/webx?14@42.bwelaLpu7yN.0@.ee6b424/254

http://www.catharton.net/cgi-local/authors/YaBB.cgi?board=buddingauthors;action=display;num=1104346857

These "reviews" are almost identical to the post that was made here.

They also add the following information. "Evolution of Consciousness" was written by a John Kuykendall. It is the only book published by "Trinity Publishing."

The website for Trinity Publishing is http://geocities.com/trinitypublishing2004/artpage1.html . The philosophical gist of this website is New Age gnosticism: whereby Cosmic Oneness contemplates Itself in multiple finitudes which in turn evolve to consciousness of Cosmic Oneness.

In short, this post was pure spam.

--John