When contemporary Americans, even Christian ones, go looking for "spirituality," they look to Eastern religious traditions, New Age fads, and the self-help section of their local bookstore. They look almost anywhere, in fact, but to orthodox Christianity. In "Ecstasy and Intimacy," Edith Humphrey sets out to counter this trend by helping the reader rediscover the spiritual riches of the Christian tradition -- Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox.
As Humphrey reveals, Christian spirituality takes its cue from the Trinity, from the "ecstasy" ("going out" of oneself) and "intimacy" (profound closeness with another) marking the relations between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; it is within God's own ecstatic actions and intimate love -- seen particularly in the Incarnation -- that human ecstasy and intimacy are meant to take shape.
"Ecstasy and Intimacy" spreads a banquet from the great spiritual writers of the past -- such luminaries as St. Augustine, Julian of Norwich, St. Teresa of Avila, the Wesleys, and Thomas Merton. Humphrey's elegant prose, embroidered with stories and images from her own life, leads the reader into a deeper understanding of the ecstasy and intimacy inherent in a Trinitarian spirituality.
