If I were to teach a course, these are the books I would choose...

A list

I am often asked for book recommendations. It’s to be expected, no doubt, when one’s bookishness has become evident to others (just out of curiosity, I counted the number of books presently stacked around me on my small eighteenth-century desk, and the number is forty-three). Some of my interlocutors know that I’ve taught a few accredited college courses over the years, mostly at Northern Illinois University. Long before that – in 1982 – I taught a winter course at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), ambitiously called “The Contemplative Quest” (one of the pupils was my youngest brother, Ben, or “DBH” as he’s more recognizably known today). That course purported to explore the inner dimension of the world’s religions: prayer, meditation, and contemplation. In those days, students were assigned lots of reading, and I wasn’t shy about putting mine through the wringer in that regard. More recently, someone sent me a proposal to teach a course online, but I had to refuse because I lack the time. But the request got me thinking about teaching: What subject would I choose today? What texts would I pick? The subject would certainly not be as ambitious as that of 1982. I would, I believe, choose a much narrower study: the rudiments of the Christian contemplative tradition. As I imagine it, I would concentrate first on how one must re-order one’s thinking before one can engage in the practice. This would be an essential aspect in the modern context because many contemporary presuppositions, which have been drilled into us all our lives, must be challenged and – frankly – unlearned if we hope to begin “the contemplative quest.” This consideration leads to the books I would pick for students to read to introduce them to the basics. My choices, as has been my tendency in the past, would be several slim volumes that, despite their compactness, would nevertheless be weighty in insight – books designed to make the greatest impact on the alert pupil’s mind, presented with concision and persuasive eloquence. Below, I have listed the books I would choose for just such a course, along with a few supplemental texts for the especially motivated student.