Book Review: Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life, by Vincent Pizzuto. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press 2018)

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A frequent question retreatants to our monastery ask is, “Is there a book you can recommend that I can use for my own daily spiritual reading?” While there are many good books on prayer and meditation, the majority of them seem to be established, tried and true classics that one can always go to for renewed inspiration and guidance. Less frequent are new arrivals that shed fresh light on the spiritual path and provide new insights. It’s almost as if we have hit a fallow period in which there has been a lull in new books of spiritual depth. Thus I typically recommend books that have been in print for substantial lengths of time and which I know can still inspire. 

            Happily, however, I can now report the appearance of a new book that clearly stands against this pattern. Fr Vincent Pizzuto is an Episcopal priest who has written a very stimulating and perceptive book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life. This book seeks to unlock the Christian mystical tradition for a wide audience. It is substantial enough to be of benefit to monastics, priests, and ministers but accessible enough to be of real interest to a lay audience. The author does an admirable job of revealing the beauty of the Christian contemplative tradition. What is distinctive in his approach is that he explores themes of the contemplative life through the lens of New Testament readings, particularly the Gospels. While many Christians harbor the suspicion that a deep life of prayer comes at the expense of a warm relationship with ordinary life, Fr Pizzuto does a very commendable job of unpacking the mystery of the incarnation and its relationship to a genuine mystical life. In this connection, he illumines the doctrine of deification, showing how through the incarnation we have all been made “other Christs” in the world. In this sense, the incarnation is ongoing throughout history.

This is a book that can be used for lectio and which will deepen the patient reader’s spiritual practice. Filled with practical guidance on how to incorporate contemplative practices into our daily lives, it is clearly written yet anything but superficial. It reflects the hallmarks of a good teacher: well organized, thoughtfully presented, with its own share of original insights. I particularly appreciated his discussion of the role of the demons in the inner life. The first sentence of the chapter “We Are Legion: Asceticism and the Interior Life” was so on the mark: “I am not sure whether demons actually exist, but I do know this: they are real.” The discussion that follows shows real spiritual depth and wisdom and helps us in our own recognition of the “logismoi” — the thoughts that tempt us to be false to who we are called to be.

            I warmly recommend this book and pray that it will be a port of entry for readers who have longed to establish a solid spiritual practice but who felt that it was beyond their reach because of the busyness of their lives. I also believe that it will be equally a breath of fresh spiritual air for those who have been faithful to their spiritual practice, but who have experienced the inevitable trials of the desert.

Brother Christopher

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