The Christian Mystery

Father Louis Bouyer has written a detailed yet clear account of the Christian experience underlying the entire faith, the union of the person with the Holy Trinity. Partly an anthropological study on the nature of the cultic practices of early societies and mostly a treatise on the way in which Christianity built upon the "good dreams" that pervaded humanity leading up to the Incarnation, Bouyer sympathetically reviews in particular Hellenistic paganism by focusing upon Eleusis, Mother Goddesses, Dionysius, Orphism, and Mithras. He then reviews the Jewish Wisdom tradition and, for the next 200 pages, devotes himself entirely to the Christian experience in its New Testament and sub apostolic expressions. He also includes insightful chapters on the later tradition including modern psychological understandings of mysticism. This is a very insightful and useful book for both the novice and the expert. Be sure to look at the sample pages as they give you the best review! Enjoy!