Performance Assessment Handbook: Designs from the Field and Guidelines for the Territory Ahead

In this compilation of six essays, philosopher and woodworker Askeland undertakes an examination of the mystical life. Ranging across the teachings of the masters of the mystical traditionDChristian mystics St. John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart; Buddhist sage Nagarjuna; Zen Masters Dogen and Tanzen; Indian saint ShankaraDAskeland works to recover the mystical path known as the way of unknowing. Although this path continues to flourish in other world religions, the way of unknowing, or finding God in God's silence and God's absence, was suppressed in Christian theology over a thousand years ago by streams of the Christian tradition that wanted to emphasize God's presence. Askeland here seeks to recover this lost tradition in Christian theology in order to recapture an authentic spirituality, an understanding of God that exceeds all speech and thought. Askeland carries off this task with a fresh voice, and his essays are full of grace, profound insight and wisdom. (Feb.)