Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction
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“Reading Candlelight is like watching spiritual direction sessions through a two-way mirror while simultaneously privy to the thoughts and feelings of the author. Invaluable for people doing spiritual direction or contemplating it. Provides discerning insights into the difference in form and focus between psychotherapy and spiritual direction. Likely to be absorbing reading for Jungian or transpersonal psychologists.” —Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., author of Close to the Bone and Crossing to Avalon.

“More than mere flickers of insight, in this fine book Susan Phillips sheds the light of much wisdom that will encourage and inspire both the givers and the receivers of spiritual direction.” —Richard Mouw, President and Professor of Christian Philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary.

“Susan Phillips’s thoughtful, listening intelligence incandesces in this account of her practice of spiritual direction. The process comes to vivid life in her personal narratives of sessions with directees in God’s presence. I was moved by the way Susan’s insights grew in relationship with those she met with over months and years. I felt holiness creeping into my own life.” —Luci Shaw, author, Breath for the Bones: Imagination, Art, & Spirit and Writer in Residence, Regent College.

"I have waited for just this book for a long time. Susan Phillips’s Candlelight: Illuminating the Art of Spiritual Direction is a balanced and biblically faithful portrait of the journey into the place where thoughtful spiritual direction can happen. She avoids the entrapments of personal and interpersonal influences in which powerful leaders dominate others around them. Phillips understands that dangerous terrain and draws the reader toward the healthy place where our human stories can be shared and told in safety toward the goal of edification. I recommend this book for pastors, counselors, and for all who want to understand ways to explore their spiritual natures." —Earl Palmer, senior pastor, University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, and author of Love Has Its Reasons and Trusting God.

“Susan Phillips’s Candlelight is a work of creative brilliance and is a must-read for anyone interested in spiritual direction—for the spiritual director, the scholar, the practitioner, and for the spiritual seeker. Susan provides both a sophisticated understanding of the theological and psychological dynamics of spiritual work as well as a compelling narrative drawn from her extensive experience. Reading Candlelight is a spiritually enriching experience in itself. It is the finest synthesis to date of all the relevant strands of reflection on spiritual direction across religious traditions and academic disciplines. It is impressive in its scope and depth. Phillips’s work has set the standard for future work on spiritual direction and practice. All on the spiritual journey are indebted to Phillips for her contribution to the process.” —James A. Donahue, President and Professor of Ethics, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley.

“Susan Phillips doesn't just talk about spiritual direction, she allows us to see her engaged in this ministry, providing a much needed glimpse inside the spiritual direction room, inside the lives of real directees, inside the mind and heart of a gifted spiritual director.” —Elizabeth Liebert, author of The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women, and Professor of Spiritual Life, San Francisco Theological Seminary.

“While some books on spiritual direction emphasize theology and theory and others are more practical and applied, Susan Phillips offers us something quite unique. We are invited to peek into sacred spaces, absorb poignant stories and watch the candle shed light and sketch shadows. Instead of the harshness of pragmatic, prescriptive and programmatic approaches to spirituality, one is left with a deep and gentle sense that God is here with us.” —Rod Wilson, President and Professor of Counselling and Psychology, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada.