TY  - BOOK
AU  - May,Gerald G.
TI  - The dark night of the soul: a psychiatrist explores the connection between darkness and spiritual growth 
SN  - 0060554231 (cloth)
AV  - BV 5083 .M32 2004
U1  - 248.29 22
PY  - 2004///
CY  - San Francisco
PB  - HarperSanFrancisco
KW  - Teresa,
KW  - John of the Cross,
KW  - Mysticism
KW  - Psychology
KW  - Spiritual formation
KW  - Suffering
KW  - Religious aspects
KW  - Christianity
N1  - Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-212) and index; Ccknolegments -- Introduction -- Half a Friar The Story of Teresa and John -- We are Love The Theology of Teresa and John -- Adeeper Longing The Liberation of Desire -- With a Temple Meditation and Contemplation -- Three Signs and Three Spirits The Psychology of the Night -- The Dark Night Today Modern Context -- Daybreak The Coming of the Dawn
N2  - Distinguished psychiatrist, spiritual councelor, and bestselling author Gerald G. May argues that the "shadow" side of the spiritual life has been trivialized and neglected to our serious detritment.  In The Dark Night of the Soul, Dr. May shows that the dark side is a vital ingridient for deep, authentic , healthy spirituality.  Superficial and naively upbeat spirituality does not heal and enrich the soul; nor does our tendency to relegate deep spiritual growth to mystics and saints help us cope with the fullness of what we experience in life.  Only honest, sometimes dificult encounters with what Christian spirituality calls "the dark night of the soul" can lead to true spiritual wholwness.  May emphasizes thet the dark night is not necessarilly a tim of duffering and despair, but rather one of deep transition, during whic our lives are clouded and full of mystery as we move throught a time of trial and uncertainity to freedom and joy.  The darkness of the night impies nothing sinister, but rather that our liberation takes place mysteriously, in secret, and beyond our conscious control.  May draws on the great Christian spiritual techings and writings on the "dark night," especialluy by John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, on other spiritual traditions, psychiatricnideas and resources, and on poetry and literature.  The Dark Night of the Soul embraces the universal spiritual experience of disorientation, doubt, fear, emptiness, "dyness and despair, all of wich are ingredients in developing a mature, authentic spiritual life
ER  -