The God of Intimacy and Action

Acclaimed evangelical speaker and writer Tony Campolo teams up with spiritual director and teacher Mary Albert Darling to reveal some gems from the liturgical Christian tradition to Protestants who may be ready for a refreshing change. While steeped in their own evangelical tradition, the authors are not afraid to venture back into Christian history and reclaim practices that have long been considered exclusively Catholic--including Centering Prayer, along with works by Ignatius Loyola and Catherine of Siena--as excellent spiritual tools to help evangelicals grow in faith and love for the poor. A vital theme in Campolo and Darling's work is that spirituality is not solely an individualistic practice but must lead Christians to love and help the oppressed. True Christian mysticism, they posit, is not an either/or proposition. That's because the nexus between evangelism and justice is to be found in Christian mysticism.

Tony Campolo is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University. For forty years, he led the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, an organization that he founded to create and support programs serving needy communities. More recently, Campolo has provided leadership for Red Letter Christians as well as for the Campolo Center for Ministry. He has written more than thirty-five books. Campolo and his wife, Peggy, live near Philadelphia and have two children and four grandchildren.

Mary Albert Darling is a professor whose teachings in communication, spiritual formation, and justice have taken her outside the United States to Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mary is a spiritual director trained in Ignatian spirituality, a certified Enneagram teacher, and coauthor of Connecting Like Jesus.