Paths to the Heart presents Sufi and Hesychast systems of realizing the Divine Presence in the heart through magnificent lectures and essays by Bishop Kallistos Ware, S.H. Nasr, William Chittick, Huston Smith, and other eminent scholars in the fields.

What do the mystical traditions of the Christian East and Sufism have in common?

Is there a dialogue that can promote a deep and lasting bond between Christianity and Islam?

“This book is a spiritual treasure to be read and to be lived”.

-Albert J. Raboteau, Henry W. Putnam Professor of Religion, Princeton University

 “The peace of the world in the new century may depend in no small measure on the ability of the Islamic world and historically Christian countries to communicate with one another. Perhaps the best hope for deeper understanding between Christians and Muslims lies in the fact that the finest thinkers in both religions have drawn on a common pool of imagery—the language of the heart—as they try to describe what is ultimately beyond words; the human encounter with God.”

-Bruce Clark, International Security Editor, The Economist

 “Speaking to both novices and adepts who are studying and/or practicing the Orthodox Christian and Sufi ways, this book opens the way for a deep healing of the wounds of ignorance that have arisen out of the clash between these two great traditions.”

-Alan Godlas, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Georgia

 “Written by authors who are at once eminent scholars and earnest souls, the essays in Paths to the Heart evince a rare combination of intellectual rigor, breadth of spirit, and deep personal faith. Together these writers confirm for us that genuine love of the other is as much mediated by wisdom and truth as by this love.”

-Scott C. Alexander, Director of Catholic-Muslim Studies, Catholic Theological Union

 “Professor Cutsinger is to be congratulated for having organized such a memorable interchange of opinions at the level of all that is most profound in the human soul.”

-Martin Lings, formerly Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts in the British Museum and author of A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century.

James Cutsinger is Professor of Theology and Religious Thought at the University of South Carolina.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Dimensions of the Heart

            1.  How Do We Enter the Heart

                 Kallistos Ware

            2.  St. Seraphim of Sarov in Sufic Perspective

                 Gray Henry

            3.  The Heart of the Faithful is the Throne of

                  the All-Merciful.

                 Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The Path of Rememberance

            4.  On the Cosmology of Dhikr

                 William C. Chittick

            5.  Presence, Participation, Performance:  The

                 Remembrance of God in the Early Hesychast Fathers

                 Vincent Rossi

            6.  Paths of Continuity:  Contemporary Witnesses of

                 the Hesychast Experience

                 John Chryssaugis

Toward an Esoteric Ecumenism

            7.  The Metaphysics of Interfaith Dialogue:

                 Sufi Perspectives on the Universality of the

                 Quranic Message

                 Reza Shah-Kazemi

            8.  A Unity with Distinctions:  Parallels in the

                 Thought of St. Gregory Palamas and Ibn Arabi

                 Peter Samsel

            9.  Hesychia:  An Orthodox Opening to Esoteric

                 Ecumenism

                 James S. Cutsinger

Conclusions

            10.  The Long Way Home

                   Huston Smith

            11.  Panel Discussion

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