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“Galvanizing, beautifully written . . . a powerful expression of faith in the transforming power of Christ’s love.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Son of Man is Andrew Harvey’s most basic statement on Christ, and it has already become a treasured work to readers interested in Christian mysticism. For the first time in any of his books, Harvey provides spiritual exercises–centuries-old rites previously available only to a few–that allow the reader direct experience with the mystical Christ. Son of Man also includes an easily accessible section of classic readings and meditations on the nature of Christ, making it the comprehensive experience in the Christ of the new millennium.

REVIEW: Andrew Harvey’s Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ is a strange and wonderful book about learning to become like Jesus. Harvey, a scholar, poet, novelist, and translator (he’s perhaps best known for helping incite a resurgence of interest in the 12th-century Turkish poet Rumi), draws on his extensive knowledge and experience of Christian and Eastern spiritual practices to create a profound and wide-ranging meditation on who Jesus was and why Jesus matters today.

The connection between this book’s beginning (a summary of historical-Jesus research) and its end (a series of meditations to help believers grow more Christ-like) is perhaps best summarized by the following passage, which also conveys the sweeping momentum of Harvey’s prose:

Paying attention to how Jesus acted and in what context and to what he really said–and not on the dogmas surrounding his divinity–can have the paradoxical effect of making us take him and his actions and words even more seriously and, above all, and in the highest, most urgent sense, practically.

Son of Man is also profusely illustrated with haunting black-and-white photographs by Harvey’s partner, Eryk Hanut. –Michael Joseph Gross