Kevin McCruden has convincingly traced the thread that runs through a significant portion of the canonical New Testament, the four Gospels, and the undisputed letters of Paul. Each of these books originated in the lived experience of the communal encounter of the Risen Christ, shared by its author and immediate audience. By identifying the power of the shared religious experience of the communities of the New Testament in all its diversity, McCruden has opened a horizon for contemporary readers to understand more deeply their own encounter with the same Christ. A wide audience that includes students, teachers, and pastors will benefit from his insightful, focused, and lucid reading of the Gospels and Paul.

In On the Way, McCruden consistently offers insightful interpretations of the relationship between the religious experience of God and living life in community as this relationship is reflected in the four Gospels and the letters of Paul. He writes in an enviably clear and delightful style. The reader not only learns a great deal but does so with pleasure. McCruden has a knack for clarifying without oversimplifying.

A singular and stunning achievement. This book is equally attuned to the potent creativity of the human spirit as well as the prophetic call to forge right-relationships with God, self, and others. Pramuk’s text is original and unforgettable; it is also accessible, insightful, and captivating. It will engage students in practicing wonder and awe, cultivating deeper empathy and respect, and sparking greater curiosity, joy, and hope. It will empower instructors to more effectively present the relevance, meaning, and urgency of enkindling spirituality, thinking theologically, and expanding our imagination of what more is possible for being human—together. This the exact kind of text we need to initiate and sustain reflection and discernment, conversation and commitment to act in order to be ever more attentive and responsive to the work of the Spirit in our midst.

Christopher Pramuk’s deft, utterly unique, theological and literary voice is in beautiful harmony with all the musicians and other artists he lovingly and brilliantly looks into.

With his signature spiritual depth and cultural humility, Christopher Pramuk invites readers of his latest book to participate in meaning-making through engagement with the arts, and with music in particular. Pramuk lives in the imagination that one is transformed, for good or ill, by the company one keeps. Readers are introduced to some of the guests with whom Pramuk has shared hospitality in his own interior spaces—the musicians who have formed him, as well as the thinkers who have informed him. Without any hint of patronizing, the author nurtures readers, brooding like a hen over an egg, attending to the reader’s well-being so that as members of society, we may live into healthier, even holier, lives of meaning—into persons awakened, indeed, into artists alive. Engaging with Thomas Merton as well as other prophetic voices who respond with encouragement in times of ‘endless war, crushing poverty, and horrific violence,’ Pramuk’s book is filled with practical insights and ample resources for teaching and discussing such things as paying attention, struggling for holiness, and uniting the secular with the sacred. Pramuk’s latest offering is itself a work of wonder, resistance, and hope.