Ways of Sensing

Imaginatively retrieves the ancient Christian tradition of the spiritual senses to explore how we sense and make sense of God and God's world, and resource Christian communities today Helps Christians contemplate and feel the presence of Christ in a turbulent world where God sometimes feels absentExpertly links the ancient spiritual senses with contemporary concerns from social invisibility to racism Early and medieval Christianity developed a varied spiritual senses tradition to describe the grace-filled capacity to pierce the thin crystal membrane that separates the sensible world from the divine. Just as our physical senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and sound allow us to perceive the tangible world around us, the spiritual senses engrace us to perceive God in our midst.In this book, Paul Dominiak unpacks the scriptural roots, historical development and persisting power of this tradition. Each chapter considers in turn the spiritual senses of touch, taste, smell, sight and sound, illustrating the transformative potential of each for Christian communities in relation to contemporary concerns around trauma, class, immigration, race and gender.