Explosive, esoteric, enigmatic--the Transfiguration event is often greeted with puzzlement. But as a mystery pulsating at the very heart of the gospel--a watershed in Mark, at its very center, the pivotal turning point in Jesus' ministry--it reveals crucial aspects of Christian living. This book uncovers its secrets and unleashes its significance for discipleship in troubled times, looking through the lens of life-giving paradox. This hermeneutical key unlocks unexpected insights and allows transfiguring light to shine into crucial contemporary concerns and crises, as we discover the energy and dynamic of paradox. Drawing on the wisdom and experience of a wide variety of sources--from patristic teachers, spiritual writers, orthodox art and liturgies, present-day scholarship, as well as from the author's years researching in the Holy Land--this resource becomes a kaleidoscope of the Transfiguration, opening widening and challenging perspectives. We discover it to be a vortex of grace, epicenter of revelation: its centrifugal power emanating seismic implications for the universe, its centripetal power drawing all things into Christ, the unifying center of all paradox. Ultimately, we're invited not to solve a puzzle but to live a transformative mystery, ever more deeply, ever more creatively.

Andrew D. Mayes, Episcopal priest and Franciscan, served as Spirituality Adviser to the Diocese of Chichester and the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf. For several years he worked in Jerusalem, as a theological researcher and later as Director of Courses of St. George's College. Currently leading retreats, he is the author of seventeen spirituality books including the award-winning Learning the Language of the Soul; Beyond the Edge, and, from Wipf and Stock, Gateways to the Divine; Treasure in the Wilderness; Roads of Hurt and Hope; Another Christ.