Spiritual Being & Becoming

"With stellar scholarly work and profound pastoral sensibilities, Eric Kyle masterfully guides us through the perspectives of theologians, psychologists, mystics, neuroscientists, and many others whose deep curiosity about human beings, mystery, and the universe have driven them to try to answer questions of ultimate concern. Ultimately, Kyle weaves these many threads together into a fresh powerful model of Christian spiritual formation. This book offers a treasure-trove of possibilities for understanding, teaching, and engaging in the formation of the Christian spiritual life."

--Andrew Dreitcer, Director of Spiritual Formation, The Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA



"An incredible resource! Eric Kyle offers lucid overviews of the major theological and scientific theories of human nature, skillfully fitting them together into a single theological anthropology. He concludes with a fascinating transition from theory to practice, offering general guidelines to foster personal transformation in congregations and classrooms. Few authors on spiritual formation can rival Kyle's synthetic mind and grasp of the data."

--Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA



"This innovative book explores spiritual formation through a fresh lens combining neuroscience, Western philosophy, and theological anthropology. The breadth of the book will keep readers gleaning something new from it time and again. Packed with theories, theorists, models, and charts, it takes what we know of spiritual formation and provides scholars and practitioners novel constructs to look at the field while the book's attention to context leaves the reader with the responsibility of appropriating those theories to their context."

--Mark Chung Hearn, Director of Contextual Education, School of Theology and Ministry, Seattle University, Seattle, WA



"Thomas Aquinas would be proud. Spiritual formation has found a mind for the 21st century to systematize and synthesize the complex dynamics of human being and spiritual transformation. With the organizational clarity of an engineer and the commitment of a Dominican monk, Kyle distills wisdom from Western theology and modern science to create a unified model of human nature. This model is coherent, expansive, integrative, and practical. It sharpens our focus on how people are wired; and it offers a map for how to facilitate transformation. Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam? Aquinas is beaming."

--Frank Rogers Jr., Muriel Bernice Roberts Professor of Spiritual Formation and Narrative Pedagogy, Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA