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Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion
This study of the necessity of mystical religion, also shows how traditional Western doctrine can be reconciled with the intuitive religion of the Orient.
257 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
155 people are currently reading
1136 people want to read
About the author
Alan W. Watts
255 books7,987 followersAlan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer and speaker, who held both a Master's in Theology and a Doctorate of Divinity. Famous for his research on comparative religion, he was best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. He wrote over 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness, the meaning of life, concepts and images of God and the non-material pursuit of happiness. In his books he relates his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religion and philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
December 6, 2008
I used to think I'd never touch theology with a ten-foot-pole, but this book was a pole-vault over a mountain of misgivings right into lap of mysticism, Christian or otherwise. Watts is most famous for popularizing and interpreting Eastern Mysticism/Religion for the public in the 60's and 70's, but this early book (written when he was an Anglican Minister, for the "experience") is a brilliant work of synthesis between the East and West without digressing into diluted conflations of context. I was a well-armed atheist for many years, but after reading this book such self-descriptions collapsed into incoherence and I knew that I could never ever again approach the meaning of religions in the same way. This book brought tears to my eyes and probably influenced my outlook more than any other non-fiction work in my life. Watts is funny, not self-serious, and has an uncanny capacity for rendering extremely difficult ideas in an extremely digestible form, without cutting conceptual corners. If nothing else, you will be left with the sad realization that the Christianity that you have probably received from your culture or family bears little resemblance to the form and meaning of Christian Mysticism laid out here.... and you will feel more than slightly cheated.
March 3, 2014
WOW! What a book! In it Alan Watts presents a extremely compelling argument about why Christianity as it is currently presented is found to be uncompelling for the modern mind. In so doing he lays out a paradigm for the development of cultures based on human life: birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. In addition he presents his argument about a mature Christian spirituality that recognizes the union of God and Christ with all of creation. He argues that this union is not something that can be earned, attained, or won, which are merely ways that the Ego tries to take pride in achieving its own salvation. Rather, the human role is to recognize, appreciate and spread news of union with God. " “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). This an inspiring, provocative book that skilfully articulates a full and mature Christian spirituality that is light years ahead of what most Christians believe and practice.
June 10, 2010
Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion is one of the best books on theology I have ever read. Alan Watts separates the "earn your way to heaven" theology of the legalistic religions from the simple gospel of grace and redemption found in the Bible.The author has a gift of taking a complex subject and making it understandable to a lay person. If you are a non religious person but are curious to know what Christianity is all about then read this book. If you are religious, read this book for an in depth exposition of the theology you believe. You will learn something.
December 28, 2007
The only method is giving up method
April 14, 2023
He simply, but radiantly, cuts right through it all. Watts provides us with a journey through many forms of Christianity, alongside sufism and more. I do not think he ever mentiones Zen or Buddhism anywhere explicitly, but they could have been: his view on religion allows him to explain what it would have been about, could have been about and maybe should be about. Even though the latter could never expicitly be true, since this is al It. You cannot be outside god, only god is not limited to not be in it all, unbound and by that giving us the choice of surrender, or as Kastrup would say it decennia later: the choice of recogintion of defeat.
I recommend Watts' book to anywone with an interest in Mystisicm and or a wide Judeo-Christian perspective on personal religion. This book is beyond explanatory, it gives us as readers a sense of what Watts tries to say about his personal experience. Reading it in an experiental way might give you some of that experience, I know it did for me.
I recommend Watts' book to anywone with an interest in Mystisicm and or a wide Judeo-Christian perspective on personal religion. This book is beyond explanatory, it gives us as readers a sense of what Watts tries to say about his personal experience. Reading it in an experiental way might give you some of that experience, I know it did for me.
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October 26, 2021It was an interesting experience to read Alan Watts' commentary on Christianity. In his other books, Christian concepts are often deployed for analogizing similar concepts in Eastern religion, but the main focus is not on the Christian concepts. With this book the main focus is elaborating a view of Christian theology, specifically the theology of the incarnation. I found this very insightful and will probably read it again to clear up the finer points. As far as I understand Watt's argument, Christianity is fundamentally a religion of mystical experience, i.e. a religion of sustained and personal union with God. If you're a Christian, you're in union with God while you make coffee, run the vacuum cleaner, feed the cats, shave, and participate in corporate in the Eucharist. The idea of the incarnation, for Watts, resolves an ancient tension between the sacred and the profane: the profane becomes sacred in the incarnation and the sacred profane. Moreover, included in this view of the incarnation, therefore, is a critique of other views of Christianity: e.g. Christianity as a form of moralism (or a personal code of comportment, a new moral/ethical philosophy); Christianity as a metaphysic, i.e. a fantasy story about Heaven and Hell. Watts seems to think viewing Christianity in these ways has degraded it, made it less relevant today. His 1947 argument is to emphasize a long tradition of Christian mysticism that he believed had been neglected by Christians. Really a thoughtful book and definitely more dynamic than this short review.
July 8, 2012
Growing up I suffered severe disillusionment with the religious establishment, organized religion being guilty of crimes worse than most shady politicians and even governments. By the words of Christ "By their fruits ye shall know them" they seemed condemned. This book did more to restore my faith in the original simple Christianity, before it became weighed down with layers of heavy dogma, rigid morals and lifeless rituals, than anything else. I have always felt that underneath those layers, as in all major religions, the almost smothered beating heart was still worth something of value. Finding it and trying to keep it alive is not an easy task when Religion and most of its terminology has almost come to represent thoughtless bias, prejudice and arrogant self-righteousness.
Modern man is in a dilemma because he still finds himself spiritually inclined but disgusted by religion. How then to move forward, to have faith in something that feels dead? Alan Watts breathes new life into the Christian paradigm by using the aid of Eastern Religions demonstrating where Christianity's strength as well as weaknesses are. Religion cannot be stagnant, frozen in the past, it has to be alive, fluid and reflecting the times as well as providing an anchor to life that dispels anxiety, fear and bitterness.
Often I wondered why Christian churches don't build elaborate gardens, parks and beautiful retreats where their members can seek refuge in meditation and self-reflection. Instead our churches mirror an Elementary school with a pulpit, benches and a lectern. To feel more alive and tap into the creative energy of life this old model, which is simply boring and suffocating, needs to be replaced . It inspires little and instead drums to the beat of promoting good behavior through instilling a guilty conscience.
Christianity is stuck with this Zoroastrian view of life where Good and Evil are raging an epic battle for the souls of mankind. Who wants to grow up thinking life is a battle? Where the price of failure is your soul being sucked down into the dark side. We have seen what happens to soldiers who are under the constant stress of war, they come home broken, fearful and unable to live normal lives, why then would we want to adopt a religious view that creates this same environment only it is worse, it is invisible. Life is always divided against life, there is no harmony, no unity, only some future paradise that will never come. The original Christianity instead promoted a view of life that was more vibrant, more loving and kind, accepting, forgiving and embracing life as it is and only seeking to change it through love and forgiveness.
"Formal religion has two functions. For those who cannot at present understand anything beyond forms, it is a way of speeding up and intensifying the attempt to possess God until they become quite convinced by experience that he cannot be possessed. In addition, it imparts a symbolic, analogical knowledge of God which, as we have seen gives them courage to venture into the Reality beyond symbols".
"Like St. Paul, the Church must be "all things to all men,: instead of trying to impose a uniform procedure on all souls alike, which is, of course, the easiest and laziest way of going about the teaching of religion".
"Thus the ego increases the distance between itself and God in order to flatter itself with the thought of bridging that distance by its own efforts. By every conceivable subtlety it ignores the gift of union in order to have the satisfaction of manufacturing its own union with God".
"Although evil struggles to exclude and oppose God, it never succeeds because he always embraces it in his all-inclusive love. To evil this love appears like wrath and opposition, though this is its own wrath and opposition projected on the "mirror" of God and inflamed by perpetual frustration. It tries to mar the purity of the mirror by making it reflect its own loathsomeness"
"Theology and spirituality became more and more Christocentric, and at the same time quite alien to the traditions of Christian mysticism! Contemplation, as understood by the medieval mystics, was replaced by affective and imaginative devotion to the humanity of Jesus. From the standpoint of mysticism this was a disaster based on a misunderstanding of the Incarnation, for it made the divine humanity transcendent and humanized the mystery of God. It frustrated the very purpose of the Incarnation because, in practice it did not raise humanity to union with God; it raised only the historic Jesus. God was made at once transcendent and anthropomorphic , and with such a God, mysticism is impossible because it makes him as remote, or rather, infinitely more remote than another human being".
"For in silence, in idleness, there was the boredom of being alone with oneself, with that inane spark of consciousness in the abyss of nothingness into which it was destined to vanish"
"Bereft of creative power through the loss of union with god and the meaning of life, the soul used up its resources and then produced simply belching and vomit"
Modern man is in a dilemma because he still finds himself spiritually inclined but disgusted by religion. How then to move forward, to have faith in something that feels dead? Alan Watts breathes new life into the Christian paradigm by using the aid of Eastern Religions demonstrating where Christianity's strength as well as weaknesses are. Religion cannot be stagnant, frozen in the past, it has to be alive, fluid and reflecting the times as well as providing an anchor to life that dispels anxiety, fear and bitterness.
Often I wondered why Christian churches don't build elaborate gardens, parks and beautiful retreats where their members can seek refuge in meditation and self-reflection. Instead our churches mirror an Elementary school with a pulpit, benches and a lectern. To feel more alive and tap into the creative energy of life this old model, which is simply boring and suffocating, needs to be replaced . It inspires little and instead drums to the beat of promoting good behavior through instilling a guilty conscience.
Christianity is stuck with this Zoroastrian view of life where Good and Evil are raging an epic battle for the souls of mankind. Who wants to grow up thinking life is a battle? Where the price of failure is your soul being sucked down into the dark side. We have seen what happens to soldiers who are under the constant stress of war, they come home broken, fearful and unable to live normal lives, why then would we want to adopt a religious view that creates this same environment only it is worse, it is invisible. Life is always divided against life, there is no harmony, no unity, only some future paradise that will never come. The original Christianity instead promoted a view of life that was more vibrant, more loving and kind, accepting, forgiving and embracing life as it is and only seeking to change it through love and forgiveness.
"Formal religion has two functions. For those who cannot at present understand anything beyond forms, it is a way of speeding up and intensifying the attempt to possess God until they become quite convinced by experience that he cannot be possessed. In addition, it imparts a symbolic, analogical knowledge of God which, as we have seen gives them courage to venture into the Reality beyond symbols".
"Like St. Paul, the Church must be "all things to all men,: instead of trying to impose a uniform procedure on all souls alike, which is, of course, the easiest and laziest way of going about the teaching of religion".
"Thus the ego increases the distance between itself and God in order to flatter itself with the thought of bridging that distance by its own efforts. By every conceivable subtlety it ignores the gift of union in order to have the satisfaction of manufacturing its own union with God".
"Although evil struggles to exclude and oppose God, it never succeeds because he always embraces it in his all-inclusive love. To evil this love appears like wrath and opposition, though this is its own wrath and opposition projected on the "mirror" of God and inflamed by perpetual frustration. It tries to mar the purity of the mirror by making it reflect its own loathsomeness"
"Theology and spirituality became more and more Christocentric, and at the same time quite alien to the traditions of Christian mysticism! Contemplation, as understood by the medieval mystics, was replaced by affective and imaginative devotion to the humanity of Jesus. From the standpoint of mysticism this was a disaster based on a misunderstanding of the Incarnation, for it made the divine humanity transcendent and humanized the mystery of God. It frustrated the very purpose of the Incarnation because, in practice it did not raise humanity to union with God; it raised only the historic Jesus. God was made at once transcendent and anthropomorphic , and with such a God, mysticism is impossible because it makes him as remote, or rather, infinitely more remote than another human being".
"For in silence, in idleness, there was the boredom of being alone with oneself, with that inane spark of consciousness in the abyss of nothingness into which it was destined to vanish"
"Bereft of creative power through the loss of union with god and the meaning of life, the soul used up its resources and then produced simply belching and vomit"
September 25, 2013
Behold the Spirit by Alan Watts-- I found this book at a used book sale at our library more than 10 years ago and I reread it at least once a year,discovering something new and meaningful each time.. The inside covers of my copy are full of notes and page after page contains underlined passages. There is so much wisdom here,e.g., the difference between Jesus'religion vs the religion about Jesus. Another:
God is closer to us than we are to ourselves--And every creature yearns for union with him. I also loved the explanation of what mysticism really is--and it is not some rarefied condition, but a state anyone can attain. I had come to believe that Jesus is a bridge to the first person of the trinity, a view this book seems to support. Nota Bene: the original Greek manuscripts called Jesus "a" son of God, not "the" son of God, the first a title we can all lay claim to.
God is closer to us than we are to ourselves--And every creature yearns for union with him. I also loved the explanation of what mysticism really is--and it is not some rarefied condition, but a state anyone can attain. I had come to believe that Jesus is a bridge to the first person of the trinity, a view this book seems to support. Nota Bene: the original Greek manuscripts called Jesus "a" son of God, not "the" son of God, the first a title we can all lay claim to.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2025
Union with God in the present moment, the Eternal Now, my Beautiful Lord and Love, Creator and Spirit. Playful, divine, rapturous, passionate, and worthy of contemplation. Not to be possessed, but to be experienced and realized. This true gift of unity, ever available joy of the Spirit, the movement of God. Make us mystics.
Alan Watts and Brother Lawrence sing the same tune. I also think he would have loved Pneumatology. Love and do as you’d like; God, His Spirit, as our telos; God as Love and Love as God; tear stained cheeks; and the nonsensical, riddling reality of the Eternal. There is a necessity for mystical religion—here we echo Hauerwas, “come Holy Spirit!” Or for Watts, “Behold! The Spirit!” for He is “one in love and one in life with every finite and errant member of his universe—here and now.”
Alan Watts and Brother Lawrence sing the same tune. I also think he would have loved Pneumatology. Love and do as you’d like; God, His Spirit, as our telos; God as Love and Love as God; tear stained cheeks; and the nonsensical, riddling reality of the Eternal. There is a necessity for mystical religion—here we echo Hauerwas, “come Holy Spirit!” Or for Watts, “Behold! The Spirit!” for He is “one in love and one in life with every finite and errant member of his universe—here and now.”
February 13, 2013
Behold the Spirit: The Necessity of Mystical Religion
by Alan Watts
Book Reaction
Initial Question(s):
Can I discover what has my father found so influential about this book that he keeps coming back to it? What might I relate to as I read?
---
Behold the Spirit was an invigorating, thought provoking read about taking the incarnation of Jesus seriously. Taking the incarnation seriously means, as I paraphrase Watts, to see that union with God has already been established in creation - God has taken this first and permanent step in love. Humanity's goal or life purpose then is to become awakened to this already-present grace of God's presence and love.
The tenor of the book (and what I resonated with and believe my father might resonate with also) is that the institutional state of Christianity is more often focused on propagating or preserving itself than living into this reality - as in: the goal is to grow church membership and increase congregational activity, but little time and energy is spent on living into the present reality of God's unifying love which is already present, un-earned; it's a love that is longing for us to wake up to it so we can more and more fully live with God in the here and now.
Behold the Spirit weaves in an out of other mind-filling questions and ideas, as well as projections that Christians might look to Eastern culture and see there a capacity for living in the here and now in a way that the incarnation suggests.
Do I agree? Yes - I think what we see in Jesus as we read the Gospels is much of the time not very "Western" (however hard that is for us Westerners to hear). Many of Jesus' rhythms are something we'd find more akin to today's Eastern cultures (generally) - which means I think we in the West should approach Jesus in the Gospels first and from that, ask ourselves, "How can we step into this life of salvation and who or what can help us practice that way?"
My greatest "take away" from the book: The "mystical" life is not the crazy or esoteric fanaticism many imagine but rather an awakened ("whoever has eyes to see"), un-earned, received grace to live with and within God in the present moment - and to see that such a moment is the chief purpose of life; it is quite simply coming to see that the Kingdom of God is truly already present - God is here: Live.
by Alan Watts
Book Reaction
Initial Question(s):
Can I discover what has my father found so influential about this book that he keeps coming back to it? What might I relate to as I read?
---
Behold the Spirit was an invigorating, thought provoking read about taking the incarnation of Jesus seriously. Taking the incarnation seriously means, as I paraphrase Watts, to see that union with God has already been established in creation - God has taken this first and permanent step in love. Humanity's goal or life purpose then is to become awakened to this already-present grace of God's presence and love.
The tenor of the book (and what I resonated with and believe my father might resonate with also) is that the institutional state of Christianity is more often focused on propagating or preserving itself than living into this reality - as in: the goal is to grow church membership and increase congregational activity, but little time and energy is spent on living into the present reality of God's unifying love which is already present, un-earned; it's a love that is longing for us to wake up to it so we can more and more fully live with God in the here and now.
Behold the Spirit weaves in an out of other mind-filling questions and ideas, as well as projections that Christians might look to Eastern culture and see there a capacity for living in the here and now in a way that the incarnation suggests.
Do I agree? Yes - I think what we see in Jesus as we read the Gospels is much of the time not very "Western" (however hard that is for us Westerners to hear). Many of Jesus' rhythms are something we'd find more akin to today's Eastern cultures (generally) - which means I think we in the West should approach Jesus in the Gospels first and from that, ask ourselves, "How can we step into this life of salvation and who or what can help us practice that way?"
My greatest "take away" from the book: The "mystical" life is not the crazy or esoteric fanaticism many imagine but rather an awakened ("whoever has eyes to see"), un-earned, received grace to live with and within God in the present moment - and to see that such a moment is the chief purpose of life; it is quite simply coming to see that the Kingdom of God is truly already present - God is here: Live.
June 11, 2013
Appreciating how clearly and evocatively Watts elucidates Zen Buddhism, I thought I’d find out what he had to say about Christianity. Behold the Spirit looks at Christianity and Christians through an evolutionary lens. Immaturity, of course, marks the first stage. These are the Christians who are typified by the Born-agains, the kind of believer who needs the safety and security that a rigid structure gives him, a medieval kind of faith in which an authority—be it the Pope or the Bible—dictates correct belief. The second stage is adolescence, the age of protest, or Protestantism, in which the believer rejects authority and goes it alone, replacing the dictates of the church with personal interpretations of the Bible. “Thus,” writes Watts, “the era of childhood, when man is under the rule of the parental mythos, might be called the age of the Father, and the era of adolescence, when man comes into his own and feels his independence, is in a certain sense the age of the Son, during which, incidentally, the worship of the human Jesus came into prominence.” The third stage of Christian belief of which Watts speaks is the age of the Holy Spirit, the mystical stage, the stage in which one realizes union with God. At the mystical stage, the believer is (this is going to sound a lot like Zen), as Watts says, “charged…with the incarnational task of so uniting religion with ordinary life that ordinary life becomes religious in itself.” Now this is a form of Christianity that won’t hurt a soul.
March 25, 2009
This book had some absolutely beautiful parts - my personal favorite? The chapter on God's play - that God doesn't, in fact, take himself too seriously, and neither should we - It was a good book written in Christian vernacular for Christians - therefore i found the wording a little irritating at times. And I don't think Watts really felt every word of it - it was written at a time when he was experimenting with being Christian - a departure from his more comfortable Buddhist - but its point was well taken and very, very nice. Good Read.
October 30, 2011
Alan Watts' Behold the Spirit provides insights into the pitfalls and promises of religion while encouraging a mystical path. This book is great for anyone moving beyond traditional religion and into a deeper, more aware, self-trusting spiritual path. I loved it and still pick it up on a regular basis.
May 19, 2015
well, I loved it. but I'm a sucker for Alan watts. this is my 15th Alan watts book. love his work. haven't read him in 25 years or more. the title really kind of gives it away. but why beat around the bush? similarly for this is it and does it matter? I really have no need to read the supreme identity, but I think I may.
August 4, 2016
One of the best books on religion that I've read in a long time. While it could be argued that Watts verges on pantheism here, the author is careful to point out that our union with God is a gift rather than just the way things happen to be. This is an important study that I intend to read again - this time with pen in hand.
July 31, 2014
A classic - in the sense of speaking to the present age, even though published in the late 40s. He is square on point as why the pews are emptying as folk go looking authentic experience of God as they are not finding in the Church. He also points the way to meet the challenge and grow up!
September 18, 2009
The best and most insightful exploration of the theology of Christianity I have ever read.
March 17, 2010
It has just confirmed the journey - I do not know and I cannot know but I am compelled to have a relationship with God who gave me back life.
September 17, 2024
WATTS' MAJOR EXPOSITION OF CHRISTIANITY
Alan Wilson Watts (1915-1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as a popularizer of Eastern philosophy. He and his then-wife left England for America in 1938 on the eve of WWII, and he became an Episcopal priest---but he left the priesthood in 1950 and moved to California, where he became a cult figure in the Beat movement of the 1950s and later. He wrote many popular books, such as 'The Meaning of Happiness,' 'Easter: Its Story and Meaning,' 'The Wisdom of Insecurity,' 'Myth and Ritual In Christianity,' 'The Way of Zen,' 'Nature, Man and Woman,' 'Psychotherapy East & West,' 'The Two Hands of God,' 'Beyond Theology,' and his autobiography, 'In My Own Way.'
This 1947 book (written while he was still an Episcopalian priest) is actually a "popular" version of his Master's Thesis. He wrote in the Preface, "This book is addressed to Christians of every denomination, and more especially to the thousands of thoughtful and sincere persons in the modern world who, though deeply interested in religion, find themselves unable to accept Christianity in the forms in which it is usually presented...
It is written to introduce a strangely and disastrously neglected subject---the MEANING of Christian doctrine... The meaning is God himself, the ultimate Reality, not as an idea conceived but as a reality experienced... This is that mystical and nearly immediate experience of God which... may be explained sufficiently to give its traditional dogmatic and historic expressions much more clarity and reality than they now convey to the modern mind. Without some apprehension of this meaning, Christian doctrines are not actually intelligible at all..." (Pg. xxv-xxvi)
He states, "this truth is the gospel, the good news, and the basic principle of mystical religion. We do not have to seek for God; he is already here and now, and to seek for him implies that he is not. We do not, in this sense, have to ATTAIN union with God; it is already given as an act of the divine love. To try to attain it by our own efforts is to slight that love and, again, imply that the gift is not given." (Pg. 17-18)
He argues, "In one sense man loves God inevitably because the finite naturally and necessarily hungers or moves toward the infinite... But man is capable of another kind of love which can reach to God, and this... we call 'agape.' ... whereas 'eros' is a possessive hunger, a desire to swallow God, 'agape' is free, conscious, and deliberate desire to give oneself to God. Man is capable of both eros and agape, for he desires both to magnify himself and to lose himself, to swallow the infinite and to plunge into the infinite. But such absolute self-surrender is a power of freedom alone. Love under compulsion is eros---never agape." (Pg. 66-67)
He contends, "God and union with God are Reality; nothing is more real, more concrete, more actual, and more present. At the same time, Reality is infinitely alive. It, he, cannot be grasped in any finite form... Therefore, as long as we TRY to grasp God, we shall never realize him... This is why there is no method, no formal technique, for attaining the mystical state and realizing union with God. For a method is an attempt to possess, and has its origin in pride and fear." (Pg. 92-93)
He suggests, "Man can overcome evil by grace, by realizing his union with God. Through this he awakens to the transcendent immanence of God in his own evil, which effects the forgiveness of sins. He discovers that to whatever depths of depravity he may descend, he can neither escape nor separate himself from that given union with God which he has by distinction as a creature, as an 'offering' of God himself. Because of this he participates in the divine Being over which evil has no power. If this does not move him to such gratitude for the gift of union with God that he sets his will firmly against evil, he shows himself incapable of appreciating the gift." (Pg. 150)
He concludes, "union with God does not depend on our love for him, but on his love for us. There is nothing in it to be attained; it is here and now in all its fulness. Therefore contemplation is for the appreciation and not for the acquisition of union with God." (Pg. 239)
Those who love Watts' "Eastern" books will most likely not care for this one; but it remains a fascinating and intriguing contemporary interpretation of Christian spirituality, and gives firm evidence that his "Episcopalian priest period" was far from wasted.
Alan Wilson Watts (1915-1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as a popularizer of Eastern philosophy. He and his then-wife left England for America in 1938 on the eve of WWII, and he became an Episcopal priest---but he left the priesthood in 1950 and moved to California, where he became a cult figure in the Beat movement of the 1950s and later. He wrote many popular books, such as 'The Meaning of Happiness,' 'Easter: Its Story and Meaning,' 'The Wisdom of Insecurity,' 'Myth and Ritual In Christianity,' 'The Way of Zen,' 'Nature, Man and Woman,' 'Psychotherapy East & West,' 'The Two Hands of God,' 'Beyond Theology,' and his autobiography, 'In My Own Way.'
This 1947 book (written while he was still an Episcopalian priest) is actually a "popular" version of his Master's Thesis. He wrote in the Preface, "This book is addressed to Christians of every denomination, and more especially to the thousands of thoughtful and sincere persons in the modern world who, though deeply interested in religion, find themselves unable to accept Christianity in the forms in which it is usually presented...
It is written to introduce a strangely and disastrously neglected subject---the MEANING of Christian doctrine... The meaning is God himself, the ultimate Reality, not as an idea conceived but as a reality experienced... This is that mystical and nearly immediate experience of God which... may be explained sufficiently to give its traditional dogmatic and historic expressions much more clarity and reality than they now convey to the modern mind. Without some apprehension of this meaning, Christian doctrines are not actually intelligible at all..." (Pg. xxv-xxvi)
He states, "this truth is the gospel, the good news, and the basic principle of mystical religion. We do not have to seek for God; he is already here and now, and to seek for him implies that he is not. We do not, in this sense, have to ATTAIN union with God; it is already given as an act of the divine love. To try to attain it by our own efforts is to slight that love and, again, imply that the gift is not given." (Pg. 17-18)
He argues, "In one sense man loves God inevitably because the finite naturally and necessarily hungers or moves toward the infinite... But man is capable of another kind of love which can reach to God, and this... we call 'agape.' ... whereas 'eros' is a possessive hunger, a desire to swallow God, 'agape' is free, conscious, and deliberate desire to give oneself to God. Man is capable of both eros and agape, for he desires both to magnify himself and to lose himself, to swallow the infinite and to plunge into the infinite. But such absolute self-surrender is a power of freedom alone. Love under compulsion is eros---never agape." (Pg. 66-67)
He contends, "God and union with God are Reality; nothing is more real, more concrete, more actual, and more present. At the same time, Reality is infinitely alive. It, he, cannot be grasped in any finite form... Therefore, as long as we TRY to grasp God, we shall never realize him... This is why there is no method, no formal technique, for attaining the mystical state and realizing union with God. For a method is an attempt to possess, and has its origin in pride and fear." (Pg. 92-93)
He suggests, "Man can overcome evil by grace, by realizing his union with God. Through this he awakens to the transcendent immanence of God in his own evil, which effects the forgiveness of sins. He discovers that to whatever depths of depravity he may descend, he can neither escape nor separate himself from that given union with God which he has by distinction as a creature, as an 'offering' of God himself. Because of this he participates in the divine Being over which evil has no power. If this does not move him to such gratitude for the gift of union with God that he sets his will firmly against evil, he shows himself incapable of appreciating the gift." (Pg. 150)
He concludes, "union with God does not depend on our love for him, but on his love for us. There is nothing in it to be attained; it is here and now in all its fulness. Therefore contemplation is for the appreciation and not for the acquisition of union with God." (Pg. 239)
Those who love Watts' "Eastern" books will most likely not care for this one; but it remains a fascinating and intriguing contemporary interpretation of Christian spirituality, and gives firm evidence that his "Episcopalian priest period" was far from wasted.
September 11, 2020
When a Centering Prayer friend of mine handed me this book I thought, "What? Alan Watts was an Episcopal priest?!" Yes, it turns out, before his move to the U.S. and his deep dive into Buddhism. BEHOLD THE SPIRIT was written in 1947; my version has a preface written in 1971 where he says, sure, this still works.
Boy, does it. I'm amazed at his biting insights into the self-consciousness rampant in Protestantism, his clear vision for moving Christian liturgy toward its original, contemplative intention of celebrating our union with God, and especially his understanding of contemplative action in the daily round as living into our incarnational theology (see quote below). I'm glad to have this resource on my shelf.
It is possible and, indeed necessary to love God and enjoy union with him in the forms of secular actions, and this type of contemplation is obviously the more incarnational. In this type of contemplation the focal point of adoration is not the “divine darkness" perceived by the emptying of the mind; it is the Eternal Now in which all the events and experiences of daily life occur. The two are really the same thing approached from different points of view. Furthermore, the method of adoration is not to be still and gaze into the Eternal Now with love; it is to give oneself wholeheartedly to the work which the present moment brings; it is to go straight ahead with the Eternal Now, accepting its changing forms with one’s entire being but not grasping hold of them. This contemplation does not need to involve any formally religious thought of God because he presents himself to the soul beyond religious forms, in and as the Eternal Now.
Boy, does it. I'm amazed at his biting insights into the self-consciousness rampant in Protestantism, his clear vision for moving Christian liturgy toward its original, contemplative intention of celebrating our union with God, and especially his understanding of contemplative action in the daily round as living into our incarnational theology (see quote below). I'm glad to have this resource on my shelf.
It is possible and, indeed necessary to love God and enjoy union with him in the forms of secular actions, and this type of contemplation is obviously the more incarnational. In this type of contemplation the focal point of adoration is not the “divine darkness" perceived by the emptying of the mind; it is the Eternal Now in which all the events and experiences of daily life occur. The two are really the same thing approached from different points of view. Furthermore, the method of adoration is not to be still and gaze into the Eternal Now with love; it is to give oneself wholeheartedly to the work which the present moment brings; it is to go straight ahead with the Eternal Now, accepting its changing forms with one’s entire being but not grasping hold of them. This contemplation does not need to involve any formally religious thought of God because he presents himself to the soul beyond religious forms, in and as the Eternal Now.
May 6, 2019
This is the first specifically Christian theological book that Watts published, in 1947, when he was an Episcopal priest and a chaplain at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. As one who had previously been immersed in Zen Buddhism, he had an understanding of mystical religion that few others of his generation had and how it applies to a thorough understanding of Christianity. The goal of the Christian life is union with God - but that's not something we achieve by our own efforts, it's God's gift to us. Much of the book is spent discussing this and what it means.
In later years he wrote extensively on Zen and on various topics involving comparative religion, after he was forced out of the Episcopal Church due to issues of his personal life (he and his first wife divorced and he remarried soon afterwards - that was a big no no back then - he was a couple generations ahead of his time in terms of what is allowed for Episcopal clergy). He died in 1973. Anyone interested should consult Monica Furlong's biography of him. He also wrote his own autobiography and recently two of his daughters published a collection of his letters.
In later years he wrote extensively on Zen and on various topics involving comparative religion, after he was forced out of the Episcopal Church due to issues of his personal life (he and his first wife divorced and he remarried soon afterwards - that was a big no no back then - he was a couple generations ahead of his time in terms of what is allowed for Episcopal clergy). He died in 1973. Anyone interested should consult Monica Furlong's biography of him. He also wrote his own autobiography and recently two of his daughters published a collection of his letters.
February 22, 2017
I had to look twice to confirm that this book was actually written in 1947! Watts addresses in this book the very issues that confront "the Church" today and are pushing the church to the margins of relevancy.
One does not even get past the preface(s) without coming across the most prescient of insights. He writes in the preface to the New Edition, "a Christianity which is not basically mystical must become either a political ideology or a mindless fundamentalism...both trends fall back on the Bible as their basic inspiration."
Certainly, today, both the progressive and evangelical wings of the Christian church have become more like political action committees. A deeper, inner mystical connection to God/divinity, has been replaced by liberal and conservative political leanings, rather than "union with God" as a basis for action in the world.
I highly recommend reading this 70 year old book to find insights and inspiration relevant to today's social, political and religious landscape.
One does not even get past the preface(s) without coming across the most prescient of insights. He writes in the preface to the New Edition, "a Christianity which is not basically mystical must become either a political ideology or a mindless fundamentalism...both trends fall back on the Bible as their basic inspiration."
Certainly, today, both the progressive and evangelical wings of the Christian church have become more like political action committees. A deeper, inner mystical connection to God/divinity, has been replaced by liberal and conservative political leanings, rather than "union with God" as a basis for action in the world.
I highly recommend reading this 70 year old book to find insights and inspiration relevant to today's social, political and religious landscape.
May 9, 2024
Having held a doctorate in divinity (Christian), yet embracing Zen Buddhism and focusing on the mystical side of religion, and most specifically on the aspect of "now", Alan Watts was a unique thinker, and as such, a popularizer of a new way of looking at faith and religion.
"Western culture has reached the end of its physical expansion and vigour, and is entering the latter part of its life—the period of old age and spiritual, or psychological, maturity. This is why Church religion is finding it so hard to meet the spiritual needs of modern man, for it is treating him as if he were still a child."
Watts, who died in 1973, had a unique way of describing Christian mysticism, and in this book, spent a lot of time helping to reframe and redefine the way in which modern men and women should look at God and our very close and intimate relationship with Him.
Toward the end, as he was synthesizing his perceptions, I found him going down a number of esoteric paths that seemed a little hard to follow. Other than that, an interesting and provocative read.
"Western culture has reached the end of its physical expansion and vigour, and is entering the latter part of its life—the period of old age and spiritual, or psychological, maturity. This is why Church religion is finding it so hard to meet the spiritual needs of modern man, for it is treating him as if he were still a child."
Watts, who died in 1973, had a unique way of describing Christian mysticism, and in this book, spent a lot of time helping to reframe and redefine the way in which modern men and women should look at God and our very close and intimate relationship with Him.
Toward the end, as he was synthesizing his perceptions, I found him going down a number of esoteric paths that seemed a little hard to follow. Other than that, an interesting and provocative read.
July 3, 2019
Its language about the Chinese people reeks of Orientalist stereotypes, but Watts's argument about a mystic core inherent to all religions points to his later promulgation of Zen and Eastern philosophies. At this point, Watts was still an Episcopalian, so his intention, much like the contemporaneous Quaker mystics Rufus Jones and Thomas Kelly, is to convey that mysticism is a key part of Christianity. Indeed, he thinks Christians have forgotten their mystic roots, that the Holy Spirit's actions are conveyed through mystical reflection, and that Christians should look to Asian religions for inspiration (or rejuvenation).
May 15, 2018
An excellent and exhaustive study of the importance of the Mystery of God .
This book is an exhaustive study of religions impact on humanity. The author deftly shows the vital connection to Divine Consciousness that Christianity revealed to mankind. Though it seems more wordy than is required, that is easily overlooked when the deep and significant insights Mr. Watts presents are shared! Thank you sir.
@WLIngramAuthor
This book is an exhaustive study of religions impact on humanity. The author deftly shows the vital connection to Divine Consciousness that Christianity revealed to mankind. Though it seems more wordy than is required, that is easily overlooked when the deep and significant insights Mr. Watts presents are shared! Thank you sir.
@WLIngramAuthor
July 13, 2022
Amazing philosopher! This is the first book I read by him but it won't be the last!
July 5, 2024
Refreshing in so many ways.
Read
October 18, 2024An interesting critique of Christianity at the time. Was curious to read Watt's earlier thinking, before he adopted more Eastern thinking.
Read
November 7, 2024I am probably going to reread this several times. It doesnt have quite the full on watts snark, but it does have a million thinks to thunk.
August 5, 2025
I am converted.
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