Few ideas in the history of Western Christian spirituality are as well-known or as influential as John of the Cross's “dark night of the soul.” Yet, this idea has become almost a cipher, generally understood to refer to a period of spiritual difficulty or dryness but often referred to with little sense of its meaning within the context of John's own work, of sixteenth century Spanish history and culture, or of the history of Christian spirituality more generally. Nor has the theological significance of the idea, or of John's mystical writings as a whole, always been given the attention it deserves. This book, situated as it is within the Oxford Christian Theology in Context series, sets out to redress these gaps by offering a detailed and in-depth historical, theological, and literary reading of John of the Cross's work, with a particular focus on the significance of desire within his mystical writing. It succeeds on every level, not only providing a perceptive, sophisticated, and original reading of John's work but also making an important contribution to the work of constructive mystical theology.

This last point is worth underscoring, for this book endeavors to rethink, in critical, contemporary terms, the distinctive approach to theological reflection that arises in dialogue with mystical thought; to take seriously the historical sources in which a rich mystical-theological synthesis can be found; and to ask questions about the particular ideas about God and the self that can perhaps be discovered only within such work. In this sense, it both reflects and builds upon the earlier work of those, like Sarah Coakley (who directed the dissertation from which this book arose), Bernard McGinn, and Michel de Certeau, among others, who have worked assiduously to recover a way of reading ancient, medieval, and modern mystical texts with the historical and social specificity and theological depth they deserve. It can also be situated usefully in relation to the work of those represented in the recent Oxford Handbook of Mystical Theology, edited by Edward Howells and Mark A. McIntosh (2020).

Sam Hole's fine book extends and deepens this contemporary reflection on mystical theology through an in-depth analysis of the historical context, reception, literary structure, and spiritual-theological significance of John of the Cross's work. The book begins with a careful consideration of the idea of desire, with particular focus on the complex and often ambiguous role it has played in modern and contemporary theology. It then proceeds, through five closely argued chapters, to examine and assess (1) the relative neglect of desire within the modern reception of John of the Cross, the role that modern categories of mysticism, spirituality, and religious experience have played in constraining interpretations of his work, and the arguments for reconsidering the significance of desire in John's writings; (2) the place of desire within the spiritual ascent of John of the Cross and the particular influences, including Dionysius the Areopagite's understanding of eros, the practice of recogimiento prayer, Italian Renaissance poetry, and the Carmelite reading of the Song of Songs, that have helped to shape it; (3) language, form, and imagery in John's poetry, a chapter that demonstrates, through a close reading of the literary forms of glosas and coplas, how John came to employ paradox—especially the notions “of seeing while not-seeing, of feeling while not-feeling, of knowing while not-knowing”—to develop his distinctive “rhetorical emphasis on the incapability of language to describe the divine life and the state of union” (113); (4) the “dark night of the soul” and the purification of desire (with a particular focus on two works [the Ascent of Mount Carmel and the Dark Night of the Soul]), a beautifully delicate and perceptive analysis of how desire is transformed in the night (of the senses and the spirit); (5) and union in the Spiritual Canticle and the Living Flame of Love, and their heightened attention to the role of poetic metaphor, imagery, and form, especially the poems’ “sensory metaphors—taste, touch, audition, olfaction, and most extensively the Bride and Bridegroom's yearning to ‘see’ the beauty of the other figure—that provide the fundamental structure to John's depiction of the progressively realized desire” that is at the heart of “his vision of the fullest possible Christian life” (164).

This brief account of the content and approach of the book hardly does justice to the high level of scholarship, the richness and subtlety of thought, and the spiritual profundity that is evident throughout. This is a rare book that not only creates a context for arriving at a clearer understanding of the writings of an important mystic but evokes something of the mystery and beauty of his thought, especially in its depiction of the idea of the spiritual ascent as a “time of growing discernment of the soul's deepest desires” (195) and in its account of how these desires are transformed in loving communion with God.

Toward the end of the book, the author takes up the question of how this reading of John of the Cross might contribute to a fuller and less reductive reading of desire within contemporary theological discourse. Here the author seems to fall prey to an unnecessary and unhelpful reductionism of his own, citing the work of R. R. Reno to suggest that, in our current “Empire of Desire,” we have come to view the highest good as “the unmediated satisfaction of unique personal desires.” By contrast, he suggests, those who follow John's vision of spiritual ascent “find their own desires united with God's desire” (197). As compelling as this vision of transformed desire is, it runs the risk of simplifying, undervaluing, and caricaturing ordinary human desire, especially erotic desire. Susan Griffin's magnificent The Eros of Everyday Life, a book that does not figure into the author's thinking, offers a very different and more optimistic and holistic reading of ordinary desire that deserves to be represented here.

This is a relatively small misstep in what is otherwise an exemplary and beautifully realized book that succeeds admirably in realizing its fundamental aim: a retrieval of the full theological beauty and power of desire in John of the Cross's thought, understood within its historical, literary, and social context. It is a model of clarity, scholarly integrity, and depth, and offers an important reminder of the enduring significance of traditions of mystical thought for contemporary theological reflection.