The seven chapters in this book take seriously these celebrated words of Irenaeus. Confessing the Incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, their underlying assumption is that Jesus did not come to offer us a particular way of being religious, but a universal way of being human. The author believes that the Incarnation – which says as much about the mystery of being human as about the mysterious purposes of God – is a central impetus for him in his spiritual life journey towards fullness of life and freedom.

For the author, Jesus is the parable of God, who challenges us towards a richer and larger life. Through parables, Jesus raises more questions than answers; and teaches us that our experience of God is not a subject’s grasp of something ‘out there’, but will always be a lived experience from within ourselves. It is here, in the secret and hidden place of our hearts, where God speaks to us, and where we discover that ‘there are answers we are the solution to’. As Pascal saw: ‘The heart has its reasons which reason doesn’t know about’.

The book is an invitation to become more fully alive and more fully human. It is out of the reality of our everyday lives – and in the context of our wounded and wounding world – where we can hear, through the questions Jesus asks, the call and challenge to have our thinking about ourselves, prayer, and our relationship with God, utterly transformed.

Philip Carter is a retired Anglican priest. Ordained priest in 1973, he served in several parishes, and in 1988 was appointed by the then Archbishop of Adelaide as Diocesan Advisor in Spirituality, based at the Retreat House, Belair. In 1997, he established the Julian Centre in Mile End, near the CBD of Adelaide, an ecumenical and independent spirituality centre. Through the centre, he offered spiritual direction, retreats and quiet days of reflection, as well as being part of several programs for the formation of spiritual directors. In 1989, he was a founding member and early president of the Australian Network for Spiritual Direction (ANSD) and in 2007-2009 he was the inaugural President of the Australian Ecumenical Council for Spiritual Direction (AECSD). He is married to Helen, and they have three adult daughters