Introduction to Christian mysticism

The book "Introduction to Christian Mysticism" (published in English in the United States of America in 2008, translated into Arabic recently by Karim Abbas and issued by the Egyptian National Center for Translation) consists of drafts of lectures delivered by Benedictine Catholic monk Thomas Merton during an educational course in the field of mystical theology. The course included 22 lectures, two per week, from March 1 to May 15, 1961, followed by another set of lectures in the summer of the same year. Patrick O'Connell edited those manuscripts. He added a large number of footnotes alongside a detailed introduction. Merton is a Benedictine Catholic monk born in 1915, who spent his childhood between France, Italy, and England, then moved to the United States of America. He is considered one of the most important spiritual writers of the twentieth century, noting that he earned a master's degree from Columbia University. His fame primarily comes from his engagement in comparative religion studies; he is one of the contemporary pioneers in opening spaces for religious dialogue between Western Christianity on one side and Eastern spiritual heritage on the other.