Beatrice Bruteau is a Christian philosopher whose vision of life is an inspiration to some of the most influential thinkers of our time. In Radical Optimism, she shines new light on the deepest truth we can know about ourselves: each of us has at-one-ment with God, here and now. She helps us to understand what this really means, to know the happiness it brings, and to cultivate a contemplative consciousness. With the teachings of Jesus at its heart, Radical Optimism is both enlightening and immensely practical.

This relatively brief book is a beautiful expression of the nature of the spiritual life at its best. I life rooted in God - and so 'radical' and 'optimistic' - but because it is rooted in God the Creator (who is envisioned as community of total self gift in the Trinity) it is also radically committed to loving all that God loves - indeed in the spiritual life the goal is not so much imitating God's love - as revealed in Jesus Christ - rather through union with God our love becomes one with the love of God, we become transparent to the love of God in a Sacramental way and become the way in which God's love is made present in the world.

As can be seen from the above, Bruteau writes as one very much rooted in the Christian tradition. None the less she draws on wisdom from other sources - notably the contemplative traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism - in an effective way.

My only slight reservation is that the section on the ways of contemplative prayer is rather brief. She gives some guidance on the meditative practice of 'entering into' a Gospel scene, but something on the more unthematic forms of prayer, which she mentions in passing, would have been good. So although the spirituality is practical, the book is perhaps a bit theoretical at times. ( )