However, Wilfrid McGreal shows that if we want a way into Carmelite spirituality, we need to go back to its origins. How has the vision of the pilgrims and hermits who settled on Mount Carmel been sustained for some eight hundred years?

This book is a short volume from the Tradition of Christian Spirituality Series that provides an overview of Carmelite Spirituality. The author provides this overview through the use of biographies of major figures within the Carmelites. This book, like other books in the series allows for an understanding of Carmelite spirituality in a simple and direct way though with the use of excellent scholarship. The volumes within this series attempt to provide an introduction to various schools of Christian spirituality, therefore this book is an introduction to the Carmelite tradition.
As this is an introduction and I am not particularly knowledgeable in regards to the Carmelite tradition, I am unable to provide a critique on the contents of the book, I will therefore provide a critique on the way the book was written. The book is basically an historical narrative in chronological order emphasizing either a significant event or person within Carmelite history. Within each chapter, a significant amount of engagement with primary sources is provided rather than purely the author's paraphrase of those sources. The book concludes with a summary of Carmelite spirituality and its effects on the Church as a whole. I would have preferred a more extensive bibliography but the one provided has helpful sources for those who desire to read about the Carmelites in greater depth. ( )