Sacred Darkness: Encountering Divine Love in Life's Darkest Places

Paul Coutinho

May 2012 · Loyola Press

About this eBook

Before there was light, God was. In fact, darkness is the medium God worked in to create the world, the universe, and all material things. Certainly, God lives in the warmth of sunlight and within our happiest days--but God also dwells in darkness.

In Sacred Darkness, Paul Coutinho, SJ, examines how many Christians are fearful of dark times and struggles, yet it is often darkness that sheds light on our world and helps us live more effectively and more fully in the painful situations of our lives. Throughout the book, Coutinho shares powerful stories of how darkness can empower us--from a self-destructive alcoholic, to St. Ignatius, to the author himself.

Ultimately, Sacred Darkness encourages us to overcome our "fear" or the dark by exploring the legitimate role of darkness on the spiritual journey. By learning to embrace darkness rather than run from it, we can experience God's love in ways and in places where we would least expect it.

Ratings and reviews

The publisher mailed me this book since I’ve already read and reviewed several of their other books and generally really liked them. The title of this short book – “Sacred Darkness” – seemed provocative in a good kind of way. Christians do not generally hold darkness in a high esteem, but I thought that with a skill and theological nuance it could be possible to rethink this concept and appropriate it in a spiritually constructive way. However, to my dismay, this book managed to do the exact opposite. It is a vacuous, incoherent, and disorganized treatment of several topics and ideas, pretty much randomly chosen by the author and without much overall coherence. It is filled with the inane new-age pseudo-spirituality, Jungian psychology, therapeutic psychobabble, and feminist mysticism. There are parts that are actually decent – the author’s description of his life growing up in a Christian family in India – but these short chapters are by far outweighed by the sheer inanity of the rest of the book. But inanity and incoherence, bad as they are, are not the reason why I think that this book is truly awful. No, the worst part are the clearly heretical and statements that any Christian ought to be ashamed of putting in print, little less someone who is a Jesuit Priest. The book contains the denial of the redemptive nature of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, pietist ramblings, pantheistically colored views, and finally the exuberant exclamation “I am God!” which stands squarely at the root of all that is evil in the world. This is indeed a dark book and there is absolutely nothing sacred about it. All faithful Christians ought to avoid it.

About the author

Fr. Paul Coutinho, SJ is an internationally recognized Ignatian scholar, author, and speaker who brings an Eastern flavor to Western spirituality. A native of India, he frequently leads retreats, gives spiritual direction, and trains people to lead the Spiritual Exercises.

He holds master’s degrees in both clinical psychology and religious studies, and he has a doctorate in historical theology from Saint Louis University, where he specialized in Ignatian spirituality and is now a visiting theology professor.

Coutinho currently creates and runs programs in Ignatian identity and mission for Saint Louis University’s Mission and Ministry office, he is the editor of Ignis—the South Asian Ignatian spirituality journal—and also shares his gifts as the director of Ignatian Spirituality Programs for South Asia. He resides in St. Louis and divides his time between India and the United States.