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Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East. Edited by James S. Cutsinger. Bloomington, Ind.: World Wisdom Books, 2002. x + 278 pp. $19.95 (paper).
Paths to the Heart is a remarkable collection of essays from a conference held at the University of South Carolina in October 2001. The conference had an ecumenical aim: to promote better understanding between Islam and Christianity by comparing their mystical traditions. The matter of ecumenism was given greater urgency by the fact that the conference followed on the heels of the tragic events of September 11, 2001 by only a few weeks. As James S. Cutsinger writes, "interfaith understanding is today more important than ever, and no discussion is more urgently needed than that between Christians and Muslims" (p. 225).
Cutsinger organized the conference according...