A collection of essays revealing Alan Watts's often overlooked facet: that of a brilliant Christian mystic.

Alan Watts was the guru of the Beat Generation: his books on Zen and mysticism were bestsellers, and his talks on KPFA were legendary (still broadcast on Sunday mornings). What few people know is that Watts had another life. Between 1945-1950, Watts was an Episcopal priest, whose talks and writing were particularly popular at Northwestern University where he was the chaplain. Later in his life, Watts attempted to distance himself from this period, but the essays he wrote for Holy Cross magazine and his book Behold the Spirit—an effort to synthesize Anglicanism, psychology, and Eastern philosophy—were at the cutting edge of mystical theology. This book—edited by an Episcopal priest and an associate of the Holy Cross monastery—will reclaim this period of Watts’s life by collecting his essays from this period, as well as providing commentaries on them, thereby introducing a new generation of readers to one of the most important Christian mystics of the last century.