Robert Van Valkenburgh is a husband, father, Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and instructor at Kogen Dojo, and graduate student in Christian Spirituality and Spiritual Direction at Loyola University Chicago’s Institute of Pastoral Studies. His life and writing emerge from the conviction that faith is not an abstract system to be mastered, but a mystery to be entered — and grappled with.
Through Grappling With Divinity, Robert explores the living stream of Christian mysticism and contemplative prayer, reflecting on divine love, conversion, suffering, and the slow, hidden work of grace. Deeply influenced by the contemplative tradition and voices such as Thomas Merton, Julian of Norwich, and James Finley, his writing follows the rhythm of lectio divina — moving from attentive reading, to reflection, to prayer, and finally into silent resting in God.
For Robert, theology is lived before it is written. The discipline of the jiu-jitsu mat has shaped his understanding of surrender, humility, and embodied transformation. Marriage and fatherhood have formed in him a spirituality rooted not in escape from the world, but in fidelity within it. Academic study provides language and structure, but daily life provides the testing ground where faith becomes real.
His work seeks to hold together strength and weakness, struggle and trust, humanity and indwelling divinity. He writes for those who desire a faith that is both intellectually serious and deeply personal — one that does not avoid doubt, dryness, or suffering, but allows them to become places of divine encounter.
At the heart of his vocation is a simple conviction: that God is already at work within the human heart, drawing each person toward deeper union through love. The task is not to conquer God, but to consent — to remain present in the wrestling until blessing emerges.
Through reflection, prayer, and honest inquiry, Robert invites readers into a contemplative path where grace unfolds slowly and faith deepens through mystery.
For more from Robert Van Valkenburgh, visit robertvanvalkenburgh.com