Two of the most meaningful books I’ve ever read are Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha Living Christ. I…
Tag: Interspirituality
The Pilgrim as Interspiritual Archetype
A little while back I wrote a blog post called “Five Approaches to Interspirituality.” In this post, I compare interspiritual practice to having a relationship with more than one country…
Five Approaches to Interspirituality
Brother Wayne Teasdale, author of The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions and A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life, coined the new word…
“It Cracks Up the Archangels Every Time!” (“Because They Have No Taste in Comedy!”)
I read lots of serious books: books about Christian theology, spiritual direction, the history of mysticism, and the psychology of meditation… that sort of thing. I’m not complaining — I…
The New “My Sweet Lord” Video is Lots of Fun, But Misses the Point of the Song
Last week, the George Harrison estate released a new, “official” video for Harrison’s 1970 masterpiece, “My Sweet Lord” from his magnum opus All Things Must Pass. It’s a playful and fun…
Where Do You Draw the Line: Discerning Appropriate Boundaries for Interspiritual Practice
I recently received a letter from a reader of this blog who grew up an evangelical Baptist, and when to a conservative Christian school, the kind of place where if…
Inter-Religious Spirituality and the Contemplative Renaissance: How Other Faiths Helped Christians Rediscover Our Spiritual Heart
Christianity has a long history of contemplative practice. But many scholars and spiritual teachers within the faith recognize that in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Reformation, the church (at least in the west) largely lost its contemplative heart. Theologian Robert Davis Hughes III addressed this topic in his…… Read more at Patheos
In the Beginning Was the Tao…
Ken Leong, the author of The Zen Teachings of Jesus, posted this on Facebook the other day: I was having a conversation with a group of American Christians. I told them…
The Contemplative Story of Dear Prudence
I love the Beatles, and like many Beatles fans, I think The White Album is one of their great masterpieces. And one of the best songs on The White Album…
How Mysticism is Unique — and Universal
How, exactly, does Christian mysticism relate to all the other “mysticisms” of the world (Kabbalah, Sufism, Taoism, Vedanta, Zen, etc.)? A reader of this blog writes: I have been reading…
Embracing Depth and Diversity: a Contemplative Approach to Interspirituality and Religious Commitment
Autumn in Georgia is a mild and lovely season, marked by golden sunlight, cool mornings and temperate days. And even if we can’t boast the shock of gorgeous color that…
A List of Books for Buddhist-Christian Dialogue
Are you interested in exploring the richness of dialogue and interspiritual practice between Christianity and Buddhism? If so, then here’s enough literature to keep you going for a while. Each…