Young leaders of the new monastic movement introduce their vision
for contemplative life- one that draws from the long traditions
of East and West but also seeks an interreligious and
'interspiritual' dimension to intentional living in our time.
With a preface by Mirabai Starr, a foreword by Sufi teacher
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, and an afterword by Fr. Thomas Keating.
The New Monasticism is an introduction to the "new monastic
movement," offering the authors' intellectual and spiritual
reflections on what contemplative life could look like in the
21st century. With chapters focusing on spiritual practice,
vocation, contemplation and activism, dialogical dialogue, the
relationship with traditional religious paths, contemplative
psychology and the building of intentional communities, the
authors seek to "cut across the boundaries of religious
traditions, of contemplation and action, and endeavor to create
intergenerational alliances between those immersed in the depths
of our traditional religious frameworks and those who are being
called to contemplative and prophetic life outside of those
frameworks."
While drawing on the work of Ron Panikkar, St. Teresa of
Avila, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Ewert Cousins, Fr. Bede
Griffiths, Thomas Merton, Brother Wayne Teasdale, St. John of the
Cross and the Russian sophianic tradition, among others, the book
also incorporates some popular modern day academic, cultural, and
contemplative theorists, such as Ken Wilber and Fr. Thomas
Keating, who speak to young people about creating a more sacred
and just world while providing them with sophisticated tools for
psychological analysis and integrated action. It also offers
specific practices for a disciplined contemplative life and
inspired social justice activism.
"I have been following Adam and Rory for a few years now...As you
will see, Rory and Adam are very wise, and this book is a
transmission of the perennial wisdom reimagined for an emerging
globalized world. . . The New Monasticism is lucid and soaring,
arcing gracefully between the landscapes of theology and love
poetry. . . . When you read these pages, you step into a world
you have always hoped was possible and find your own place there.
. . I did."
--Mirabai Starr, author, God of Love
"Adam and Rory have responded both to their heart s calling and
the need of the time . . . . Their new monasticism is not an
escape from life, but a celebration of what it really means to be
alive."
-Llewellyn Vaughn Lee, author, Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the
Earth
"The inspiration of this book and its presentation of The New
Monasticism seems to be a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit . .
. . Adam and Rory have recognized the benefits as well as the
hazards of trying to create a new set of spiritual practices
built on the wisdom of traditional monastic structures, but with
great openness to the technological and scientific rtunities
of contemporary culture . . . . This great love calls for a
personal response from humans that leads to the most
relationship conceivable. It awaits our consent.
-her Thomas Keating, Trappist monk and author, Invitation to
Love
A superb, important new book surveying a significant new
spiritual movement . . . A large part of this movement in any of
its many forms is driven by the fact that today, for the first
time in history, we have access to all of the world s great
religious and spiritual traditions, and the many ways that they
complement and in some ways complete each other . . . Highly
recommended for anybody who wants their thumb on the spiritual
pulse of today s religious seeker, or who feels themselves that
they are spiritual but not religious.
-Ken Wilber, authorm Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality