From the Religions of Man to the World\u27s Religions: A Conversation with Huston Smith

Huston Smith\u27s The Religions of Man has for a generation introduced more people to the world\u27s spiritual heritage than any other work. Over one and a half million copies have been printed since 1958. The author of many other articles and books (Forgotten Truth, Beyond the Postmodern Mind) and an advocate of the Perennial Philosophy, Professor Smith has helped to shape the spiritual currents of our times. We interviewed him shortly after he had completed the first revised edition of The Religions of Man, due out in September from HarperCollins under the new title, The World\u27s Religions. It seemed an appropriate time to query this wise teacher on the state of religion in the world today. ~ from the articl

Search for Nothing: The Life of St. John of the Cross by Richard P. Hardy

A new biography of such a seminal figure could hardly be anything but welcome. Yet I can only recommend Hardy\u27s book with reservations. Though written lovingly by a professor of spirituality who seems to share John of the Cross\u27 contemplative sensibilities, and who, moreover, has done his homework, the book remains curiously one-dimensional. In a word it lacks, depth. ~ from the articl

Universal Theology and the Idea of Cosmic Order

The most urgent task of theology today, some noted thinkers argue ,1 is to construct a universal theology of religion. \u27[S]uch a theology\u27 writes A K Min, \u27seeks to translate the central insights of one\u27s own faith and those of others into an \u27ecumenical Esperanto,\u27i.e., universally intelligible concepts... images and symbols based on common human experience... (the latter being) not only the source of universal theology but also its critical norm.\u272 It is in light of this task that the following reflection on the notion of cosmic order is undertaken. ~ from the articl

Fullness of Life: Historical Foundations for a New Mysticism by Margaret R. Miles

When in his poem \u27Among School Children\u27 W. B. Yeats spoke of that place where \u27the body is not bruised to pleasure soul,\u27 he unwittingly pointed to a task that has lately engaged the energies of a number of scholars of Christianity: how to revalorize the body in the Christian tradition and rescue it from its status as the spiritually detrimental half of human being. Margaret Miles, a professor of historical theology at Harvard Divinity School, has responded to this task with scholarship, style and insight. ~ from the articl

Buddhist Thoughts on The Battle for God: Is Fundamentalism a Good Reason to Ditch Religion?

Not long ago I taught a seminar on science and religion that required three fo the most widely read gospels of the so-called new atheism: Richard Dawkin\u27s The God Delusion, Daniel Dennett\u27s Breaking the Spell, and Sam Harris\u27s The End of Faith. As I read along, I found the Buddhist in myself in large agreement. after all, Gotama himself had been highly skeptical of the God-idea, involving as it often did an onmipotence he could not square with either the world\u27s suffering or his belief in human freedom. ~ from the articl

Attention

The subject of attention has until recently been largely confined to the domain of experimental psychology. Researchers have sought to measure and explain such things as the selective capacity of attention, its range and span, the number of objects that it can appreciate simultaneously, and the muscle contractions associated with attentional efforts. Such work has been carried on amid considerable disagreement over basic definitions of the phenomenon of attention itself. ~ from the articlehttps://scholar.dominican.edu/books/1102/thumbnail.jp

Spiritual Discipline and Psychological Dream-Work: Some Distinctions

The world\u27s great religious traditions and spiritualities commonly contain two essential elements. The first doctrine, a distinction between the Real and the unreal; the second is method, a way for human consciousness to concentrate upon the Real. \u27Prayer\u27 and \u27yoga\u27 are probably the two most inclusive generic terms coming under what I here designate as method. they are ways that human beings, in their living consciousness, endeavor to lessen the existential \u27distance\u27 between themselves and ultimate Reality. For the purpose of this essay, let us group those psychotransformative strategies known to religious traditions under the common heading of \u27contemplative discipline.\u27\u27\u27 ~ from the articl

The Guardians at the Gate: Archetypes, Angels and A Priori Forms

In response to the growing cross-disciplinary interest in the transformability of human consciousness, this paper explores the doctrines of t consciousness as found in the work of four great Western metaphysicians -- Plato/Plotinus, St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. In Plato and Poltinus, in St. Thomas, and possibly in Kant as well, there lie oft-overlooked doctrines of at least two distinct forms of consciousness -- a normal, egoic, subject-object consciousness on the one hand, and , on the other hand, a transcendental consciousness in which one understands the true end of human life to be knowledge of and union with God. ~ from the articl

Buddhism and Christianity by George Siegmund

Influenced by the sympathetic explorations of Thomas Merton, William Johnston and Hugo Enomiya-LaSalle (to name but a few) Christians have over the last decade or so shown an increasing willingness to learn from the Buddhist tradition. An environment in which interest is accompanied by a deep bow of respect is precious and worthy of preservation, and it is for this reason that Buddhism and Christianity deserves attention. It threatens that environment. ~from the revie

Commencement Address: Time, Noise and God

A few minutes from now, after the graduates have received their diplomas, and are standing together again for the last time, they will, if the past is any indication, reach to the tops of their caps, flip their tassels from one side to the other and , very likely, raise a joyous shout. Their ling rite of passage will be over. If, at that moment, we feel a catch in our throats, or a familiar melting sensation in our chests, let us know them as reminders of our humanity. Sunt lacrimae rerum, said the Roman poet Virgil: There are tears fro things. And one of the peculiar marks of our kind is the tear that ventures forth to greet a triumph of the human spirit. ~ from the tex