Lectio Divina - Wikipedia

Lectio Divina - Wikipedia

Lectio Divina

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The four movements of Lectio Divina. Clockwise from top left: Lectio ("read"); Meditatio ("meditate"); Oratio ("pray"); Contemplatio ("contemplate").
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In Western Christianity, Lectio Divina (Latin for "Divine Reading") is a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's word.^[1] In the view of one commentator, it does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the living word.^[2]

Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.^[3]

The focus of Lectio Divina is not a theological analysis of biblical passages but viewing them with Christ as the key to their meaning. For example, given Jesus' statement in John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you", an analytical approach would focus on the reason for the statement during the Last Supper, the biblical context, etc. In Lectio Divina, however, the practitioner "enters" and shares the peace of Christ rather than "dissecting" it.^[4] In some Christian teachings, this form of meditative prayer is understood as leading to an increased knowledge of Christ.^[5]

The roots of scriptural reflection and interpretation go back to Origen in the 3rd century, after whom Ambrose taught them to Augustine of Hippo.^[6][7] The monastic practice of Lectio Divina was first established in the 6th century by Benedict of Nursia and was then formalized as a four-step process by the Carthusian monk Guigo II during the 12th century.^[3] In the 20th century, the constitution Dei verbum of the Second Vatican Council recommended Lectio Divina to the general public and its importance was affirmed by Pope Benedict XVI at the start of the 21st century.

Contents

• 1History and development
  • 1.1Early beginnings
  • 1.26th- to 12th-century monasticism
  • 1.3Formalization during the late 12th century
  • 1.416th century
  • 1.520th- and 21st-century revival
• 2The four movements of Lectio Divina
  • 2.1Lectio ("reading")
  • 2.2Meditatio ("meditation")
  • 2.3Oratio ("prayer")
  • 2.4Contemplatio ("contemplation")
• 3Other Christian methods
• 4See also
• 5Notes
• 6Further reading
• 7External links

History and development[edit]

Early beginnings[edit]

Origen considered the focus on Christ the key to interpreting Scripture.

Before the beginning of the Western monastic communities, a key contribution to the foundation of Lectio Divina came from Origen in the 3rd century, with his view of "Scripture as a sacrament".^[8] In a letter to Gregory of Neocaesarea Origen wrote: "[W]hen you devote yourself to the divine reading ... seek the meaning of divine words which is hidden from most people".^[8] Origen believed that The Word (i.e. Logos) was incarnate in Scripture and could therefore touch and teach readers and hearers. Origen taught that the reading of Scripture could help move beyond elementary thoughts and discover the higher wisdom hidden in the "Word of God".^[8]

In Origen's approach the major interpretive element of Scripture is Christ. In his view all Scriptural texts are secondary to Christ and are only revelations in as much as they refer to Christ as The Word of God. In this view, using Christ as the "interpretive key" unlocks the message in Scriptural texts.^[8]

The "primordial role" of Origen in interpreting Scripture was acknowledged by Pope Benedict XVI.^[6] Origen's methods were then learned by Ambrose of Milan, who towards the end of the 4th century taught them to Saint Augustine, thereby introducing them into the monastic traditions of the Western Church thereafter.^[7]

In the 4th century, as the Desert Fathers began to seek God in the deserts of Palestine and Egypt, they produced early models of Christian monastic life that persisted in the Eastern Church. These early communities gave rise to the tradition of a Christian life of "constant prayer" in a monastic setting.^[9] Although the desert monks gathered to hear Scripture recited in public, and would then recite those words privately in their cells, this was not the same practice as what later became Lectio Divina since it involved no meditative step.^[10]

6th- to 12th-century monasticism[edit]

St. Benedict

After Origen, Church Fathers such as St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Hilary of Poitiers used the terms Lectio Divina and Lectio Sacra to refer to the reading of Scripture.^[11]

According to Jean Leclercq, OSB, the founders of the medieval tradition of Lectio Divina were Saint Benedict and Pope Gregory I. However, the methods that they employed had precedents in the biblical period both in Hebrew and Greek. A text that combines these traditions is Romans 10:8–10 where Apostle Paul refers to the presence of God's word in the believer's "mouth or heart". It was the recitation of the biblical text that provided the rationale for Lectio Divina.^[12]

With the motto Ora et labora ("Pray and work"), daily life in a Benedictine monastery consisted of three elements: liturgical prayer, manual labor and Lectio Divina, a quiet prayerful reading of the Bible.^[13] This slow and thoughtful reading of Scripture, and the ensuing pondering of its meaning, was their meditation. This spiritual practice is called "divine reading" or "spiritual reading" – i.e. lectio divina.

Benedict wrote "Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brethren should have specified periods of manual labor as well as for prayerful reading [lectio divina]."^[14] The Rule of Saint Benedict (chapter #48) stipulated specific times and manners for Lectio Divina. The entire community in a monastery was to take part in the readings during Sunday, except those who had other tasks to perform.^[15]

Early in the 12th century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was instrumental in re-emphasizing the importance of Lectio Divina within the Cistercian order. Bernard considered Lectio Divina and contemplation guided by the Holy Spirit the keys to nourishing Christian spirituality.^[16]

Formalization during the late 12th century[edit]

A chapel at Grande Chartreuse where Ladder of the Monk was written by Guigo II

Seek in reading and you will find in meditation; knock in prayer and it will be opened to you in contemplation — The four stages of Lectio Divina as taught by John of the Cross.^[10]

The progression from Bible reading, to meditation, to prayer, to loving regard for God, was first formally described by Guigo II, a Carthusian monk and prior of Grande Chartreuse who died late in the 12th century. The Carthusian order follows its own Rule, called the Statutes, rather than the Rule of St Benedict.^[3]

Guigo II's book The Ladder of Monks is subtitled "a letter on the contemplative life" and is considered the first description of methodical prayer in the western mystical tradition.^[17] In Guigo's four stages one first reads, which leads to think about (i.e. meditate on) the significance of the text; that process in turn leads the person to respond in prayer as the third stage. The fourth stage is when the prayer, in turn, points to the gift of quiet stillness in the presence of God, called contemplation.^[3][18]

Guigo named the four steps of this "ladder" of prayer with the Latin terms lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio.^[3] In the 13th century the Carmelite Rule of St. Albert prescribed to Carmelites the daily prayerful pondering on the Word of God, namely to ruminate day and night the Divine Law. Lectio Divina alongside the daily celebration of liturgy is to this day the pillar of prayer in Carmel.

Lectio Divina was practiced by St. Dominic de Guzman, founder of the Dominican order.^[19]

In the 14th century, Gerard of Zutphen built on "Guigo's Ladder" to write his major work On Spiritual Ascents. Zutphen warned against considered meditation without reading of Scripture, and taught that the reading prepares the mind, so meditation will not fall into error. Similarly, he taught that meditation prepares the mind for contemplation.^[20]

16th century[edit]

By the beginning of the 16th century, the methods of "methodical prayer" had reached Spain and St. John of the Cross taught the four stages of Guigo II to his monks.^[10] During the century, Protestant Reformers such as John Calvin continued to advocate the Lectio Divina.^[1] A Reformed version of the Lectio Divina was also popular among the Puritans: Richard Baxter, a Puritan theologian, championed the practice.^[1]

20th- and 21st-century revival[edit]

Pope Paul VI, who promulgated the Second Vatican Council's constitution Dei verbum

By the middle of 19th century, the historical critical approach to biblical analysis which had started over a century earlier, and focused on determining the historicity of gospel episodes, had taken away some of the emphasis on spreading Lectio Divina outside monastic communities. However, the early part of the 20th century witnessed a revival in the practice, and books and articles on Lectio Divina aimed at the general public began to appear by the middle of the century.^[21]

In 1965, one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council, the dogmatic constitution Dei verbum ("Word of God") emphasized the use of Lectio Divina. On the 40th anniversary of Dei verbum in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed its importance and stated:

I would like in particular to recall and recommend the ancient tradition of Lectio Divina: the diligent reading of Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer brings about that intimate dialogue in which the person reading hears God who is speaking, and in praying, responds to him with trusting openness of heart [cf. Dei verbum, n. 25]. If it is effectively promoted, this practice will bring to the Church – I am convinced of it – a new spiritual springtime.^[22]

In his November 6, 2005 Angelus address, Benedict XVI emphasized the role of the Holy Spirit in Lectio Divina:^[23] In his annual Lenten addresses to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, Pope Benedict – mainly after the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Bible – emphasized Lectio Divina's importance, as in 2012, when he used Ephesians 4:1–16 on a speech about certain problems facing the Church. Beforehand, he and Pope John Paul II had used a question-and-answer format. "One condition for Lectio Divina is that the mind and heart be illumined by the Holy Spirit, that is, by the same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures, and that they be approached with an attitude of 'reverential hearing'."

Since the latter part of the 20th century, the popularity of Lectio Divina has increased outside monastic circles and many lay Catholics, as well as some Protestants, practice it, at times keeping a "Lectio journal" in which they record their thoughts and contemplations after each session.^[24] The importance of Lectio Divina is stressed in the Anglican Communion as well.^[25]

The four movements of Lectio Divina[edit]

Historically, Lectio Divina has been a "community practice" performed by monks in monasteries. Although it can be taken up individually, its community element should not be forgotten.^[14]

Lectio Divina has been likened to "feasting on the Word": first, the taking of a bite (lectio); then chewing on it (meditatio); savoring its essence (oratio) and, finally, "digesting" it and making it a part of the body (contemplatio).^[18] In Christian teachings, this form of meditative prayer leads to an increased knowledge of Christ.^[26]

Unlike meditative practices in Eastern Christianity – for instance, hesychasm, where the Jesus Prayer is repeated many times – Lectio Divina uses different Scripture passages at different times. Although a passage may be repeated a few times, Lectio Divina is not essentially repetitive in nature.^[9][27]

Lectio ("reading")[edit]

Hands on the Bible, Albrecht Dürer, 16th century

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God

— 1 Corinthians 2:9–10.^[28]

The first step is the reading of Scripture. In order to achieve a calm and tranquil state of mind, preparation before Lectio Divina is recommended. The biblical reference for preparation via stillness is Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God."^[2] An example would be sitting quietly and in silence and reciting a prayer inviting the Holy Spirit to guide the reading of the Scripture that is to follow.^[14]

The biblical basis for the preparation goes back to 1 Corinthians 2:9–10 which emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit in revealing the Word of God.^[28] As in the statement by John the Baptist in John 1:26 that "in the midst of you standeth one whom ye know not," the preparatory step should open the mind to finding Christ in the passage being read.^[29]

Following the preparation the first movement of Lectio Divina is slow and gradual reading of the scriptural passage, perhaps several times.^[2] The biblical basis for the reading goes back to Romans 10:8–10 and the presence of God's word in the believer's "mouth or heart". The attentive reading begins the process through which a higher level of understanding can be achieved.^[14] In the traditional Benedictine approach the passage is slowly read four times, each time with a slightly different focus.

Meditatio ("meditation")[edit]

Although Lectio Divina involves reading, it is less a practice of reading than one of listening to the inner message of the Scripture delivered through the Holy Spirit. Lectio Divina does not seek information or motivation, but communion with God. It does not treat Scripture as text to be studied, but as the "Living Word".^[2]

A Carmelite nun in her cell, meditating on the Bible

The second movement in Lectio Divina thus involves meditating upon and pondering on the scriptural passage. When the passage is read, it is generally advised not to try to assign a meaning to it at first, but to wait for the action of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind, as the passage is pondered upon.^[2]

The English word ponder comes from the Latin pondus which relates to the mental activity of weighing or considering. To ponder on the passage that has been read, it is held lightly and gently considered from various angles. Again, the emphasis is not on analysis of the passage but to keep the mind open and allow the Holy Spirit to inspire a meaning for it.^[2]

An example passage may be the statement by Jesus during the Last Supper in John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you".^[4]

An analytical approach would focus on why Jesus said that, the fact that it was said at the Last Supper, and the context within the biblical episode. Other theological analysis may follow, e.g. the cost at which Jesus the Lamb of God provided peace through his obedience to the will of the Father, etc.^[4]

However, these theological analyses are generally avoided in Lectio Divina, where the focus is on Christ as the key that interprets the passage and relates it to the meditator. So rather than "dissecting peace" in an analytical manner, the practitioner of Lectio Divina "enters peace" and shares the peace of Christ. The focus will thus be on achieving peace via a closer communion with God rather than a biblical analysis of the passage. Similar other passages may be "Abide in my love", "I am the Good Shepherd", etc.^[4]

Oratio ("prayer")[edit]

Hands in prayer by Otto Greiner, c. 1900

In the Christian tradition, prayer is understood as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with God who has invited us into an embrace. The constitution Dei verbum which endorsed Lectio Divina for the general public, as well as in monastic settings, quoted Saint Ambrose on the importance of prayer in conjunction with Scripture reading and stated:^[30][31]

And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together; for "we speak to Him when we pray; we hear Him when we read the divine saying."

Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the importance of using Lectio Divina and prayers on Scripture as a guiding light and a source of direction and stated "It should never be forgotten that the Word of God is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path."^[22]

Contemplatio ("contemplation")[edit]

Stained glass of the Holy Spirit as a dove, c. 1660

Contemplation takes place in terms of silent prayer that expresses love for God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines contemplative prayer as "the hearing the Word of God" in an attentive mode. It states "Contemplative prayer is silence, the 'symbol of the world to come' or 'silent love.' Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the 'outer' man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; in this silence the Spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus."^[32]

The role of the Holy Spirit in contemplative prayer has been emphasized by Christian spiritual writers for centuries. In the 12th century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux compared the Holy Spirit to a kiss by the Eternal Father which allows the practitioner of contemplative prayer to experience union with God.^[33] In the 14th century, Richard Rolle viewed contemplation as the path that leads the soul to union with God in love, and considered the Holy Spirit as the center of contemplation.^[34]

From a theological perspective, God's grace is considered a principle, or cause, of contemplation, with its benefits delivered through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.^[35]

Other Christian methods[edit]

See also: Prayer, meditation and contemplation in Christianity

Guigo II	Clare of Assisi
Read (lectio)	Gaze on the Cross (intueri)
Meditate (meditatio)	Consider (considerare)
Pray (oratio)	Contemplate (contemplari)
Contemplate (contemplatio)	Imitate (imitare)

While the Lectio Divina has been the key method of meditation and contemplation within the Benedictine, Cistercian and Carthusian orders, other Catholic religious orders have used other methods.

An example is another four-step approach, that by Saint Clare of Assisi shown in the table opposite, which is used by the Franciscan order.^[36] Saint Clare's method is more visual than Guigo II's which seems more intellectual in comparison.^[36]

Saint Teresa of Avila's method of "recollection" which uses book passages to keep focus during meditation has similarities to the way Lectio Divina uses a specific Scriptural passage as the centerpiece of a session of meditation and contemplation.^[37] It is likely that Teresa did not initially know of Guigo II's methods, although she may have been indirectly influenced by those teachings via the works of Francisco de Osuna which she studied in detail.^[38]

See also[edit]

• Christian meditation
• Imaginative contemplation (Ignatian spiritual exercise)
• Midrash
• Ladder of Divine Ascent
• Lectio continua
• Lectio Sacra

Notes[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Thompson, Marjorie J.; Howard, Evan B. (2005-04-19). Soul Feast: An Invitation To The Christian Spiritual Life. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780664229474. Retrieved 24 November 2012. In Benedictine tradition, spiritual reading is referred to by its Latin title, Lectio Divina. Both Roman Catholics and Protestants owe much of their understanding and practice of scriptural meditation to Benedict. Yet few Protestants are aware that figures like the great Reformer John Calvin and Puritan pastor Richard Baxter advocated a method of reflective meditation with scripture that is directly derived from Benedictine practice. Reformed adaptations of Lectio were common among the Puritans.
2. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f} Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer by David G. Benner 2010 ISBN 0-8308-3542-3 pages 47–53
3. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Christian spirituality: themes from the tradition by Lawrence S. Cunningham, Keith J. Egan 1996 ISBN 0-8091-3660-0 page 38
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Meditative Prayer by Richard J. Foster 1983 Intervarsity Press ISBN 0-87784-197-7 pages 24–25
5. ^ Teaching world civilization with joy and enthusiasm by Benjamin Lee Wren 2004 ISBN 0-7618-2747-1 page 236
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b Vatican website: Benedict XVI, General Audience 2 May 2007
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b The Fathers of the church: from Clement of Rome to Augustine of Hippo by Pope Benedict XVI 2009 ISBN 0-8028-6459-7 page 100
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Reading to live: the evolving practice of Lectio divina by Raymond Studzinski 2010 ISBN 0-87907-231-8 pages 26-35
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b Globalization of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer: Contesting Contemplation by Christopher D. L. Johnson 2010 ISBN 978-1-4411-2547-7 pages 31–38
10. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Cunningham 1996, pp. 88–94
11. ^ Crucified With Christ: Meditation on the Passion by Daniel Merkur 2007 ISBN 0-7914-7105-5 page 34
12. ^ After Augustine: the meditative reader and the text by Brian Stock 2001 ISBN 0-8122-3602-5 page 105
13. ^ Christian Spirituality: A Historical Sketch by George Lane 2005 ISBN 0-8294-2081-9 page 20
14. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Holy Conversation: Spirituality for Worship by Jonathan Linman 2010 ISBN 0-8006-2130-1 pages 32–37
15. ^ Cunningham 1996, pp. 38-39
16. ^ Cunningham 1996, pp. 91-92
17. ^ An Anthology of Christian mysticism by Harvey D. Egan 1991 ISBN 0-8146-6012-6 pages 207–208
18. ^ Jump up to:^a b The Oblate Life by Gervase Holdaway, 2008 ISBN 0-8146-3176-2 page 109
19. ^ http://laydominicanswest.org/formation/formation---first-year-/first-year-lesson-4.pdf^{[full citation needed]}
20. ^ Christian spirituality: an introduction by Alister E. McGrath 1999 ISBN 978-0-631-21281-2 pages 84–87
21. ^ Studzinski 2010, pp. 188–195.
22. ^ Jump up to:^a b Vatican website Address at the 40th anniversary of DEI VERBUM, Friday, 16 September 2005
23. ^ Vatican website: Angelus Nov 6 2005
24. ^ The tradition of Catholic prayer by Christian Raab, Harry Hagan 2007 ISBN 0-8146-3184-3 pages 79–80
25. ^ Wilhoit, James C.; Howard, Evan B. (2012-05-10). Discovering Lectio Divina: Bringing Scripture into Ordinary Life. InterVarsity Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780830835706. Retrieved 24 November 2012. A prayer is said in Anglican and Episcopal churches "Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen." This is lectio divina.
26. ^ The Way of Perfection by Teresa of Avila 2007 ISBN 1-4209-2847-3 page 145
27. ^ Reading with God: Lectio Divina by David Foster 2006 ISBN 0-8264-6084-4 page 44
28. ^ Jump up to:^a b Hans Urs von Balthasar, 1989 Christian meditation Ignatius Press ISBN 0-89870-235-6 pages 27–30
29. ^ Benner 2010, p. 39.
30. ^ The tradition of Catholic prayer by Christian Raab, Harry Hagan 2007 ISBN 0-8146-3184-3 page 202
31. ^ Vatican website Dei verbum
32. ^ Vatican website Catechism items 2716–2717
33. ^ The Holy Spirit by F. LeRon Shults, Andrea Hollingsworth 2008 ISBN 0-8028-2464-1 page 103
34. ^ Christian spirituality in the Catholic tradition by Jordan Aumann 1985 Ignatius Press ISBN 0-89870-068-X page 157
35. ^ Catholic Encyclopaedia Mystical Theology
36. ^ Jump up to:^a b Franciscans at prayer by Timothy J. Johnson 2007 ISBN 90-04-15699-2 pages 43–44 [1]
37. ^ Mysticism: Experience, Response and Empowerment by Jess Hollenback 1996 ISBN 0-271-03002-X page 522
38. ^ Teresa of Avila's autobiography by Elena Carrera 2004 ISBN 1-900755-96-3 page 28

Further reading[edit]

• Basil Pennington (1998), Lectio Divina: Renewing the Ancient Practice of Praying the Scriptures (ISBN 0-8245-1736-9).
• Geoff New, Imaginative Preaching: Praying the Scriptures so God Can Speak through You, Langham Global Library, (ISBN 9781783688999).
• Sr Pascale-Dominique Nau, When God Speaks: Lectio Divina in Saint John of the Cross, the Ladder of Monks and the Rule of Carmel (Rome, 2012). (ISBN 978-1291037029) [2]
• Guigo II the Carthusian, The Ladder of Monks translated by Sr Pascale-Dominique Nau, OP, Rome, 2013 [3].
• Jean Khoury, Lectio Divina at the School of Mary (2018), (ISBN 978-1976811722) [4].

External links[edit]

• Benedictine resources for Lectio Divina (Original missing. Archived copy: [5])
• Lectio Divina at the Carmelite Website
• Jeff Cavins Podcast on Lectio Divina (Teaching)
• Jean Khoury resources for Lectio Divina

예배당에 배변한다고…길고양이 쓰레기통에 넣은 목사 < 뉴스앤조이

예배당에 배변한다고…길고양이 쓰레기통에 넣은 목사 < 사회 < 기사본문 - 뉴스앤조이


예배당에 배변한다고…길고양이 쓰레기통에 넣은 목사
'동물권행동 카라', 동물 학대 혐의로 고발 "생명 다루는 목사가 고양이 죽음에 이르게 해"
기자명 구권효 기자
승인 2022.10.18 


[뉴스앤조이-구권효 기자] 서울 노원구에 있는 한 교회 목사가 길고양이를 학대한 정황이 포착됐다. ㅅ교회 박 아무개 목사는 길고양이가 예배당과 주변을 더럽힌다는 이유로 새끼 고양이 한 마리를 오물이 있는 쓰레기통에 넣었다. '동물권행동 카라'는 10월 18일 박 목사를 동물보호법 위반 혐의로 고발했다.

카라는 10월 12일 홈페이지에 '음식물 쓰레기와 함께 쓰레기통에서 죽어 가야 했던 아기 고양이 샬롯'이라는 글을 올려 사건을 알렸다. 카라에 따르면, 박 목사는 10월 9일 예배당 주변 지역에서 길고양이를 돌보던 케어테이커에게 "고양이를 잡아 쓰레기통에 담아 두었으니 데리고 가라"고 연락했다. 케어테이커가 현장에 가 보니 파란색 쓰레기통이 비닐에 싸여 있었고, 쓰레기통 안에는 새끼 고양이 한 마리가 담배꽁초, 음식물 쓰레기 등 각종 오물과 함께 방치돼 있었다.



박 목사는 새끼 고양이를 음식물 쓰레기 등이 들어 있는 쓰레기통에 넣었다. 사진 제공 동물권행동 카라

케어테이커는 박 목사와 다양한 방법으로 소통하려 했으나, 그는 "교회에 와서 배변을 모두 치우라. 그렇지 않으면 고양이를 데려가 직접 키우라"는 등 일방적인 주장을 했다고 한다. 동물 학대 범죄의 심각성을 알려도, 박 목사는 자신이 과거 교도소에 있었다고 말하며 위협했다고 했다.

쓰레기통에 방치된 고양이는 즉시 병원으로 이송됐지만 몇 시간 후 숨을 거뒀다. 카라는 이 고양이가 평소 케어테이커의 돌봄으로 건강한 상태였다고 했다. 고양이에게 '샬롯'이라는 이름을 지어 주고 약식으로 장례를 한 뒤 농림축산검역본부에 부검을 의뢰했다고 전했다.

카라는 박 목사가 고양이를 학대했다고 보고 동물보호법 제8조(동물 학대 등의 금지) 위반 혐의로 그를 고발했다. 한 활동가는 ＜뉴스앤조이＞와의 통화에서 "학대 행위를 한 사람이 목사라는 사실에 우리도 모두 충격받았다. 목사는 생명을 다루는 사람 아닌가. 모든 생명을 소중히 여겨야 할 목사가 고양이를 학대하고 죽음에 이르게 했다. 카라는 이 사건을 엄중하게 보고 있다"고 말했다.

박 목사는 작은 예배당을 운영하며 소위 '성령 사역'을 한 것으로 보인다. 뉴스앤조이 구권효

박 목사는 왜 이런 행동을 한 걸까. 그는 10월 18일 ＜뉴스앤조이＞와의 통화에서, 자신은 잘못한 것이 없다는 식으로 말했다. 고양이가 결국 죽었다는 소식은 몰랐다면서도 "평소 길고양이들이 예배당에서 배변을 보는 등 어려움이 많았다. (케어테이커들이) 고양이들에게 밥만 챙겨 주면 뭐 하나. 그 똥오줌은 누가 치우나. 데려가서 키우든지 해야지. 여기 주변 사람들은 더럽고 냄새 나서 다들 힘들어한다. 사람이 먼저지, 고양이가 먼저인가"라고 말했다.

그렇게 문제였다면 구청이나 동물권 단체에 연락해 조치를 취해야지, 쓰레기통에 가두는 건 동물보호법 위반이 될 수도 있지 않느냐는 질문에는 "고양이가 자꾸 할퀴고 그러는데 어디 넣어 놓을 데가 없어서 쓰레기통에 넣은 것뿐이다. 음식물 쓰레기가 아니라 고양이 밥 준 거다"라며 "고발하라고 하라. 내가 알아서 대응할 것"이라고 답했다. 케어테이커에게 왜 과거 교도소 전력을 이야기한 것이냐고 묻자 "그냥 사실을 얘기한 것뿐"이라고 말했다.

한편, 박 목사는 소속 교단도 모호했다. 교회 간판에는 대한예수교장로회 합동(예장합동·권순웅 총회장) 로고가 있는데, 예장합동 로고와 색깔이 달랐다. 어느 교단 소속인지 묻자 그는 "난 사당동 총신대도 나왔고, 정서영 총회장이 있는 예장합동개혁에도 있었다. 지금은 백석대 신대원을 다니고 있다"며 자신이 어느 교단 소속인지 명확히 밝히지 않았다. 

Holy Nation: The Transatlantic Quaker Ministry in an Age of Revolution (American Beginnings, 1500-1900): Crabtree, Sarah: 9780226255767: Amazon.com: Books

Holy Nation: The Transatlantic Quaker Ministry in an Age of Revolution (American Beginnings, 1500-1900): Crabtree, Sarah: 9780226255767: Amazon.com: Books

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Holy Nation: The Transatlantic Quaker Ministry in an Age of Revolution (American Beginnings, 1500-1900) Hardcover – July 13, 2015
by Sarah Crabtree (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
Part of: American Beginnings, 1500-1900 (21 books)







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Early American Quakers have long been perceived as retiring separatists, but in Holy Nation Sarah Crabtree transforms our historical understanding of the sect by drawing on the sermons, diaries, and correspondence of Quakers themselves. Situating Quakerism within the larger intellectual and religious undercurrents of the Atlantic World, Crabtree shows how Quakers forged a paradoxical sense of their place in the world as militant warriors fighting for peace. She argues that during the turbulent Age of Revolution and Reaction, the Religious Society of Friends forged a “holy nation,” a transnational community of like-minded believers committed first and foremost to divine law and to one another. Declaring themselves citizens of their own nation served to underscore the decidedly unholy nature of the nation-state, worldly governments, and profane laws. As a result, campaigns of persecution against the Friends escalated as those in power moved to declare Quakers aliens and traitors to their home countries.

Holy Nation convincingly shows that ideals and actions were inseparable for the Society of Friends, yielding an account of Quakerism that is simultaneously a history of the faith and its adherents and a history of its confrontations with the wider world. Ultimately, Crabtree argues, the conflicts experienced between obligations of church and state that Quakers faced can illuminate similar contemporary struggles.
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Editorial Reviews

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“This book makes a significant contribution to scholarly understanding of Quaker history and casts new light on religion’s role in the development of modern nations. Far from being the quietists portrayed in some scholarly accounts, Quakers responded to the new pressures of nationalism by becoming reformers of their nations. No one to my knowledge has done as much as Crabtree to unpack this interesting history.” -- Amanda Porterfield, Florida State University

“Crabtree has presented a strong and compelling history of the Quaker challenge to emergent nationalism during the Age of Revolutions. Well-grounded theoretically and smoothly written, Holy Nation is highly intriguing, is deeply researched, and offers a creative and important intervention in the fields of religious and Atlantic history.” -- Kate Carté Engel, Southern Methodist University

"This absorbing and important book reconstructs a radical challenge developed by leading Quakers during the Age of Revolution to emergent ideologies of nationhood and citizenship. Crabtree’s study provides a new and thought-provoking perspective on religious faith as an inspiration for political and social reform in the Atlantic World." -- Richard Godbeer, Director, Humanities Research Center, Virginia Commonwealth University

“With rare insight, Crabtree examines the travails and perseverance of the transatlantic community of Quaker ministers during the tumultuous, war-torn years of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She shows how the Quakers’ rejection of violent patriotism often served to strengthen their resolve, and provided them a way to critique the divisive and burdensome concept of ‘citizenship’ that was sweeping the Atlantic world. The Quakers gained some stature and influence, but also generated tremendous controversy, by positioning themselves as a pacifist transnational community during the Age of Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Though Crabtree concentrates on the Quakers, her work has much broader significance, casting light on the politics of this formative era, and the ways religious affiliation could complicate the spread of nationalism.” -- Geoffrey Plank, University of East Anglia

“Crabtree has written an original and paradigm-shifting account of Quakers’ relationships to nation-states during the Age of Revolution. Unlike other Christian denominations that shored up and were in turn supported by new governments, the Society of Friends challenged the authority of the nation and its claims to the primary allegiance of its citizens. Quakers gave their fealty to a transnational ‘holy nation’ of believers that superseded the demands of any secular polity, especially when those became exclusive, divisive, and aggressive. Crabtree vividly recounts how Quakers challenged the nation-state and offered a viable alternative. Friends’ primary allegiance to God and to one another put them at odds with nationalist projects that required demonstrations of patriotism on both sides of the Atlantic between 1750 and 1820. Much more than a sectarian history, this study makes a significant and highly important contribution to the scholarship on the intersection of religion and nationalism during the critical decades in which nations were recast and their boundaries of citizenship strengthened. This carefully researched and elegantly written study will interest scholars of religion, nationalism, patriotism, and cosmopolitanism in the revolutionary transatlantic world.” -- Kirsten Fischer, University of Minnesota

“Crabtree has produced a provocative and, in most respects, compelling reinterpretation of Quaker history during the period 1750–1830. Most historians have presented this as an era of quietism, in which American Quakers withdrew from government in the U.S., emerging back into public view as humanitarian reformers, opponents of slavery, and advocates of the rights of American Indians, prisoners, and women. Crabtree argues that this was, in fact, a period in which Quakers in both the British Isles and the UK eschewed national allegiances to commit themselves to a vision of a Zion that, in its commitments to peace and eschewal of national loyalties, was at odds with the growing demands of the nation-states in which Friends lived. . . . An important book for historians of Quakerism and the Atlantic world. Highly recommended.” ― Choice

“Crabtree’s provocative analysis of Quakers’ ‘holy nation’ has given scholars much to consider and to engage in future studies of Quakers in the Atlantic world.”
― H-Pennsylvania

“Adopting a transatlantic framework, Crabtree claims that Quakers responded to the age of revolution by forging a transnational “holy nation” that transcended the geographical boundaries of emerging nation-states. Although the transatlantic context is not new, the book does provide a fascinating reinterpretation of Quakers in an important period in Atlantic history.” ― H-Net Reviews

“Crabtree breaks fertile ground with her look at the Quaker-only schools that placed young Friends behind ‘walled gardens’ to provide an education that would promote Quaker values. Using students’ commonplace books and other school records, she reconstructs a curriculum that taught students to question authority and embrace their ability to change the world, an education that fledging republics were unlikely to embrace. . . . Cosmopolitism threads its way through the last part of the book, as Crabtree explores how the Society of Friends served French and British thinkers as a model for good government, rational religion, and moral economy, even when the reality of the society did not reflect those ideals. Quakers briefly offered an alternative to the inevitable march towards fixed national citizenry. Holy Nation offers a glimpse of what might have been had the Hicksite schism not divided the Society of Friends.” ― Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
About the Author
Sarah Crabtree is assistant professor of history at San Francisco State University.


Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (July 13, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
5.0 out of 5 stars 4 ratings


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William F Rushby
5.0 out of 5 stars Received in Nice ConditionReviewed in the United States on July 6, 2016
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I received a very nice copy of the book. I have not read it yet, so am not able to comment on its content.


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David Watt
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United States on March 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
A very fine book.

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Holy Nation: The Transatlantic Quaker Ministry in an Age of Revolution

Reviewed by Cameron McWhirter

September 1, 2016

holy-nationBy Sarah Crabtree. University of Chicago Press, 2015. 270 pages. $45/hardcover; $10/eBook loan.

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In the heady early days of Quakerism, its zealous missionaries spread across the oceans with the growing British Empire, sailing on merchant ships to the American colonies and the Caribbean. George Fox himself preached in Barbados, Jamaica, and the American colonies.

But the religion didn’t dominate anywhere, except for a brief time in the colony of Pennsylvania. Quakerism was, as it always has been, a minority faith, respected in some places, disregarded in others, misunderstood in most.

How would it survive in a diaspora that spread from the cane fields of Jamaica to the crowded cities of France?

Quakerism’s adaptation to the changing world order of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is the subject of Sarah Crabtree’s Holy Nation. The book seeks to show how members of the Religious Society of Friends reshaped their institutions and tailored their exhortations to set the faith apart, to make it distinct yet flexible enough to survive during tumultuous times, including the American and French revolutions. Using the metaphor of a holy nation, a Jerusalem for the faithful, Quakers were able to build a truly international faith, despite intense pressures to conform in an age of militant nationalism.

Thomas Clarkson, who worked closely with Quakers to ban the slave trade in England, wrote, “the Quakers differ more than even many foreigners do from their own countrymen.” Quakers stressed their own arcane word choices (such as “thee” and “thou”) and dress (Quaker gray) in an effort to distinguish themselves from those around them. They saw themselves as Quakers first, and citizens of a particular nation second.

“Public Friends endeavored to unite their scattered and besieged followers behind an identity and a theology that transcended worldly divisions,” Crabtree writes.

In the newly formed United States, Quakers resisted patriotic fervor, with critics such as Thomas Paine blasting them as traitors. In the United Kingdom, they carefully resisted nationalist pressure and challenges to their loyalty. In France they were widely praised by intellectuals, though, as Crabtree points out, often their beliefs were distorted by outsiders.

Crabtree does an excellent job of exploring how Quakers developed their own schools, creating curricula that stressed the peace testimony, abolition, and women’s equality. This pedagogy fostered new generations of activists in the United States and the United Kingdom, and helped forge a notion among Quakers of the universality of human spirituality. “Quaker schools placed the Society’s children out of the reach of the homogenizing efforts of the state, encouraging them to identify with their transatlantic counterparts,” she writes. Crabtree has a good command of the balkanizing schisms that wracked the Religious Society in the 1800s, and argues persuasively that pressure from nationalist forces caused the splits.

Holy Nation is an academic work, and unfortunately the prose suffers from excesses common to that genre, including using words like “positionality” and “imbricated.” But if you can get past some turgid sentences, this book presents a thoughtful untangling of a complicated history. It’s a useful addition to our growing understanding of how an odd grouping of stridently peaceful people developed and sustained itself during a turbulent epoch of imperial expansion, industrial transformation, war, and revolution.

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Eastern Light: Awakening To Presence In Zen, Quakerism, and Christianity by Steve Smith | Goodreads

Eastern Light: Awakening To Presence In Zen, Quakerism, and Christianity by Steve Smith | Goodreads

https://www.scribd.com/book/297149111/Eastern-Light-Awakening-To-Presence-In-Zen-Quakerism-and-Christianity

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Eastern Light: Awakening To Presence In Zen, Quakerism, and Christianity

by
Steve Smith
3.83 · Rating details · 6 ratings · 0 reviews

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Purgation
Chapter One: A Quaker in the Zendo
Chapter Two: Standing Still in the Light
Chapter Three: Pure Passion

Part II: Illumination
Chapter Four: Living Peace
Chapter Five: Healing Gender Hurt
Chapter Six: Friendly Pedagogy

Part III: Union
Chapter Seven: In the Love of Nature
Chapter Eight: Joyful Witness
Chapter Nine: Walking Cheerfully Over the World

Bibliography
Permissions
Acknowledgements
About the Author

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Long requested and long awaited, Steve Smith's audience of thoughtful readers will book formats. The first time reader of his work will find comparative insights from his own journey studying Buddism and Quakerism, from both personal perspective and as a professor of philosophy. (less)

Kindle Edition, 215 pages
Published January 26th 2016 by QUPublishing, subsiderary of Quaker Universalist Fellowship
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Top reviews from the United States

Melissa

5.0 out of 5 stars Light Filled

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2018

- Steve Smith speaks my mind on several points. I struggle in my meeting expressing my thoughts on the peace testimony, he gives me more to think about and I can use his words to give my thoughts a voice. I also enjoy his take on Fox's testimony - others miss the joy and I find Smith's focus on joy and a positive outlook very refreshing. Incorporating a little zen practice has allowed me to more fully enjoy the Quaker spirit and brought new energy to my silent worship.

One person found this helpful

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Peter Dale

4.0 out of 5 stars Good personal exploration of how Buddhism has informed Steve Smith's ...

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2017

- Good personal exploration of how Buddhism has informed Steve Smith's Quaker praxis. It is particularly relevant to today's liberal non-programmed Quakers and other non-doctrinaire religious seekers.

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Curtis Mckallip

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book

- A sensitive and insightful book about a unique spiritual path.

One person found this helpful

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Ginger B.

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2016

- Really good read... speaks to my soul

One person found this helpful

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2015 S&P Award Winner

Eastern Light

Awakening to Presence in Zen, Quakerism, and Christianity

By Steve Smith

https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/28069/eastern-light

A serious, subtle, wise, and capacious spiritual memoir which addresses the hungers of seekers in this era of religious pluralism.

Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

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Multiple religious participation (MRPing) is the conscious use of the ideas, practices, and sensibilities of another tradition by a person firmly rooted in his or her own faith perspective. In this serious, subtle, wise, and capacious spiritual memoir, Steve Smith shares his journey and sparks our attention to the bounties and insights of Quakerism, Zen, and Christianity.

Born into an Iowa Quaker farm family and graduated from Scattergood Friends School and Earlham College; he earned a doctorate in Philosophy from Harvard University, He taught for 40 years in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Among his publications are three edited books, a textbook, and two collections of talks by Zen teacher Charlotte Joko Beck.

Having been a teacher, Smith highlights five principles of Quaker pedagogy:

The priority of experience: Awaken fully to our encounters with the world.

Integrity: Link education consistently with the whole of life.

The facts are friendly: Trust that creation is welcoming and life-affirming.

Invite all voices: Include all in the community of learning.

Nonviolence: Respect the tender souls of teachers and learners alike.

These bold educational ideals vividly illustrate some of the touchstones of Quaker faith and practice which Smith presents in Eastern Light. During a period in his life where he faced personal crises such as alcoholism and divorce, Smith immersed himself in a daily Zen meditation program which resulted in the transformation of his life. In his personal journal, he writes: "Zazen is marvelous. It returns me to myself, and to the unspeakable beauty at the heart of all things."

Like Paul Knitter, who talks often about how Buddhist practices have deepened and enriched his Christianity, Smith observes: "My Zen journey has helped me to appreciate features of Quaker spiritual practice that I had formerly overlooked."

In a series of cogent musings, the author ponders the abundant riches of standing still in the Light which demands, as was clarified by early Quakers in their writings, the rigors of dying to self and the liberation of discipline. Smith finds it rewarding to follow the mantra of George Fox "Live in the Life of God, and feel it." In a chapter probing passion and compassion, he looks at the vulnerability of human beings as they give themselves over to self-examination and a close encounter with their heart's desires.

For Smith, one of the many remarkable dimensions of Quakerism is its advocacy of activism. This spiritual path not only helps us bear the burdens of our own lives and keep our souls alive but the Religious Society of Friends (founded by George Fox) has been at the forefront of campaigns for peace and social justice around the world. Smith salutes the courage of Quakers who have suffered as a result of their espousal of peace over the engines and weapons of war. We were moved by the author's stirring defense of a nonviolent response to war, hatred, and injustice in the chapter on "Living Peace." This is followed by another aspect of peacemaking in the war of the sexes. Smith manages to convey the "joy of gender healing."

In the last three chapters, the author hits high stride by addressing the major challenges of our times: climate change and environmental decay; the daunting mission of "mending the world"; and the struggle to stay grounded, open, and compassionate in the kingdom of heaven as it exists right now within the everyday precincts of our lives. As he concludes:

"Spiritual practice is not a search for something that is absent from our lives. Rather, it is the discipline of reawakening to a Reality that is forever infused within us — a Sacred Source in which even now, in this very moment, we 'live and move and have our being.' "

===

https://westernfriend.org/article/eastern-light-review

Eastern Light - Review

Author(s): Irene Webb

Department: Reviews

Eastern Light: Awakening to Presence in Zen, Quakerism and Christianity

by Steve Smith

reviewed by Irene Webb

Steve Smith is a lifelong Quaker who went to Quaker schools, earned a doctorate in Philosophy from Harvard University, and went on to teach for forty years in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College in California. One might say, “He really knows his subject.” His latest book, Eastern Light: Awakening to Presence in Zen, Quakerism and Christianity recounts both Steve’s personal spiritual journey as well as a philosophical excursion into our contemporary quest for connection. As he writes in the introduction to the book, “...when we return to the infinite depth and breadth of this moment, we rediscover our underlying connections with others and with all life.” In the course of his own life, he found his connection back to his Quaker roots through a “dark night of the soul” that led him to Zen Buddhism.

Smith’s awakening occurred as he began Zen practice early one April morning in 1981 while on sabbatical in Hawaii. Although accustomed to sitting in Quaker Meeting, he finally had a deeper understanding of George Fox’s injunction to “Stand still in the light” as he learned to meditate in the Zendo. He writes: “Seeing my thoughts, cravings and fears without being drawn into them, I move from self-preoccupation to awareness of a larger reality. This liberating viewpoint is the Light – not a glowing object in my mind’s eye, but rather that which enables me to see my troubles while freeing me from immersion in them. Standing still in the Light, I yield to expansive openness and presence; in the words of Penington and Fox, I find ‘sweet experience’ and ‘contentment.’”

When I first read Steve Smith’s Pendel Hill pamphlet A Quaker in the Zendo in 2003, I must have read it eight times. I had begun to meditate with Vipassana groups and had a strong interest in Buddhism…  and yet I knew I was a Christian. I couldn’t help it. I just was. I had started attending Santa Monica Friends Meeting in California in 2001 after many years in the Episcopal Church. The quiet, the simplicity, and the lack of dogma (and preacher) appealed to me at that stage of life. As I settled into Quakerism and the beauty of “waiting upon the Lord” and “seeking the Light,” I felt that sense of mysticism I had been seeking for a long time. I recall thinking, “This is it – I’m a Buddhist Christian now.”

In this full-length book on Zen and Christianity, Smith does an exceptional job of casting light on the similarities between Buddhism and Quakerism, especially through quotations from George Fox, Isaac Penington, and other early Quakers. As Smith shows, the words of the Buddha and those of George Fox carry amazingly similar messages. It’s refreshing and quite freeing to see this.

I highly recommend not rushing through this book. There are gems of wisdom, inspiration, and knowledge on every page. The book covers some of the most important issues of our time, including the need for Quakers and Christians to become more grounded in the connection with the divine in our work for social justice and equality, the necessity of opening our eyes and hearts to the hurt that can be so prevalent in our relationships, and the joy of nature and terror of ruining it. All these important issues and more are discussed through the lens of a quality of religion that is found in both East and West.

The book is filled with meaningful quotes from a wide range of influential spiritual leaders such as Pema Chodron, Victor Frankl, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Thomas Kelly. The book has an excellent bibliography and very helpful endnotes. Eastern Light would be an obvious choice for book clubs and spiritual-growth classes. Quakers might want to seriously consider forming study groups around this important book. But first of all, read it for you own enlightenment and peace.  ~~~

Irene Webb conducts Alternatives to Violence trainings in jails in New Mexico, volunteers with an interfaith homeless shelter, and is a member of Santa Fe Monthly Meeting (IMYM).

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Eastern Light: Awakening to Presence in Zen, Quakerism, and Christianity By Steve Smith, 2015. 232 pages.
Reviewed by Judith Favor, August 1, 2016

“Who, other than Friends, are genuinely interested in helping people to fall in love with the Inward Guide?” For all the fascinating personal parables in Steve Smith’s self-disclosing volume, these words from Marshall Massey (spoken in 1985 at Pacific Yearly Meeting) resonate powerfully with me, for I see the author living by them. I engage in sitting meditation in the Zen tradition under Steve’s guidance; we have worshipped together for 18 years at Claremont Meeting. I became a convinced Friend in part because Steve Smith showed me how to fall in love with the Inward Guide.

Born to an Iowa Quaker family, this retired professor of philosophy and religious studies “writes in the language of the deep listener,” as Friend Connie Green puts it. Smith says he loves to write; his bedrock relationship with Sacred Presence shines in every chapter. “Writing is a labor of the heart . . . an attempt to find my own way to a foundation of love in my own life.” Depth writing in these pages “is very different from the corrosive labors that led me in the wrong direction.”

Eastern Light is a compilation of stories: personal crisis; hard-won spiritual practices; and wise reflections on Quakerly approaches to peace, passion, nature, and service. Its nine chapters are organized according to the classic stages of the mystic’s path:

• Purgation: dropping all self-denial and self-deception, facing one’s brokenness
• Illumination: out of such radical self-honesty spring moments of grace and insight
• Union: the gladness of awakening to our intrinsic bond with all creation

Young Friends and others wounded in “the war of the sexes” may find solace in “Healing Gender Hurt.” Quaker educators will resonate with “Friendly Pedagogy” as Smith “teases out the implications of Friends’ spirituality for humane, effective teaching.” In “In the Love of Nature,” he explores Friends’ responses to “the gathering storm of global climate change and environmental decay.” Personal memories and struggles are set in italics for the general reader; the scholarly reader will appreciate Smith’s robust set of endnotes.

Through the power of loving attention, this lifelong Friend uses clear language to probe the complexities and mysteries of Quaker faith and practice. Eastern Light contains a rich mix of themes, all moving toward helping people fall in love with the Inward Guide.


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INTRODUCTION

Awakening early, I rise and view a new day. Through my eastern windows, morning light slants across furniture and floor, casting pools of color upon my western wall. The room transforms in beauty—familiar, yet utterly changed. The world opens to me and I am again an infant, enraptured by a new creation.

The deepest needs are for the highest things. This book is a record of my hunger to know the highest things throughout my entire life, to awaken to the light that illumines all. In my darkest night, that light dawned from the East, reminding me of what I already knew, but had forgotten.

To rediscover what one already knows is the most intimate form of knowledge, like discovering in one’s pocket a treasure that was seemingly lost forever. In minor matters it is: Of course! I knew that! In deeper matters of the heart, it is the prodigal son returning, the realization that one is loved without reservation exactly as one is. For most of my adult life I had sought another kind of knowledge—aloof, comprehensive, general, a view from above: the universe seen from everywhere and nowhere. I sought this God’s-eye view in my chosen discipline of academic

philosophy, secretly hoping that if I achieved such an Olympian vision, I would at last find peace for my restless heart. That endeavor proved fruitless. Worse, as I searched through barren fields of bloodless concepts and came upon yet more unanswered questions, I lost touch with my soul.

Yet as defined in Greek antiquity, philosophy—philosophia, love of wisdom—still evokes my reverence. Wisdom is truth that nourishes, enabling us to be of greater service to ourselves, to others, and to all of creation. Socrates remains a hero for me.

Two primary kinds of knowledge are marked in many languages by separate terms: propositional knowledge, knowing that something is the case; and knowledge with a direct object, knowing as direct familiarity: "I know Paris—or Josephine, or the taste of a mango." I had been seeking the former kind of knowledge; what I secretly yearned for was the latter. To seek only propositional knowledge is to bypass the intimacy of direct awareness, or to recast it in unrecognizable formulas, content in the illusion that one can acquire facts while remaining untouched. Intellectual inquiry is then a cover for emotional cowardice—a state that I know all too well. When I open to the intimacy of direct knowing, I make myself vulnerable to transformation.

Religious practice seeks to heal the breach between propositional knowledge and direct familiarity, to recover from the illusion of isolation and reawaken to the many ways we are bound up with others and with life itself. As practice, it exemplifies a third form of knowledge—acquired skill or praxis, knowing how: Yes, I know how to play golf, or She really knows how to connect with people. Karen Armstrong, a respected, widely-read contemporary historian of religion, writes, Religion is a practical discipline that teaches us to discover new capacities of mind and heart.¹ She observes that religious practice has the power to open us to a transcendent dimension of life that [is] not simply an external reality ‘out there’ but [is] identical with the deepest level of [our] being.²

Armstrong suggests that because of our misguided efforts to capture the truths of religion in fixed propositions, We have not been doing our practice and have lost the ‘knack’ of religion.³ My own journey from abstract philosophy to Zen practice confirms this suggestion. Zen highlights the importance of knowing how; it is the cultivation of subtle yet powerful tools for living everyday life. To engage in Zen is to be constantly reminded that successful living is less a matter of accumulating information than of cultivating skills, and growing into what Aristotle called practical wisdom.⁴
Buddhism and Quakerism

Had I known where to look and what misconceptions to shed, I might have found within my own Quaker and Christian origins the very resources that my sick soul required. For many years, however, I could not see past my prejudices to the riches within my reach. In Buddhism I found a rigorous practice that brought healing balm. That discovery in turn threw unexpected light upon what I had failed to find in the familiar religious fixtures of my childhood—treasures that lay unrecognized at the center of my heart.

Reawakening to intimate awareness of my world, cultivating skills for successful living—these have been Zen’s most precious gifts to me. Cross-cultural affinities between Quakerism and Zen eased the way for this mutual

illumination. Some of these affinities are obvious: stark plainness and simplicity, deep silence and open receptivity are featured in both Quaker silent worship and Zen meditation. Others show themselves only upon deeper examination of the teachings of both traditions. Bodhidharma, the legendary first patriarch of Zen Buddhism, is traditionally credited with the following summation of Zen teaching:

A special tradition outside the scriptures;

No dependence upon words and letters;

Direct pointing at the soul…

Seeing into one’s own nature, and the attainment of Buddhahood.⁵

The fourth line refers to the experience of enlightenment (satori, kensho), often simply called awakening. Such an experience reveals to us that we have been living in a dull and troubled trance, oblivious to the vivid beauty of the world. Dogen Zenji, the great medieval Japanese Soto Zen master (1200-1253 C.E.), writes, To be enlightened is to be intimate with all things.⁶

More than a millennium after Bodhidharma, on the opposite side of the globe in 17th Century England, a feisty religious radical unknowingly echoed these themes. Of his great spiritual awakenings, George Fox (1624-1691) wrote, This I saw in the pure openings of the Light without the help of any man, neither did I then know where to find it in the Scriptures; though afterwards, searching the Scriptures, I found it. For I saw in that Light and Spirit which was before Scripture was given forth, …⁷ His world was reborn: All things were new, and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness… .⁸ Fox wrote that in his awakened state, he observed a dullness and drowsy heaviness upon people, which I wondered at…and I told people they must come to witness death to that sleepy, heavy nature… that their minds and hearts might be on things above.⁹ Fox did not come to these insights through ruminating upon religious teachings, but through courageous, unblinking surrender to the actual condition of his own life. He called such surrender standing still in the Light. This was the core of his spiritual practice, from which all of his ministry flows. Fox unknowingly echoed Zen: No dependence upon words and letters. Direct pointing at the soul.

To suggest that George Fox was a 17th Century English version of Bodhidharma would be a clumsy theological anachronism. Each man must be understood first within his own historical, cultural, and religious context. That said, the two figures display intriguing similarities. In paintings, Bodhidharma is typically depicted as a beetle-browed man of fierce, rough-hewn intensity. In later centuries, legends accumulated around him: He fearlessly asserted the futility of building Buddhist temples and of the recitation of the sutras… . For nine years [he] remained seated before the wall of a monastery… . [He] is said to have miraculously foiled his enemies’ attempts to poison him… .¹⁰ Is it a coincidence that George Fox—another rough-hewn, singular figure, the man in leather breeches—often denounced the steeplehouses of his time (declaring that God did not live in temples made with hands¹¹) or that by his own account, he was the target of numerous failed attempts upon his life, often making providential escapes from the clutches of his opponents? Like graphic depictions of Bodhidharma’s eyes, the discerning fierceness of Fox’s scrutiny of others was unnerving, provoking frightened responses: "Don’t pierce me so with thy eyes!

Keep thy eyes off me!"¹² Like Bodhidharma, Fox pursued spiritual awakening with extraordinary intensity; he reports that in his early years of seeking, I fasted much, and walked abroad in solitary places many days, and often took my Bible and went and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places till night came on; and frequently in the night walked mournfully about by myself, for I was a man of sorrows in the times of the first workings of the Lord in me.¹³ William Penn noted the utter uniqueness of Fox: He was an original, being no man’s copy.¹⁴ The religious genius of both Bodhidharma and Fox drove them toward spiritual awakening, without concern for personal comfort and safety.

Both Zen and Quakerism lay claim to being distillations of the experiential core of their respective traditions, Buddhism and Christianity. (William Penn wrote a pamphlet about Quakerism titled Primitive Christianity Revived.¹⁵) Both traditions abandon doctrinal definitions in favor of religious practices whose purpose is to awaken us to Presence in this very moment. Both point to a theological paradox hidden within our everyday delusions: we are always immersed in Sacred Reality—yet we remain blind to it. The classic 8th Century Buddhist poem, Sandokai (commonly translated as The Identity of Relative and Absolute) contains these lines: Reading words you should grasp the great reality… . If you do not see the Way, you do not see it even as you walk upon it.¹⁶ Zen masters employ a startling array of means to cut through the obscuring thickets of words, in order to shock their students into an immediate realization of the great reality.¹⁷

The ubiquity of Divine Presence is repeatedly affirmed in Judeo-Christian scripture. Moses declares (Deut. 30:14) that The word is very near to you: it is in your mouth and in your heart… . The psalmist asks,

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

(Psalm 139:7-10)

Jesus assures his disciples that I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:20) St. Paul agrees with a pagan poet that in God, we live, and move, and have our being. (Acts 17:28) and reaffirms Moses’ words, quoted above. (Romans10:8)

Although we are always immersed in Mystery, we live as if we were separate from it. Isaac Penington (1616-1679), a Quaker mystic and contemporary of George Fox who endured lengthy imprisonment for his refusal to abandon his religious convictions, put this paradox sharply:

But is it not strange, that thou shouldst be of it, and not be able to know and own it, in this day of its manifestation; but call the light which is spiritual and eternal (and gives the true and certain knowledge of Christ) natural? What! Of God, of Christ, (having received the Spirit, the living well) and yet not know the mystery of life within, nor its pure voice in this present day! But limit the unlimited One to a form of words formerly spoken by him! ¹⁸

When Sacred Reality becomes a mere idea rather than Living Presence, we have lost our way. Concepts and words that should point beyond themselves assume a false reality of their own, limiting and even replacing that to which they refer—a category mistake that the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead called the fallacy of misplaced concreteness.¹⁹ The opening words of the Tao Te Ching declare, The Tao which can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao.²⁰

A traditional Zen saying is, You may use your finger to point at the moon—but do not mistake the finger for the moon. When we view the moon with an open body and mind, we awaken to wonder and reverence, giving joyful expression to our experience. Eager to share with others, we try to capture the ineffable in words, using the tools that are familiar to us: symbols, metaphors, and rituals of our own tradition. For Bodhidharma and Dogen, that tradition was the Buddhism of their time and place; for George Fox, it was Christianity in 17th Century England. Yet for us, the spiritual power of their vision rests not in those outward forms, but in our intuitive intimation of the Mystery to which they point. As Paul Knitter writes, Christian language, like all religious language, is, in its entire vocabulary, made up of fingers pointing to the moon.²¹
The Primacy of Practice

When I stand some distance away from you, I may not be able to discern where you are pointing, nor comprehend why what you see evokes such wonder and zeal; only when I realize that my own standpoint is but one among many, may I begin to appreciate your perspective. Likewise, ministry that does not speak to one person may be exactly what another seeker needs to receive. A similar humility is required of us as we survey the immense variety and protean power of spiritual insights in countless cultural settings.

Yet how shall we make room for this seemingly laudable latitude regarding religious symbols without descending to a lowest common denominator, thereby arriving at tasteless spiritual pablum? As a boy I heard this question posed by elderly Quakers who were concerned about the decline of their beloved Society—usually accompanied by plaintive recitation of Matthew 5:13 (KJV): Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men.

In my experience, generous respect for other religions is best grounded in deep fidelity to our own authentic religious practice. When I try to explain to others how I reconcile Zen practice with my Quaker and Christian identity, I am of two minds. If I compare theologies, lining up Buddhism and Christianity in order to read off similarities and contrasts, I fumble; my efforts to explain myself become forced and unpersuasive. Yet in my personal spiritual life, Buddhism, Quakerism, and Christianity meld seamlessly into my own singular journey. The beloved contemporary Buddhist teacher, Jack Kornfield, relates this story: One young woman who had become very involved in Buddhist practice returned to her parents’ home. She struggled with their Christian Fundamentalism for a time, until she sorted things out. Then she sent a letter back to the monastery stating, ‘My parents hate me when I’m a Buddhist, but they love me when I’m a Buddha.’²²

A fellow graduate student in philosophy once told me that his strategy in winning a philosophical argument was Distinguish and conquer. He was very skilled at doing this. Was it mere coincidence that his wife (also a graduate student in philosophy) seemed unhappy in the marriage? Buddhist teachings—and indeed, mysticism in all of its forms—observe that exclusive reliance upon discursive reasoning highlights differences, promoting division and discord. In contrast, when we return to the infinite depth and breadth of this moment, we rediscover our underlying connections with others and with all of life. Purely theoretical puzzles disappear or become irrelevant; as the Buddha delicately observed, they reveal themselves to be questions that tend not to edification.²³

A corollary of this spiritual insight is the paradox that we draw closer to one another to the degree that we become more fully ourselves. Thus I do not offer my reflections in this book as a spiritual map for others to follow. There is no one size fits all spirituality or religious identity; the shape of soul-making is unique to each individual. The Buddha’s final words were, Be a lamp unto yourself—that is, learn to recognize and commit to your own deepest insights. Again, George Fox unknowingly echoed this directive. Margaret Fell (1614-1702), the spiritual mother of Quakerism and the eventual wife of Fox, relates the moment when his ministry cut me to the heart: confronting a cleric who drew upon scripture to refute his challenges, Fox declared, You will say, Christ saith this, and the Apostles say this; but what canst thou say? Art thou a Child of Light, and hast walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?²⁴ I am of greatest service to others when I am true to myself: honest testimony from my own path proves to be more helpful than presuming to know what others should do.
God-Talk

The only real voyage of discovery…consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

—Marcel Proust²⁵

My childhood home was suffused with a distinctively Quaker vision of Christianity, centering upon the spiritual and moral teachings of Jesus—especially the Sermon on the Mount. These teachings became etched upon my heart. Yet the conventional theological language in which they were couched gradually lost its power over my mind, replaced by intellectual skepticism and aimless spiritual longing. Zen practice became a new wineskin for that longing, refocusing my spiritual energies and freeing my use of Christian and Quaker language from the straitjacket of literalism. I count as one of Zen’s greatest gifts that it has restored to me the evocative power of Judeo-Christian scripture.

When I think of God, I do not picture to myself a disembodied, supreme Intelligence who can be persuaded by human supplication to intervene in the natural course of events. In the minds of many orthodox Christians, this admission will brand me as a non-theist or even an atheist. I choose not to invest energy in rebutting this charge. In my personal lexicon, the term God and its cognates hint at a Reality that is beyond the power of words to capture, a vast and potent Mystery.²⁶

Friends affirm that this Divine Reality is found within every human breast—that there is "that of God in every

one."²⁷ Awakening to this Presence, we come to know the hidden unity in the Eternal Being²⁸—our essential interconnection with one another and with all creation. Zen makes similar claims regarding Buddha-Nature, an empowering awareness to which we awaken through disciplined spiritual practice, revealing the truth of Interbeing.²⁹ I hesitate to suggest that these phrases—that of God in every one and Buddha-Nature—refer to the same underlying reality. In view of the unique historical tapestries of Buddhism and Christianity, such a cross-cultural equation is dubious. Yet I personally find these phrases equally satisfactory in pointing to my own inner experience.

Because of fond memories of my childhood religious instruction, I continue to use some traditional Christian terminology. Yet I dissociate myself from the intolerance and exclusivity that often accompany this language. I invite readers for whom my Christian words and scriptural citations carry negative baggage to translate them into symbols that evoke their own spiritual insights. A guiding thread of theological reconstruction in these pages is to reclaim—for myself, and possibly for others—the power of Christian language, even as I respect, admire, and draw upon other great religious traditions.

The following chapters are linked by a common theme, the insights that arise as we awaken to the reality of the present moment. Breaking free of the conceptual cocoon that insulates us from our lives, coming to our senses, we discover that what Jesus called the Kingdom of God is indeed among and within us. (Luke 17:21) Moments of awakening are not always blissful or reassuring; they can be disconcerting, even devastating. Others are quiet reminders of who and where we are, small epiphanies that reorient us to what is most important. Their meaning may be lost on us in the moment that they occur, to be realized later in what the English poet, Wordsworth, called emotion recollected in tranquility.³⁰

Scattered through these pages are accounts of such pivotal moments in my life—personal parables, intense experiences that have shaped my perspective and directed my steps into the future. Some were traumatic, others uplifting. For emphasis, I highlight these accounts by the typographical convention of italics.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotations from the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible are from the New Revised Standard Version.

Chapters are organized according to the traditional stages of the mystic’s path: purgation (dropping all denial and self-deception, facing one’s brokenness and shadow self); illumination (out of such radical self-honesty spring moments of grace and insight); and union (the gladness of awakening to our intrinsic bond with all of creation).
Part I: Purgation

CHAPTER ONE: A Quaker In the Zendo relates the journey from my childhood in an Iowa Quaker farm family, through anxious years of academic striving that imploded into humiliating personal crisis—and to recovery through years of psychotherapy and Zen practice, returning me to a renewed engagement with my Quaker roots.

CHAPTER TWO: Standing Still In the Light draws upon the records of Quakerism, writings of George Fox and other early Friends, where I find—to my wonder and delight—explicit guidelines for spiritual practice that are often

overlooked by Friends today. I spell out these guidelines in experiential terms.

CHAPTER THREE: Pure Passion expands upon the theme of Chapter Two, linking the spiritual practice of standing still in the Light to an understanding of psychotherapy, meditation, and the Passion of Christ. Again my account is personal, building upon my own experience.
Part II: Illumination

CHAPTER FOUR: Living Peace details my efforts to understand the Peace Testimony of early Friends. I find it to be not (as is commonly supposed) the endorsement of a sweeping philosophical principle of pacifism, but rather, the outcome of disciplined spiritual practice. When we stand in utter sincerity in the Light, the causes of violence and hatred melt away, bringing us into sweet harmony with all of creation.

CHAPTER FIVE: Healing Gender Hurt explores the meaning of the Peace Testimony for gender conflict—especially what is often called the war of the sexes. I explore the meaning of masculinity in the light of Friends’ Peace Testimony. I share my own efforts to heal and to foster the healing of others.

CHAPTER SIX: Friendly Pedagogy traces the spiritual roots that nourish Quaker schools and suggests that the distinctive ethos of such schools derives from Friends’ unique manner of conducting meetings for business. I tease out implications of Friends’ spirituality for humane, effective teaching.
Part III: Union

CHAPTER SEVEN: In the Love of Nature draws from my childhood on an Iowa farm. In this chapter, I probe the contributions of Quaker spirituality to an overriding challenge of our time, the gathering storm of global climate change and environmental decay. We cannot hope to restore the earth while we ourselves remain alienated from her.

CHAPTER EIGHT: Joyful Service argues that the work of peace and justice—mending the world—is most effective when it is motivated not by indignation, fear, or anger, but by the transforming, reconciling power of hearts that have surrendered into the crucible of the Light. Reactive emotions may be necessary in order to cut through our complacence—but only love can overcome hatred and promote true justice.

CHAPTER NINE: Walking Cheerfully unites the themes of the previous chapters in a vision of reconciliation and redemption in this life—living the Kingdom of God in a broken world. If the deepest needs are for the highest things, what is highest can be found here and now, in this very life—if we have eyes to see.

While I draw upon fine scholarship from many sources, I do not write as a scholar addressing other scholars, but rather as an earnest seeker, sharing my brokenness, my failures, and my modest insights in the hope that my readers may find their way along their own paths to healing and wholeness, whatever those paths may be. In that spirit I write not only for those who self-identify as Quakers or Buddhists—but for all who yearn for the highest things.

Awakening to our own deepest springs of wisdom promises more than we can now dream or imagine. In the

final lines of Walden, Henry David Thoreau writes, Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.³¹ His words are a departure point for the following pages. May the morning star—eastern light—reveal the true light, which enlightens everyone.

Karen Armstrong, The Case for God (New York: Knopf, 2009), p. xiii.

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Ibid.

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Ibid., p. xv.

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Although the importance of practical wisdom is emphasized in Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics (see Book VI, Chapters 5, 12, 13), courses in ethical theory and classical philosophy typically note this insight—only to put aside its cultivation in order to explore theoretical puzzles.

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See Heinrich Dumoulin, S.J., A History of Zen Buddhism (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), p. 67. Dumoulin dates Bodhidharma’s life to the early 5th Century C.E. and attributes these four lines to a Zen master from the Tang era, Nan-chuan Pu-yan (748-834). See Dumoulin, Chapter 5, ftnt. 1.

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Shobogenzo; quoted by Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (New York: Bantam,1993), pp. 332-339.

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Journal of George Fox, ed. by John L. Nickalls (London: Religious Society of Friends, 1975), p. 33.

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Ibid., p. 27.

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Ibid., p. 33.

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Dumoulin, p. 68.

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Journal, p. 45. Fox refers to Acts 7:48: The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.

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Introduction by Geoffrey F. Nuttall, DD., to Fox, Journal, p. xxxiii.

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Journal, p. 9f.

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Extracts from William Penn’s Preface, in Fox, Journal, p. xliii.

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Published in 1696. Available without charge online.

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Sandokai, in Wikipedia, accessed on 23 August 2012.

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A traditional tool of Zen masters is a gnarled stick sometimes used in personal interviews to strike their students unexpectedly, in an effort to wake them abruptly into the moment.

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Knowing the Mystery of Life Within: Selected Writings of Isaac Penington in their Historical and Theological Context, selected and introduced by R. Melvin Keiser and Rosemary Moore (London: Quaker Books, 2005), front matter epigraph.

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Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (New York: Free Press, 1925, 1997), p. 51.

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Many editions. This from Lao Tzu: Text, Notes, and Comments, by ChenKu-ying, translated and adapted by Rhett Y. W. Young and Roger T. Ames (San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, Inc., 1977), p. 51.

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Paul F. Knitter, Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2009), p. 65. Knitter is Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary.

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Jack Kornfield, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path (New York: Bantam, 2000), pp. 218f.

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Questions Which Tend not to Edification, Sermon Number 1, from The Lesser Malunkyaputta Sutra, Translated from the Maijhima-Nikaya.

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The Testimony of Margaret Fox Concerning her Late Husband George Fox, in Hidden In Plain Sight: Quaker Women’s Writings 1650-1700, ed. by Mary Garman, et. al. (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill Publications, 1996), p. 235.

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The Maxims of Marcel Proust, ed. by Justin O’Brien (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948), p. 181.

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I have discovered that my outlook falls roughly into the category of apophatic theology. This longstanding tradition has its roots in negative theology (via negativa)—the outlook that no positive description is adequate to name or express the reality of the Divine Good. Negative theology… is often allied with mysticism, which focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception, an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion or the conditioned role-playing and learned defensive behavior of the outer man.… The Divine is ineffable… it eludes definition by definition. (From Apophatic Theology in Wikipedia, accessed on 23 July 2012.) Both Zen and the mystical aspects of Quakerism exemplify this outlook.

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Fox, Journal, p. 263.

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Ibid., p. 28.

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This phrase comes from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist master who has done much to popularize Zen in mainstream Western religious thought.

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Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Second Edition (1800).

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Final lines of Conclusion. Many editions.

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