Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God
By James Finley. HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, 2004). 304 pp., $19.95.
The Language of Silence: The Changing Face of Monastic Solitude
By Father Peter-Damian Belisle, OSBCam. Orbis Books (Maryknoll, N.Y., 2004). 187 pp., $16.
The Inner Room: A Journey Into Lay Monasticism
By Mark Plaiss. St. Anthony Messenger Press (Cincinnati, 2004). 127 pp., $9.95.
Grace in the Desert: Awakening to the Gifts of Monastic Life
By Dennis Patrick Slattery. Jossey-Bass/Wiley (San Francisco, 2004). 154 pp., $22.95.
A modern audience for books on Christian monasticism, meditation and contemplation was discovered in 1948 with the publication of Father Thomas Merton's best-selling autobiography, "The Seven Storey Mountain." Today that audience has been increased by the many modern readers who are intrigued by the implications of Eastern religions for mainline Christianity. These four books are addressed to that modern audience.
James Finley's new book, "Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God," draws on many traditional wells for insights. Finley (no relation to this reviewer) is best known for his book, "Thomas Merton's Palace of Nowhere." He is a psychological and spiritual counselor living in California.
Finley says that people who think they must turn to Eastern religions in order to learn meditation couldn't be more mistaken. Christian meditation is hardly anything new; the practice goes back to Christian men and women who lived in the deserts of Syria and Egypt in the third and fourth centuries and, indeed, can be traced to Jesus himself.
With a clear, informative and captivating style Finley explains for both beginners and the more experienced the basics of meditation and what makes Christian meditation Christian, with frequent references to the New Testament. Often along the way, Finley enriches his discussion by sharing with the reader his own experiences.
This is, without a doubt, one excellent book, a perfect guide for spiritual seekers and spiritual guides as we move into an uncertain 21st century.
"The Language of Silence: The Changing Face of Monastic Solitude," by Father Peter-Damian Belisle, a Camaldolese Benedictine hermit, is a first-rate discussion of the history and practice of solitude in Christian monasticism. It's not just a book for celibates living in monasteries, however. Solitude can -- perhaps even should -- be a part of any healthy adult Christian spirituality and way of life.
This book is part of the "Traditions of Christian Spirituality" series published by Orbis. Father Belisle covers solitary personages in the Old and New Testaments and down through Christian history even through the 20th century.
Finally, he discusses the solidarity of the solitary with all of humankind: "Authentically lived, monastic solitude breaks through human barriers of isolation and speaks a silent word of universal love and solidarity with all life."
In "The Inner Room: A Journey Into Lay Monasticism," Mark Plaiss -- a medical librarian living in Indiana who is married and has two sons -- shares with the reader his vocation to "lay monasticism." Plaiss describes his meaning this way: "The lay monastic dons no habit, wears no distinguishing ornament, lives not in a monastery." While not living in a monastery, the lay monastic manages to live a life faithful to the spirit of monasticism which is a life centered on God, who cannot be separated from neighbor.
"The Inner Room" covers considerable territory, from the author's journey into the Catholic Church to his discovery and adaptation of the monastic life to lay life. It's a fascinating, rich and rewarding book with great potential to nourish faith whether the reader senses a call to lay monasticism or not. Not to be missed.
In "Grace in the Desert: Awakening to the Gifts of Monastic Life," Dennis Patrick Slattery casts a wide net. He recounts his three-month pilgrimage to 12 Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Buddhist monasteries and retreat centers.
Focused on discovering a deeper understanding of his identity as a husband and father, a teacher and believer, as well as the life and death of his father, Slattery's quest took him to locations in California, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. In each monastery or retreat center he describes the way of life he finds there and the discoveries he made about his own life and life in general.
The pages fly by, and in the end Slattery discovers the simple yet profound meaning of it all:
"Now I can let all of my childhood wounds evaporate. I no longer need them for support. The feeling of liberation reflects a moment of grace unconditionally given. Forgiveness is at the heart of it --- I swear."
---Mitch Finley
The Reformation: A History
By Diarmaid MacCulloch. Viking Penguin (New York, 2004). 792 pp., $34.95.
"The Reformation: A History," by Diarmaid MacCulloch, is a first step toward a general reappraisal of the events, theology and personalities of that period of our Christian pilgrimage. MacCulloch's book illuminates this most dramatic and tragic moment in the human journey; it may also stimulate other equally serious reconciling scholarship.
Lutherans and Catholics resolved the issue that began the tragic Reformation era nearly 500 years ago when they officially signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999. It was Martin Luther's concerns about the doctrine of "justification by faith" that started the Protestant Reformation in 1517.
It is time for Catholics and Protestants to look with fresh eyes at this familiar epoch in Christian history. MacCulloch's history is a start.
MacCulloch, a professor of church history at Oxford University, is a theologically well-informed and sympathetic skeptic. His sometimes irreverent, always critical, view of all parties, movements and ideas provides a distance that makes the realities of these sad histories come alive in new ways.
He attempts to keep an objective point of view overall. He shows the reader the diversity of religious forces that shaped the Catholic reform in the Council of Trent (1545-63) and those religious movements which gradually became what we now call Protestant and Anglican churches.
He makes clear that at first the various theological and reform movements within the church were very fluid; only later did institutional divisions emerge.
Through most of the century before Trent it was not clear which, if any, of the reforming forces would bring renewal to the papacy and the Roman Curia. However, by the time Trent convened, the Spanish model of church and the renewal force of the Jesuits finally emerged to give form to early modern Catholicism.
In some ways, there is more discontinuity between 14th-century Catholicism and Trent than we experienced after the Second Vatican Council. In areas like liturgy, biblical renewal and educational reform, Vatican II is continuing a process begun at Trent. In the areas of collegiality, the episcopacy and the role of the laity, the Second Vatican Council developed church teaching in ways that were politically and ecclesiastically impossible in the 16th century.
The author helpfully includes the full range of Protestant movements, like Anabaptists, Unitarians and other marginal groups who made the issues even more complex. Likewise, he includes the full range of European national and cultural contexts, such as movements in Eastern and Southern Europe that are often neglected in both Catholic and Protestant accounts.
The theological texture of the volume and the historical detail are a testimony to MacCulloch's learning, whether one agrees or disagrees with him.
---Brother Jeffrey Gros, FSC The Reviewers:
Mitch Finley is the author of more than 30 books for Catholic readers, including "It's Not the Same Without You: Coming Home to the Catholic Church" (Doubleday).
Christian Brother Jeffrey Gros is an associate director of the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
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