Purity of Heart and Contemplation: A Monastic Dialogue between Christian and Asian Traditions

Encounters between Christian and Hindu or Buddhist monastics have been occurring for several decades, most notably signalled in the 1998 book The Gethsemani Encounter. What is special about this new book, the fruit of a weeklong intermonastic dialogue held at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, is the inclusion (in addition to Zen Buddhism and Hinduism) of the Chinese traditions of Taoism, Confucianism, and Chan Buddhism. The themes "purity of heart" and "contemplation" are central to the monastic quest and also universal, offering a meeting point that is shared by all the traditions involved.Contributors include: Bruno Barnhart, OSB Cam, Daniel Consiglio, OSB Cam, Francis H. Cook, (Sr.) Donald Corcoran, OSB Cam, Paul Crowe, Laurence Freeman, OSB, Mary Margaret Funk, OSB, Thomas G. Hand, SJ, Bede J. Healy, OSB Cam, Kevin Hunt, OCSO, Nicholas Koss, OSB, Taigen Dan Leighton, Liu Xiaogan, Thomas Matus, OSB Cam, William Skudlarek, OSB, David Steindl-Rast, OSB, Heng Sure, Martin Verhoeven, Pravrajika Vajraprana, Joseph H. Wong, OSB Cam, Chung-ying Cheng.

"Future spiritual practice in America might well be predominately a lay movement in the secular desert for which monasteries—few and far between—serve as spiritual watering holes."—David Steindl-Rast

"Christian-Buddhist dialogue is now old hat. But what about Christian-Taoist dialogue? Or Christian-Confucianist dialogue? Such is the uncharted interfaith territory explored in this book. The 18 essays here push the envelope of interfaith spirituality in fresh ways."—Publisher's Weekly

"enlightening and helpful"
"an excellent overview"
"Each paper is too rich to skip."
"Fascinating"
—Review for Religious, vol. 62.1, 2003
"Ably and excellently edited...it is a deeply informative and crisply imaginative series of essays... From every one of them I learned, by comparison, analogy, or contrast, the place and fullness of my own Christian faith within a world cosmology of beliefs." -Dr. Dennis Patrick Slattery, Dialogue and Alliance