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New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living Kindle Edition

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

Young leaders of the new monastic movement introduce their vision for contemplative life—one that draws from the long traditions of East and West but also seeks an interreligious and "interspiritual" dimension to intentional living in our time. With a preface by Mirabai Starr, a foreword by Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, and an afterword by Fr. Thomas Keating.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is enough guidance, connection, and wisdom in this book to keep you acting, thinking and praying for a lifetime! You would be foolish not to take advantage of it. Rory and Adam are trying to do what St. Francis wanted to do 800 years ago. Maybe now we are more prepared and even ready!" --Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation Albuquerque, New Mexico

"Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko, pilgrims of a new monasticism, write with reverence about our collective spiritual inheritance, and in remembrance of the singular Presence that alone fills the soul s longing. Offering a comprehensive introduction to a new monastic movement, including its pathways and transformations, Bucko and McEntee share their map of the journey to Divine awakening, honoring the monk within. This is a book for anyone who seeks the mystical cloister beyond any one form, with a monastic heart open to all creation." --Beverly Lanzetta, PhD, author, Radical Wisdom: A Feminist Mystical Theology

This book is a divining rod for the crossroads where we find ourselves. For monastic legacies in danger of extinction, for a world that has never needed them more desperately, Bucko and McEntee offer a vision that is old as well as new, rooted as well as cosmopolitan." --Nathan Schneider, author, Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse.

About the Author

Adam Bucko is an activist, youth mentor, and spiritual director to many of New York's homeless youth. His work has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, The New York Times, New York Daily News, Ode Magazine, Yoga+Magazine, and Sojourner's. Rory McEntee is a contemplative rooted in the tradition of interspirituality and new monasticism. He is the administrator for the Snowmass InterSpiritual Dialogue (SISD) and a member of the board of The Community of the Mystic Heart.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00UU25J54
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ ORBIS (March 31, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 31, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4.7 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 326 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2015
    This is a wonderful book -- bringing together strands that have become a hugely important part of my spiritual path in recent years - the Interspiritual view of Br. Wayne Teasdale, the Integral perspective of Ken Wilber, and the teachings of teachers within all of the "traditional religions" (and outside of any of the traditional religions) who have seen arriving at the 'other shore' as more essential than the boat one uses to navigate the waters. This book provides a model for helping spiritual seekers integrate the deep commitment to a contemplative life of the traditional cloistered monastic and the passionate engagement in social justice of the modern activist. This balancing of inner and outer life has been spoken of within many traditions (e.g., Engaged Buddhism), but the power of this book is in its guidance toward how to do this on a variety of Interspiritual paths that are becoming increasingly common -- including the practitioner who is deeply rooted in one tradition and openly exploring others, the multiple-belonging practitioner (Zen Christians; Hin-Jews, etc.), and the practitioner who belongs to no particular tradition and explores many (the “spiritual but not religious” set). In some ways, the model and methods being proposed here are the antidote to the “supermarket of spiritual superficiality” criticism often levied against these paths. It is possible to develop a path that is true to one’s unique calling but also has deep integrity. In short, anyone who is deeply spiritual but has had trouble finding a home in traditional religious structures will find valuable guidance and advice in this book. The writing can be a bit uneven, at times – but the messages are extremely powerful. The “manifesto” that forms the heart of the book is exquisitely written. Some people embedded in traditional religious paths who do not feel called to open up beyond them may struggle with what is being suggested here (as is reflected in one of the negative reviews here on Amazon). But for others for whom life has offered or even forced integration of multiple perspectives, (depending where you are on your path) the manifesto may just help name and clarify the path you have already been on, attract you to some new ways of thinking about (and practicing) your path, or completely wake you up to a new world of spiritual possibility.
    22 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2016
    The New Monasticism is an essential guide and touch stone for anyone seeking to deepen their well of experience on the interspiritual path. Whether you are draw to deeply engage in multiple traditional wisdom paths or to forge a new way that honors your own inner guidance, The New Monsastism will help lead you deeper into your everyday life as a radically sacred and socially engaged dance with the Divine. This book will help you discern the voice of Spirit inside you, be more structured in deepening your spiritual practice, and give you the tools and foundation you need to be a new monastic in everyday life, working towards the completion of the world. Most of all it is a gentle reminder, you are not alone. There are many of us with this call to a fully engaged non traditional spiritual life. This book will help you answer that call.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2022
    The truth is that this book falls prey to the temptations most books like this fall prey to. It tries to be an intellectual treatise that would convince representatives of institutional religion to buy into its arguments. The problems are that (1) institutional religion is the problem that makes new monasticism necessary and (2) the institution is almost completely unwilling to look at or address its own shortcomings. Both Bucko and Rory come off as arrogant and entitled. In my estimation, that’s about right.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2016
    I think the summary offered on Amazon does not capture the "new paradigm" offered in this book. The authors speak of seekers who desire to live in a transformative way for themselves, the world, and all creation. They honor the perennial tradition and call forth models that enable persons to live their daily lives is such a way as to be a "new monk". As one who has an active spirituality, I find the evolution of new models very exciting. Their dialog with all world religions and beyond is simulating in our growing consciousness of global diversity.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2016
    New and highly favorable concept.
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2015
    This book is written about a niche, particularized, peculiar subset of the New Monasticism called "Interspiritual New Monasticism". The authors take an interfaith approach with only a miniscule nod toward Christian monasticism, old or new. In fact Christian principles and practices are barely and selectively mentioned. The writing carries as its freight an idiosyncratic blend of an irregular form of spirituality comprised of a fusion of snippets from Sufi Rumi, sundry Hindu principles, Matthew Fox, Teilhard de Chardin, the Dalai Lama, de Foucauld, Gandhi, Merton, Thomas Keating, and other notables. The book mentions a universal "spiritual democracy" being a sought for ideal. Unitarian Universalists might be quite comfortable with the approaches the authors take in the area of what they call interspirituality, I can picture a member of The Theosophical Society enjoying this book. As a contemplative, active, practicing Christian person, I cannot endorse this book for any other reason than to be informed of the "stuff" out there that is being published using the term "New Monasticism". I guess I had to buy at least one lousy book in my lifetime."The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living" is THAT lousy book. Caveat emptor!
    11 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2015
    Bringing contemplative practice together with issues of social justice is a sacred marriage of sorts. I'm inspired by this timely Manifesto that brings us together from many different perspectives. Enough division in our world! This book crosses boundaries and builds bridges across differences through contemplative practice and acting upon the deepening that contemplation brings. May we elders join with the freshness of younger generations through contemplative LIVING beyond our daily practices, whatever they may be. This book will help get us there!
    Lyndall Hare, PhD Gerontologist
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • James Nichol
    5.0 out of 5 stars Monasticism as "a level of commitment to a spiritual life".
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2015
    BOOK REVIEW: THE NEW MONASTICISM

    Highly recommended. I knew I would be in business with this book as soon as I got wind of it, and it will take further contemplation and inward digestion before I fully understand my relationship with it. I believe that this is the kind of effect that what The New Monasticism: an Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living intends to create.
    ‘Monasticism’ is refreshingly used here “simply to denote a level of commitment to a spiritual life”. It is not about specific beliefs or a specific lifestyle. It asks us to free ourselves from our cultural conditioning and an unquestioning and un-questing life. Avoiding identification with material success, living in the midst of a contemporary society that does not support such a calling, we may enter a space of “radical profundity and divine transformative energy”. We seek simplicity not through renunciation but through ‘integration’. We do need retreat space, so some people will indeed be called as specialists to hold the “containers of silence”. But most will pursue vocation in the world, in a life made up of contemplative practice, heartfelt conversation and sacred activism.
    Authors Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko are situated within the Roman Catholic tradition, in an emancipatory strand which is reaching out to others and hoping to transcend itself. The term ‘interspirituality’ was coined by Brother Wayne Teasdale, an ordained Christian Sannyasin who presided over an ashram in India. The authors see interspirituality as “humbly placing itself in partnership and collaborative discernment with our time-honoured religious traditions”. In the last decade we have also seen the linking of Father Thomas Keating (who developed ‘centering prayer’ as a Christian answer to Buddhist-style meditation) with Ken Wilber’s Integral Life project, which is itself increasingly seeking alliance with like-minded Christian communities. Indeed a lot of the philosophy, psychology and social science in this book comes straight from Ken Wilber and the stance of the Integral movement. The authors come from a collectively confident and mature spiritual base, and there are advantages in that. The book is rich with specific suggestions about life and practice in the new monasticism, drawing for its core inspiration on an ‘Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st. Century’ following a week long dialogue with Father Thomas Keating at his monastery in Colorado in 2012.
    McEntee and Bucko are both “under 40” and feel a connection with the younger generation now coming into adulthood. Bucko works with young homeless men in New York City. They see a potentially emergent spiritual culture that is: “spiritual not religious”; this worldly and concerned with nature and the fate of the earth; has (post) modern commitments to personal ‘authenticity’; and finds the sacred in the secular. They believe that these values can be championed within a further development of their own tradition, transforming the tradition itself. For them the path is as much about the life and health of the earth as it is with an individual communion with the Divine: indeed, it is false to separate the two. Realisation is less a “gnostic quest for truths beyond the world” than “a reflection on certain processes taking place within the world”. Interspirituality wants to be the midwife of this, and in doing so become attractive to people, especially young people, who would not be drawn to more traditional approaches.
    The New Monasticism is a valuable contribution to the re-visioning of spirituality and concomitant life practices. Given its provenance, it is not surprising that the reaching out to other traditions is quite selective. Beyond Christianity, the traditions being engaged with are neo-Vedanta, Tibetan Buddhism and to a lesser extent Zen, modern Sufism and to some degree the Hasidic movement in Judaism and Martin Buber. ‘Indigenous religions’ are mentioned in two inclusivity lists, without definition or description. Shamanism is mentioned as a particular model of spiritual service. There is nothing specific from the Western Way outside Christianity. Within Christianity, much is drawn from the contemplative strand in Orthodoxy, including an understanding of theosis (or divinisation) and the role of Sophia as guide. This is accompanied by an intent to “claim the wisdom dimension of all traditions and let the wisdom guide you” – a view which they attribute to Matthew Fox. Ethics is seen as “the call to active co-operation with the sophianic transfiguration of the world”. Quaker processes also get a mention because of their democratic and dialogical way of bringing people into Presence with each other. Since I am personally positioned in modern Druidry, Paganism and Earth Spirituality I have to express some disappointment here. However I don’t feel deliberately excluded. It’s just that these authors have their attention focused elsewhere.
    The good news is that there is a potential point of connection and dialogue, one in which the voice of Goddess and Earth traditions could do with being heard. This is when McEntee and Bucko talk about ‘axial ages’, a view of spiritual/religious history once again taken from Ken Wilber. It depends on an evolutionary view of human culture as an aspect of a Divine awakening. In this view, the first axial age, from 800 BCE – 200 CE was a time of radical transformation marked by the appearance of great teachers who catalysed major literatures: Lao-Tzu, Confucius, Buddha, Mahavir (of the Jains), Zoroaster, the Jewish prophets and Greek philosophy, as well as Jesus and the gospels. These people could stand apart from the tribe, question the worldview they had been given, and think for themselves. They could also wake up from the trance of complete immersion in nature and objectify it – seen here as a positive step, albeit one with a shadow side. They represented the coming of reflexive subjectivity and the technology (writing) that made it sustainable. Admittedly, the narrative goes, this tended to take world denying, sex denying, misogynist and more generally oppressive forms. But overall it is read as a cultural gain. Now we are seen to be in a second axial age where the perceived challenge is to transcend the limitations of the first whilst preserving the gains, and thus renew our overall movement onward. “We need both our individuality … and an understanding of our intrinsic belonging within a vast Kosmos”. I’ve been aware of Wilber’s position on this since he wrote Up from Eden in the mid 1980’s. This has always read to me as a one-eyed narrative, the mirror image of the primitive matriarchy still espoused by many Pagans. One of its effects has been to offer a language of canny and limited concession to hitherto dominant traditions as they respond to an unstoppable shift in culture. This is the point in which the Earth traditions could have a role in the dialogue, to support a view of individuality and inter-connectedness, indeed, but which is less masculinist in language (I’m thinking about how the book suggests “dialogical sophiology” as the way of meeting with the divine feminine), more open, and more widely informed than this.
    I am glad to be living in a time of spiritual ferment. It breathes life and hope in an otherwise darkening time. I acknowledge and celebrate the achievement of The New Monasticism and am already involved in exploring contemplative life in Druidry. I notice that I, and others who I have been linked with, have in some ways come to similar conclusions about life and practice, if not entirely of view. This book, although from a very different background, has stimulated and encouraged me. I hope it has this role for many other readers.
  • MISS L E PAYNE
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2015
    An excellent book. It brings a context and authority to this journey that is emerging in all of us.
  • B. O'Dea
    3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2022
    I have strong reservations about this which seems to deal more with the notion of inter spirituality in general rather than monasticism, whether new or old , in particular. The authors appear to hint that the way of traditional monasticism is redundant to be superceded by a new form of vaguely defined monasticism which will enable the individual to flourish. It presents as new ideas that are not new at all. Although traditional monasticism focused much on contemplation the monastics were also very connected to a society which understood their role. They were also active in providing hospitality and sanctuary to others. When society changed in the twelfth century contemplative orders in the West changed with it with the emergence of friars who sought to be 'active contemplatives.' Different types of monastics in other religions similarly changed but all remained committed to common goals and service to others no matter what the circumstances rather than following untried agendas. The reason that I mention all this is that many young people may miss the opportunity of a lifetime vocation if convinced that they should follow their own individual path rather than a well-tested monastic rule. I spent years following an inter spiritual path before realising that I would not experience anything genuine unless I was able to commit to at least one tradition. If I had realised this earlier I might have chosen monasticism as a vocation. As it is I have to settle with being a contemplative as I am too old and married (luckily happily) to live the life of a monk. However if this book gives the impression of 'new monasticism' being a new phenomenon the authors are ignoring that the medieval mendicants orders set up 'third orders' for people who were unable to become monks or nuns due to other commitments. These third orders are still going strong within the Franciscan, Dominican and Carmelite traditions with about half a million members worldwide. I have been able to appease the monastic archetype in me by joining the Carmelite third order. The Carmelite charism has now been around for 800 years and is centred on contemplation where contemplation is defined as a three-fold combination of prayer, community and service to others. Contemplation for the Carmelite is supposed to lead to action and the order has an NGO which is affiliated to the UN. This book mentions Carmelites Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross several times without recognising their Carmelite background, even calling John of the Cross a monk when he was a friar. This is surprising seeing that Adam Bucko has previously published a book on Carmelite spirituality. There is no recognition of the fact that Fr. Keating's Centering Prayer is based on the medival classic The Cloud of Unknowing. My criticism is that this book is too theoretical and gives the false impression that one can become a monk through wish fulfilment rather than through a thorough formation in a well-established tradition. It is perfectly acceptable for any serious individual to consider themselves a contemplative and to practise this in a privatised way but a true monk needs humility, long-term commitment and recognition of their monastic state by others no matter what tradition they belong to.
  • Rita Hills
    4.0 out of 5 stars Very challenging and so right for contemporary spiritual movement within ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2015
    Very challenging and so right for contemporary spiritual movement within all our denominations. In a world where religiosity divides,us, time now to work for interfaith harmony .
  • John-Francis FRIENDSHIP
    2.0 out of 5 stars American spirituality
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2019
    This is a book about 'new monasticism' yet hardly acknowledges the place of Christ in monasticism (lots about Merton, Eckhart, de Chardin, Thomas Keating etc - but not the One whom monks seek). The writers seem worried about using the word 'nun' stating (p.xviii) that 'monk or monastic can be used to describe both men and women' and hardly refer to women who have lived the tradition - apart from an odd reference to Julian of Norwich there's no mention of the great Teresa, for example.They also state that the word 'monk' means 'set apart', only it doesn't, it means single or solitary (monos). This book seems to miss the point of what monasticism is about, although it does give an interesting insight into aspects of west coast 21st cent. American religion. Or am I missing something?

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