Zen Catholicism

by Dom Aelred Graham, Aelred Graham, Dom Aelred. Graham

Book Overview

More timely than ever, this gem of a book blends East and West into a spiritual vision of enormous practical value.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0824514254
• ISBN13: 9780824514259
• Release Date: March 1994
• Publisher: Herder & Herder
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Subtle & sophisticated Buddhist/Christian dialogue

This book is a fairly dense but well written exploration of how Zen might help Catholics "to realize more fully their own spiritual inheritance." Graham's take on Zen in relation to Catholicism is theologically astute and experientially grounded. Graham, who was a Benedictine monk, notes that he is not inviting readers "to embark on a daring theological adventure" (the book received an ecclesiastical imprimatur). Rather, he is inviting readers "to look into [their] own nature and that of the Church" and to consider Graham's suggestion that, at their existential depths, Zen and Catholicism share the same basic message. This book was first published in 1963, but I think it's still one of the best books relating Buddhism and Christianity. Also recommended: Ruben Habito's "Living Zen, Loving God."

There is one Truth, but different paths to that Truth

Some people are born with faith and never lose it; some are born with it and lose it; others stray from God, only to find Him later by circuitous paths.I was one of these, and "Zen Catholicism" represents a sort-of bridge between my two historical lines of thought: belief in Christ and belief in philosophy-atheism.Not to say "Zen Catholicism" leans more towards the latter strain of thought; in fact, just the opposite: this book is quite conservative--without being close-minded--and was given an IMPRIMATUR in 1963 by Archbishop Francis Cardinal Spellman.Nevertheless, this book blends two beautiful traditions in a way in which Catholics of all dispositions can appreciate. Treated as a philosophy Zen is quite beautiful: seeing things just as they are being an example.

An academic Catholic meets the Buddha on the road

This is a book that provides fertile ground for further writing and reflection. While the language is rather dry, if given the time it really deserves, each few pages will leave you torn between continuing your reading or running out to plant yourself under a tree to sit and work out the cramps in your brain. Rather than offering an idea of some unnatural marriage of Buddhism and Catholicism, Father Aelred concerns himself only with Zen practice and what the Zen sages have to teach us(meaning Westerners) in regard to incessant prayer and what the Psalmist meant in writing "Be still and know that I am God". This is a book that begs for further dialogue within the Church as Father Aelred seems to be hot on the trail of how express the way in which one can be in the world but not of it. It's sort of a scholarly Thomas Merton type of book.