Debate: Keating, centering prayer = new age?

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AlanFromWichita

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Dear all,

I first heard of passive prayer, Lectio Divina, then centering prayer, and finally Thomas Keating, O.S.C.O. when I started going to a very old and wise spiritual director, a Remptorist priest who was confessor to most of the priests in our diocese.

Since then I have benefitted greatly from the teachings and practices of Keating and others, as have many others including priests and nuns.

Several people on this forum have made the assertion that somehow Keating and/or centering prayer is “new age,” but when I questioned them for specifics they did not produce any examples of how either is “new age” or otherwise non-Catholic beyond vague innuendos or hearsay. The closest anyone came so far to explain it is that there are “better” methods of prayer. Perhaps there is something to all this, but I haven’t heard it yet.

Anyway, all you with an opinion of Keating and/or centering prayer, please let’s hear it, and I’m begging you to be as specific as possible. If I find out there is something legitimately scary, you can trust I will be the first to take it back to Contemplative Outreach, the organization Keating helped to found, through its Kansas representative whom I met through centering prayer meetings and now consider a friend of mine. You can also trust that if there are rampant misconceptions out there, I will also let them know in case they may better address them.

I am NOT saying centering prayer is for everyone; any more than I’d say everyone should say the rosary daily or the Liturgy of the Hours. I do claim there are tremendous benefits, and what I’ve learned about New Age practices and the problems attached thereto simply don’t apply to centering prayer, lectio divina, or any legitimate contemplative prayer in general.

Personal questions directed toward me are totally welcome, such as questions about my faith life, my motives in defending CP and my personal opinions, personal history (to some extent) etc. Again, be as specific as possible so that I know what you are asking. I am willing to stake my own credibility on this, and if I find out I’m wrong I’ll be the first to thank those who have corrected me. Personal opinions and “feelings” are also welcome, as I am aware some people have objections that they just can’t back up.

Some references to get us started:

For information about the New Age movement, here is a wonderful 50+ page article on the Vatican web site, (thanks to YinYangMom for finding it):
vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html

For information about Fr. Keating, Contemplative Outreach, centering prayer and Lectio Divina, see CO’s website:
contemplativeoutreach.org/

Alan
 
Alan,

I think you put this very well. Centering prayer is good for some but not for everyone. One of the holiest, godliest men I know – the Desert Father at Bethlehem Hermitage – has been trying to sell it to me for three years. At this point, it’s just not for me. And I DO believe that it IS vulnerable to abuse (but hey – so’s the Mass!).

A lot of heat gets generated on this topic, most of which is pointless. The “New Age” accusations come from the fact that it resembles some non-Christian forms of prayer, and at first blush may appear to be an emptying of the mind for its own sake, which it is not.

Oremus pro invicem, Alan!
 
Hi Alan -

You make your points very well and I’ve enjoyed the obvious passion you bring to this topic.

I tend to view the CP movement in the broader context of contemplative prayer within the Catholic Church . . . especially St. Teresa Of Avilia and St. John Of The Cross.

I’ve only read one of Fr. Keating’s books (Intimacy With God?) and was curious about how Contemplative Outreach reconciles his adaptation to our long history. When I read books like Interior Castle and Dark Night Of the Soul I notice that the Doctors Of The Church spend a lot of time on the “preliminaries” to contemplative prayer: things like practicing the virtues (especially humility and detachment) , growth in holiness, and purgation. These are the things the Saints tell us prepare us for the “gift” of contemplative prayer. They also stress that if this prayer is authentic, our lives will truely be transformed and go to great lengths to illustrate how that is so.

I don’t see to much of the “before” or “after” just described in Father Keating so it comes across to me a little bit like putting the cart before the horse. Like I said, I haven’t read to much of Fr. Keating so but maybe I’m wrong or just haven’t been exposed to his views yet.

I look forward to your thoughts . . . keep up the good work!
 
Alan,

I’ll share my perspective for what it’s worth. I was assigned a Keating book to read a few years back. While he did mention St. John and St. Theresa in his historical overview of contemplative prayer, he focused his discussion of *Centering * prayer on the benfits due to the success of Eastern mysicism. He mentioned it’s similarity to Zen meditaion several times in the book. I think this may contribute to it’s reputation as “New Age”.

Another concern is in how Centering Prayer is marketed. You mentioned that your introduction was through a wise spiritual director. This is a very different expericence than someone who reads the books as some kind of spiritual “self - help” books or attends a weekend workshop at a retreat center. At least in my part of the country the retreat centers doing the Centering Prayer “training” are also teaching Reiki, Labarynth Walking and how to find the Divine Feminine in all of us. So you could say that is guilt by association. 🙂

When I was trying to fullfil my “assignment”, I was unable to find the book at a Catholic bookstore. Neither of the stores near me carried the book or any by Keating. They were not willing to order it either (very unusual since both have done special orders for me in the past). This was a definate “red flag”. I have since read many other cautions about the use of Centering Prayer.
 
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mercygate:
A lot of heat gets generated on this topic, most of which is pointless. The “New Age” accusations come from the fact that it resembles some non-Christian forms of prayer, and at first blush may appear to be an emptying of the mind for its own sake, which it is not.
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Unfortunately, not all of the heat is pointless. There are some real abuses perpetrated with such prayers. For example, I recently attended a retreat at a Dominican motherhouse that included an opportunity for us practice tai chi in conjunction with prayer in order to “move the energies” around in our bodies. Such a blatant linkage of Taoist mysticism to the practice of Christian prayer is disturbing at best.

– Mark L. Chance.
 
Dear mercygate, DBT, kmktexas, and mlchance,

Thank you for the great information. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. I will begin putting these together in some sort of organized format, for two reasons: one, I don’t have enough to do, and two, to make it available to the CO folks.

They may not pay any attention to me, but I’ve written publicity articles on their behalf so maybe they will. Who knows, maybe we can even get a response from them?

Alan
 
One thing to look it is “What is it Centered on?”. True Christian prayer centers on God. Many bad centering prayer techniques focus on centering on nothing or your innerself (i.e. you as God.)
 
This is really a question for you, AlanFromWichita, as one thing puzzles me.

Didn’t Basil Pennington introduce Centering Prayer? I have only read his book, and found it perfectly OK, though as I said yesterday in another thread on Centering Prayer, I think it wise to consider if one is really ready for it, and to also read St Teresa on the subject of acquired & infused contemplation in conjuction with material on Centering Prayer .
I see everyone is quoting Thomas Keating’s book. Did he write before or after Pennington, and if later, did he skew it more towards New Age practice (or what could be interpreted as such) ? Couldn’t see any trace of New Age in Pennington’s book.
 
Hi!

I’d like to recommend two books that deal with this topic and talk of Fr. Keating and Basil Pennington.

The first is called “Unicorn in the Sanctuary” but alas! I forget the name of the author. Can anyone else help with this?

The above book is invaluable resource material on this topic.

The second book is by Father Mitch Pacwa and is titled;
"Catholics and the New Age. - Mfaustina1
 
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ATeNumquam:
This is really a question for you, AlanFromWichita, as one thing puzzles me.

Didn’t Basil Pennington introduce Centering Prayer? I have only read his book, and found it perfectly OK, though as I said yesterday in another thread on Centering Prayer, I think it wise to consider if one is really ready for it, and to also read St Teresa on the subject of acquired & infused contemplation in conjuction with material on Centering Prayer .
I see everyone is quoting Thomas Keating’s book. Did he write before or after Pennington, and if later, did he skew it more towards New Age practice (or what could be interpreted as such) ? Couldn’t see any trace of New Age in Pennington’s book.
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Dear ATeNumquam,

Thank you for asking, and I’m glad that you noticed there is nothing spooky or “new age” about CP. There were three monks who are really behind it, Pennington, Keating and Meninger, but I didn’t really know the story. Keating writes:
Sometime in the mid-1970s, I raised the following question in a conference to our monastic community: “Could we put the Christian tradition into a form that would be accessible to people in the active ministry today and to young people who have been instructed in an Eastern technique and might be inspired to return to their Christian roots if they knew there was something similar in the Christian tradition?” Having devoted my life to the pursuit of the Christian contemplative tradition and having developed a profound appreciation of its immense value, I grieved to see it completely ignored by people who were going to the East for what could be found right at home, if only it were properly presented.

When I raised this challenge to the community, Fr. William Meninger was inspired to take it seriously. Basing himself on a fourteenth-century spiritual classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, he put together a method that he called the “Prayer of the Cloud” and started teaching it to priests in the retreat house. The response was so positive that he decided to put his conferences on audio tapes. Those tapes have sold over fifteen thousand copies and have been a take-off point for many people to use the simple form of prayer recommended by the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, in which a single word such as “God” or “Love” expresses one’s “naked intent directed to God.”
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Here’s where Pennington came in:
Major superiors of religious orders were also experiencing the wear and tear of the profound upheavals in religious life following the Second Vatican Council. The committee approached Fr. Basil Pennington, another monk of Spencer, who was well known to the Religious Conference of Men through meetings he attended on canon law, for some practical assistance. We asked ourselves how and in what form we might present the method of prayer based on The Cloud of Unknowing that Fr William Meninger was teaching to priests in the guest house.

Fr. Basil gave the first retreat to a group of provincials, both men and women, of various religious congregations at a large retreat house in Connecticut. It was they who suggested the term “Centering Prayer” to describe the practice. The term may have come from their reading of Thomas Merton, who had used this term in his writings.
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The article by Keating from which I quoted can be found starting at:
centeringprayer.com/intimacy/intimacy01a.htm

I can already tell this is going to open a whole new can of worms. In fact Keating and others did meet with Zen masters, TM experts, and the like so I’m sure the buzzword-phobics are ready to descend on me as soon as they read this.

Gee, there is so much good information in that article that if you’re interested you should just read it. It also talks about several of the objections that have been posted.

Alan
 
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Mfaustina1:
Hi!

I’d like to recommend two books that deal with this topic and talk of Fr. Keating and Basil Pennington.

The first is called “Unicorn in the Sanctuary” but alas! I forget the name of the author. Can anyone else help with this?

The above book is invaluable resource material on this topic.

The second book is by Father Mitch Pacwa and is titled;
"Catholics and the New Age. - Mfaustina1
Click to expand...
Dear Mfaustina1,

I found the “Unicorn” book on amazon.com, at:
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0895554518/qid=1094096747/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-0901643-1718463?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Unfortunately, they did not have an excerpt from the book to read online. I think the title is pretty funny, but I don’t plan to buy the book because I’m not really interested in paying money to learn any more about new age. It isn’t in our public library, but if I see it in a book store I’ll browse it.

The “Catholics” one is also on amazon, at:
amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089283756X/qid=1094096948/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-0901643-1718463
It does have an online excerpt which is interesting, but unfortunately doesn’t get to anything about centering prayer. It did corroborate, however, with some of Fr. Keating’s comments in his article I referenced in my last post, about monks that were sent into ghettos right after Vatican II who were really not prepared for it, and became burned out. Unfortunately that one is not in our public library either.

Alan
 
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AlanFromWichita:
I can already tell this is going to open a whole new can of worms. In fact Keating and others did meet with Zen masters, TM experts, and the like so I’m sure the buzzword-phobics are ready to descend on me as soon as they read this.

Alan
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But doesn’t this “pull to the East” to which Pennington (was it?) refers raise some questions in your mind? Is it so bad to think in terms of Zen? Or even in Hindu philosophical categories (from the Upanishads)?

I have often wondered if Catholicism migh benefit from a kind of re-culturalization.

Let me put it this way: historically, Catholic theology has been understood in both Jewish and Greek (Platonic and Aristotelian) categories. While these have by no means grown stale (Thomism, the height of that sythesis, is still and will always be a tremendous light), I wonder what a competent viewing of Catholic theology would look like through the view of Zen Buddhist categories? While there have been some that have attempted to do this (the most orthodox being Dom Aelred Graham–sp?–in the 70s of the Benedictine Abbey of Portsmouth in his “Zen Catholicism”) I don’t know that it has yet been satisfactorily done…

I see no harm though, per se, in referring to Zen. While Zen is lacking tremendously, both philosophically and religiously, it still does contain gems of truth (here, I submit what the Church said through the VII document Nostra Aetate, that truth can be found in the other great religions…)

Another question: what is wrong with meditation (in the broad Eastern sense) if it is viewed as nothing more than a natural phenomena that can serve as a means of quieting the mind, quieting the Ego, as a preparation for true prayer, that “lifting of one’s mind and heart to God.”?
 
Centering prayer is not new age, it is what monks, priests, nuns, the devout and religious have done throughout the ages, it is contemplative and meditative prayer that has been now made available to all people as something they can also make spiritual use of and embrace.It is in effect contemplative prayer which by no means is new age in that it is always ‘centered’ around Christ Jesus, God and the Holy spirit and yourself in prayer with them. It is as it always was the centering of yourself within prayer complete and utter emptying of the self and submergance within the Lord.
scborromeo.org/ccc/p4s1c3a1.htm

chastitysf.guidetopsychology.com/howtopray.htm

Have a look at these links and see what you think.

God Bless and much love and peace to you xxx
 
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mlchance:
Unfortunately, not all of the heat is pointless. There are some real abuses perpetrated with such prayers. For example, I recently attended a retreat at a Dominican motherhouse that included an opportunity for us practice tai chi in conjunction with prayer in order to “move the energies” around in our bodies. Such a blatant linkage of Taoist mysticism to the practice of Christian prayer is disturbing at best.

– Mark L. Chance.
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I am not surprised. I did say that CP is vulnerable to abuse (as is the Mass or our bodies – all the greatest gifts of God are vulnerable to abuse). “Move our energies?” Gag. Would that have been at Sinsinawa Mound?
 
yes mercygate, that is clearly an abuse of contemplative/meditative/centering prayer.
 
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