Customer Reviews

Zen Catholicism

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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."

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.

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.

I would like to point out that the basic content of Catholic Christianity is the person of Jesus, and our relationship to Him, and to our Father, God, through Him. To state the obvious, Zen and Christianity do not have Jesus in common. This is an immense difference. A reviewer on amazon.co.uk wrote that "catholicism (lowercase-c sic), in its pure, humble human form has a lot in common with zen (sic)," I interpret that in other words, this reader feels that if you could remove God from Catholicism, it has a lot of similarity to Zen!

Comparing various concepts from Zen and Christian spirituality, we may find that because of the Natural Naw and the universality of God-given inborn human wisdom there is often overlap--similar kinds of insights expressed sometimes in similar ways, similar meditative practices. However, as the great teacher and theologian of contemplative prayer, St. John of the Cross, expresses it, the goal of life is "union with God in love"--our human vocation is certainly not fulfilled by union with Zen "nothingness." As another Doctor of the Church, St. Therese of Lisieux, said, "my vocation is love."

_Zen Catholicism_ is probably not heretical in the technical sense, yet it's fair to say it's not terribly concerned with orthodoxy, and I think it's fair to go a little further and say that I don't see it as terribly concerned with, much less passionate about, Jesus. This is a book that may have value for specialists in interfaith matters, for instance in its discussions of the relationship between the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas with Zen thought. However this is not a book to help the typical Catholic to grow in the understanding and living of their faith, and it's likely to confuse and mislead many people. Many (most?) Catholics are very unfamiliar with the spiritual riches of THEIR OWN faith tradition, and would be so well served by and so delighted and refreshed by the writings of some of the great Saints, John of the Cross, or Teresa of Avila, or Augustine (to mention some favorites of mine, superb mystics and Doctors of the Church), or so many others.

May God inspire with the Spirit of Truth, and faith, hope and love, those working in the interfaith field, and raise up some better theologians.