Online Zoom Forum: Father Thomas Keating: The Spiritual Vision of Contemplation and Transformation in his Life and Work.
Date: Wednesday 2 April 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).
Event Description:
Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.
Chair:
Ken Webb:
Born in China and brought up in Burma, Ken Webb graduated from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, University of London to practice medicine first in the UK and then, for many years, in Thailand. He went on to study theology at Trinity College Bristol, graduating in 1992, and was ordained into Anglican ministry after a further year of post graduate study. He spent the last five years before retiring in 2017 overseeing the training of those preparing for authorised ministry in the diocese of Edinburgh. Ken was introduced to the Enneagram in 1995 and began to delve more deeply into it in 2014, undertaking a number of courses put on by the Shift Network and Enneagram Institute. Since retiring he has offered a number of taster days, courses and retreats. At the same time he has read and researched the original writings of Gurdjieff, and it is on these that his current work is based.
Speakers:
Prof Ilia Delio:
Title: Thomas Keating and Second Axial Monasticism: A Comparison with Thomas Merton.
Description: Thomas Merton experienced a breakthrough in consciousness, described in his theophanic experience at Fourth and Walnut streets. Similarly, Thomas Keating experienced a profound shift in consciousness, as Cynthia Bourgeault describes in her recent book on Fr. Keating. Like Merton, Fr. Thomas internalized the monk as a planetary pilgrim in search of unity. I will discuss the significance of their experiences in term of Christophany and the import of their lives for revitalizing Christian life today.
Bio: Ilia Delio holds the Josephine C. Connelly Chair in Theology at Villanova University. Her area of research is Systematic-Constructive theology with a focus on evolution, quantum physics and artificial intelligence, and the import of these for Christian doctrine and life. She is the author of twenty-four books including The Not-yet God, The Hours of the Universe, winner of the 2022 Gold Nautilus Book Award, and Making All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology and Consciousness, a finalist for the 2019 Michael Ramsey prize. She lectures nationally and internationally on topics in Science and Religion. She is the founder of the Center for Christogenesis, an online spiritual and educational resource for the integration of science, religion and culture.
The Rev Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D.:
Title: A Rising Tide of Oneness: Thomas Keating’s final vision of a Unified Humanity.
Description: In the final thirty years of his life, Fr. Thomas Keating’s mature teaching converged around the theme of Unity Consciousness, manifesting in three dimensions simultaneously: as a state of consciousness, as a desideratum among the world’s religions, and as an urgent necessity for humankind. His final teaching, offered from his bedside two weeks before his death, encapsulates this convergence in a hauntingly prophetic final oracle. My talk will explore this final teaching and the path of threefold oneness leading steadily up to it.
Bio: Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader. She divides her time between solitude and sailing the waters around her seaside hermitage in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom paths.
Cynthia is a core faculty emeritus at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has been honored by the annual Watkins Review as one of the 100 most spiritually influential living people in 2021.
Dr Stephen J. Costello:
Title: Modern Mystic: Thomas Keating's Dark Night of the Soul.
Description: Taking a cue from Cynthia Bourgeaut, I will consider firstly, Thomas Keating's understanding of St John of the Cross' dark night of the senses as a deconstruction of the false self system and secondly, how the dark night of the spirit impacted Keating.
Bio: Dr Stephen J. Costello, PhD is a prominent philosopher, psychoanalyst, founder of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Ireland, Enneagram coach, and the author of 16 books including his most recent Ignatian Mysticism, and The Alchemy of Addiction.
Dr Jesse Fox:
Title: Lectio Divina and The Contemplative Renewal Inspired by Thomas Keating.
Description: When the history of Western Spirituality is written, Fr. Thomas Keating will undoubtedly be remembered for his role in inspiring a generation of contemplatives to seek God in silence through his distillation of the practice of Centering Prayer. Foundational to this contemplative movement was the framework of Lectio Divina, the ancient practice of praying the scriptures. Today, there is a upswell of interest in Lectio Divina from a wide spectrum of Christian denominations. What is it about this practice that draws so many spiritual seekers across generations? This talk will focus on how and why Lectio Divina continues to appeal to contemplatives today and how Fr. Thomas teachings on contemplation helped to cast a depth of vision that renewed this ancient practice.
Bio: Jesse Fox is an Associate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Counselor Education at Stetson University. His work focuses on the importance of spirituality for mental health and human flourishing and his research in these areas has been funded by the John Templeton Foundation and the Templeton World Charity Foundation. Most recently, he serves as Principal Investigator on the Science of Lectio Divina, a special initiative of the Science of Religious and Spiritual Exercises program of the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
Dr Rory McEnte:
Title: The Snowmass Conferences, Interspiritual Dialogue, and Thomas Keating's Vision of the Future of Religion.
Description: In this talk, Rory will describe the "Snowmass Conferences," for which he was the administrator, and discuss how the experience of interspiritual dialogue that happened there affected and informed Fr. Keating's vision for the future of religion.
Bio: Rory McEntee is an author, scholar, educator, and contemplative activist. As a close friend and mentee of the late Brother Wayne Teasdale, Rory helped to found the Interspiritual Movement, traveling and participating in dialogues with world spiritual leaders, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis. Rory served as administrator for the Snowmass InterSpiritual Dialogues—a 30-year project convened by Father Thomas Keating, engaging contemplative leaders from multiple faiths in intimate dialogue and contemplative practice.
As a leader in the new monastic movement, Rory is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Charis Foundation for New Monasticism & Interspirituality, which supports various projects in interspirituality and new monasticism, including the “Future of Religion and InterSpirituality” Dialogues, Charis Circles, Charis Meditation training, HeartFire Festivals, the Thomas Keating Interspiritual Seminars, and Charis InterSpiritual Formation Program.
As a scholar, Rory has done doctoral work in Applied Mathematics at the University of Southern California and has a PhD in Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion from Drew University. His current research and writing concentrates on questions of democracy, contemplative spirituality, university life, religion, decolonial practice, and social justice. Rory also has interests in evolutionary theory, the nature of language, mysticism, consciousness studies, and philosophy. Rory teaches at Drew University, facilitates contemplative retreats around the U.S. and internationally, is co-author of The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living (with Adam Bucko, Orbis Books, 2015), and has published many essays on interspirituality, new monasticism, and the academic discipline of “theology without walls.” In the past, Rory served as a teacher, department head, and vice-principal in secondary education. You might catch him snowboarding, traveling the globe, playing basketball, or meditating on any given day.
An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.
NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.
Cost: By Donation:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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