Review by Ron Dart.

Cynthia Bourgeault (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Cowley Publications, 2004)
These days are characterized by a strong interest in
spirituality, contemplation, and the mystical approach to knowing and living a
meaningful life. Typically, this has taken the form of a reactionary stance by
many in the West, who turn to the East to slake such a thirst. But the last few
decades have seen a reversal of this trend, whereupon people are digging deeper
into the Western Tradition for the contemplative and mystical way. Some
sensitive and alert people have also attempted to think and live through the
best of the Eastern and Western contemplative and mystical ways. It is in this
latter approach that Centering Prayer and
Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault must be located.

Centering Prayer and
Inner Awakening is a must read for anyone interested in the present state
of the contemplative and mystical ways. It knits together, in a delicate and
wise way, the “Centering Prayer Tradition” of Thomas Keating and the “Christian
Meditation Tradition” of John Main. Bourgeault also makes clear how centering
prayer is distinct in theory and purpose from various Eastern perspectives.

Centering Prayer and
Inner Awakening is divided into five sections: I) The Method of Centering
Prayer, II) The Tradition of Centering Prayer, III) The Psychology of Centering
Prayer, IV) Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening and V) Epilogue: The Way of
the Heart. Each of these sections, with much insight, grace and incisive ease,
highlights how centering prayer stirs and awakens the inner life. Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening
builds on the ideas of Thomas Merton, William Johnston, Bede Griffiths, Thomas
Keating, and John Main, but takes such a perspective to a more applied level.

Despite these positive points, I have five questions and
concerns about this book (as I had about Bourgeault’s earlier work, The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an
Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart: 2003).

First, Bourgeault seems to think Merton’s interest and
commitment to the contemplative way can be traced to the 1960s (p.55). In fact,
Merton, the American Beats (Snyder, Kerouac, Kyger, Whalen, Ginsberg) and, in
Canada, George Grant, were interested in recovering the contemplative way in
the 1940s and early 1950s. But this is a small historical point.

Second, many of the great contemplatives of the past and
present (in the West and East) wedded the mystical with the political. The unio
mystica was as much about inner awakening as it was about peacemaking
and seeking justice. The fact that Bourgeault does not integrate the mystical
and prophetic means that her approach to centering prayer and inner awakening
borders on the Gnostic and is one-dimensional.

Third, Bourgeault’s commitment to the apophatic and via
negativa as the deeper source and centre of the contemplative way can be
questioned and doubted. The greatest mystics of the Church have held in tension
the apophatic-cataphatic way. Bourgeault has a tendency to pre-define what the
real state of inner awakening and attentiveness should be. The mystics of the
Latin West and Greek East had a broader, more gracious and deeper sense of the
mystery of where and how inner awakening begins, buds, blossoms, and bears
abundant fruit.

Fourth, I would have liked to see more about how such
centering prayer and inner awakening connects with the complex nature of parish
and church life. Bourgeault lights but does not really land in this area.

Finally, it seems to me that Bourgeault’s metaphysics can
collide with her mystical theology. The world of Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, and clan
do, when day is done, take the devotees to different places than many of the
contemplatives of the Christian West and East. This does need to be noted and
thought through in more depth and detail.

Centering Prayer and
Inner Awakening is a fine primer on an essential topic, but there are
worrisome aspects to this tract for the times. Perhaps, in the future,
Bourgeault will deal with such issues in a more substantive manner.

rsd