Richard Rohr — The Wisdom Way (Part One)

About this sermon

“The Wisdom Way: Scripture, Tradition, and Experience” was a week-long retreat held at the Center for Action and Contemplation for students from Fuller Seminary in April and May 2013. The week of teaching was designed with the goal of “understand[ing] scripture and tradition and experience in a critical way.” Ultimately, Father Richard Rohr and the Fuller students sought to develop a working definition of wisdom for those seeking contemplative spirituality. This first session of day 1 begins with an introduction to the CAC and the Living School by Alicia Johnson, the CAC’s Executive Director. Fr. Richard Rohr then introduces his intentions for the 40 hours of work the group will do together throughout the week. Asking the students about themes they would like to cover, they mention topics such as the true self and the false self; divine union; the work of Ken Wilber on spiral dynamics; bringing post-evangelical teachings into church communities; Christology; contemplative practice; the transcendence of God; the Trinity; inclusivity in church communities; a history of contemplative spirituality; incarnation spirituality; and Fr. Richard’s framework of the necessity for tradition, experience, and scripture. Fr. Richard begins his teaching noting that his ultimate goal for the week is to “understand scripture and tradition and experience in a critical way, which is the interpretation of reason,” with a particular focus on experience. He offers the term “nondual” as a description of contemplation: ultimately, the mystics are “people who read reality nondually, not in an argumentative way.” Fr. Richard teaches that we cannot begin in divine union but must start out in dualistic consciousness: we evolve in consciousness from what he calls the purgative way to the illuminative way, and finally to the unitive way which is nondualism. Jesus modeled utilizing both dualistic thinking and nondualistic thinking, teaching us that “you still have to use rational mind, but you know rational mind is not the highest level of consciousness.” Fr. Richard concludes noting six “great things that cannot be processed with the rational, dualistic mind: love, death, suffering, any honest notion of God, . . . any honest understanding of infinity, . . . [and] sexuality.” CENTER FOR ACTION AND CONTEMPLATION The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) is an educational nonprofit introducing seekers to the contemplative Christian path of transformation. Founded by Richard Rohr in 1987, our programs and resources are designed to help deepen prayer practice and strengthen compassionate engagement in the world. https://cac.org Subscribe: https://bit.ly/3QypRgu Learn more about Who We Are: https://bit.ly/3D8TtdU Learn more about What We Do: https://bit.ly/3qrYFGc Learn more about Richard Rohr: https://bit.ly/3ozYdmP Learn more about Contemplation: https://bit.ly/3wNojGF

Topics

• Wisdom