On 2009-02-07 Elizabeth, Wisconsin wrote: 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.. And summed up by saying My soul is thirsting for the Lord; this book does not satisfy. Currently Zen Catholicism has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
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The Crossroad Publishing Company claimed More timely than ever, this gem of a book blends East and West into a spiritual vision of enormous practical value.
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