The first portrait of spiritual luminary Thomas Keating’s remarkable evolution, in the last decades of his life, into a fully realized modern-day Christian mystic.
In the first four decades of his life as a Trappist monk, Thomas Keating created a comprehensive, unified psychospiritual pathway leading from healing to holiness and from contemporary psychological wellness to classic mystical sanctity and beatitude.
As one of the key innovators of the meditative practice of Centering Prayer, he fashioned a powerful on-ramp to the Christian contemplative tradition. Yet, as Cynthia Bourgeault shows, that was not the end of Keating’s story—his evolution as a spiritual thinker and mystic continued in ways few have explored in depth. In this unique blend of biography, personal experience, and close reading of his late works, Bourgeault illuminates Keating’s remarkable spiritual development from the late 1980s until his death in 2018. She explores:
- Keating’s increasing engagement with nondual spiritual practice
- His contributions to interspiritual dialogue
- The evolution of his early teaching on the movement from “false self” to “true self,” to that from “true self” to “no self”
- His final “dark night of the spirit” and passage through death
- New evidence that he never left Christianity but carried it with him to new places
These profound final stages of Keating’s spiritual journey demonstrate how readers might find their own way as modern mystics, fundamentally at home and at peace in the universe.
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“A must read for Centering Prayer practitioners in navigating the farther, subtler terrain of their path and for anyone seeking a model of embodied Christian nonduality. Cynthia has given Thomas, and the world, aa tremendous gift with this masterpiece of modern mysticism.” ~ David Frenette, author of The Path of Centering Prayer: Deepening the Experience of God.
“A tour de force graced by a rare blend of intellectual heft and devotional depth.” ~ Ted Jones, insight meditation teacher and nephew of Fr. Thomas Keating
“Cynthia worked closely with Thomas Keating for nearly thirty years, and her book is a spiritual cartography as well as a testimony of entangle souls in search of divine reality. The result is a groundbreaking work that will establish Thomas Keating among the great mystic of our time.” ~ Ilia Delio, OSF
“If you want to get a sense of the poetry, the beauty, and the promise of the mystical life for today (and tomorrow), then read Cynthia Bourgeault’s luminous study on the mature wisdom of Thomas Keating.” ~ Carl McColman, author of The New Biography Book of Christian Mysticism
“My holy-rascal sister Cynthia Bourgeault saw something in him that I could not — until now. Thomas Keating: The Making of a Modern Christian Mystic is a clear, compelling, and joyously dangerous revelation of Truth. It is the unlocked door that awaits your knock. So, knock!” ~ Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of Holy Rascals: Advice for Revolutionaries.
“Cynthia Bourgeault, one of Father Keating’s great spiritual heirs, takes us on a beautifully told, wise, and inspiring journey into the expansiveness of his thoughts, leading us to an integrative vision of nonduality.” ~ Jonathan F. P. Rose, author of The Well-Tempered City