Jesus introduced healing into the Judaism of his day, and for the Church's first three hundred years, healing was an important spiritual practice. In Contemplative Healing, author Francis Geddes describes healing prayer's importance and recommends congregations renew this ancient Christian practice. Geddes presents an overview of Christian healing for the church and beyond. It addresses society's need for loving connection with one another and the source of our being within a broad Christian context. Contemplative Healing demonstrates the following essential points: Everyone can be a healer Science and healing need not be at odds. Jesus introduced healing as a transforming spiritual practice. Healing is grounded in love. Contemplative Healing communicates how the loving spirit of God and Christ function in a community by alleviating pain and bringing wholeness. Praise for CONTEMPLATIVE HEALING "This book's treatment of healing as a spiritual and Christian practice is important for Christians and the church in our time. It creates a framework for seeing healing within the practice of Jesus and early Christianity, attends to the relationship between healing and contemporary medical science, and describes how to introduce the practice of healing into local congregations." -MARCUS J. BORG, AUTHOR, THE HEART OF CHRISTIANITY
Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy offers mental health professionals of all disciplines and orientations the most comprehensive and rigorous introduction to the state of the art and science in integrating mindfulness, compassion, and embodiment techniques. It brings together clinicians and thinkers of unprecedented caliber, featuring some of the most eminent pioneers in a rapidly growing field. The array of contributors represents the full spectrum of disciplines whose converging advances are driving today’s promising confluence of psychotherapy with contemplative science. This historic volume expands the dialogue and integration among neuroscience, contemplative psychology, and psychotherapy to include the first full treatment of second- and third-generation contemplative therapies, based on advanced meditation techniques of compassion training and role-modeled embodiment. Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy offers the most profound and synoptic overview to date of one of the most intriguing and promising fields in psychotherapy today.
During our chaotic times, discover five forgotten values that can spark internal growth and help us reconcile our Christian faith with the complexities of race, sexuality, and social justice. WINNER OF THE CHRISTIANITY TODAY BOOK AWARD Most believers live in the state of “being a Christian” without ever being deeply formed by Christ. Our pace is too frenetic to be in union with God, and we don’t know how to quiet our hearts and minds to be present. Our emotions are unhealthy and compartmentalized. We feel unable to love well or live differently from the rest of the world—to live as people of the good news. New York pastor Rich Villodas says we must restore balance, focus, and meaning for our souls. The Deeply Formed Life lays out a fresh vision for spiritual breakthrough following five key values: • Contemplative Rhythms Value: slowing down our lives to be with God. • Racial Justice Value: examining a multi-layered approach to pursuing racial justice and reconciliation. • Interior Examination Value: looking beneath the surface of our lives to live free and love well. • Sexual Wholeness Value: exploring how our sexuality connects with our spirituality. • Missional Presence Value: living as the presence of Christ in a broken world. The Deeply Formed Life is a roadmap to live in the richly rooted place we all yearn for: a place of communion with God, a place where we find our purpose. Praise for The Deeply Formed Life “The Deeply Formed Life is a book for our time. Honest, wise, insightful, funny, and—above all—deep. The way Rich and New Life Fellowship hold emotional health and racial justice together is beyond inspiring. This is spiritual formation for the future of the church.”—John Mark Comer, pastor of teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church and author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry “I’ve studied the Bible under Pastor Rich’s leadership for close to a decade. The core values he shares in this book serve as guidance, not only for how we should live as Christians in an ever-changing world but also for how we can live a life of purpose—that consistently and enthusiastically points to Jesus.”—Susan Kelechi Watson, actress from the awardwinning television series This Is Us
Integrating two decades of hospice care and social science research, this heartfelt book offers practical lessons on the transformative possibilities of end-of-life caregiving. Contemplative Caregiving is an indispensable guide for end-of-life caregivers and for anyone seeking to transform experiences of caregiving and grief. Rather than leading to burnout and despair, caring for those who are suffering and dying can enrich our lives with meaning and further our own spiritual growth and resilience. Whether you are caring for a loved one with cancer or dementia, grieving a sudden traumatic loss, or even serving time in prison, Contemplative Caregiving offers encouragement for showing up to the fullness of life in whatever those circumstances may be. Healing, compassion, and spiritual growth are available to us all, in this lifetime, right now. Baugher’s unique style of integrating social scientific research on caregiving and grief with teachings from Buddhist, contemplative Christian, and other wisdom traditions illuminates how we each can transform experiences of loss and suffering into a path of compassion. Contemplative Caregiving weaves together powerful stories from interviews with diverse hospice caregivers—Vietnam veterans, nurses, housewives, Catholic nuns, those convicted of murder—with the author’s own journey toward wholeness in the face of grief and traumatic loss, including the murder of his own mother. Through rich storytelling, teachings on compassion, and skillful contemplative exercises, Baugher invites you to join him in exploring the healing power of contemplative caregiving.
Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy offers mental health professionals of all disciplines and orientations the most comprehensive and rigorous introduction to the art of integrating contemplative psychology, ethics, and practices, including mindfulness, compassion, and embodiment techniques. It brings together clinicians, scholars, and thought leaders of unprecedented caliber, featuring some of the most eminent pioneers in the rapidly growing field of contemplative psychotherapy. The new edition offers an expanded array of effective contemplative interventions, contemplative psychotherapies, and contemplative approaches to clinical practice. New chapters discuss how contemplative work can effect positive psychosocial change at the personal, interpersonal, and collective levels to address racial, gender, and other forms of systemic oppression. The new edition also explores the cross-cultural nuances in the integration of Buddhist psychology and healing practices by Western researchers and clinicians and includes the voices of leading Tibetan doctors. Advances in Contemplative Psychotherapy offers a profound and synoptic overview of one of psychotherapy’s most intriguing and promising fields.
This incisive work explores the multifaceted struggles of graduate students, confronting burnout, political complexity, and societal crises like COVID-19 epidemic, racism, homophobia, transphobia, patriarchy, white supremacy, xenophobia, and ableism. The mass exodus of workers during the Great Resignation in the United States left many grappling with unemployment, debt, and existential uncertainty, feeling devalued and alienated in academic environments. The RACE Mentoring-Health and Spirituality group emerged as a pivotal initiative, providing essential support in the face of these challenges. The book highlights the critical issue of declining enrollment and completion rates in graduate programs leading to a staffing crisis in higher education. Students from marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted. In response, resilient students have formed supportive networks, showcasing their ability to adapt and thrive despite adversity. This volume of the RACE Mentoring series focuses on these students' survival strategies, self-care techniques, and insights into healing both personally and professionally. The contributors, sharing their diverse experiences, offer practical advice for navigating challenging landscapes. This work serves as a comprehensive guide for healing, growth, and finding inspiration amidst adversity, symbolizing a beacon of hope and resilience for those facing similar challenges. It is a testament to the power of community and perseverance in overcoming significant obstacles. ENDORSEMENTS: "I strongly recommend this book to all graduate students and their loved ones, as well as to higher education faculty, staff, and everyone committed to a more just world. Richard D. Williams and the other distinguished authors have cocreated a beacon of hope backed by diverse and scholarly rigor. It offers invaluable insights and practices for those facing unprecedented stress, burnout, and mental health challenges. This book is a must-read for anyone committed to personal and professional healing." — Monica L Hanson, Stanford University "Healing While Studying will be a transformative experience for readers who will feel as if they are conversing with trusted mentors – mentors who truly understand the unique challenges that minoritized graduate students face. The authors' insightful analysis, personal reflections, and strategies for healing, coping, and liberation are powerful, practical, and thought-provoking ideas that will challenge your assumptions and expand your understanding. In addition, the storytelling was captivating, and the author's ability to weave complex ideas into a coherent narrative was awe-inspiring. Whether you're just starting your graduate program or already well into your studies, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to navigate academia gracefully and resiliently. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to heal while studying and thrive as a minoritized graduate student." — Cynthia A. Tyson, The Ohio State University
Father Thomas Keating is the founder of the Centering Prayer movement, based on the retreat into the "inner room" mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 6:6, where the individual is able to meet God. From the book Manifesting God, Father Keating explains the process of divine therapy and the process of purification in contemplative prayer.
The best-selling author of The Wisdom Jesus and The Meaning of Mary Magdalene demystifies the popular Christian meditation method rooted in contemplative prayer Centering Prayer is the path to a wonderful and radical new way of seeing the world. It is not, as is sometimes thought, simply an act of devotional piety, nor is it simply a Christianized form of other meditation methods. Cynthia Bourgeault here cuts through the misconceptions to show that Centering Prayer is in fact a pioneering development within the Christian contemplative tradition. She provides a practical, complete course in the practice and then goes deeper to analyze what actually happens in Centering Prayer: the mind effectively switches to a new operating system that makes possible the perception of nonduality. With this understanding in place, she then takes us on a journey through one of the sources of the practice, the Christian contemplative classic The Cloud of Unknowing, revealing it to be among the earliest Christian explorations of the phenomenology of consciousness. Cynthia Bourgeault’s illumination of the Centering Prayer path provides compelling evidence of how important the practice has become in the half-century since it first arose among American Trappist monks, and of its maturation and refinement over the ensuing years of sincere study and practice. It will resonate with beginners on the Centering Prayer path as well as with seasoned practitioners.
God's Presence in the Present: Contemplative Prayer and the Healing Process explores the journey of transforming our disconnected and discontent state of being to one that is fully present and fully aware of the Presence of God. The book leads readers through the process of leaning into our discomfort, becoming aware of our thinking and the Present Moment and opening ourselves up to the Presence of God. Based on the author's own personal journey the book provides insight into the spiritual practice of Contemplative Prayer and Healing. This book offer readers practical steps to help them on their path to healing, as well as spiritual insights about how connecting to the Presence of God can truly transform our way of thinking, feeling and living. A Portion of the Proceeds from this book benefits The Community Growth Center and Hope House Ministries
