Cynthia Bourgeault – “Go beyond the Mind”: How Evolutionary Consciousness sheds new light on an ancient Christian Dichotomy
For more than fifteen hundred years the terrain of Christian Prayer has been fundamentally partitioned into two categories: cataphatic, or “prayer of form,” drawing on the faculties of the mind and emotions, and apophatic, formless or wordless prayer, unfolding deeper within a person’s being, beyond both thought and personal emotion. This fundamental dichotomy has in turn given rise to two contrasting spiritual pathways: the via positiva (or “way of affirmation”) and via negativa (the “way of negation”). Contemporary meditation practices are typically assigned to that latter category.
But what if, like most arbitrary partitions, these categories wind up separating what is intended to work together and may in fact be the unbeknownst driveshaft of our spiritual evolution? In this talk contemporary Christian mystic and spiritual teacher Cynthia Bourgeault (picking up on the insight first tentatively ventured in the 14th century Christian mystical masterpiece The Cloud of Unknowing) will build the case that cataphatic and apophatic are not different spiritual pathways or personality types, but two different levels of consciousness that are intended, in fact, to be in constant dialogue and reciprocal nourishment with each other in order for our authentic task as human beings can be fully accomplished.
CYNTHIA BOURGEAULT is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader. She divides her time between solitude and sailing the waters around her seaside hermitage in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom paths.
Cynthia is a core faculty emeritus at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has been honored by the annual Watkins Review as one of the 100 most spiritually influential living people in 2021.
Speaker
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Cynthia BourgeaultEpiscopal Priest, TheologianCynthia Bourgeault is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, and theologian. For thirty years she worked closely with Fr. Thomas Keating as a student, editor, and colleague and has taught and written extensively on Centering Prayer. She is a core faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation and founding director of an international network of Wisdom Schools. In addition to her work on Centering Prayer, she is the author of numerous other books on the Christian Mystical and Wisdom tradition, including The Wisdom Jesus, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, and her most recent, Eye of the Heart: A Spiritual Journey into the Imaginal Realm.
