The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation (Wit Lectures.)

Rating:
Summary: Very helpful to ready with his other books
Review: Fr. Keating explains clearly his underlying principles in this small book. I found this book very helpful while studying his other books. This book is also a mind-opener for people regardless of their religion/denomination.

Rating:
Summary: A Short, Worthwhile Read
Review: Here are two lectures delivered by the author at Harvard in 1997 (The foreword by Pagels is as long as this review). The first lecture's theme is '_where_ are you?', whereas the second lecture's is '_who_ are you?' Keating sees these two questions as accurately dividing the contemplative life, specifically the Christian contemplative life. His writing reminds me of Anthony DeMello.

He defines the 'where' question by beginning with the garden story as a revelation of where _we_ are. "At every moment of our lives, God is asking 'Where are you? Why are you hiding?' All the questions that are fundamental to human happiness arise when we ask ourselves this excruciating question: _Where_ am I? Where am I in relation to God, to myself, and to others? These are the basic questions of human life."

Then he goes on further, "happiness is intimacy with God, the experience of Gods' loving presence. Without that experience, nothing else quite works; with it, almost anything works."

"This is the human condition - to be without the true source of happiness, which is the experience of the presence of God, and to have lost the key to happiness, which is the contemplative dimension to life, the path to the increasing assimilation and enjoyment of God's presence." I think that summarizes in Keating's own words what he set out to accomplish in this book.

From a spiritual perspective, Keating's ideas of 'the divine therapy', our poor emotional programs for happiness, and the false self are quite good, and his descriptions are excellent. My experience with the Divine Hours confirms a good amount of what he says. With the exception of a stray comment here or there that seem to be unwarranted imports from eastern thinking at odds with Hebraic thought, much of this is solid. But the theological framework that he's housed them in is shaky at best and needs to be rethought, in my humble and transitory opinion. For a fairly good, simple correction to that problem, read 'Mysteries of Faith' by Mark McIntosh. I think both 'liberal' and 'conservative' will appreciate that work, as well as the main thrust of this one.

Rating:
Summary: New perspective
Review: Thomas Keating addresses, in words that anyone can understand, exactly what we are dealing with as we start on the contemplative path. As a neophyte, I found this book to be one of the most descriptive, illumniating, and encouraging I've read so far.

I had never considered a correlation between psychyology and spirituality. As I proceeded through the text it became crystal clear that there most definitely is one, and that without a doubt, God is the answer to "the human condition."