The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living

⭐Advance Praise and Reviews⭐

"There is enough guidance, connection, and wisdom in this book to keep you acting, thinking and praying for a lifetime! You would be foolish not to take advantage of it. Rory and Adam are trying to do what St. Francis wanted to do 800 years ago. Maybe now we are more prepared and even ready!" - Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation Albuquerque, New Mexico

“I have been following Adam and Rory for a few years now…As you will see, Rory and Adam are very wise, and this book is a transmission of the perennial wisdom reimagined for an emerging globalized world. The vision they share here is both practical and exalted. They use language with precision: offering a masterpiece of scholarship unencumbered by jargon. New Monasticism is lucid and soaring, arcing gracefully between the landscapes of theology and love poetry….When you read these pages, you step into a world you have always hoped was possible and find your own place there…At least I did.” -Mirabai Starr, acclaimed translator of Christian mystics and author of God of Love

"Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko, pilgrims of a new monasticism, write with reverence about our collective spiritual inheritance, and in remembrance of the singular Presence that alone fills the soul’s longing. Offering a comprehensive introduction to a new monastic movement, including its pathways and transformations, Bucko and McEntee share their map of the journey to Divine awakening, honoring the monk within. This is a book for anyone who seeks the mystical cloister beyond any one form, with a monastic heart open to all creation." -Beverly Lanzetta, PhD, author of Radical Wisdom: A Feminist Mystical Theology and Path of the Heart

“The New Monasticism is a sensitive and often symphonic rendering of Wisdom’s irresistible call to participate in the life story of God through intimate gatherings with others, communion with Earth, and the discovery of the divine Artist who lives in every person. As more and more people feel themselves drawn to new and ancient models of community, creativity, prayer, and peacemaking, McEntee and Bucko have given us an indispensable handbook for what Thomas Merton calls ‘the work of new being in grace.’ This is an inspired invitation and blueprint, tested by the authors’ real-world experiences, for rediscovering Love and mystical theology as an integral way of life.” -Christopher Pramuk, PhD, author of Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton.

“The New Monasticism is a superb, important new book surveying a significant new spiritual movement…a movement that is an important part of the population of those who identify themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious. A large part of this movement—in any of its many forms—is driven by the fact that today, for the first time in history, we have access to all of the world’s great religious and spiritual traditions, and the many ways that they complement—and in some ways complete—each other…The authors explore this new territory, its meaning, its many practices, its actual components, in a lucid, clear, compelling way, making the central insights of this significant, leading-edge evolutionary movement open and accessible. Highly recommended for anybody who wants their thumb on the spiritual pulse of today’s religious seeker, or who feels themselves that they are ‘spiritual but not religious.’” -Ken Wilber, author of Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality, Integral Psychology and Integral Spirituality

“The inspiration of this book and its presentation of ‘The New Monasticism’ seems to be a genuine movement of the Holy Spirit. …The monastic vocation epitomizes everyone’s vocation to divine union, whether God is perceived as personal or impersonal. Hence the term “monk” presupposes a radical commitment to surrender the ego-self in order to receive the completely gratuitous gift of participation in the divine life of love, peace, compassion, forgiveness, service of others, and wisdom. …Adam and Rory have recognized the benefits as well as the hazards of trying to create a new set of spiritual practices built on the wisdom of traditional monastic structures, but with great openness to the technological and scientific opportunities of contemporary culture. …This great love calls for a personal response from humans that leads to the most intimate relationship conceivable. It awaits our consent.” -Father Thomas Keating, Trappist monk, co-founder of Centering Prayer and author of Invitation to Love and Intimacy with God

“Adam and Rory have responded both to their heart’s calling and the need of the time… Here is the path from separation back to union with God told once again, in a language both ancient and modern. It speaks to the present day, of a ‘new monasticism’ without the walls and regulations…as essential and needed in the cities of today as in the monasteries and hermitages of an earlier time. Their “new monasticism” is not an escape from life, but a celebration of what it really means to be alive. …Adam and Rory offer a set of principles, of blessed simplicity, contemplation, spiritual friendship, and an awareness of the inner values that belong to the core of what it really means to be a human being. They also stress the grounded need for psychological work, an essential part of the transformative journey that takes one towards spiritual maturity. This is an organic, evolving vision that speaks to the need of the time, of a moment in our human history when the spirit is coming alive in a new way. It is a doorway to walk through into sacred space.” -Llewellyn Vaughn Lee, Sufi teacher and author of Prayer of the Heart in Sufi and Christian Traditions and The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul

“This book is a divining rod for the crossroads where we find ourselves. For monastic legacies in danger of extinction, for a world that has never needed them more desperately, Bucko and McEntee offer a vision that is old as well as new, rooted as well as cosmopolitan. The New Monasticism may soon be, simply, monasticism itself.” -Nathan Schneider, author of God in Proof and Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse

Young leaders of the new monastic movement introduce their vision for contemplative life—one that draws from the long traditions of East and West but also seeks an interreligious and "interspiritual" dimension to intentional living in our time. With a preface by Mirabai Starr, a foreword by Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, and an afterword by Fr. Thomas Keating.

The book is an introduction to the "new monastic movement," offering the authors' intellectual and spiritual reflections on what contemplative life could look like in the 21st century. With chapters focusing on spiritual practice, vocation, contemplation and activism, dialogical dialogue, the relationship with traditional religious paths, contemplative psychology and the building of intentional communities, the authors seek to "cut across the boundaries of religious traditions, of contemplation and action, and endeavor to create intergenerational alliances between those immersed in the depths of our traditional religious frameworks and those who are being called to contemplative and prophetic life outside of those frameworks."

While drawing on the work of Raimon Panikkar, St. Teresa of Avila, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Ewert Cousins, Fr. Bede Griffiths, Thomas Merton, Brother Wayne Teasdale, St. John of the Cross and the Russian sophianic tradition, among others, the book also incorporates some popular modern day academic, cultural, and contemplative theorists, such as Ken Wilber and Fr. Thomas Keating, who speak to young people about creating a more sacred and just world while providing them with sophisticated tools for psychological analysis and integrated action. It also offers specific practices for a disciplined contemplative life and inspired social justice activism.

Rory McEntee is a scholar, teacher, and contemplative activist. He is currently President and Executive Director of the Charis Foundation for New Monasticism & Interspirituality, and teaches contemplative retreats throughout the year. Rory has an M.A. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Southern California and a PhD in Theological and Philosophical Studies from Drew University. He is the author of The Sacred/Secular Binary: Challenging the Divide in University Culture and Democratic Societies and co-author of The New Monasticism, as well as many articles on education, theology, and Interspirituality. Rory helped found the interspiritual new monastic movement as a mentee of the late Brother Wayne Teasdale and Father Thomas Keating. He has participated in many dialogues around the world with religious leaders, including Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama, and maintains a love for basketball, snowboarding, trekking in the Himalayas, coffee, friends, and family.

Adam Bucko is an activist, spiritual director to many of New York City’s homeless youth, and co-author of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. His work has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, New York Daily News, National Catholic Reporter, Shambala Sun, and Sojourner.