Hebrew Scriptures interpreted by the Prophets

Many times Christians have downplayed the Hebrew Scriptures. Even our term the  ¢â‚¬Å“Old ¢â‚¬  Testament could imply that they are out of date, that they don ¢â‚¬â„¢t apply anymore. That ¢â‚¬â„¢s why I prefer to call them the Hebrew Scriptures. I want that to be foundational in our Living School, because I think if you get the whole Hebrew revelation, first of all you can understand Jesus, and secondly, you can recognize that Judaism is archetypal religion. It does it absolutely right and it entirely misses the point ¢â‚¬”at the same time ¢â‚¬”just as Catholicism and Protestantism and every other tradition does.

The key to a truly expansive interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures is to read them through the eyes of the Jewish prophets. Without the prophets, you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t have self-critical thinking. You simply have tribal thinking. But when you put the communal salvation of history (Torah) together with self-critical thinking (Prophets), then you have the best of the Hebrew Scriptures, which is found in books like Job, the Psalms, and Ecclesiastes(Wisdom).

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage

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Patristic Period, particularly in the East

The Patristic Period is referring to the teachers that emerged largely in the second to fifth centuries of Christianity. Since they would have been closer to the source, we can somehow trust their witness and their testimony. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s amazing when you go back to the “fathers of the church” (and they were largely men, it seems, because they were the only ones who got educated) we find a version of the Gospels that in many ways is more focused, and yet more broad, than the church we have now. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s very surprising.

I can see why many patristic scholars have said we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve got to return to the sources. I ¢â‚¬â„¢d like that to be a regular part of our school, with particular emphasis upon the fathers of the Eastern Church, because we didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t realize that Roman Catholics and Protestants didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t pay much attention to the fathers in general, or the Eastern fathers in particular. They have a lot to say about transformation (theosis) and contemplation.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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Gospels, Incarnation, and Jesus

We who are Christian have often forgotten that Jesus was born a Jew and died a Jew ¢â‚¬”and lived as a Jew. He was not a “Christian”! The Gospels have been formative of my entire life vision, and we now live in a time that enjoys the fruit of immense Jesus scholarship from all the denominations.

The main, and really only, thing that Jesus adds to his Jewish tradition is the mystery of “Incarnation”; God is enfleshed inside of the material world, and any remaining gap between us and God has been overcome by “Emmanuel,” or  ¢â‚¬Å“God with us. ¢â‚¬  This rearranges consciousness so much that it ended up becoming its own religion; whether Jesus intended that or not, we do not know.

But this eternal Christ Mystery allows Jesus to be be a teacher for all ages and all religions, as he offers humanity “full and final participation” with God through our own enfleshed existence.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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RICHARD ROHR’S LINEAGE

Desert Fathers and Mothers

The desert Fathers and Mothers were honestly not referred to that much, because they just told little stories. These stories seemed like harmless anecdotes, and we wanted to go ahead with serious religion. But in the last 30 years, there ¢â‚¬â„¢s been a rediscovery of the absolute simplicity of their message and the fact that it isn ¢â‚¬â„¢t concerned about the issues that we ¢â‚¬â„¢ve been concerned about in recent centuries. In fact, they ¢â‚¬â„¢re usually concerned about the ego (though they didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t call it that), or our attempts to make ourselves more important than we are. It is this undercutting of egocentricity, this surrendering of everything in the search for God, that makes them newly attractive. While it certainly won ¢â‚¬â„¢t be a major course, I ¢â‚¬â„¢d like to be able to bring them into our teaching in a regular way.

Paul as the first Christian Mystic

A lot of people don ¢â‚¬â„¢t like Paul, and I can understand that. I always say that Paul had his good days and, like me, Paul had his bad days. He makes some statements that could be interpreted in a moralistic way, a sort of finger-shaking way. But not in the majority of his letters. I think we have to admit that Paul was a mystic of the greatest magnitude. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s that understanding of Paul that I would like to bring out in our school. He is my personal hero!

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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RICHARD ROHR’S LINEAGE

Until recently I ¢â‚¬â„¢ve never been forced to ask myself,  ¢â‚¬Å“By what authority do you say the things you do, Richard? How do we know these are not justyour ideas? Why should we believe you? ¢â‚¬  I do think that those are completely legitimate questions. So as we began to dream about the Living School, some of the staff said,  ¢â‚¬Å“Richard, why don ¢â‚¬â„¢t you try to chart your own growth, your own tradition, your own lineage? ¢â‚¬  I did so, and came up with fifteen foundational sources. For the next days, we ¢â‚¬â„¢re going to present them in a somewhat logical order.

 ¢â‚¬Å“Bible ¢â‚¬  of Nature and Creation

We have to begin with the first bible, which is creation itself ¢â‚¬”that God has revealed who God is through what is. If we don ¢â‚¬â„¢t learn to honor, respect, and learn from creation ¢â‚¬”the natural world ¢â‚¬”I think it ¢â‚¬â„¢s very unlikely that we are going to know how to read the second bible ¢â‚¬”the written Bible ¢â‚¬”with respect, reverence, and in an open way. So I believe (and of course this is very Franciscan for me) that we have to start with the first bible, which is the created world itself, or nature.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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Early Franciscanism:

Bonaventure and Duns Scotus

Of course, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m a Franciscan, and was formed in Franciscan philosophy and Franciscan theology. Everybody loves Francis himself, but lesser known are our intellectuals, who took the intuitive genius of Francis and tried to interpret it in an academic and philosophical way that could be respected in the universities. The two that most influenced me are St. Bonaventure, who wrote shortly after the life of Francis, and John Duns Scotus, who was a part of the founding of the theology school at Oxford. He lived less than a hundred years after Francis. Their thinking is not just pivotal in my own formation; many are finding both of these teachers very, very helpful as we try to renew Christianity and get it back to its sources.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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Non-Dual thinkers of all religions

I know the term  ¢â‚¬Å“non-dual thinking ¢â‚¬  is still new or strange to many people. It simply means our ability to read the moment, to read reality in a way that is not judgmental, a way that is not exclusionary of the part that we don ¢â‚¬â„¢t understand. And it takes practice to learn that. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s very interesting that the term  ¢â‚¬Å“non-dual ¢â‚¬  is taken for granted in three of the Eastern religions: Taoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. This word would be very familiar to them because it ¢â‚¬â„¢s the best descriptor of high-level consciousness ¢â‚¬”when you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t split everything up according to what you like and what you don ¢â‚¬â„¢t like. You leave the moment open, you let it be what it is in itself, and you let it speak to you.

I was able to reintroduce this word for many people in my book, The Naked Now. I would like to continue to build on that because I think it ¢â‚¬â„¢s central to the reform of religion, to our own spiritual progress, and really to building a necessary bridge between East and West. We had it in the West, but we called it  ¢â‚¬Å“unitive ¢â‚¬  consciousness. So it ¢â‚¬â„¢s just a different word for the same reality.  ¢â‚¬Å“Non-dual, ¢â‚¬  however, forces Westerners to struggle, so I think we ¢â‚¬â„¢ll keep using it. Reality is not totally one, but it is not totally two, either! Stay with that necessary dilemma, and it can make you wise.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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Orthopraxy in much of Buddhism and Hinduism

Orthopraxy is usually distinguished from orthodoxy. Orthodoxy refers to doctrinal correctness, whereas orthopraxy refers to right practice. What we see in many of the Eastern religions is not an emphasis upon verbal orthodoxy, but instead upon practices and lifestyles that, if you do them (not think about them, but do them), end up changing your consciousness.

This was summed up in the Eighth Core Principle of the Center for Action and Contemplation: We don ¢â‚¬â„¢t think ourselves into a new way of living; we live ourselves into a new way of thinking. I hope that can be a central building block of the Living School.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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Much of the teaching of C. G. Jung

Some people do not like the fact that I quote the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung. I must admit that he ¢â‚¬â„¢s had a major influence on my entire life. I first read him when I was very young, and again and again he would offer phrases that I knew were true. When I first read his work, I didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t have the education to academically know that. I just knew intuitively that  ¢â‚¬Å“He is right. ¢â‚¬  Carl Gustav Jung was a great thinker, and he wanted to bring externalized religion back to its internal foundations. He brought together amazing theology (his father was a Protestant minister) with very good psychology ¢â‚¬”and he is surely not an “enemy” of religion at all. When asked if he “believed’ in God, he said, with wonderful simplicity, “I do not believe, I know.”

I ¢â‚¬â„¢m not saying I agree with every word he ¢â‚¬â„¢s ever said, but what I am saying is that  ¢â‚¬Å“much of the teaching of C. G. Jung ¢â‚¬  is in my lineage. He gives us more than enough wisdom to trust him. After all, I am sure you do not agree with every word I say. I would be disappointed in you if you did.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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RICHARD ROHR’S LINEAGE

Nonviolent Recovery of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.

I ¢â‚¬â„¢m told that the word  ¢â‚¬Å“nonviolence ¢â‚¬  did not exist (at least in the English and German languages) until the 1950s. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s a reason for that: the notion didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t exist in our consciousness. We didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t create a word for it because we didn ¢â‚¬â„¢t get it yet! When Gandhi came along, he pointed out that every religion in the world knows that Jesus of Nazareth taught and lived nonviolence except one religion ¢â‚¬”Christianity. In very short order, after Gandhi, this became obvious to many wise people throughout the world.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was the one who most influenced our American culture regarding nonviolence. That ¢â‚¬â„¢s why I speak of it as a recovery of nonviolence. We had it, but we couldn ¢â‚¬â„¢t hear it, especially after Christianity became the imperial religion. When you ¢â‚¬â„¢re imperial, you can ¢â‚¬â„¢t hear any talk of nonviolence. You have to be violent to be an empire. So after 313 AD, we pretty much lost the nonviolent teaching of Jesus and it was not recovered until the twentieth century. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s sort of unbelievable, but in between, nonviolence was almost universally forgotten, denied, or ignored as Christianity needed to justify its own violence.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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RICHARD ROHR’S LINEAGE

Unique witness of mythology, poetry, and art

My earliest recordings often included mythological stories, poetry, or art to make the point. Many people are more right-brained learners than left-brained. When you bring in a story, or a poem, or refer to a piece of art, you can see people ¢â‚¬â„¢s interest triple:  ¢â‚¬Å“Wow, I ¢â‚¬â„¢m with you! ¢â‚¬  Whereas, if you stay on the verbal level all the time, their eyes glaze over, they lose interest, they lose fascination and identification with the message.

I don ¢â‚¬â„¢t think Western preachers and teachers have really understood the importance of art in general. Until people can “catch” the message with an inner image, it usually does not go deep. We ¢â‚¬â„¢ve also been afraid of myths that weren ¢â‚¬â„¢t Christian. In fact, we were afraid of the very word  ¢â‚¬Å“myth. ¢â‚¬  We thought it meant something that wasn ¢â‚¬â„¢t true when, in fact, it ¢â‚¬â„¢s something that ¢â‚¬â„¢s always true ¢â‚¬”if it ¢â‚¬â„¢s a true myth. This will be a very important substratum of the Living School curriculum.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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RICHARD ROHR’S LINEAGE

Scientific evidence from the Universe

We ¢â‚¬â„¢re living in a really amazing time. When I was growing up, the common perception was that science and religion were at odds. In the last twenty or twenty-five years, that has radically changed. Now, as we come to understand the nature of the cosmos (things like relationships, space, darkness, and energy), we ¢â‚¬â„¢re finding that many of the intuitions of religion are being confirmed by science itself.

It makes sense: if truth is one (which it has to be, to be truth), then all of us are just approaching that truth from a different angle. Science is reading it at one level, and religion is reading it at another. But we ¢â‚¬â„¢re both looking at the same Reality. So I would like our Living School to really give science its due, and to give science the credit it deserves for naming things in ways that will allow many people to know and love God ¢â‚¬”and everything. Scientists today are often validating, in different language, what the mystics and saints always believed was true.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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Twelve Step Spirituality/American Pragmatism

Although I have never formally belonged to a Twelve Step program, I have learned very much from people who are in recovery, and I finally wrote a book on it called Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps. I think the Twelve Step program represents the best of a unique American spirituality. There ¢â‚¬â„¢s something in the American psyche that gets mistrustful and impatient with anything that ¢â‚¬â„¢s too abstract, platonic, theoretical, or distant. For the American, it has to work. We call that pragmatism.

I know that people around the world make fun of Americans because we are so pragmatic. But I think it ¢â‚¬â„¢s also what people admire about Americans. In international meetings, I often sit there just bored to death by the level of abstraction or beating around the bush. My fellow Americans and I just want to pull it down to earth and get to the point, thinking,  ¢â‚¬Å“What works? Is this relevant? Does this theory mean anything? Does it change people? Does it change anything?”

What the Twelve Step program does for many people is make the Gospel believable, relevant, practical, and workable. So I will be referring to it in our courses at the Living School, as I already have over the years.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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RICHARD ROHR’S LINEAGE

Spiral Dynamics and Integral Theory

Spiral Dynamics, what Ken Wilber also calls Integral Theory, is probably a completely new term to many of our people. In the last 150 years, there have been many attempts to chart growth, to “schedule” levels of maturity, morality, and consciousness. For me, these different theories have been best summed up in the latest version, which some have called Spiral Dynamics. It has nine levels of consciousness. The first three coincide with the Purgative Way, the second three with the Illuminative Way, and the third three with the Unitive Way in Christianity.

I am told that diplomats and ambassadors all over the world now rely upon Spiral Dynamics to help them understand different cultures. They recognize that many cultures are still largely at level three, and some at one or two (out of nine). That doesn ¢â‚¬â„¢t make them bad people, but it helps us understand how they ¢â‚¬â„¢re likely to respond to violence, to fear, to authority, and to relationships. So I would like to popularize the notion of Integral Theory, because I think it ¢â‚¬â„¢s a way for us ordinary folks to understand things in a rather sophisticated way.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012

Adapted from Fr. Richard ¢â‚¬â„¢s teachings on his lineage.

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