In Spiritual Guides: Pathfinders in the Desert, Fred Dallmayr challenges the "desert character" of modern culture. Political and economic corruption, incessant warmongering, spoliation of natural resources, and, above all, mindless consumerism and greedy self-satisfaction are all symptoms of what he contends is an expanding wasteland or desert where everything creative and nourishing decays and withers. Through an alternative interpretation of Nietzsche's saying "the desert grows," this book calls for spiritual renewal, invoking in particular four prominent guides or pathfinders in the desert: Paul Tillich, Raimon Panikkar, Thomas Merton, and Pope Francis. What links all four guides together is the view of spiritual life as an itinerarium, a pathway along difficult and often uncharted roads.

Dallmayr begins by drawing a connection between Nietzsche's characterization of the desert in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the present culture of consumerism, in which a nearly-exclusive emphasis on productivity, efficiency, profitability, and the transformation of everything valuable into a useful resource prevails over all other goals. He also draws attention to another sense of "desert," namely, as a place of solitude, meditation, and retreat from affliction. Aptly defined, it becomes a place where spirituality arises from a painful "turning-about": a wrenching effort to extricate human life from the decay of late modernity. Spirituality is not a possession or property but rather the contemplation and radical mindfulness that we develop through engaged practices as we search for pathways to recovery. Spirituality becomes critical in the dominant political and cultural wasteland because it provides a bond linking humanity together. In the spirit of global ecumenism, Spiritual Guides also includes a discussion of Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist forms of spirituality. This book will interest students and scholars of philosophy, political theory, and religion.

About the Author

Fred Dallmayr is Packey J. Dee Professor Emeritus in philosophy and political science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Peace Talks-Who Will Listen? (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), In Search of the Good Life (2007), and Mindfulness and Letting Be (2014).

Reviews

"Spiritual Guides: Pathfinders in the Desert continues Fred Dallmayr's already significant analysis of where we are today by offering an account of lives that provide hope in a time that often seems hopeless. This book provides a presentation of the thought of the central four figures in a manner such that one illumines the other. Dallmayr's presentation of the four is quite moving because this is a book that is rightly thought of as 'spiritual.' That could be a dismissive description, but the way Dallmayr presents the work is really quite profound." -Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, Duke Divinity School

-- Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School

"Insightfully and inspiringly, Dallmayr illustrates how his spiritual guides-Tillich, Panikkar, Merton, Pope Francis-can lead us to a self-and-world-transforming spirituality that overcomes current dualities between sacred and profane, immanence and transcendence, mysticism and prophecy, contemplation and action. In his concluding chapters on Muslim and Buddhist mystics, he also makes clear that such a spirituality can and must be an inter-spirituality. This is a book that will speak to both religious scholars and practitioners." -Paul Knitter, Paul Tillich Professor Emeritus of Theology, World Religions, and Culture, Union Theological Seminary

"Fred Dallmayr. . . has chosen four pathfinders in the desert to provide the spiritual guidance we need to make it through these perilous and disturbing times. . . . As an added treat, Dallmayr opens our hearts by including chapters on Muslim and Buddhist mystics as fellow travelers on this enlightening journey." -Spirituality & Practice

"Dallmayr's Spiritual Guides: Pathfinders in the Desert takes four contemporary western Christian thinkers and theologians and explores their views on the meaning of spirituality in the modern world. . . . What was crucial for all four thinkers and theologians in Dallmayr's study was the importance of dialogue and creating 'communion' with other communities." -The Muslim World Book Review

"[Dallmayr] provides here a constructive reading that makes apparent how mystical traditions can be seen as ways to critically approach contemporary Western political, economic, and spiritual culture." -Reading Religion

"A sophisticated journey toward a more developed personal spirituality." -Spirituality & Religion

Book Information
ISBN 9780268102586
Author Fred Dallmayr
Format Hardback
Page Count 198
Imprint University of Notre Dame Press
Publisher University of Notre Dame Press
Weight(grams) 436g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 13mm