
CORE Faculty
Barbara Holmes
A scholar of African American spirituality and mysticism, Dr. Barbara Holmes reveals how the cosmos can expand our limited constructs of religion, race, and power. As faculty at the Center for Action and Contemplation, she teaches how God’s communal presence can inspire imagination and wisdom, especially in times of crisis. She is the author of Race and the Cosmos , Joy Unspeakable and Crisis Contemplation.
essential reading
Crisis Contemplation Mercifully Emerges
Dr. Barbara Holmes believes contemplative experience can emerge in times of collective crisis. She invites us to understand how crisis is experienced at the communal, tribal, national, and global levels.

Daily Meditations

Bias from the Bottom: Weekly Summary
Sunday The Hebrew Scriptures reveal YHWH compassionately hearing and seeing the dire difficulties experienced by the least in society, in this case, the Hebrew slaves. When…
Listen

Futurism and Cosmic Rebirth
Envision a future brimming with peace, joy, and creativity. What does that look like for you? In the final episode of “The Cosmic We” season 4, Dr. Barbara Holmes and Dr….
Daily Meditations
Wisdom from Barbara Holmes
Read Daily Meditations inspired by the words of Barbara Holmes.
“The world is the cloister of the contemplative. There is no escape. Always the quest for justice draws one deeply into the heart of God.”
– Dr. Barbara Holmes

A Story From Barbara
Fishing—my contemplative practice—is the place where I find real connection. I fish with my husband, George. Normally we throw them back, but occasionally bless them for nourishment. We don’t talk a lot. We connect in other ways—through the ocean, the waves, the birds diving, and the struggle. God’s grace has been to live, to breathe salt air, and to just be.