The Living School

Connect with a living tradition of action and contemplation through the teachings of Richard Rohr and our core faculty.

Founded in 2013, the Living School is the Center for Action and Contemplation’s (CAC) spiritual formation program. Grounded in the transformative wisdom and practices of the Christian contemplative traditions, its purpose is to equip students to work together for a more just and connected world.

Program News

The Living School supports the spiritual growth of its students by teaching Christian contemplative wisdom and practices that support transformation and inspire loving action. We contribute to a more just and connected world in three primary ways.

First, we help students ground themselves in a fresh and historically rooted vision of the Christian faith—an alternative orthodoxy. We are guided by Scriptures (especially the life and teachings of Jesus), Franciscan and other mystical traditions, and emerging postcolonial spiritualities arising from contemporary experience, especially those whose voices have been suppressed.

Second, we lead students into contemplative practices that promote seeing things holistically in non-dual, integrative, and unitive ways. We encourage deep listening and awareness of culturally informed contemplative practices from a variety of traditions, and present contemplative seeing and knowing as a lifelong growth process that we practice both in solitude and in community. Third, we equip students for creative and loving action so they can plant seeds of prophetic imagination (through the arts, media, and education), engage contemplatively with unjust systems through non-violent spiritual activism, and build vibrant communities of prayer and practice.

Who Is the Living School For?

We seek to attract and equip a diverse body of students who will embody the wisdom of the Christian contemplative traditions in action through the arts, politics, business, education, the family, and every other sphere of human life in order to bring benefit to the poor and vulnerable, to promote peace across differences of race, wealth, religion, politics, and privilege, and to protect and regenerate our precious earth and human communities.

The ideal student for the Living School is one who seeks to:

• Actively embody the Spirit of Christ in the world at a critical moment in history.
• Integrate contemplative spirituality into their daily lives of experience and action in their families, friendships, daily living, profession, economics, social and political action, and solitude.
• Develop a rhythm of regular practice, study, solidarity, and community to help them personally experience the presence of God within, among, and around them.
• Become rooted in an alternative orthodoxy that liberates them for abundant living and compassionate action.

Because of our roots in the contemplative Christian lineage, we engage joyfully with our contemplative counterparts in other traditions and welcome students and seekers of all faiths who feel drawn to our learning community.

What’s Changing?

Created in 2013, the Living School was designed to be a two-year deep dive into the teachings and practices of the Christian contemplative tradition. While the original two-year course has been very impactful, we want to both expand and diversify its content while making it more accessible and affordable.

Our plan is to now offer a one-year essentials course:

Essentials of Engaged Contemplation is a one-year course of study which will introduce students to the essentials of engaged contemplation rooted in a living, evolving Christian tradition. This foundational material will be presented in a manner that is simple, accessible, and equitable, consisting of group and live instruction in an online format from CAC faculty and staff. We are currently evaluating this material with a select group of students.

We have worked hard to ensure that the Living School will continue to serve the vision and message of our founder, Richard Rohr, his values and theological lineage, and his commitment to fostering a Christian contemplative path and practice that serves the healing and transformation of our world for many years to come. 

Our Core Faculty

“In the next few years, we have the opportunity to expand and diversify our faculty and to honor Richard’s legacy in profound ways. Most of all, we want to emulate Richard’s example, caring about what he has cared about for all these years: integrating contemplation and action, rooted in Christ, for the good of our beloved, fragile, fractured world.” —Brian McLaren, Dean of the Living School

Our incredible Core Faculty is comprised of individuals who have devoted their lives to the contemplative path with faithfulness. Each carry a valuable reflection and articulation of Fr. Richard’s core message — in their words as well as their lives — and are uniquely equipped to serve as elders, teachers, and spiritual leaders.

In addition to their vital work in the Living School, our Core Faculty help to ensure that all our programs, teachings, and ongoing faculty development continue to serve the vision and message of our founder, Richard Rohr, his values and theological lineage, and his commitment to fostering a Christian contemplative path and practice that serves the healing and transformation of our world. In the coming years we will be significantly expanding and diversify the teachers we partner with to build on Fr. Richard’s founding vision of the CAC and Living School as a “school for prophets,” helping to bring his message forward for both our current community and future generations.

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from the Center for Action and Contemplation.