The Living School curriculum and various educational offerings at the CAC are grounded in the wisdom that has guided our core faculty—the Christian contemplative lineage with an emphasis on its Franciscan heritage. Listen to Richard Rohr provide a brief synopsis of each element by clicking on the links below.
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These teaching themes are also explored in-depth in Fr. Richard’s Book Yes, And… and CAC’s annual CONSPIRE conferences.
1. Scripture as validated by experience, and experience as validated by Tradition are good scales for one’s spiritual worldview (METHODOLOGY).
2. If God is Trinity and Jesus is the face of God, then it is a benevolent universe. God is not someone to be afraid of, but is the Ground of Being and on our side (FOUNDATION).
3. For those who see deeply there is only One Reality. By reason of the Incarnation, there is no truthful distinction between sacred and profane (FRAME).
4. Everything belongs. No one needs to be punished, scapegoated, or excluded. We cannot directly fight or separate ourselves from evil or untruth. Darkness becomes apparent when exposed to the Light (ECUMENICAL).
5. The “separate self” is the major problem, not the shadow self which only takes deeper forms of disguise (TRANSFORMATION).
6. The path of descent is the path of transformation. Darkness, failure, relapse, death, and woundedness are our primary teachers, rather than ideas or doctrines (PROCESS).
7. Non-duality is the highest level of consciousness. Divine union, not private perfection, is the goal of all religion (GOAL).
Core elements of the Christian contemplative wisdom lineage are also explored in Richard’s 2015 Daily Meditations.
“Bible” of Nature and Creation
Hebrew Scriptures interpreted by the Prophets
Gospels, Incarnation, and Jesus
Paul as first Christian Mystic
Patristic Period, particularly in the East
Early Franciscanism: Bonaventure and Duns Scotus
Non-dual thinkers of all religions
Orthopraxy in much of Buddhism and Hinduism
Unique witness of mythology, poetry, and art
Non-violent recovery of Gandhi and Martin Luther King
Much of the teaching of C. G. Jung
Scientific evidence from the Universe