If you're finding discursive and intercessory prayer more "gratifying" and "fulfilling", there's certainly nothing wrong in keeping your focus on that. It's a question, at least in part, of calling and opportunity. A jnanic path is above all for people who have a...

I'm happy to know you found my "Comparative Religion" syllabus helpful, though I did have to smile when you talked about "reviving the philosophia perennis within the context of modern academia". Let's not get carried away! A revival is a very grand thing after all....

As it happens I reviewed this book—The Innate Capacity: Mysticism, Psychology, and Philosophy (Oxford, 1998)—shortly after it came out. I think you're right that the idea of "pure consciousness" is an important one when it comes to combating...

No, the Crucifixion is not an event in time, or at least not solely so, whatever those who like to insist on the "scandal of particularity" may think. On the contrary, "the Lamb [i.e., Christ] was "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). As I always tell...

There is some dispute on this issue among the Orthodox, but my own position, which has the support of several prominent authorities, is that the guilt of "original sin" is not inherited: every newborn is innocent. I would cite, for example, The Orthodox Church, by...

Feeling Greek is considerably less important than being truly human, and in any case no one who reflects deeply on the nature of things feels "at home" or "in synch" with any earthly environment, whether ethnic, geographical, or otherwise. Are you familiar with the...

I'm happy to know your retreat was a good one. I recommend making another soon. You said you cut the last one short owing to feeling tense and distracted. If the cycle of attachment is to be broken, however, it's very important for you to stay the course through bouts...

"Bulverism", as C. S. Lewis called it—that is, reductionism, of whatever kind—is indeed the bane of education these days, and at every level: from elementary school through graduate school. I recently had occasion to interview a number of doctoral students...

You're interested in what my response might be to the recent censure by the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of Peter Phan's 2004 book Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue. I confess I've not read the...

Your comments concerning the recent Martin Luther King, Jr Annual Service Day reminded me of an after-dinner talk I gave a few years ago for a chapter of the National Honor Society at a nearby Catholic school. I agree that it's almost impossible not to be thought a...