Download Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey Among Christian and Buddhist Monks AudioBook Free
Observing an face between Catholic and Buddhist monks in 1996 at the Abbey of Gethsemani, near where he grew up in rural Kentucky, Fenton Johnson found himself unable to make the hallmark of the cross. His distance from his child years faith got become so excellent - he considered himself a rational, skeptical man - that he could not participate in this most elementary ritual. Impelled by this troubling experience, Johnson began a search for the meaning of the religious life, a quest that required him from Gethsemani to the SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA Zen Middle, through Buddhism and back again to Christianity, from paralyzing hesitation to a life-enriching faith. Keeping Trust explores the depths of what this means for a skeptic to own and to keep faith. Johnson grew up with the Trappist monks, but turned down institutionalized religious beliefs as a grown-up. While living as an associate of the Gethsemani community and the Zen Middle, however, he discovered to practice Christian rituals with a new discipline and examined Buddhist yoga, which helped bring him a new understanding of the deep marriage between sexuality and faith, body and soul. Changed in profound ways, Johnson finally turned back again to his childhood faith, now inflected with the accumulated wisdom of his quest. Johnson interweaves memoir, the personal and often shocking stories of Buddhist and Christian monks, and a revealing history of the contemplative life in the Western. He offers lay Christians an understanding of the origins and history of their contemplative customs and the groundwork needed to struggle orthodox understandings of spirituality. No matter their backgrounds, listeners will see Keeping Trust a work of great vitality and immediacy.
