Emerging Heart: Global Spirituality and the Sacred

Millions of Americans have adopted and adapted spiritual practices and virtues from a variety of traditions. What are they looking for? Theologian and retreat leader Beverly Lanzetta believes that our contemporary world desperately seeks a shared spiritual foundation adequate to meet our most pressing moral, religious, economic, and social issues. We need, she argues, a spiritual vocabulary to describe the unspoken, to interpret our common humanity, and to articulate our earthly concerns in a way respectful and inclusive of all.

Highlighting pioneers of global spirituality such as Thomas Merton, Thich Nhat Hanh, Abraham Heschel, Mohandas Gandhi, Howard Thurman, Bede Griffiths, and Dorothy Day, Emerging Heart shows how a variety of religious traditions emerge from and converge on a divine nature and mystic quality that creates a loving heart. Lanzetta first describes this phenomenon in her own experience and then elaborates on that mystical core, the notion of the divine, the new shape of interreligious dialogue, pioneers of this new global spirituality, and the personal, spiritual, and ethical challenges that it poses to us.

This is a book of breathtaking insight and high moral ambition to restore our sense of human possibility and high purpose.

"Beverly Lanzetta is a powerful voice for those who find truth and beauty in a global spirituality. Emerging Heart presents us with her journey toward spiritual nonviolence and engages the reader with the core ideas of such spiritual teachers as Ewert Cousins, Raimon Panikkar, Mohandas Gandhi, Thomas Merton, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and the Dalai Lama. Readers should be put on notice that this book may well change the way they see the world."
– Harold Kasimow, George Drake Professor of Religious Studies, Grinnell College

"Emerging Heart is an immensely moving account of Lanzetta's own spiritual experience combined with probing reflections on the mystical heart of world faiths, the significance of interreligious dialogue, and the reality of a newly emerging global spirituality. An inspiring vision inviting to daring ventures."
– Ursula King, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Bristol, Professorial Research Fellow, University of London

"Emerging Heart is Lanzetta's most personal and most profound book. She weaves together a tapestry of personal narrative, inter-religious reflection, and spiritual insight with eloquence and force. This book heralds – and helps to catalyze – the emergence of a global spiritual wisdom grounded on interfaith exchange, contemplative practice, and creative participation in Mystery."
– Jorge N. Ferrer, Associate Professor, California Institute of Integral Studies