Spiritual Guides

Fred Dallmayr is Packey J. Dee Professor Emeritus in philosophy and political science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Peace Talks—Who Will Listen? (University of Notre Dame Press, 2005), In Search of the Good Life (2007), and Mindfulness and Letting Be (2014).

"[Dallmayr] provides here a constructive reading that makes apparent how mystical traditions can be seen as ways to critically approach contemporary Western political, economic, and spiritual culture." —Reading Religion"Dallmayr's Spiritual Guides: Pathfinders in the Desert takes four contemporary western Christian thinkers and theologians and explores their views on the meaning of spirituality in the modern world. . . . What was crucial for all four thinkers and theologians in Dallmayr's study was the importance of dialogue and creating 'communion' with other communities." —The Muslim World Book Review"Fred Dallmayr. . . has chosen four pathfinders in the desert to provide the spiritual guidance we need to make it through these perilous and disturbing times. . . . As an added treat, Dallmayr opens our hearts by including chapters on Muslim and Buddhist mystics as fellow travelers on this enlightening journey." —Spirituality & Practice "Insightfully and inspiringly, Dallmayr illustrates how his spiritual guides—Tillich, Panikkar, Merton, Pope Francis—can lead us to a self-and-world-transforming spirituality that overcomes current dualities between sacred and profane, immanence and transcendence, mysticism and prophecy, contemplation and action. In his concluding chapters on Muslim and Buddhist mystics, he also makes clear that such a spirituality can and must be an inter-spirituality. This is a book that will speak to both religious scholars and practitioners." —Paul Knitter, Paul Tillich Professor Emeritus of Theology, World Religions, and Culture, Union Theological Seminary"Spiritual Guides: Pathfinders in the Desert continues Fred Dallmayr's already significant analysis of where we are today by offering an account of lives that provide hope in a time that often seems hopeless. This book provides a presentation of the thought of the central four figures in a manner such that one illumines the other. Dallmayr's presentation of the four is quite moving because this is a book that is rightly thought of as 'spiritual.' That could be a dismissive description, but the way Dallmayr presents the work is really quite profound." —Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, Duke Divinity School- Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School "A sophisticated journey toward a more developed personal spirituality." —Spirituality & Religion