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David Steindl-Rast
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Help David Steindl-Rast OSB (born July 12, 1926) is a

About Wikipedia Catholic Benedictine monk, notable for his active
Community portal participation in interfaith dialogue and his work on the
Recent changes interaction between spirituality and science.
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1 Biography
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2 Religion and mysticism
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Upload file 3 Selected writings
Special pages 4 Further reading
Permanent link 5 References
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6 External links
Wikidata item David Steindl-Rast (2004)
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In other projects Biography [ edit ]

Wikimedia Commons Steindl-Rast was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. He received his MA degree from the Vienna
Academy of Fine Arts and his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Vienna (1952).
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He emigrated to the United States in the same year and became a Benedictine monk in 1953 at
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Mount Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York, a newly founded Benedictine community. With
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permission of his abbot, Damasus Winzen, in 1966 he was officially delegated to pursue Buddhist-
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Christian dialogue and began to study Zen with masters Haku'un Yasutani, Soen Nakagawa,
Languages Shunryu Suzuki and Eido Tai Shimano.[1]
Čeština
He co-founded the Center for Spiritual Studies with Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Sufi teachers, and
Deutsch
since the 1970s has been a member of the cultural historian William Irwin Thompson's Lindisfarne
Magyar
Nederlands Association. His writings include Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer, The Music of Silence (with
Edit links Sharon Lebell), Words of Common Sense and Belonging to the Universe (co-authored with Fritjof
Capra). He also co-founded A Network for Grateful Living, an organization dedicated to gratefulness
as a transformative influence for individuals and society.

Religion and mysticism [ edit ]

During Link TV's Lunch With Bokara 2005 episode The Monk and the Rabbi, he stated:
 The religions start from mysticism. There is no other way to start a religion. But, I compare this to
a volcano that gushes forth ...and then ...the magma flows down the sides of the mountain and
cools off. And when it reaches the bottom, it's just rocks. You'd never guess that there was fire in
it. So after a couple of hundred years, or two thousand years or more, what was once alive is
dead rock. Doctrine becomes doctrinaire. Morals become moralistic. Ritual becomes ritualistic.
What do we do with it? We have to push through this crust and go to the fire that's within it.

In that same episode, he expressed his belief in panentheism, where divinity interpenetrates every
part of existence and timelessly extends beyond it (as distinct from pantheism).

Selected writings [ edit ]

1984, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness, N.J. Paulist Press
1984. ISBN 0-8091-2628-1
1991, Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality,
coauthored with Fritjof Capra and Thomas Matus, Harper San Francisco, ISBN 978-0-06-
250187-5
1995, Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey through the Hours of the Day, coauthored with
Sharon LeBell, Ulysses Press, 2. Ed. 2001, ISBN 1-56975-297-4
1996, The Ground We Share: Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian, coauthored with
Robert Baker Aitken. Shambhala Publications, ISBN 1-57062-219-1
1999, A Listening Heart: The Spirituality of Sacred Sensuousness, Crossroad, ISBN 0-8245-
1780-6
2002, Words of Common Sense for Mind, Body and Soul, Templeton Foundation Press, ISBN 1-
890151-98-X
2008, Common Sense Spirituality. The Crossroad Publishing Company, ISBN 0-8245-2479-9
2010, Deeper than Words: Living the Apostles' Creed, Doubleday Religion, ISBN 978-0-307-
58961-3
2010, David Steindl-Rast: Essential Writings, selected with and introduction by Clare Hallward,
part of the Modern Spiritual Masters Series Edited by Robert Ellsberg, Orbis Books, ISBN 978-
1-57075-888-1
2016, Faith beyond Belief: Spirituality for Our Times, coauthored with Anselm Grün. Liturgical
Press, ISBN 978-0814647134
2016. The Way of Silence: Engaging the Sacred in Daily Life, Franciscan Media, ISBN 978-
1632530165
2017, i am through you so i, Paulist Press, ISBN 978-0809153947

In addition he has contributed to numerous works, including:

Introduction, Words of Gratitude for Mind, Body, and Soul, by Robert A. Emmons and Joanna
Hill
Afterword, Benedict's Dharma: Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict, by Norman
Fischer, Joseph Goldstein and Judith Simmer-Brown, edited by Yifa, and Patrick Henry
Foreword, Living Buddha, Living Christ, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Foreword, This World, by Teddy Macker

Further reading [ edit ]

Henry, Patrick et al., Benedict's Dharma: Buddhist Reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict,
Riverhead Books, New York, NY, pp. 222.
 Lafevere, Patricia, "Spirituality of gratefulness begins with existential ‘Wow!’ at God’s giving,"
National Catholic Reporter, December 8, 2000 ([1] )

References [ edit ]
1. ^ Hallward, Clare. "David Steindl-Rast: Essential Writings". Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 2010, p. 23.

External links [ edit ]

Steindl-Rast's website
Video-interview on practice of now-ness, science-religion dialogue and Heidegger's throwness
Interview on a public radio show, Humankind, by David Freudberg
Several articles by Steindl-Rast and others.
Network for Grateful Living Web page
David Steindl-Rast at TED
"Want to be happy? Be grateful" (TEDGlobal 2013)

BNF: cb12480358x (data) · GND: 121085783 ·

ISNI: 0000 0000 7834 1658 · LCCN: n83001324 · NKC: xx0038922 ·
Authority control
SNAC: w68k8x28 · SUDOC: 034003983 · VIAF: 66567319 ·
WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 66567319

Categories: 1926 births Living people 20th-century American Roman Catholic theologians
21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American Roman Catholic theologians
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni American Benedictines
American people of Austrian descent Austria–Japan relations Austrian Benedictines
Austrian emigrants to the United States Austrian non-fiction writers
Austrian Roman Catholic theologians Buddhism Catholic ecumenical and interfaith relations
Catholics from New York (state) People from Chemung County, New York
People in interfaith dialogue Religious writers University of Vienna alumni
Writers from Vienna

This page was last edited on 13 May 2019, at 08:57 (UTC).

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