Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation
The practice of mindfulness has reached an unprecedented level of prevalence in the US and the UK, both in terms of widespread popularity and in terms of institutional support and investment. One potential clue to this phenomenon may be found in the nature of the institutional contexts that are incr...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0953946818808142 2023-05-15T17:32:55+02:00 Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation Pickell, Travis Ryan 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0953946818808142 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0953946818808142 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0953946818808142 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Studies in Christian Ethics volume 32, issue 1, page 66-77 ISSN 0953-9468 1745-5235 Philosophy Religious studies journal-article 2018 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946818808142 2022-04-14T04:53:34Z The practice of mindfulness has reached an unprecedented level of prevalence in the US and the UK, both in terms of widespread popularity and in terms of institutional support and investment. One potential clue to this phenomenon may be found in the nature of the institutional contexts that are increasingly being filled with mindfulness practitioners and seminars: each is deeply embedded in and pervaded by what philosopher Charles Taylor calls the ‘modern identity’. This article provides an analysis of mindfulness as a practice of moral formation that challenges these late-modern notions of human agency and identity. It does so by bringing mindfulness into conversation with another contemplative tradition, namely, Christian silent prayer as exemplified in the anonymous fourteenth-century handbook, The Cloud of Unknowing. It then situates these two formational practices within the broader social imaginary that dominates late-modern, North Atlantic life, and ventures a few suggestions about the significance of this overlap for Christian ethics, specifically at the end of life. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Studies in Christian Ethics 32 1 66 77 |
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SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
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English |
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Philosophy Religious studies |
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Philosophy Religious studies Pickell, Travis Ryan Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation |
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Philosophy Religious studies |
description |
The practice of mindfulness has reached an unprecedented level of prevalence in the US and the UK, both in terms of widespread popularity and in terms of institutional support and investment. One potential clue to this phenomenon may be found in the nature of the institutional contexts that are increasingly being filled with mindfulness practitioners and seminars: each is deeply embedded in and pervaded by what philosopher Charles Taylor calls the ‘modern identity’. This article provides an analysis of mindfulness as a practice of moral formation that challenges these late-modern notions of human agency and identity. It does so by bringing mindfulness into conversation with another contemplative tradition, namely, Christian silent prayer as exemplified in the anonymous fourteenth-century handbook, The Cloud of Unknowing. It then situates these two formational practices within the broader social imaginary that dominates late-modern, North Atlantic life, and ventures a few suggestions about the significance of this overlap for Christian ethics, specifically at the end of life. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Pickell, Travis Ryan |
author_facet |
Pickell, Travis Ryan |
author_sort |
Pickell, Travis Ryan |
title |
Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation |
title_short |
Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation |
title_full |
Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation |
title_fullStr |
Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Gentle Space-Making: Christian Silent Prayer, Mindfulness, and Kenotic Identity Formation |
title_sort |
gentle space-making: christian silent prayer, mindfulness, and kenotic identity formation |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0953946818808142 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0953946818808142 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0953946818808142 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Studies in Christian Ethics volume 32, issue 1, page 66-77 ISSN 0953-9468 1745-5235 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946818808142 |
container_title |
Studies in Christian Ethics |
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32 |
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1 |
container_start_page |
66 |
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77 |
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1766131251215859712 |