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Common Sense Spirituality: The Essential Wisdom of David Steindl-Rast
This collection of David Steindl-Rast's essays directs us back to the true authority--our inner core of knowing. An invitation to reconnect with the wisdom that grounds us, draws no limits, motivates moral actions, and makes us exhilaratingly alive.
- GenresSpirituality
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2008
About the author
David Steindl-Rast
103 books142 followersBrother David Steindl-Rast is a Benedictine monk, author, and lecturer widely recognized for his commitment to interfaith dialogue and his emphasis on gratitude as a transformative spiritual practice. Born in Vienna in 1926, he survived the challenges of World War II before emigrating to the United States in 1952. He entered monastic life at Mount Saviour Monastery and went on to engage deeply with both Christian and Buddhist traditions, studying with notable Zen masters. His work bridges spirituality and science and has led him to collaborate with religious and cultural figures across traditions. He co-founded the Center for Spiritual Studies and A Network for Grateful Living, advocating for gratefulness as essential to human flourishing. His writings include Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer and Belonging to the Universe (with Fritjof Capra). Known for his mystical approach, he describes religion as a living flame that must be rediscovered beneath layers of doctrine, ritual, and dogma.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 24, 2011
Read the Apostle of Common Sense, GK Chesterton instead. Commonsensical is the word that best describes his silly syncretist psychobabble.
Read Joan of Arc, not notorious dissident, "Sr." Joan. Better yet, serious Christian mystics such as St. Francis of Assissi, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse de Lisieux, and St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein).
Steindl-Rast's "spirituality" didn't and will never produce a Mother Theresa. Striving for personal sanctity? You won't get there with this guy!
Read Joan of Arc, not notorious dissident, "Sr." Joan. Better yet, serious Christian mystics such as St. Francis of Assissi, St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Thérèse de Lisieux, and St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein).
Steindl-Rast's "spirituality" didn't and will never produce a Mother Theresa. Striving for personal sanctity? You won't get there with this guy!
March 24, 2010
Quite a good and quick little read. He makes many of the same points that I make in my own writing but without the depth or explication. However, I think it achieves its purpose and the average reader would do well to read the great majority of this book, with the exception of chapters 9 and 10. I found them gratuitous and off topic.
May 6, 2009
We just started reading this in our Centering Prayer meditation group.
September 14, 2010
A fantastic collection of essays from one of my favorite people!
July 24, 2026
After finding myself nonplussed by a book nearby on the 200s shelf of my library, Joan Chittister's The Dark + the Daylight (reviewed before this title by a fellow Benedictine, Brother David), I figured he might distill some spiritual wisdom closer to their common calling as monastics. Both prolific writers cater to the audience of (in this same series by Crossroads Press) New Age-adjacent authors such as Matthew Fox, Thomas Moore, Fritjof Capra, and Henri Nouwen, so I was aware going in that this collection might be playing down the Christian or certainty at least Catholic side for a broader readership who is open to Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, pagan, and/or eclectic ecumenical inclusion instead.
These short pieces come from the likes of Parabola, yoga journals, The Sun, and addresses at both Lindisfarne and Findhorn. Therefore, they emphasize contemporary attitudes. While a clever reading of the Snow White and Psyche myths offers parallels, however ingenious or tenuous, to the Rule of St Benedict, and while another essay distinguished purpose vs meaning in activities around a monk's peak experience, there isn't much more about the influence of his vocation itself. Instead, I did glean scattered insights. For instance, the opening of the Rule with its call to "ob-audire" I already know. But not that Hebrew puts it as "bare your ear," i.e., remove one's earlocks so as to hear clearly (41).
Or that TS Eliot's Four Quartets articulate the tension between silence and action, waiting without thought, and stillness and dancing, darkness into light, so eloquently (53). And how death cannot be "expressed in English in passive form." (120) "We can be killed, but we have to die." We must do and we must suffer, even as this ultimate act "is the most passive in our experience." This is profound.
On the balance, to be honest, I found less immediately gripping possibilities to ponder elsewhere. These assorted talks and articles get short editorial summaries, reflecting their disparate origins and contexts. I expected a compendium of his collected works, but this gathers various entries of differing lengths and purposes. So I am not sure it lives up to its grand subtitle. Take it as a cafeteria plate?
He seems to deny the immortality of the soul, while accepting reincarnation. He seems reluctant to conceive of a life after death. While I symphathize with most of these positions, he doesn't elaborate on them enough. I suppose those listening to or picking up these messages wouldn't object at all. By the by, "common sense" is his rendering of the Dao, which isn't bad. An indicator of his approach, as a longtime practitioner of Zen and a pioneer in dialogue with dharma teachers and adepts, relevently.
These short pieces come from the likes of Parabola, yoga journals, The Sun, and addresses at both Lindisfarne and Findhorn. Therefore, they emphasize contemporary attitudes. While a clever reading of the Snow White and Psyche myths offers parallels, however ingenious or tenuous, to the Rule of St Benedict, and while another essay distinguished purpose vs meaning in activities around a monk's peak experience, there isn't much more about the influence of his vocation itself. Instead, I did glean scattered insights. For instance, the opening of the Rule with its call to "ob-audire" I already know. But not that Hebrew puts it as "bare your ear," i.e., remove one's earlocks so as to hear clearly (41).
Or that TS Eliot's Four Quartets articulate the tension between silence and action, waiting without thought, and stillness and dancing, darkness into light, so eloquently (53). And how death cannot be "expressed in English in passive form." (120) "We can be killed, but we have to die." We must do and we must suffer, even as this ultimate act "is the most passive in our experience." This is profound.
On the balance, to be honest, I found less immediately gripping possibilities to ponder elsewhere. These assorted talks and articles get short editorial summaries, reflecting their disparate origins and contexts. I expected a compendium of his collected works, but this gathers various entries of differing lengths and purposes. So I am not sure it lives up to its grand subtitle. Take it as a cafeteria plate?
He seems to deny the immortality of the soul, while accepting reincarnation. He seems reluctant to conceive of a life after death. While I symphathize with most of these positions, he doesn't elaborate on them enough. I suppose those listening to or picking up these messages wouldn't object at all. By the by, "common sense" is his rendering of the Dao, which isn't bad. An indicator of his approach, as a longtime practitioner of Zen and a pioneer in dialogue with dharma teachers and adepts, relevently.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews