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Lectio Divina as Contemplative Pedagogy: Re-appropriating Monastic Practice for the Humanities
Offering an original application of the ancient monastic practice of lectio divina to the humanities, this book demonstrates the need for further emphasis on deep reading, reflection, and contemplation in contemporary university classrooms. Each chapter provides readers with an historical overview of the four movements of this monastic lectio (reading), meditatio (interpreting), oratio (responding), and contemplatio (experiencing wisdom), and suggests ways to incorporate these practices in humanites courses. Keator demonstrates that the lectio divina method is a viable pedagogical tool to guide students slowly and methodically through literary texts and into a subjective experience of wisdom and meaning.
236 pages, Paperback
Published March 28, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 13, 2022
This was something of a chance purchase because I bought it pretty much sight unseen while looking around on my online bookstore. It intrigued me because it combined two parts of my life, my vocation as a teacher and interest in Benedictine spirituality. I mean, how could I leave this on the virtual shelf?
This book, of course, has to be understood within the context of the contemplative teaching movement, which has been gaining steam since the 1990s, with the writings, especially, of Parker Palmer, bell hicks and such educational commentators. It is an attempt to recover a spiritual focus on the whole learner by deepening the experience of learning through contemplative techniques. Much of the literature has tended to draw its inspiration from Buddhism or a secularized version of Buddhist thinking around mindfulness. This book caught my eye because it was trying to apply a specifically Christian spiritual discipline to contemplative learning.
The focus of the book is trying to use the spiritual practice of lectio divina, a monastic way of reading texts (especially the Bible) slowly and reflectively. Keator applies the lectio approach to her college literature courses, discusses the background to the practices, how one can reflect them in a modern classroom and what the pedagogical challenges are. She isn't the first to think of this- Maria Lichtmann did it before her- but what I like about this book is that she applies it very practically and gives suggestions about how to do it with a flesh and blood class. It is still a difficult process because it runs counter to so much in our culture- careerism, the speed of technology, the reluctance to dig deep. But Keator makes it feel possible.
A caveat though. This approach works best, I think, when the instructor has more or less total control over the curriculum. That is, it presumes that one person is making the decisions and can structure their course whatever way they like. I'm a high school teacher and, while I teach Latin and have that freedom, I also teach English and that is a little harder to manage. Full independence is difficult to achieve in a high school, which may explain why the contemplative teaching movement seems to be slower to catch on in that context.
However, I still think it is important to consider these insights and, honestly, I think this is going to be a book that I read and re-read several times to see what I can do. I may not be able to structure my whole course like this, but I think that I can take some of the insights and use them to good effect.
This book, of course, has to be understood within the context of the contemplative teaching movement, which has been gaining steam since the 1990s, with the writings, especially, of Parker Palmer, bell hicks and such educational commentators. It is an attempt to recover a spiritual focus on the whole learner by deepening the experience of learning through contemplative techniques. Much of the literature has tended to draw its inspiration from Buddhism or a secularized version of Buddhist thinking around mindfulness. This book caught my eye because it was trying to apply a specifically Christian spiritual discipline to contemplative learning.
The focus of the book is trying to use the spiritual practice of lectio divina, a monastic way of reading texts (especially the Bible) slowly and reflectively. Keator applies the lectio approach to her college literature courses, discusses the background to the practices, how one can reflect them in a modern classroom and what the pedagogical challenges are. She isn't the first to think of this- Maria Lichtmann did it before her- but what I like about this book is that she applies it very practically and gives suggestions about how to do it with a flesh and blood class. It is still a difficult process because it runs counter to so much in our culture- careerism, the speed of technology, the reluctance to dig deep. But Keator makes it feel possible.
A caveat though. This approach works best, I think, when the instructor has more or less total control over the curriculum. That is, it presumes that one person is making the decisions and can structure their course whatever way they like. I'm a high school teacher and, while I teach Latin and have that freedom, I also teach English and that is a little harder to manage. Full independence is difficult to achieve in a high school, which may explain why the contemplative teaching movement seems to be slower to catch on in that context.
However, I still think it is important to consider these insights and, honestly, I think this is going to be a book that I read and re-read several times to see what I can do. I may not be able to structure my whole course like this, but I think that I can take some of the insights and use them to good effect.
October 26, 2021
This book is one of the few available that adapt Lectio Divina beyond a prayer practice into a practice for reading and responding more generally. This connection was made in a 2016 lecture by Dr. Elizabeth Liebert titled "Academic Life as Spiritual Practice," but it seems Keator does not know about Dr. Liebert's lecture, and arrived at connecting Lectio Divina to the phases of the scholarly process on her own, which is fascinating. The best parts of this book I feel are the summaries of the history of Lectio Divina and its four movements. The application parts felt just OK, as they describe only what Keator does in one class with her students, and it would have been nice to get a broader perspective. There are also a lot of typos in the book. However, I am very happy to see a new contribution to the project of expanding contemplative practice into education.
October 5, 2019
Superb treatment of the history and contemporary uses of Lectio Divina, a variation on which I learned at a workshop comparing Catholic and Quaker spirituality, and which I've been using in my college philosophy of education courses ever since.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews