Jeffrey K. Hadden is the last one to suggest that the inward generation is on the brink of revitalizing the contemplative life, about to initiate new forms of monasticism. His data show, first of all, that inwardness can lead to a form of privatism, which is not only antiauthoritarian and anti-institutional, but is also very self-centered, highly interested in material comfort and the immediate gratification of existing needs and desires. But inwardness need not lead to such privatism. It is possible that the new reality discovered in the deepest self can be “molded into a commitment to
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