Get Thee to a Monastery
Kimberly Winston -- 4/10/00
Is the contemplative lifestyle relevant today? Yes, say many readers and publishers.
 | Inspiration from Merton
(St. Anthony's); and from
Saints Teresa (Paraclete)
and Francis (Continuum). |
Call it the New Rule of St. Benedict--books reviving traditional monastic prayers and practices are riding a wave of strong interest from publishers, booksellers and readers alike. Books steeped in the Western contemplative tradition established by the sixth-century Italian monk have been a constant almost since Gutenberg, but today's versions feature a practical flavor aimed more at the frazzled baby boomer than the robe-wearing clergy.
"This whole interest in spirituality is obviously a trend that has been going for quite some time," noted Frank Oveis, senior editor of Continuum Books, where books on Western contemplation have long been a part of the publishing program. "It is not as ephemeral as books on angels. It is a recovery of a major tradition in Christianity that was long lost, and as a publishing trend, I think it is a long-term project." Responding to that recovery, publishers are busily offering an array of titles grounded in the monastic tradition. And for the first time, many of these publishers report a small but growing interest in this subject from CBA retailers, a market segment better known for books reflecting contemporary evangelical Protestant thought and practice.
Climbing the Mountain
Most publishing executives trace the current passion for Western contemplation and monasticism back to Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk whose memoir The Seven Storey Mountain (Harcourt Brace, 1948) describes the rich spiritual life he found in a Kentucky monastery. The multivolume book took many American readers behind monastery walls for the first time and sparked a wave of book buying and retreat going among readers. After Merton's death in 1968, Thomas Keating, another Trappist father, brought monasticism to the masses with Open Mind, Open Heart (Amity House, 1986). In that book, Keating launched the centering prayer movement, which has since made its way beyond his Catholic tradition and into the Protestant world through a foundation that sponsors retreats and lectures.
But it was Kathleen Norris who firmly transplanted the Western contemplative tradition into the modern Protestant layperson's life (and onto the bestsellers lists) with The Cloister Walk (Riverhead, 1996), in which she vividly described what she, a Methodist, learned from her time in a Midwestern monastery. Ech s of Norris's practical approach are rampant in the current crop of monastic-themed books. Add to that the fact that many monasteries and convents have opened their doors to retreating Christians of all stripes, and you have untold thousands of readers who are being exposed to the Western contemplative tradition for the first time.
Jane Vennard, a United Church of Christ minister and author of Be Still: Designing and Leading Lay Contemplative Retreats (Alban Institute, June) said that once those doors were opened, seekers--especially Protestants--streamed in. "I think it has to do with understanding that words and deeds are not what our whole faith is about, that without the contemplative foundation, people are finding that words and actions are just not enough," she told PW. "It has to be about acting, about living our faith in the world."
The fact that several major general trade houses are offering books rooted in Western contemplation and monasticism is perhaps the strongest testimony to their current broad popularity. Eric Major, v-p of religious publishing at Doubleday, thinks this longing for tradition is not a coincidence but a backlash against the cafeteria-style Christianity of the 1980s and 1990s. "I think we are just getting over millennial madness, and we want more of long-haul spirituality," he said. "We don't want a quick fix anymore, and that seems to be what these books are saying." Doubleday's new offering is The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle, the first of three books based on St. Benedict's division of the day into stations of prayer, called the morning office, the midday office, vespers and compline. Prayers for Autumn and Winter releases in September and Prayers for Springtime in early 2001.
J l Fotinos, director of religious publishing for Penguin Putnam, said the current vogue for traditional Christianity reflects a desire to reinterpret an older, deeper wisdom. "We have gone through this period where spiritual publishing was more generic, and people have found there was very little depth in that," he said. "People are going back to Western traditions because there is so much meat there." Penguin Putnam's current title in this vein is Venite: A Book of Daily Prayer by Robert Benson. Riverhead has The View from a Monastery by Brother Benet Tvedten (June), and Perigee's entry in the practical monasticism category is Living Faith Day by Day: How the Sacred Monastic Traditions Can Help You Live Spiritually in the Modern World by Debra K. Farrington (Aug.). From Random House comes The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life by Jean-François Revel and Matthieu Ricard, now out in paperback.
Where Smaller Houses Shine
It isn't only the large houses that are finding success with titles in the monastic tradition. Many small and medium-size publishers have books in this line, and they are relying on them to take them into new markets. Loyola Press, a Catholic house, recommitted itself to carving out new markets after its surprise general-trade success in 1997 with The Gift of Peace by Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Now the house expects Benedict's Way: An Ancient Monk's Insights for a Balanced Life (Apr.) to duplicate that success. Authored by Lonni Collins Pratt, a one-time lapsed Catholic laywoman, and Daniel Homan, a Benedictine priest, the book shows how Benedict's principles can be applied to the busy life of any person of faith. Loyola is treating this book as a major release. They have hired an out-of-house public relations firm and scheduled an author tour and an initial print run of 10,000.
The house hopes Benedict's Way will find shelf space not only in general-interest chains and indies but also in the CBA market. "I get the sense that the CBA market is more open to books on the nature of Benedictine or Ignatian spirituality," said Heidi Toboni, Loyola's director of marketing for trade books. "It is a trend that is growing as people are getting to know other traditions better." Another reason these Loyola books may be ripe for the CBA market is that they deal with issues not confined to the early Church Fathers. The chapter headings of Benedict's Way read like a laundry list of the durable tensions between the spiritual and physical worlds: Conflict, Reverence, Obedience, Work.
Sorin Books, the general-trade imprint of Catholic publishing house Ave Maria Press, offers The Contemplative Heart by James Finley (Mar.), also a practical guide to the contemplative life. St. Mary's Press is another Catholic publisher watching doors open for its contemplative-themed titles. The house's Praying With... series, which includes the writings of many early monks and nuns under its banner, has now reached 26 titles and 400,000 copies sold. The most recent release is Praying with Thomas Aquinas by Mary Mercy Houle, Michael Monshau and Patrick Norris (Mar.). All the titles in the series have found their way into general-interest stores, and this year the company's reps will take them into the CBA market as well. Pamela Johnson, St. Mary's strategic marketing planner, told PW she has had interest in the books from some CBA powerhouses, including the Family Christian Stores chain. "They are beginning to have a teeny shelf in their bookstores called 'Catholic,' " Johnson said. "That is the change we are seeing, but it is not across the board." She cautioned that saying the CBA stores are waking up to monasticism is "pushing too much," but noted that the general reader certainly is alert to the topic--and that is what is getting monastic books seen in that market.
Continuum Books has published a long line of books on Western contemplation, including works by many of its biggest names--Keating and Merton among them. Continuum's Oveis, who believes the interest in monasticism is here to stay, said the popularity of these writers--both members of religious orders--has to do with the way they redirect the monastic philosophy to a modern audience. They present the Western contemplative tradition as "not just religion, not just spirituality, but [a movement] that in essence deals with the whole person and has a decidedly therapeutic aspect to it," Oveis explained. Continuum's latest releases are St. Francis of Assisi: The Legend and the Life by Michael Robson (Feb.) and The Better Part: Stages of Contemplative Living by Thomas Keating (May).
Crossroad, a nondenominational religion publisher, also hopes to make its way into the CBA market, with The Family Cloister: Benedictine Wisdom for the Home by David Robinson (Apr.). Robinson, who has made annual monastic retreats for some 20 years, tells of how the lessons he has learned on these retreats run through his life as a Presbyterian minister and the father of three boys. When John Tinterra, Crossroad's marketing manager, showed the title to a public relations executive in the Midwest, "the first thing she said to me was that it is more of a CBA book than a Catholic book," he said. Currently, Crossroad is working with United Methodist house Abingdon to bring Robinson to CBA International, the summer trade show. Crossroad's current success with its Spiritual Legacy series on the wisdom of the Church Fathers points to possible success for The Family Cloister in non-Catholic markets. That series, currently up to 15 titles, has crossed over into general trade, mainline Protestant and college bookstores, with The Rule of Benedict by Joan Chittister (1992) the top seller at about 25,000 copies, according to Tinterra. Newest in the series is Bernard of Clairvaux by Dennis E. Tamburello (June).
Readers Seeking Peace
At Orbis Books, owned by Maryknoll, the Catholic Foreign Mission Society, editor-in-chief Robert Ellsberg traces the return to monasticism to Christian seekers who have failed to find complete fulfillment elsewhere, perhaps having tried the traditions of the East or the New Age movement. "It was not that they were frustrated there," Ellsberg told PW, "but I think there was a subtle realization that these are things that are totally foreign to our [Western] tradition." Yet any look to the past must be tempered with a look to the future, since any vital spirituality must take into consideration the demands of the real world. "Spirituality has to be concerned with issues of peace and social justice," Ellsberg asserted. "It cannot just be an escape from the world."
This month, Orbis releases Arise My Love: Mysticism for a New Era by William Johnston, a plan for 21st-century spirituality that will not only engage the early Christian monks but will look to Eastern wisdom and the insights of science. In keeping with the demand for practical monasticism, Orbis also offers Illuminated Life: Monastic Wisdom for Seekers of Light by Joan Chittister (Mar.), which walks with monastic wisdom through the alphabet, from Abandonment to Zeal. Orbis's track record with other books that reexamine traditional spirituality bodes well for these two titles. Timothy Joyce's Celtic Christianity (1998) sold 6,000 copies in its first year, and Praying with Icons (1997) by James H. Forest sold more than 10,000 in its first year. "All our breakthrough books have something in common," Ellsberg noted. "They are taking something overlooked from Western tradition and making it accessible, available and relevant to today."
At Paraclete Press, the publishing arm of the nondenominational Community of Jesus in Orleans, Mass., publisher and CEO Lillian Miao refers to her own experience to explain the current ecumenical fervor for monasticism. As a Presbyterian, she found herself needing something beyond what she proclaimed as part of her Sunday morning worship. "I was looking for the Christian experience not just in what I said, but in my daily life--my work, my relationships," she remarked. "The next step was looking for something more intense." Miao, who made that next step by joining the Community of Jesus, which seeks to recover monastic practices in daily life, said many Protestants are looking to satisfy that yearning by a return to the Western contemplative tradition. "They are looking for things that can enrich their spiritual walk that much more. I see it as a phenomenon that is understandable within that framework." Paraclete, staffed entirely by people committed to a monastic lifestyle (though only some take vows of celibacy), has several offerings in this tradition, including The Way of Perfection, a version of the monastic writings of St. Teresa of Avila "mildly modernized" by Henry L. Carrigan Jr. (Apr.).
Cistercian Publications, the publishing arm of the Trappist order, offers Bernard of Clairvaux: Parables and Sentences, translated by Michael Casey and Francis L. Swietek, and Western Monasticism: A History of the Monastic Movement in the Latin Church by Peter King; both are March releases. John Koize, associate director of marketing and sales for St. Anthony's Messenger Press, lays much of the interest in the Western contemplative tradition to a reaction to current events such as the deaths at Waco and Columbine. "All of these things have caused people to begin asking, in a very fundamental way, 'Who am I?' " Koize said. "Spirituality and the contemplative life are very much a response to that uncertainty and a path for many people to recapture meaning and focus." St. Anthony's, a Franciscan house, has watched its A Retreat With... series, based on the writing of saints and thinkers in the Western contemplative tradition, reach ever wider and larger markets. Now five years old, the series has 25 titles under its belt and has sold more than 110,000 copies; several of its more popular subjects--Thomas Merton, St. Patrick and St. John the Evangelist--have carried the books out of the Catholic market to mainline Protestants and others. New titles in the series are A Retreat with Brother Lawrence and the Russian Pilgrim: Praying Ceaselessly by Kerry Walters and A Retreat with Patrick: Discovering God in All by Timothy Joyce. Also tapping into the hunger for practical applications of this tradition is the press's The Lay Contemplative: Testimonies, Perspectives, Resources, edited by Virginia Manss and Mary Frolich, and Thomas Merton's Paradise Journey: Writings on Contemplation by William H. Shannon.
Another small Catholic publisher that has seen ecumenical interest grow for a contemplative series is Liguori Publications with its 15 Days of Prayer with... books. Now 20 titles strong, the practically oriented series has taken Liguori into chains, indies and mainline Protestant bookstores. Judy Bauer, managing editor of Liguori's trade group, attributes the series' success to the house's early recognition of a spreading trend among Catholics and Protestants to go on self-guided retreats. "The retreat market has gone way beyond the Catholic Church," Bauer noted. "We knew it was not going away, that is was here to last. And the reason is simple--the stress of daily life." New titles in the series are 15 Days of Prayer with Saint Bernard by Pierre-Yves Emery, ...with Saint Benedict by André Gozier, ...with Saint Catherine of Siena by Chantal van der Plancke and Andre Knockaert, ...with Saint Francis de Sales by Claude Morel, and ¦with Saint Teresa of Avila by Jean Abiven, all published last month. Liguori is also appealing to the stomachs of the monastically minded, with In Celebration of the Seasons: Recipes from a Monastery Kitchen by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, the third in its series of cookbooks by the monk.
Is the current interest in the Western contemplative tradition a fad or the shape of things to come? Will readers continue to dig deeper into Christianity's roots? Doubleday's Major thinks the current taste for monasticism-made-applicable is here to stay. "I don't think it will become a very specialized area, but [it] will remain an area where people who are already from that [Western Christian] tradition will value it and enjoy it," he predicted. As for the current glut of books on the topic, that may be a "fluke," he said, much like the flood of Christian dieting books a couple years ago. Continuum's Oveis also thinks the Western contemplative tradition trend will last because it is being driven not by the publishers but by readers' romance with monasteries, many of which are now being made available for lay retreats for the first time. "The search for spirituality has had a tremendous upsurge," Oveis noted, "and monasteries, be they Christian or Buddhist or something else, are still centers of retreat and contemplation. People are attracted to them like magnets."
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