Perennialism as Justification for the Appropriation of Buddhist Meditation

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/7s75dc75n

Abstract

The Center for Action and Contemplation is a ministry that claims interreligious dialogue through the incorporation of Zen meditation. As two of the foundational teachers, Richard Rohr and James Finley explicitly link the practices of Catholic contemplation and Buddhist Meditation. In this thesis, I problematize Rohr’s claim of inclusivity, and by extension, the CAC’s claim of interreligious dialogue. Specifically, I claim that Rohr’s and Finley’s inclusion of Buddhist meditation alongside contemplative practice stems from their conflation of these religious concepts. This conflation is a product of their perennialist framework and, as I will illustrate, what they deem as inclusive may be interpreted as appropriation that replicates a colonial discourse by decontextualizing and essentializing Buddhist meditation.

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