http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=David_Steindl-RastDavid Steindl-Rast - Revision history2026-05-07T18:26:28ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.1http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=David_Steindl-Rast&diff=6326676&oldid=previmported>Suite1408: Organizing categories, changing categories, adding categories.2025-06-08T08:21:17Z<p>Organizing categories, changing categories, adding categories.</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|American Catholic monk (born 1926)}}<br />
{{More footnotes|BLP=yes|date=September 2013}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = David Steindl-Rast<br />
| image = Br.David St.Gerold.jpg<br />
| alt = Headshot of David Steindl-Rast in 2004 with beard<br />
| caption = Steindl-Rast in 2004<br />
| birth_name = Franz Kuno Steindl-Rast<br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1926|07|12}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Vienna]], Austria<br />
| death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (DEATH date then BIRTH date) --><br />
| death_place = <br />
| nationality = <br />
| other_names = <br />
| occupation = [[Benedictine|Benedictine monk]], author, lecturer<br />
| years_active = <br />
| known_for = [[Interfaith dialogue]] esp. [[Buddhism|Buddhist]]-[[Christianity|Christian]]<br />
| notable_works = ''Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer''<br />
}}<br />
<br />
Brother '''David Steindl-Rast''', [[Benedictines|O.S.B.]], (born July 12, 1926) is an American Catholic [[Benedictine|Benedictine monk]], author, and lecturer. He is committed to [[Interfaith dialogue|interfaith]] dialogue and has dealt with the interaction between [[spirituality]] and science.<br />
<br />
==Life and career==<br />
Steindl-Rast was born and raised in [[Vienna]], Austria, with a traditional Catholic upbringing that instilled in him a trust in life and an experience of mystery. His family and surname derive from their aristocratic seat near the pilgrimage site of Maria Rast, today [[Municipality of Ruše|Ruše]] in Slovenia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bibliothek-david-steindl-rast.ch/bibliothek/texte/texte-ueber-bruder-david/843-staunen-und-dankbarkeit|title=Staunen und Dankbarkeit|last=Großer|first=Dirk|date=|website=Bibliothek David Steindl-Rast OSB|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412204925/https://www.bibliothek-david-steindl-rast.ch/bibliothek/texte/texte-ueber-bruder-david/843-staunen-und-dankbarkeit |archive-date=2020-04-12 |access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref> Privations he experienced in youth during the Second World War were magnified by the tensions of him being one-fourth Jewish. He was recruited into the German army but did not see combat.{{r|NCR 2018-03-07}} He received his MA degree from the [[Vienna Academy of Fine Arts]] and his [[PhD]] in [[experimental psychology]] from the [[University of Vienna]] (1952). He emigrated with his family to the United States in the same year and became a Benedictine monk in 1953 at [[Mount Saviour Monastery]] in [[Pine City, New York]], a newly founded Benedictine community.{{r|NCR 2018-03-07}} With permission of his abbot, Damasus Winzen, in 1966 he was officially delegated to pursue [[Buddhism|Buddhist]]-[[Christianity|Christian]] dialogue and began to study [[Zen]] with masters [[Haku'un Yasutani]], [[Soen Nakagawa]], [[Shunryu Suzuki]], and [[Eido Tai Shimano]].<ref>Hallward, Clare; ''David Steindl-Rast: Essential Writings'', Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 2010, p. 23.</ref><br />
<br />
As a Benedictine monk, he spent time in various [[monastic communities]], including 14 years at the [[New Camaldoli Hermitage]] in [[Big Sur, California]]. He spent half the year as a [[hermit]] in a monastery and spent the other half lecturing and giving workshops and retreats. His experience around the world and with the world's various religions convinced him that the human response of gratitude is a part of the religious worldview and is essential to all human life.{{r|NCR 2018-03-07}}<br />
<br />
He co-founded the Center for Spiritual Studies with [[Jewish]], [[Buddhist]], [[Hindu]] and [[Sufi]] teachers in 1968, and since the 1970s has been a member of the cultural historian William Irwin Thompson's [[Lindisfarne Association]]. He received the [[Martin Buber Award]] for his achievements in building dialog among religious traditions. His writings include ''Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer'', ''The Music of Silence'' (with Sharon Lebell), ''Words of Common Sense'' and ''Belonging to the Universe'' (co-authored with [[Fritjof Capra]]). In 2000, he co-founded A Network for Grateful Living, an organization dedicated to gratefulness as a transformative influence for individuals and society.{{r|NCR 2018-03-07}}<br />
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==Religion and mysticism==<br />
<br />
During [[Link TV]]'s ''Lunch With Bokara'' 2005 episode "The Monk and the Rabbi", he stated:<br />
{{Quote <br />
<br />
|The religions start from [[mysticism]]. There is no other way to start a religion. But, I compare this to a volcano that gushes forth ...and then ...the magma flows down the sides of the mountain and cools off. And when it reaches the bottom, it's just rocks. You'd never guess that there was fire in it. So after a couple of hundred years, or two thousand years or more, what was once alive is dead rock. [[Doctrine]] becomes doctrinaire. Morals become moralistic. [[Ritual]] becomes ritualistic. What do we do with it? We have to push through this crust and go to the fire that's within it.}}<br />
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In that same episode, he expressed his belief in [[panentheism]], where divinity interpenetrates every part of existence and timelessly extends beyond it (as distinct from [[pantheism]]).<br />
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==Selected writings==<br />
* 1984, ''Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness'', N.J. Paulist Press 1984. {{ISBN|0-8091-2628-1}}<br />
* 1991, ''Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality'', coauthored with [[Fritjof Capra]] and Thomas Matus, [[Harper San Francisco]], {{ISBN|978-0-06-250187-5}}<br />
* 1995, ''Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey through the Hours of the Day'', coauthored with Sharon LeBell, Ulysses Press, 2. Ed. 2001, {{ISBN|1-56975-297-4}}<br />
* 1996, ''The Ground We Share: Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian'', coauthored with [[Robert Baker Aitken]]. [[Shambhala Publications]], {{ISBN|1-57062-219-1}}<br />
* 1999, ''A Listening Heart: The Spirituality of Sacred Sensuousness'', Crossroad, {{ISBN|0-8245-1780-6}}<br />
* 2002, ''Words of Common Sense for Mind, Body and Soul'', [[Templeton Foundation Press]], {{ISBN|1-890151-98-X}}<br />
* 2008, ''Common Sense Spirituality.'' The [[Crossroad Publishing Company]], {{ISBN|0-8245-2479-9}}<br />
* 2010, ''Deeper than Words: Living the Apostles' Creed'', [[Doubleday Religion]], {{ISBN|978-0-307-58961-3}}<br />
* 2010, ''David Steindl-Rast: Essential Writings'', selected with and introduction by Clare Hallward, (Modern Spiritual Masters series, edited by [[Robert Ellsberg]]), [[Orbis Books]], {{ISBN|978-1-57075-888-1}}<br />
* 2016, ''Faith beyond Belief: Spirituality for Our Times'', coauthored with [[Anselm Grün]]. [[Liturgical Press]], {{ISBN|978-0814647134}}<br />
* 2016. ''The Way of Silence: Engaging the Sacred in Daily Life'', [[Franciscan Media]], {{ISBN|978-1632530165}}<br />
* 2017, ''i am through you so i'', [[Paulist Press]], {{ISBN|978-0809153947}}<br />
* 2021, ''99 Names of God'', [[Orbis Books]], {{ISBN|978-1626984226}}<br />
<br />
In addition he has contributed to numerous works, including:<br />
* Introduction, ''Words of Gratitude for Mind, Body, and Soul'', by [[Robert A. Emmons]] and Joanna Hill<br />
* Afterword, ''Benedict's Dharma: Buddhists Reflect on the Rule of Saint Benedict'', by [[Zoketsu Norman Fischer|Norman Fischer]], [[Joseph Goldstein (writer)|Joseph Goldstein]] and [[Judith Simmer-Brown]], edited by [[Yifa]], and [[Patrick Henry]]<br />
* Foreword, ''Living Buddha, Living Christ'', by [[Thich Nhat Hanh]]<br />
* Foreword, ''This World'', by Teddy Macker<br />
* Chapter in ''Entheogens and the Future of Religion'' titled "Explorations into God", edited by Robert Forte {{ISBN|9781594777974}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* {{cite book |last=Henry |first=Patrick |title=Benedict's Dharma |publisher=Riverhead Books (Hardcover) |publication-place=New York |date=2001 |isbn=978-1-57322-190-0 |oclc=1417462032 |page=222}} {{Internet Archive|benedictsdharmab0000unse|Benedict's Dharma}}<br />
*{{cite web |last=Lafevere |first=Patricia|title=Spirituality: Spirituality of gratefulness begins with existential 'Wow!' at God's giving |website=National Catholic Reporter |date=2000-12-08 |url=https://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2000d/120800/120800v.htm |access-date=2024-11-05}}<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{reflist|refs=<br />
<ref name="NCR 2018-03-07">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/looking-back-life-br-steindl-rast|title=Looking back on the life of Br. Steindl-Rast|date=2018-03-07|website=National Catholic Reporter|language=en|access-date=2019-08-27|df=mdy-all}}</ref><br />
}}<br />
<br />
== External links ==<br />
* [http://gratefulness.org/brother-david/about-brother-david/ Steindl-Rast's website]<br />
* [http://asia.it/adon.pl?act=doc&doc=1691 Video-interview on practice of now-ness, science-religion dialogue and Heidegger's thrownness]<br />
* [http://www.humanmedia.org/catalog/program.php?products_id=80 Interview on a public radio show, Humankind, by David Freudberg]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091202100222/http://integrallife.com/contributors/brother-david-steindl-rast Several articles] by Steindl-Rast and others.<br />
* [http://gratefulness.org/ Network for Grateful Living Web page]<br />
*Interview transcript and audio from "[https://onbeing.org/programs/david-steindl-rast-how-to-be-grateful-in-every-moment/ On Being with Krista Tippett]," 2016<br />
* {{TED speaker}}<br />
** [http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful "Want to be happy? Be grateful" (TEDGlobal 2013)]<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Steindl-Rast, David}}<br />
[[Category:1926 births]]<br />
[[Category:Living people]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]<br />
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[[Category:20th-century American Roman Catholic theologians]]<br />
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[[Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers]]<br />
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[[Category:Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni]]<br />
[[Category:American Benedictines]]<br />
[[Category:American lecturers]]<br />
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]<br />
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[[Category:Austria–Japan relations]]<br />
[[Category:Austrian Benedictines]]<br />
[[Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States]]<br />
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[[Category:Writers from Vienna]]</div>imported>Suite1408