A Loving World

Originally presentations shared at an annual symposium on contemplative awareness at the Fetzer Institute over several decades, the renowned list of Christian monks and nuns featured in A Loving World explore shared understandings among the world’s great religions and offer monastic perspectives on life and love. The wide-ranging essays offer deep spiritual reflections on topics from contemplation and the human place in the cosmos to the Big Bang's part in our shared participation in the world as we know it.

By way of the lived experiences of people in relationship with one another and with God, the contributors weave in wisdom from theologians, saintly figures, poets, and authors from many periods and cultures, to present a rich compendium of twenty-first century awareness of monastic life that expresses and encourages movement on the spiritual journey. Timely reading for anyone seeking to dive deeper into their own spiritual understanding of God’s continual creation and creative power working within their lives and in our communities.

Contributors include:

Fr. Michael Casey, OCSO — Dom Erik Varden, OCSO — Fr. Casey Bailey, OCSO — Dom Bernardo Bonowitz, OCSO+
Dom Gregory Polan, OSB — Sr. Grace Remington, OCSO — M. GilChrist Lavigne, OCSO
Fr. Isaac Slater, OCSO — Dom Bernardus Peeters, OCSO — Dom Joseph Boyle, OCSO

Marsha Dutton, the executive editor of Cistercian Publications, is a scholar of twelfth-century Cistercian thought and writing, best known for her work on Aelred of Rievaulx. She also writes regularly on medieval history and literature. She has most recently published Embracing God: Essays on the Spiritual Treatises of Aelred of Rievaulx (Cistercian Publications, 2025) and “Nuns as Chaplains in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods” (The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, 2025).