John Main: Essential Writings

Modern Spiritual Masters

by John Main

John Main (1926-1982), an English Benedictine monk, pioneered the practice of Christian meditation. His genius was to recover a way into the contemplative experience for ordinary people within the Christian tradition. Hailed by Bede Griffiths as the "most important spiritual guide in the church today, " Main's work inspired the foundation of the World Community for Christian Meditation and a network of hundreds of meditation groups around the world.John Main introduces the practice of Christian meditation for modern people who wish to deepen their spiritual lives.

Genres: Christianity

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

About the author

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John Main was a Benedictine monk who taught Christian meditation.

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars is not a direct reflection on John Main. This book is the first of his writings that I've read and I am not a huge fan of selections. I'd rather read a book in total and follow the internal coherence of a text.

Beyond this, however, Main's mysticism remains opaque to me. I am more comfortable with a Keating style centering prayer, though there is a big overlap. I don't like mantra-prayer, even though Main does seem to reload the term with a Christocentric theology. Perhaps I will follow this up with another Main book at some point, but there are other teachers of the Christian mystical tradition that appeal to my sensibilities more.