Ilia Delio - Personal Transformation and a New Creation: The Spiritual Revolution of Beatrice Bruteau

Personal Transformation
and a New Creation

Personal Transformation and a New Creation

The Spiritual Revolution
of Beatrice Bruteau

Edited by

Ilia Delio, OSF

Copyright

Founded in 1970, Orbis Books endeavors to publish works that enlighten the mind, nourish the spirit, and challenge the conscience. The publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Orbis seeks to explore the global dimensions of the Christian faith and mission, to invite dialogue with diverse cultures and religious traditions, and to serve the cause of reconciliation and peace. The books published reflect the views of their authors and do not represent the official position of the Maryknoll Society. To learn more about Maryknoll and Orbis Books, please visit our website at www.maryknollsociety.org .

Copyright 2016 by Ilia Delio.

Published by Orbis Books, Box 302, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0302.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Queries regarding rights and permissions should be addressed to: Orbis Books, P.O. Box 302, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0302.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Manuscript editing and typesetting by Joan Weber Laflamme.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bruteau, Beatrice, 1930 honouree. | Delio, Ilia, editor.

Title: Personal transformation and new creation : essays in honor of Beatrice Bruteau / edited by Ilia Delio, OSF.

Description: Maryknoll : Orbis Books, 2016. | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016001639 | ISBN 9781626982093 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Bruteau, Beatrice, 1930 | Religion. | Theology.

Classification: LCC BL73.B785 P47 2016 | DDC 230dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016001639

Dedication

I would like to thank my graduate assistant at Villanova University, Carl Vennerstrom, for constructing the timeline of Beatrice Bruteaus works and for assisting with the editing process. I am also grateful for the support and friendship of my Orbis manager, Michael Leach, whose unflagging enthusiasm for all things new continues to spur me on. A special thanks to Villanova University who hired me in the midst of another book and numerous public lectures. I am grateful for the support of the University and the time given to complete this book.

Introduction

Ilia Delio

We cant solve problems

by using the same level of consciousness

and same kind of thinking

we used when we created them.

Albert Einstein

In November 2014, Cynthia Bourgeault and I were having dinner, recalling the recent death of Beatrice Bruteau. As we reminisced on the life of Beatrice and the profound impact she had on us as women writing theology in a new age, we also lamented that so few people were acquainted with her thought. We agreed that this brilliant, shining light of the twentieth century deserves public recognition; as a result, this collection of essays was born.

I shall not say too much in this brief introduction, as Cynthia has provided an excellent biographical sketch of Beatrice, a charming little woman with a fierce philosophical mind and a profound theological depth. Like Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who had a significant influence on her thought, Beatrice had penetrating eyes, as if she saw what tomorrow could be in todays light. She probed the human psyche like a surgeon operating on delicate tissue. Her insights were borne aloft on a deep mystical spirit nurtured by Catholic Christianity and Vedantic Hinduism. Her unique interspiritual consciousness led her to see from a different center with keen insight, both mystical and intuitive. She was a contemplative thinker. The medieval theologian Bonaventure once said that knowledge is a stage on the journey to God. This was true of Beatrice. We see in her writings that knowledge is not its own end but moves us to a deeper understanding of the divine mystery, enkindling within us an inner depth of love. Her theology is based on participation of the knowing subject in spiritual realities. This means not simply engaging in intellectual thought but also being open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and deepening the spiritual life. Her life and work reveal a theologian living in the depths of the divine Spirit, searching the realms of the Absolute and the secrets of divine Reality. As she professed throughout her writings, one must be free from the constraints of the ego in order to plunge into the mystery of God. This was true of Beatrice; she lived in the freedom of love.

Bruteaus contemplative approach to theology is holistic. Theology is not what one studies; rather, it is what one does . The real task of theology belongs to the life of the Spirit and grace, whereby one enters into the freedom of love that makes one whole and wholly participant in the evolution of God. Any strictly theological truth, one that has its roots in God, is not content with its unique objective determination. Rather, such truth takes on a performative sense, one that is transforming for the subject. Knowledge through love leads us to truth when it liberates us to evolve to higher levels of consciousness and spontaneous being-in-love.

Bruteaus theology rests on the vision of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Whereas Teilhard saw the grand cosmic scheme of Christ in evolution, Bruteau developed an understanding of the human person in evolution. She explored consciousness as an evolutionary development, from self-separateness to self- participation , and from the partial self to the whole self and the self that is part of the whole. She proposed that humanity is seeking a new self-understanding, away from the self as a separate entity to the self as intimately intertwined with other humans and the entire cosmos. A new type of holistic consciousness is emerging , she claimed, as humanity takes part in the evolutionary process. This new integral consciousness includes a new awareness of interbeing and interrelationality. This type of consciousness was expressed by Jesus of Nazareth, who in his Holy Thursday revolution overturned the tables of domination and power and ushered in a new communal wholeness of shared life. Bruteau describes this new communion paradigm as a pattern of relationships that sees the world as an organic whole, each element in relation to the other and interdependent with the other. The values of cooperation, sympathy, compassion, forgiveness, and a desire for the others well-being lie at the heart of the communion model of shared humanity. Although she was deeply committed to her Catholic heritage, her vision of cosmic reality is a synthesis of Western and Eastern religions. She believed that spiritual energies must be harnessed for the forward movement of evolution through a type of interspiritual convergence. God is rising up through this evolutionary process as the unitive center of participative life, in which the unconscious and resistant are increasingly transcended in the freedom and creativity of love.