Contemplative prayer, as it is classically defined and popularly practised, is subject today to considerable scepticism in a number of circles. For example, the method of prayer commonly called centring prayer, popularised by people such as Thomas Keating, Basil Bennington, John Main and Laurence Freeman, is viewed with suspicion by many people who identify it with anything from New Age to Buddhism to “self-seeking” to atheism.
Admittedly, not all of its adherents and practitioners are free from those charges, but certainly its true practitioners are. Understood and practised correctly, this method of prayer, which allows for some variations in its practice, is in fact the form of prayer which the Desert Fathers, John of the Cross, and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing call “contemplation”.
