Response

Lecture on Religious Hybridity

Abstract

A reflection on matters of faith, formation, and community. Ziemke’s religious formation crossed significant cultural/religious boundaries: Protestant and Catholic, contemplative and active, lay and monastic. Recounting with gratitude her years of extensive practice of contemplative prayer, her seminary formation within the vibrant urban community of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and the demands of her vocation in social service agencies, Ziemke then writes of the crises of searching for community after she relocated to Michigan. The vital realities of Buddhist community and the overt similarities of her Christian practice to the disciplined Buddhist contemplation and prayer offered life and sustenance, and led Ziemke to recognize her deepest Christian commitments embodied in ancient Buddhist forms that were new to her. Joy concludes by affirming the subsuming of her Christian identity within a Buddhist frame.