Richard Rohr

Rohr was born in Kansas in 1943. He received his master's degree in theology in 1970 from the University of Dayton.[4] He entered the Franciscans in 1961 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1970. He became founder of the New Jerusalem Community[5] in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1971[6] and the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1986[7][8] where he serves as founding director and academic dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation.[9][10] The curriculum of Rohr's school is founded on seven themes developed by Rohr and explored in his book Yes, And....[11]

In his 2016 book The Divine Dance, Rohr suggests that the top-down hierarchy approach of western Christianity since Constantine has held ecumenical traditions back for centuries, and that the future of people of faith will have to be awakening to a bottom-up approach.[12] Rohr maintains what he would call prophetic positions, on the "edge of the inside" of a church that he sees as failing to transform people, and so increasingly irrelevant.[13][14] In a critique of Rohr published in the New Oxford Review, Fr. Bryce Sibley writes that Rohr asserts that God holds both the masculine and the feminine together rather than either or binary dualistic thinking and criticizes ecumenical religious rituals that focus on rules rather than the paramount centrality of relationship with God, and neighbor.[15]

In 2000, Rohr publicly endorsed Soulforce, an organization which challenges religion-based LGBTQ oppression through nonviolent protest.[16] In a 1999 essay, and afterwards, Rohr welcomes and affirms God's love for LGBTQ people, emphasizing that God asks the same of people in homosexual relationships as God asks of heterosexual ones: "truth, faithfulness, and striving to enter into covenants of continuing forgiveness of one another".[17][18]

In his teaching on Scripture, such as in his book Things Hidden, Rohr describes the biblical record as a human account of humanity's evolving experience with God, "the word of God in the words of people".[19] Rohr's book Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self suggests Jesus' death and resurrection is an archetypal pattern for the individual's movement from "false self" to "true self", from "who you think you are" to "who you are in God".[20] Rohr's 2014 book, Eager to Love, explores the key themes of Franciscan spirituality, which he sees as a "third way" between traditional orthodoxy and heresy, a way of focusing on the Gospel, justice, and compassion.[21]

Rohr emphasizes "alternative orthodoxy", a phrase the Franciscan tradition has applied to itself, referring to a focus on "orthopraxis" — a belief that lifestyle and practice are much more important than mere verbal orthodoxy,[22] which in itself is much overlooked in Catholic preaching today.[23][24] The Perennial Tradition,[25] or Perennial Philosophy, forms the basis of much of Rohr's teaching; the essential message of his work focuses on the union of Divine Reality with all things and the human potential and longing for this union. Rohr and other 21st century spiritual leaders explore the Perennial Tradition in the Center for Action and Contemplation's issue of the publication Oneing.[26]

Some of Rohr's views have been criticized as outside the pale of orthodoxy, as in a review of his book The Divine Dance by evangelical theologian Fred Sanders on The Gospel Coalition website.[27] Also at The Gospel Coalition is a review of Rohr's The Universal Christ by Michael McClymond, professor of Modern Christianity at St. Louis University. McClymond asserts that, "Though Rohr wraps himself in the mantle of Catholic and Franciscan spirituality, much of what Rohr presents contradicts the teaching of the Catholic Church and historic Christianity."[28] Ian Paul, an Anglican theologian, in a review of The Universal Christ, says, "I did not find a single biblical text which was cited with any plausibility; every single one was either misread, or taken out of context, or even cited with errors," and concludes that, "Rohr is leading us down some very odd paths and a long way from orthodox Christian faith at numerous points."[29] Aquinas & More Catholic Goods, an online store based in Ft. Collins, Colorado, has refused to carry Rohr's books, consistent with a policy to "only carry product that is true to Catholic teaching," and alleging that "Fr. Rohr's ideas about salvation are heretical."[30]

Influences on Rohr outside of Christian sources include Buddhism and Hinduism, Gandhi, Carl Jung, Spiral Dynamics, and Integral Theory.[11]

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