Christian Contemplative · Hybrid (5 in-person symposiums + online)
Two-year contemplative formation program founded by Richard Rohr, James Finley, and Cynthia Bourgeault. Trains spiritual leaders in the Christian mystical and contemplative tradition. Highly competitive admission (~150 students per cohort).
The Living School for Action and Contemplation is a two-year contemplative formation program run by the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was founded by the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr alongside the contemplative writers James Finley and Cynthia Bourgeault, and the founding faculty also drew in Brian McLaren and Barbara Holmes. The school is built around what its founders call the Christian perennial tradition: the conviction that the contemplative wisdom inside Christianity also runs through other religious lineages and that mature Christian practice should hold both interior depth and outward action. The curriculum reads Scripture alongside the Christian mystics, the apophatic tradition, modern social theology, and contemplative-science literature. Students engage figures including John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Merton, Howard Thurman, and contemporary thinkers like Howard Thurman's heirs in Black contemplative theology. Format is hybrid. Each cohort meets for five in-person symposiums in Albuquerque across the two years, with substantial online study, small-group meetings, mentorship, and personal practice between symposiums. Cohorts are roughly 150 students, drawn internationally and from across denominations and faith backgrounds. Application is competitive; the school looks for sustained personal practice, ministry or service grounding, and capacity for cohort engagement. The school sits inside the Center for Action and Contemplation's wider work, which also includes the Daily Meditations email reaching more than half a million subscribers, the Universal Christ project, and ongoing publishing through CAC Publications. The Living School is the most senior credential CAC offers. Tuition runs around USD 4,800 across the two years at the time of writing, with scholarships available. The credential carries weight in progressive Christian contemplative circles, particularly among writers, podcasters, retreat leaders, and pastors building post-evangelical or post-mainline contemplative practice. Graduates often go on to lead retreats, write, teach, or serve in contemplative ministry; many continue with CAC as alumni faculty or program leaders.
Coursework moves through five themed symposiums across two years, with self-directed study and cohort engagement between gatherings. Themes include the contemplative gaze, the Christian perennial tradition, action grounded in contemplation, the inclusive cosmology of the Universal Christ, and integration into ministry and life. Students read across the Christian mystical canon and contemporary contemplative writers: John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton, James Finley's writing on Merton, Cynthia Bourgeault on Centering Prayer and the Wisdom Way, and Rohr on the perennial tradition. Practice forms include centering prayer, lectio divina, the welcoming prayer, and contemplative engagement with scripture and the natural world. Small-group work runs throughout, with assigned mentors. Each symposium combines lecture, practice, and small-group discernment in roughly equal measure.
Five in-person symposiums in Albuquerque anchor each two-year cohort. Between symposiums, students engage online study modules, small-group video meetings, individual mentorship, and personal contemplative practice. Cohorts are organized into smaller pods of eight to twelve for ongoing companionship. Faculty include the founding teachers and a rotating set of guest lecturers. Assessment is ongoing rather than examination-based; students keep a contemplative journal, complete written reflections, and participate fully in cohort life. Graduation depends on attendance, engagement, and a final integration project.
Graduates are recognized as Living School alumni and join an international network of CAC-formed contemplatives. The credential is known in progressive Christian contemplative circles and carries weight in retreat leadership, contemplative writing, and ministry. It's not a clinical license or a denominational ordination. Many graduates continue with CAC as faculty for shorter programs, lead retreats independently, write, teach, or serve in their existing ministry roles with renewed grounding. CAC's alumni network is active and offers ongoing opportunities for further engagement.
Applicants need sustained personal contemplative practice, typically several years of regular silent prayer or meditation, and grounding in some form of ministry, service, or creative work that the formation will serve. Application includes essays, references, and competitive review. CAC has filled its cohorts repeatedly and admits roughly 150 students at a time. There's no required academic credential.
The Living School sits alongside Shalem's Going Deeper program and Contemplative Outreach's Centering Prayer Commissioned Presenter pathway as the senior Christian contemplative formation programs in North America. The Living School is more academically structured, more perennialist in framing, and more public-facing; it draws students from CAC's wider audience including readers of Rohr's books and listeners of the Another Name for Every Thing podcast. Shalem's program is more peer-group oriented and more rooted in mainline ecumenical formation. Contemplative Outreach's pathway is narrower, focused specifically on the Centering Prayer practice. For practitioners drawn to Rohr's perennial-tradition framing, the Living School is the natural home.
| Location | Hybrid (5 in-person symposiums + online) |
| Country | United States |
| Tradition | Christian Contemplative |
| Format | Hybrid, Online, In-person |
| Duration | 2 years |
| Estimated cost | USD 4,800 |
| Accreditation | CAC Living School Graduate |