David Steindl-Rast OSB (born July 12, 1926) is an American Catholic Benedictine monk, author, and lecturer. He is committed to interfaithdialogue and has dealt with the interaction between spirituality and science. [Wikipedia]

The religions start from mysticism. There is no other way to start a religion. But, I compare this to a volcano that gushes forth ...and then ...the magma flows down the sides of the mountain and cools off. And when it reaches the bottom, it's just rocks. You'd never guess that there was fire in it. So after a couple of hundred years, or two thousand years or more, what was once alive is dead rock. Doctrine becomes doctrinaire. Morals become moralistic. Ritual becomes ritualistic. What do we do with it? We have to push through this crust and go to the fire that's within it.

2005

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