Chapter 8: On the Emerging Field of Contemplative Studies and Its Relationship to the Study of Spirituality

Scholars working within the fields of Christian spirituality, spirituality studies, the study of mysticism, and other related areas may have noted the appearance of a cognate field, emerging largely over the last decade or so, now commonly identified as contemplative studies. By all accounts, contemplative studies is still in an embryonic phase; but it has begun to build the necessary guild structures for a more robust scholarly presence and seems to have crossed something of a symbolic threshold in 2012, marked especially by the inaugural International Symposia for Contemplative Studies. The field has established its own communities of inquiry (especially as a group within the American Academy of Religion, and through the work of organizations such as the Mind and Life Institute and the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education); it has a number of research centers and graduate programs (notably at Brown University, NYU, Emory University, the University of Virginia, Naropa University, Rice University, and the University of Michigan); and it has begun to develop a scholarly literature of its own.¹