Beverly Lanzetta, Ph.D., is a theologian, contemplative scholar and teacher, and the author of a number of groundbreaking books on global spirituality, via feminina, social mysticism, and new monasticism. A leading voice in new traditions of contemplative wisdom her works opens a way for people of every tradition or no religious affiliation to reach deeply within to listen for the Divine Voice speaking to us today.
Dedicated to a vision of theological openness and spiritual nonviolence, her work has won praise for its wisdom, eloquence, and mystical insight and is considered to be a major contribution to a global and feminist, mystical path for the 21st century.
As a vowed monk of peace living in the world and an interfaith chaplain, Beverly devotes much of her life to mentoring people who seek a deeper contemplative commitment. For those who wish to take personal monastic vows, she has formed a community of new monks—single, married, partnered, celibate, etc.—committed to the universal mystical heart and to the spirituality of nonviolence.
Dr. Lanzetta has served as faculty at Villanova University, Prescott College, and Grinnell College. She is the founder of the Desert Interfaith Church, Interfaith Theological Seminary, Hesychia School for Spiritual Direction, and Community of a New Monastic Way. Retired from a full-time academic focus, she continues to write, teach online, lecture widely, and lead retreats nationally and internationally.
Beverly strikes me as the twenty-first-century heir to the twentieth century’s great spiritual teacher, Thomas Merton, who also believed that a profound experience of the divine is attainable by all who draw on a daily regimen of silence, solitude, prayer, and reflection.
—American Benedictine Review December 2021
