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The God of No-thingness: Christian Contemplation, Zen, and the Practice of Self-Emptying
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jul 16 2026
Pages: 170
Weight: 0.52
Height: 0.36 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The God of No-thingness: Christian Contemplation, Zen, and the Practice of Self-Emptying is a comparative study of Christian contemplative practice and Zen Buddhism, focused on their shared commitment to radical self-emptying. Although the two traditions differ in history, language, and metaphysical framing, they converge at the experiential level: both dismantle the illusion of an autonomous ego and lead the practitioner into a transformative encounter with emptiness.
Drawing on primary Christian sources-Philippians 2, Meister Eckhart, The Cloud of Unknowing, and Saint John of the Cross-and core Buddhist texts such as Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamaka-karika, the Heart Sutra, and Zen praxis, the book shows how each tradition develops its own method of stripping away conceptual identity, self-will, and spiritual grasping.
The study highlights several parallel structures:
Kenosis and shunyata as complementary expressions of self-emptying;
The false self and anatta as diagnoses of egoic delusion;
The Dark Night and the Great Doubt as descriptions of the crisis preceding awakening;
Divine union and kensho as distinct but structurally similar realizations beyond the ego; and
Agape and entering the marketplace with helping hands as the ethical fruit of contemplative transformation.
The author also engages modern cross-cultural thinkers-Nishida, Nishitani, Abe, and Hisamatsu-who attempt to articulate a philosophical bridge between Christian and Buddhist emptiness, while acknowledging the theological and ethical tensions their proposals generate.
Overall, the book offers a systematic, chapter-by-chapter map of how both traditions guide practitioners through ego-collapse, existential emptiness, and the return to ordinary life marked by compassion and non-attachment. It is a study of method, experience, and metaphysics-not an attempt to homogenize the traditions, but to illuminate their deepest points of resonance.
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