This image is the cover for the book Radical Optimism

Radical Optimism

The pioneering spiritual scholar discusses how to find genuine optimism in times of crisis by contemplating the ultimate reality of God.

Dr. Beatrice Bruteau was an inspiration to some of the most influential spiritual thinkers of our time. With a background in Vedanta, Catholic contemplation, and the natural sciences, she developed a broadly inclusive, interspiritual vision of human reality. In Radical Optimism she shines new light on the deepest truth we can know about ourselves: each of us is one with God, here and now.

In a series of essays exploring the concepts of Leisure, Stillness, and Meditation—as well as examining the distinctions between the Finite and the Infinite and Sin and Salvation—Bruteau offers a path to recognizing our own unity with God. She provides a blueprint for understanding it, knowing the happiness it brings, and cultivating a contemplative consciousness amid the hectic uncertainty of daily life.

Beatrice Bruteau

Dr. Bruteau was a pioneer in the integrated study of science, mathematics, philosophy, and religion. With a background in Vedanta and Catholic Christianity, as well as the natural sciences, she developed a broad, inclusive vision of human reality in its cosmic and social contexts. Analyzing the systemic and metaphysical roots of our social inequities, her work offers an alternative worldview, featuring the incomparable value of each person and the community dynamics of mutual respect and care that follow from that view. This theme is developed as global spirituality, not limited to any particular religious tradition but accessible in direct human terms common to all. Dr. Bruteau published twelve books and more than one hundred articles. Her essays have appeared in journals such as International Philosophical Quarterly, Cross Currents, and Cistercian Studies. Dr. Bruteau died in 2014.